Proposal for HOYA: 5 Lungs Temple

Proposal for HOYA: 5 Lungs Temple centres on a critically endangered Hoya plant, which symbolises fertility and harmony. Visitors are invited to contribute ideas towards a HOYA temple, imagined as a space for reflecting on Singapore’s changing natural environment.

Created by artist and medicinal architect Yussef Agbo-Ola, HOYA draws on the internal structures of the Hoya plant, enlarging them into forms that visitors can enter and move through in the National Library. Visitors can touch fabric samples and add their own ideas by completing the HOYA colouring sheet. These contributions will help shape ideas for the future temple, while inviting visitors to think about climate change and the loss of natural habitats.

Agbo-Ola, who spends extended amounts of time in the Amazon Forest, believes that natural materials carry memories and can help us think about the world around us. Of Nigerian heritage, he draws on Yoruba and Cherokee traditions, particularly their approaches to ancestry, healing, and material knowledge. His work considers how knowledge moves between generations, and how it is adopted, sustained, adapted and shared over time. For Agbo-Ola, remembering is also a form of care, for people and the natural world.

This project accompanies Lost & Found: How We Remember at Singapore Art Museum, which runs from 27 November 2026 to 18 April 2027 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. The exhibition explores how memories are carried through everyday actions, places, and personal experiences.