Some stories are too fragile to be told in words. Some emotions too heavy to carry alone. And sometimes, the best way to understand an experience is to shape it with your hands.

That’s what Being Shaped: VESSELS is about.

From February 10–14, 2025, at KKH Auditorium Foyer, this exhibition brings together healthcare professionals from the Neonatal ICU and Special Care Nursery who have spent their careers caring for the smallest, most fragile lives. But this time, they aren’t using their hands to place an IV or adjust a ventilator—they’re using them to mold, shape, and carve out their own stories in clay.

Each hand-thrown ceramic piece in this exhibition carries a memory, an emotion, a moment of care. Some are smooth, others rough around the edges—just like the experiences they represent. Some are solid and sturdy, while others feel delicate and uncertain, mirroring the emotional weight of working in neonatology.

But beyond the beauty of the pieces, this exhibition asks something deeper: What does it mean to be a vessel?

To hold. To carry. To contain.

Because that’s what these healthcare professionals do every day. They hold space for patients and families in their most vulnerable moments. They carry the weight of hope, of grief, of responsibility. They pour themselves into their work, again and again.

This exhibition is a chance to step into their world—not just the clinical, high-tech world of neonatology, but the unseen emotional landscape that comes with it.

Why should you come? Because medicine isn’t just about science and protocols. It’s about people. It’s about the way care shapes us, even as we try to shape it. And sometimes, we need art to help us see what words cannot express.

The exhibition runs from February 11–14 at the KKH Auditorium Foyer, and it’s free for all. If you’re a healthcare professional, an artist, a patient, or just someone curious about the human side of medicine, come by.

Stay a while. See the vessels. Listen to their stories.

Because in the end, we are all shaped by the care we give and receive.

Dr. Victoria Ekstrom is a consultant gastroenterologist at SGH and co-lead for narratives in medicine at SDMHI. Passionate about the intersection of medicine, communication, and behavioral science, she explores how stories shape healthcare experiences.