Common Life: Drawings and Poems
“Most things in the world around us have poems hidden in them waiting to be revealed if we have the will to pay attention and see them with the heart.”
— Anne Lee Tzu Pheng
With crayons and stained paper, artist Ho Chee Lick wanders around neighbourhoods in Singapore observing, perceiving, looking for that “something”: quiet and unremarkable objects and scenes of basic everyday life. One day some of his drawings came into the hands of poet Anne Lee Tzu Pheng who rediscovers the quiet beauty of these captured moments and explores their story with her words.
Common Life is a visual and poetic journey into territories the mind often finds too familiar to excite feelings or thoughts. Every purchase comes with a complimentary copy of Enjoying Common Life: A Companion.
Common Life: Drawings and Poems
Slide to see
Paperback
$28.00 SGD
E-book
$28.00 SGD
Reviews
Common Life makes it quickly irrelevant to tell where images end and poetry begins. Each of Ho Chee Lick and Anne Lee Tzu Pheng’s paired responses to the ordinary calms both the eye and the heart. The deep beauty in what they spy leaps out like moonlight on things. This collaboration is as flawless as it comes, among the most satisfying I’ve experienced in ages. —Gwee Li Sui, poet, artist, and literary critic
As a comic fan as well as graphic novel artist, it is indeed fortunate to come to know Common Life. This book weaves me in and out of the pictures and words beautifully in between them. From Bukit Batok to Bedok, Simei to Serangoon, it brought back some vivid memories for me. Though most of the work are done in crayons, it is amazing to see how Chee Lick could create a broad array of styles; one scene reminisces of Wu Guanzhong's ethereal landscape (Waiting, Page 146-147), another echoing Egon Schiele's distorted figure (Youth, Page 142-143). Binding with Ann's seemingly simple yet spiritus verses it touched my senses and fills me with the joys and sorrows of this place we call home. Such is the true beauty of this work. —Koh Hong Teng, graphic novelist and author of Garden of Foolish Indulgence
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Attunement
Is life hustling you out of tune? As the week roars by, we invite you to a slice of attunement penned lovingly by our authors, friends, and yours truly. Freshly delivered weekly with care. Intimacy guaranteed. Read selected letters below.
Magical, luminous things
Feb 19, 2022
I have flown across an ocean this week. This still sounds surreal to say.
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No negotiation for blood debt
Feb 14, 2022
The Burmese language resistance poetry is deeply embedded in the country’s colonial past. When mo...
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Burning holes in the darkness
Feb 7, 2022
Poets killed in broad daylight, writers tortured and maimed. I wonder if their ghosts watch on fr...
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