I have somehow always recognised Joanna Dong as a quiet force to be reckoned with. From following her trajectory in the Singaporean scene as a versatile vocalist grounded in Jazz and musical theatre, to her moment on Chinese reality show Sing! China where she breathed fresh life into classic Mandopop; Joanna has often injected a delicate balance between playfulness and attentiveness into every song or work she touches which has always been quietly inspired.

I followed along as she returned to the Singaporean music scene with a spring in her step and started focusing on her own original creations, and particularly admired the Mandarin lyrics that she began to pen; sometimes for her own works, and other times translations out of wilful creativity. I especially enjoyed her lyrics penned for Charlie Lim’s ‘Definitely’ which inspired its own version which she brought to life together with him, and in hearing the story for that version, I mused about the creative force Dong must have, to inspire her peers to such an extent.

And through the many diverse chapters of Dong’s journey, there has always been this sense of fluid, steady expansion; not a rejection of her past, but a concerted effort to embrace each chapter of herself, almost like a measure by which she uses to grasp at new threads of inspiration, bringing the pleasantly unexpected to her audiences time and again.

“BIG BIG Small Small” seems to be the most ambitious and expansive cumulation of Dong’s creative musings yet. A collaboration with arranger Chok Kerong and visual artist Dawn Ng, the show fused elements of music, sculpture, and performance art into a 40 minute experience for viewers, bringing to the surface a creative depth that I was confident existed within Dong.

The beauty of the experience lay in its intimate ephemerality and the fact that most of the participants were kept on their toes, unsure of what to expect. And what eventually presented itself was a breathtaking and all-encompassing encapsulation of Dong’s non-linear musings, weaving spoken word poetry, singing, dance and visual art into a dynamic space buzzing with creative energy.

Acting as the intimate audiences’ curator and guide throughout the show, Dong interspersed Mandarin and English musings and lyrics with movement, set against the serene backdrop of Dawn Ng’s abstract black and white planetary pieces to the sound of Chok Kerong’s lush arrangements which ebbed and flowed perfectly in line with Dong’s unique mode of expression.

Touching on topics close to her heart, yet not isolating for the viewers, the show was truly a excavating reflection for Dong of all her experiences up to this point – not only as an artist, a singer, a creative; but even more so as a girl, a woman, a daughter, and perhaps the process of accepting ones’ identity as ‘not a mother’.

While far from overtly feminist, these were some of the themes that came through and resonated with me gently through the waves of sound, movement and visuals that invited audiences to reflect on their own. Dong had this magic quality of not isolating any audience member in the room, despite the multiple languages and many mediums used. She also touched on the binary between life and death, the fragility of its consideration, and the grief of someone who holds on in those final moments, and in doing so, gives profound perspective to the topic at hand – that time is nonlinear and it does not have to be those big moments that touch us.

Big moments may touch us in small ways and small moments may touch us in big ways – all that really matters is how present you are to accept the richness of each moment. A moving, absolutely intimate and daring project that moved me to tears at certain points, ‘Big Big Small Small’ for me at least was a small moment that brought me back to the present and guided me through Dong’s lens to come to terms with my own decisions and experiences in big ways.