“Huh don’t dance already la! Study, study!”
“Draw draw draw also cannot earn you any money.”
“You not even famous, sing for what?”
Whether you’re a student pursuing the Arts or not, these are definitely things any Singaporean child has heard at least once when your parents find out you’ve been spending extra time in school rehearsing for a dance concert or wasting your daily allowance on paint brushes.
Let’s face it, Singapore was never known for her Arts scene because it was practically written on all our birth certs that we shall only strive for the most-esteemed, highest-paying jobs (aka to be a doctor, a lawyer or a dentist).
However, there have been vast improvements in our Arts scene lately, thanks to passionate individuals who refuse to conform and surprisingly, the government, who has invested quite a sum into funding the growth of Arts events.
In this series, we are going to show you how various genres of the Arts are, dare I say, flourishing (*gasp*) on a sunny island once known to house only academic scholars. Perhaps by the end of this series, you will realise that you don’t necessarily have to be struggling to be an artist in this nation.
Part I: Art
Art was made to be a form of self-expression and boy, did the Sticker Lady (Samantha Lo) express herself and the quirkiness of our colloquialism through her art in 2012. The contemporary street artist toed the blurred line between art and vandalism by stencilling “My Grandfather Road” on roads and pasting “Press until Shiok”, “Anyhow paste kena fine” and more Singlish slogan stickers on traffic light poles. I remember missing several turns to cross the road because my dad and I were busy taking selfies with the sticker and giggling at this simple yet so out-of-place sticker in our “perfect” country. I can say with absolute certainty that no Singaporean can proclaim that he/she has never seen a grumpy old man or a grubby kid repeatedly press the traffic light button. I can’t imagine that any Singaporean would catch a glimpse of these stickers and not at least let out a chuckle.
Alas, the stickers were taken down the moment the Sticker Lady’s work went viral and she was sentenced to 240 hours of community service, which I thought was totally bogus. I wasn’t an art student, but my heart went out to all my friends who were in the Art Elective Program and their poor, stifled creativity in our rigid country.
Fast forward to 2016: a 77-year-old retiree, Mr Or Beng Kooi, in Yishun made a pagoda-like toy tower at his HDB void deck; baby dolls and action figures all donated by the people living in his neighbourhood. It was a community effort, a structure that brought a smile to everyone’s faces and “Ah Pek” (as everyone there calls him) had actually created this to liven up his neighbourhood for the elderly who like to hang out at the void deck.
He was told by the authorities to dismantle it immediately as it posed a fire hazard.
Government 2 Art 0
A year after that, a golden staircase was spotted shining brightly on the 20th floor of a HDB block in Jalan Rajah. This stairway to heaven did not appear magically. It was a 5-hour long project of pasting gold foil onto a flight of stairs by LASALLE fine arts student Priyageetha Dia.
And you may have guessed: she was told to return the golden stairs back to grey concrete as it was considered vandalism of public space.
I’m not a rebel or a serial rule-breaker so I fully understand the need for artists to “ask for permission” before displaying their artwork. But as Dia has said in a Straits Times interview: “As an artist, I wonder why everything needs to be licensed. If I (had sought) permission, there wouldn’t be a thrill in doing it; I need that adrenaline rush in my art-making process.”
Art used to be misunderstood, even punished, in our island that only equates success with academic degrees and certificates. But in light of these series of events which have opened the eyes of the nation to the beauty and spontaneity of art, the government has softened and begun investing more time and effort into developing the Arts scene in Singapore.
Art went from being punished to being celebrated.
The Sticker Lady broke out of her guerilla paste-and-run days and launched “Greetings from Singapore” just last year, an art exhibition that will showcase her famous tongue-in-cheek stickers and signs. She also collaborated with Circular Spectacular!, a carnival held at Circular Road where she stencilled “My Grandfather Road” on a 170m stretch of closed road.
The Yishun “Ah Pek” also made a comeback this year. Specially invited by Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, Mr Or installed a new tower of toys at Chong Pang Community Centre in celebration of Chinese New Year. That was his third tower, his second being one he was invited to erect at The Substation last year.
Besides giving individuals more outlets to express themselves through art, the government has also been supporting the Arts scene by funding art events such as the annual iLight, Singapore Art Week and Light to Night Festival, raising such platforms to expose more Singaporeans to art, allow greater appreciation of its beauty and possibly spark a passion for this craft in the hearts of the citizens.
So contrary to what many might think, the Arts scene in Singapore is not dying.
It’s only just getting started.
By Rachel Lim
