Encore events in Singapore to cap your 2015 off

Ready to send 2015 off? Here's a list of events you should know of (and book tickets for, right now)!

Singapore saved the SG50 best for last

Four stunning events on design, art, creativity, film and the future of our city

1. Singapore Inside Out | 27 Nov Fri - 6 Dec Sun | Free
   Finally home after a tour of Beijing, New York and London, this weeklong showcase of Singapore's brightest bands, street artists, dancers, designers, writers, filmmakers and DJs is the best place to see what Singapore is capable of. 
   https://singaporeinsideout.com/singapore/
    
2. National Art Gallery Opening | 24 Nov Tue - 6 Dec Sun | Free
   Free tickets to a stunning building housing a wonderful collection of South East Asian art.
   https://www.nationalgallery.sg/visit/tickets
    
3. The Future of Us | 1 Dec - 8 Mar | Free
   Free tickets to an immersive exhibition asking the question - what is the future of Singapore? Held across from Gardens by the Bay.
   http://www.thefutureofus.sg/
    
4. Singapore International Film Festival | 26 Nov Thu - 6 Dec Sun | Free / $12 - $25
   Catch more than 150 films and a red carpet event at the Marina Bay Sands.
   http://sgiff.com/

Now for more family friendlier fun...

Kid in tow? Head to these...

1. Singapore Heart Map Festival @ Marina Bay Float | 26 Nov Thu - 29 Nov Sun | Free
   A crowdsourced celebration of Singapore featuring Urban Sketchers Singapore.
   https://www.heartmap.sg/sg-heart-map-festival-float/
    
2. Christmas Wonderland @ Gardens by the Bay | 27 Nov Fri - 3rd Jan | Free
   A European-style Christmas market lands in Singapore.
   http://www.christmaswonderland.sg/
    
3. Collider @ ArtScience Museum | 14 Nov onwards
   DisCERNing parents bring kids to learn about physics.
   https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/collider.html
    
4. NUS110 Concert in the Park
   The NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Orchestra plays one of my personal favourites - Dvorak’s New World Symphony.  In our own UNESCO World Heritage Site the Botanic Gardens.
   https://www.facebook.com/events/1647827012166732/

Onwards, discoverers!

Secret spots and events to explore:

1. Open Farm Community - what happens when the Spa Espirit group has a farm.
   http://www.openfarmcommunity.com/
    
2. Whisky Live - A is for Aultmore, B is for Bruichladdich, C is for Whisky.
   www.whiskylive.sg
    
3. Neon Lights - target audience: Laneway-goers suffering from withdrawal symptoms in November.
   http://www.neonlights.sg/
    
4. Bliss Out - Yoga, music, and of course, coconut water.
   www.blissout.com.sg
    
5. Free the Robot Coffee - do robots drink coffee? Then again, these days, who doesn't?
   https://www.instagram.com/free.the.robot/
    
6. Dream a Little Green of Telok Ayer - yup, that's our own event! An afternoon of rediscovering the streets and architecture of Telok Ayer, Amoy, Stanley, Cecil.
   
   See your CBD workplace in a new light!
   28 Nov Sat 3pm | http://peatix.com/event/131075
   5 Dec Sat 3pm | http://peatix.com/event/131294
   12 Dec Sat 3pm | http://peatix.com/event/131295

What's Indian about Singapore's Indian Heritage Centre?

Launched in May 2015 after exhausting seven years and $21M, the Indian Heritage Centre on Campbell Lane, Little India, often triggers this first question - what's Indian about it?

Photography courtesy of Greg Shand Architects

Cheekier critics would reply "it's Indian because it looks like the new wing of Mustafa Centre."

The person on the street is looking for obvious tributes to historical Indian architecture - perhaps elements that draw from Indian temples, palaces or the Taj Mahal. However, architects win design competitions based on bold forms and fresh ideas. These ideas could be grounded more in theory or academia. The result: layman interpretations that fall far from the architects' and building owners' official press releases. 

A famous example would be starchitect Rem Koolhaas having to state that his groundbreaking CCTV Headquarters design in Beijing "has no hidden meaning" when ridiculous speculations went viral that he meant it to look like female and male genitalia, after an earlier round of toilet-related comparisons.

Back to the question. "What's Indian about it" begs a deeper question - "what's Indian?" For the Indian Heritage Centre, the challenge faced by designers Greg Shand Architects and Urbnarc is to not be too direct, because being "Indian" holds a range of diverse meanings.

They found inspiration for the main facade in the stepwells, flights of descending steps that leads to the water table, a category of Indian architecture that evolved to balance water supply between the seasons with and without monsoon rain. 

Stepwell in Rajasthan

Partly because stepwells are below the ground, even in India they are becoming forgotten and abandoned, in spite of their historical importance of enabling a steady water supply in drier areas.

The best designs for cultural institutions not only look back - they look forward. The curtain of glass used in the Indian Heritage Centre may invite the knee-jerk reaction to compare it with Mustafa, but it would be unfair and unwise to expect a 2015 building to look like it belongs to the 10th or 18th century.

And anyway, the Mustafa Centre extension is lovely and houses a gorgeous rooftop restaurant that may remind you of dining at Pollen in Gardens by the Bay - with a friendlier price tag.

And on the note of looking forward, the Indian Heritage Centre's logo looks like it is trying to belong to Google.

This blog post is part of a series highlighting that you can always "travel without leaving home." We are also featuring more archaeologically related information in the lead up to the opening of the National Gallery of Art in Singapore towards the end of the year. 

Further reading:
- India's Forgotten Stepwells
- Mustafa's rooftop restaurant

Eunice Lim, artist behind Cattleland (2015) - an interview

We first encountered artist Eunice Lim's piece Cattleland during our Little India walks. The work is a mural spanning the width and height of an entire shophouse side-wall and bursting with colour and energy. Here, Eunice talks about being an artist and how Little India is being pigeon-holed by locals.

It was partly a coincidence that both my recent works are about cattle. I was presenting the idea of Cattleland to the Singapore Tourism Board at about the same time as I was creating Holey Calf (a calf made of Tortilla chips, exhibited earlier at City Square Mall). But I had a deliberate message of cattle being something worshipped or celebrated historically.

Holey Calf is waterproof.  It was treated with lacquer and stays the same even if it rains.

For Cattleland, I spent two days just creating a graph paper-like grid on the wall. Essentially I drew freehand, but with the grid guiding.

Cattleland will stay up only until the end of March 2015. I did wish the work could have an organic end, like being gradually washed away by the rain or overgrown by moss.

The younger Singaporeans treat Little India as a tourist-only area, unlike Universal Studios Singapore which they visit. We wanted the Little India Artwalk works to draw common Singaporeans to understand the their own culture and heritage.

My works exist on two levels. On the surface they are approachable visual celebrations, but beneath the surface there are deeper concerns like food wastage. I really enjoy the sense of enlightenment that people have when they discover the underlying issues.

Artists should never compromise even if our works are commissioned. We should still stay true to what we’ve always been doing and what we believe in, be it the technical aspects or our message. There shouldn’t be a distinction approaching a commissioned piece versus approaching a personal piece. In the first place, a client commissions an artist because they like what the artist does.

Of course, both parties need to listen to each other and understand the audience and the idea. I will make changes requested by the client as long as they don’t compromise my ideas, say for example a cosmetic colour change.

I used to think it was easy being an artist in the United States, based on the media portrayal. But I realised every part of the world has their challenges. The art scene is blooming in the States with the intensity of events and fairs, but art school graduates there might have to work in cafes to sustain their artist lives. 

I’m not a million-dollar artist, but I’m still doing what I do. Sometimes people assume full-time artists are earning big bucks.

There are many people who inspire me to press on. That’s why I have my own studio. I thankfully met the right people. Abstract painter Yeo Shih Yun (who runs INSTINC gallery) guided me along since my school days. She and others taught me details from how to price my works to dealing with copyright issues.

Most artists are introverts who prefer to stay in our own corner. But I realise it was essential to mingle at art events and to know people from the art scene.

Everyone says Singapore is still young at 50 years old, but I think we could move faster. A lot of us in Singapore still view art as high culture instead of something that creates conversations and helps us grow.

Art is always a medium to say something, and if people are engaged with the medium, it is fantastic. There is a group of art enthusiasts who have supported me all the way. They are not all artists, but have been going to all my events for the past five years, since my first solo exhibition. Artists need this type of community. It shows that the artists’ messages are really getting across and that the wider population is engaging with art. 

Art can have a bigger impact than my own private space. I cannot be an artist who stays in a studio to create art for myself or simply to sell. Art to me needs to connect to a larger audience even if they might not be artistically inclined. 

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Interviewed on 11th February 2015
Special thanks to Kenneth Lee.

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See more works of the artist Eunice Lim.
Want to learn more stories of Little India and other Singapore neighbourhoods? Join our upcoming tours.

The Tanjong Katong

A personal short story about the porch in my childhood home (now torn down) in Katong.

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"But what was in that space?"

"All things," the young man answered.

"the dog's bowl, Pa's car, our dog under Pa's car. Ma's and Ah Ma's plants fighting all over for space, with last year's Ang Paos still clinging onto them in shades of red. The wind chimes clanging, the overhang of our neighbour's mango tree. And slippers and shoes that revealed who's home."

"When the car was out, Mimi the dog would stretch in the sun. He would dash around to fill up the space. Sometimes mangos fell ripe, sometimes they fell because mynahs pecked at them. Their gentle fragrance filled up the night air, and bats - yes eventually I realised they were bats - swooped in chaotic loops. At least that's my memory of it."

"But what else? Surely there was more?"

"Small pools of wax, filed smooth by shoes skating by. The wax was from the Lantern Festival candles. Ma was always worried we would set the house on fire, so we were only allowed to light candles outside, in the porch. Mimi the dog wouldn't approach the flames. He's actually male, but we adopted him when he was already eleven - we didn't get to name him. When we wanted him to sound macho, we called him 'Ah Mi' to make it sound like 'Army.' Haha, imagine that. He's a great dog. People always asked me what breed he was. You know, that's what people care about - the breed. I have endless stories but they just want to know the breed."

"I guess he's just another dog, Pavlovian and all. Even before I took Psychology 101, I tried to trick him into running towards me for a photo. Of course, tapping the dog bowl worked."

"How's he doing?"

"Well that must be more than ten years ago. I wonder how he liked to be under the car. We had a kennel that he never used it much." 

"Sometimes I played those skipping games with my two sisters. The kid next door always spied on us jealously, and we nicknamed him "Pong Pong" after that buoyant fruit. We would yell 'Pong Pong' at the top of our lungs and that confused Mimi. He would bark at us, thinking it is a game. We also spotted one mynah that with recurring baldness from fights, and gave it a nickname that is too embarrassing to tell you."

"You guys weren't kind - to neighbours or animals."

"Well I guess my compulsive e-mail checking habit came from running to the mailbox every half an hour to see if there is any new mail, although we would have seen the postman pause at our door when cycling by if there really was. But partly because my Ah Ma would randomly comment that she saw or heard the postman. Thinking back, perhaps she knew that we liked to race to the mailbox. It probably took us just seconds, the dash - that was how small the physical space was."