Title: Infinite Melt

Year: 2025 

Medium: Maltose 

Size: 17cm x 12cm

First presented in Oct 2025 ART JARKATA

“The only constant in life is change.”

Concept

Singaporean artist Shih Yun Yeo merges Chinese calligraphy with technology to challenge and redefine artistic boundaries. Her multidisciplinary practice explores the dynamic relationship between human expression and digital precision, often involving performance, robotics, and now, edible materials.

In her work ‘Infinite Melt’, Yeo delves into transformation through the Chinese character 化, a symbol for change. Rather than simply depicting it, she uses it as a metaphor for artistic and human evolution. The piece is a collaboration between the artist, a robot, and an AI: robot brushstrokes created by the artist are interpreted by ChatGPT, refined through numerous iterations in Photoshop, and finally rendered in maltose using a 3D candy machine, a sugar with historical ties to Yogyakarta’s identity as a former sugar capital.

The use of maltose ensures the artwork is impermanent, emphasizing change and challenging traditional ideas of permanence in art. ‘Infinite Melt’ exemplifies Yeo’s belief that technology and tradition are not in opposition, but part of an ongoing, symbiotic process. Through this work, she invites viewers to rethink how art is made, who creates it, and what it means in a constantly transforming world.

"Infinite Melt" deftly balances several powerful themes:

  • Technology and Tradition: The artwork’s core statement is that technology and tradition are not opposing forces. Instead, they can coexist and enrich one another. The use of a robot and AI to create a candy design—a medium with deep historical ties to Yogyakarta as a sugar capital—is a perfect example of this synthesis.

  • Transformation: The central theme is not just about the final artwork but about the ongoing process of change. The use of a melting medium like maltose and the incorporation of the infinity symbol suggest that transformation is an endless, continuous state, not a one-time event.

  • Sweetness Meets History: By using sugar, the artist connects the ephemeral, sensory experience of sweetness with the historical and cultural legacy of a specific place. The work becomes a tangible, albeit temporary, link between past industry and present-day art.



Statement

"Infinite Melt," a playful exploration of the Chinese character 化 (huà), which means transformation. For 26 years, I've been fascinated by ink, and that fascination led me to the beauty of Chinese calligraphy.

My creative process began with ink drawings I made with toy robots and digitised them. The next step is to use ChatGPT to simplify the ink strokes. Finally I use Photoshop and layered different historical scripts of the character onto my designs. After many iterations, these five pieces were born.

The title, "Infinite Melt," speaks to the multiple layers of transformation happening in each artwork:

* Ink to Sugar

* Chemical Change: It captures the physical transformation of sugar itself as it melts and re-solidifies.

* Historical Evolution: The character 化 has changed over time

Ultimately, this piece is about the infinite nature of transformation. It reminds us that the only constant in life is change.