Encounters are meetings that involve surprise and conflict, that are not a coupling but a mediated space of coming together and pulling apart (Ahmed, 2000).

Zen Teh’s art practice explores photography as an expanded field —camera is used as a tool for image making, documentation and exploring concepts of truths. Her work is activated by first-hand physiological and emotive encounters of everyday conditions, particularly of complex and often tension human-nature scenarios. Working often with site-specificity or experiential installations, her works create openings for shared knowledge through embodied experiences and reflexivity.

Teh pursues interdisciplinary practice as a way of collaborating with experts from different fields, to engage with the community and to reflect upon how artists function in society. As a Southeast Asian artist, her research-based art practice is dedicated to social and environmental discourses in Southeast Asia, contextualising them through interdisciplinary collaborations and larger geopolitical dynamics in the world.

Zen Teh has showcased in group and solo exhibitions in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan and China. She was also a guest speaker at regional and international conferences such as UNESCO-UNITWIN and ASEAN POWERSHIFT. Teh’s works have been acquired by the Singapore Art Museum and numerous private collections in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Singapore. In 2021, Teh was conferred the Young Artist Award by The National Arts Council, Singapore’s highest accolade for artists under the age of 35.