Paperwork is composed of numerous rusted iron sheets layered and placed on the ground in a mandala-like formation. The A4 size of the iron sheets matches exactly with the most common paper format in contemporary society, so ubiquitous today that it has become synonymous with modern standardization and administrative processes. Substituting heavy, rust-stained iron sheets for paper, the artist draws an ironic connection between the sprawling mandala with its spiritual connotations and burdensome, bureaucratic paperwork. This installation can be found running inconspicuously throughout the entire exhibition space of “The Endless Summer.”

Perimeter Walk consists of 550 postcards featuring images taken by the artist as he measured the borders of Singapore by foot and captured the various landscapes along the edges of the country with his camera. Beyond a single view of the island, the subject matter of the photographs includes sand walls, ubiquitous signs of surveillance, tents in uninhabited woods, workers resting by the roadside in the afternoon, and lush vegetation. These elements reflect a unique microcosm of the tropical nation, reminding viewers of the “safety zones” defined by order, rules, and boundaries. Printed in a standard postcard format, visitors are encouraged to touch, hold, purchase, exchange, or gift them as they would treat a souvenir from a trip. These images weave together a multifaceted narrative about Singapore's borders. Through the circulation of these postcards, the largest gallery at UCCA Dune also becomes transformed into a temporary postcard store, diverting the flow of stories and landscapes beyond the confines of the exhibition.

Tangling Halt Green (A Survey) is part of the series of long-form videos originally posted on Heman Chong’s YouTube channel titled "Ambient Walking." Active since December 2018, the channel features videos of walks filmed from a first-person perspective. This 1.5-hour video captures the artist's walk during a torrential rainstorm through Tanglin Halt Green, a soon-to-be-demolished public housing estate in Singapore. The video opens with the camera lens fogged up by a fine mist from the raindrops; the view of the derelict concrete structures ahead appears distorted, while the sound of rain hitting the umbrella resembles a drum beat. As the camera moves, we witness a once-vibrant community now overrun by moss and peeling walls. Despite the eerie atmosphere of desolation, there is a strange beauty in the stark contrast between the lush greenery and the concrete buildings, where the decay of nature and urban life become intertwined.

The Book of Equators is a series of paintings that uses “the line” as a motif in exploring the concept of lines in our daily lives. Lines can signify both connection and division. The artist himself resides just one degree north of an omnipresent line, the Equator. As a virtual demarcation, the Equator divides the world into the Global South and the Global North, high and low, above and below. Similarly, longitudes and latitudes are imaginary lines that slice the world into asynchronous and unequal zones.

The artist deliberately chose ready-made fabric printed with tropical plant patterns as the canvas, on which lines are repeatedly drawn until the original designs are nearly obscured and only faintly detectable. Commonly used for curtains, this type of polyester fabric often features palm trees, vines, or various exotic floral patterns, reflecting a visual lexicon rooted in colonial-era tropical fantasies that continue to circulate in markets around the world today. The texture created through the layers of lines drawn appears to signal the possibilities of the writing of new narratives.

On July 8, 2006, Heman Chong began writing what would eventually evolve into a 200-page novel titled Prospectus. Frustrated by the lengthy and tedious editing process, the artist, in a fit of rage, wound up deleting the file that contained the novel. In 2024, Chong rediscovered the old computer used to write the novel and sent it to a data recovery company. While the technicians managed to recover the deleted manuscript, only 239 legible words remained from the severely corrupted file. The artist ultimately decided to present the “found” novel as a series of posters. With the help of Google Translate, he translated the salvaged text into Chinese to display alongside the English original across eight posters arranged in repetition on the walls of Gallery 4. This new iteration of Prospectus is a reconstruction of the existentially ambiguous original text that also serves as a testament and a commemoration of a lost work.

Monument to the people we’ve conveniently forgotten (I hate you) is a sculptural installation made in 2008 and is one of the artist’s most frequently exhibited works. As an artist trained in graphic design, paper has always been a significant material in Chong’s artistic practice. This work consists of one million business cards, each weighing 250 grams and measuring 9 cm by 5.5 cm. Business cards are a typical symbol of identity, especially in Asia, and are often used to address the other or determine the nature of interpersonal interactions. These cards are spray-painted black on both sides, erasing all personal information. Stack upon stack of these blackened cards cover most of the gallery floor, becoming a ruin of memories beneath viewers' feet as well as a memorial for the unnamed and forgotten individuals. The loosely piled black cards also serve as a metaphor for the seemingly close-knit and frequent social connections in our daily lives that are, in fact, hollow and fragile.

This work is comprised of a collection of over a hundred books related to various types of journeys, including classic travelogs documenting the geographical and cultural landscapes of foreign travels such as The Travels of Marco Polo, A Journey Through Central Asia, and Travels in China. Other titles include novels like Siddhartha and One Hundred Years of Solitude, which explore self-discovery and emotional trajectories through metaphoric travels. With the books arranged on the gallery windowsill, The Library of Endless Journeys creates a cozy reading nook facing the sea at Beidaihe, a holiday destination perpetually bustling with visitors. Here, journeys that otherwise come to an end can be reimagined as viewers are encouraged to browse the collection and begin new adventures towards infinite, unknown destinations.

The original images in Constructions are sourced from photographs taken by the artist. At first glance, these images seem to depict a forest scene. They are, in fact, camouflage images printed on the outer walls of a construction site as hoarding in Singapore for a road that will connect to Malaysia. Much like in other places around the world, construction sites in Singapore are often shielded by fake walls printed with various images, usually chosen to directly reference common local sights.

This installation transforms the floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights at UCCA Dune into a semi-transparent image of a forest, as if portals that make the entire building appear as a nest buried within the forest. The door at the center appears to be beckoning visitors to enter into a verdant green world. In reality, the door does not lead to the forest. It is neither a real door, nor does it open into any actual place. The image of the forest and the door have conspired to turn the gallery into a liminal space where the contours of space and time become interlaced and confused.

A Different Kind of Loneliness is a series of three public outdoor sculptures commissioned by UCCA Dune. Constructed from reclaimed wood of temporary walls and recycled materials from past exhibitions, the sculptures are designed in accordance with the museum’s architectural structure and surrounding environment. Identical in diameter, they resemble donuts, circular park benches with a hollow middle, or vaguely Minimalist sculptures. In contrast to the typical perception of sculptures as precious, untouchable, or made solely for a visual experience, these objects are intended to be sociable and interactive, serving a public function while oscillating between their identities as artworks and public amenities. As with the other works in the exhibition, A Different Kind of Loneliness welcomes viewers in anticipation of their touch, their engagement, as well as temporary rest. As visitors are drawn to rest upon the public seating, a subtle shift in identity occurs as they become a part of the sculptures as much as the observer.