Singapore war internee’s art on show (BBC)

Posted by noelbynature under Exhibitions
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Posted on the BBC, a war internee’s artworks about civilian life in Changi Prison during World War II were discovered by chance at a junkshop. They were recovered and are on display at the Changi Museum.

To her family in Britain, Mary Angela Bateman was a loveable old lady who had survived the British Empire’s tragedy in Singapore.

She lived out her days in genteel post-war poverty in a tiny flat in Earl’s Court, London, and they thought there was nothing very remarkable about her.

But a chance discovery in a junkshop in England long after her death revealed a forgotten talent - a collection of 15 watercolours, paintings and sketches recording the sufferings of civilians in World War II Japanese internment camps…

Although she was not one of the recognised wartime Far Eastern artists, they found a diary entry describing her as an art teacher.

Many of Mrs Bateman’s images are preoccupied with the prison’s black-and-white brooding walls, and its stark buildings set against a clear blue sky.

Others show the huts at Sime Road, another Singapore internee camp, and glimpses of the cramped and uncomfortable life there, including a women’s work party gossiping under a tree and a blonde child playing in a prison corridor.

Read the full story here.

Tags: singapore history, singapore heritage, singapore, WWII, world war II, world war 2