Year of Birth:

1961

Disability:

Tetraplegia

A tickled audience thundered with laughter at Gilbert’s jocular remarks. On stage, knowledgeable and articulate Gilbert, smartly groomed in his usual bow tie and suspenders, could easily pass off as any witty television compere and stand-up comic. Off stage, his acerbic wit bares itself through a lively repartee with a friend. This Singapore Polytechnic alumnae in Architectural Drafting is a seasoned conversationalist, judging from his insights on Politics, Art, Literature to Geography, Spinal Cord Injury and Movies. It is quite a sight to watch the babbling tenor commanding the voice-dialing handphone to call his regular taxi driver. His jovial maid looks on quizzically, fanning him enthusiastically and drizzling water down his face and neck to relieve him of heat strokes. Coping with Tetraplegia has not been easy for Gilbert.

“For me, art is therapeutic. It takes a lot of concentration to paint with the mouth and in concentrating, paintings become creative and inspirational. There is always a satisfaction to see a finished work. Also, there is the pleasure of enjoying a thing of beauty with friends.”
- Gilbert Tan

His life, his Art, his priorities and his faith has to work around his physical constraints. He writes his songs and poems via a computer equipped with a voice recognition and speech to text software. He manages the household, pays his bills and keeps in touch with his friends through the telephone. He feasts with cutlery tailor-made to wrap around his hand. He excretes into an urinary bag which is drained by his mother or maid several times a day. He sits up to paint for short spurts of time and requests for a couch to lie on in between his singing engagements. He joins Walkathons on his wheelchair. He needs a hand to scratch away the itch of a mosquito bite; a hand to flip his body over in his sleep; a hand to transfer him from the wheelchair to his bed.