About 200 eggplants pinned to two walls at National Gallery Singapore have been disappearing since the Still Life exhibit opened on 18 Jul 2025. The installation, created by Singaporean artist Suzann Victor, features phallic-themed artwork that has attracted unusual attention from visitors.
National Gallery Singapore confirmed on 1 Aug 2025 that visitors have been stealing the purple fruits. The gallery has not disclosed the exact number of eggplants taken or provided reasons for the thefts.
Gallery staff now conduct regular inspections of the wall-mounted work to maintain its integrity. Clear signage has been erected warning visitors against touching the installation after the theft incidents began.
The artwork forms part of the gallery’s revamped Singapore art history exhibition, Singapore Stories: Pathways And Detours In Art. The installation juts out into the walkway outside DBS Singapore Gallery three on the museum’s second floor.
National Gallery Singapore acknowledged that the work has generated curiosity and enthusiasm among visitors. Many people have been taking photos and experiencing the installation up close.
The eggplants are intended to decompose naturally and be replaced regularly throughout the exhibition period over the next couple of years. This decomposition process represents the concept of “authoritarian masculinity breaking down in plain sight” according to the exhibit transcript.
Artist’s 1992 Performance Art Origins and Contemporary Gallery Adaptation
Suzann Victor originally conceptualised Still Life in 1992 as part of a live performance event at Parkway Parade. The initial version featured 100 brinjals stuck onto three black walls outside the shopping centre to get office workers to “wake up” during their morning commute.
The current installation builds on Victor’s early interest in kinetics and performance art. Each eggplant has been hand-painted with careful attention to colour and glossiness.
Victor explained the deeper meaning behind the work on 1 Aug 2025. The eggplants are composed deliberately and “try to defy gravity, but ultimately, gravity gets them.” She described them as “failing in a very profound sense.”
The artist hoped the public would move beyond what she called an “essentialising way” of viewing art “that is ignorant.” The work predates both the eggplant emoji and Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s famous banana artwork Comedian.
Performance artist Tang Da Wu previously responded to the eggplant installation by performing a dance to articulate the spaces between the plants.
The exhibition has sparked online debate about potential food wastage since its July launch. National Gallery Singapore addressed these concerns by confirming that all old eggplants are donated to nonprofit organisation Ground-Up Initiative for composting at their community farm. The eggplants are replaced monthly.
Art theft has occurred previously in Singapore, though typically involving public artworks outside galleries. In 2014, a 30cm by 30cm portion of Casey Chen’s Prosperity Tunnel along the underground linkway between Jurong Point and Boon Lay Bus Interchange was extracted by a member of the public. The tunnel featured wallpaper and stickers printed with currency note images.
In 2000, Felicia Low’s Dragon sculpture outside Chinatown Complex disappeared entirely. Parts of the artwork were later discovered in a rubbish dump one block away. Thieves took cheap epoxy parts forming the dragon’s body while leaving behind costlier acrylic mirror panels.
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