FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH, MAY – DECEMBER 2017 

Salon lectures feature close readings of art, architecture and social phenomena that cater to the incurably curious. These topics arise from the idiosyncratic interests of each speaker and are focused on the works of others. Through such close readings, citizens uncover alternative ways of thinking and reading the city.

THE PASSION OF KENNY PEREIRA:
THE GAY EURASIAN SOLDIER OF MICHAEL CHIANG’S “ARMY DAZE” AND HIS LEGACY
5 MAY 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speaker Ng Yi-Sheng

Michael Chiang’s hit comedy “Army Daze” is fondly remembered by generations of Singaporeans as a pioneering work in English language theatre (1987) and cinema (1996).

This lecture examines one of the work’s most memorable characters: Kenny Pereira, a flamboyantly effeminate Eurasian recruit undergoing Basic Military Training. Though he appears as a caricature, he is also the only character to directly criticise the institution of National Service. Examine the political, social and cultural confluences that led to the creation of this character, the nuances of his variant portrayals by different actors, and his subtle but enduring impact on Singaporean theatre and film.

ANOTHER SPACE IS POSSIBLE?
ART CREATING URBAN SPACE IN SINGAPORE
2 JUNE 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speakers Mayee Wong & Joanne Leow

In 2012, Singaporean street artist SKL0 came into public view when she was arrested for her playful and inventive sticker-bombing and stencilling in the Singaporean streets. Her arrest raised questions on the nature and value of street art in Singapore, and also brought to attention the controlled nature of public space in the city-state. Beginning with a look at the graffiti on The Substation’s walls, explore the evolution of SKL0’s street art as it shifts in context from the Singapore street in 2012, to her solo show “Limpeh” that focused on the figure of Singapore’s ‘founding father’ Lee Kuan Yew.

How does her work mobilise the urban aesthetics of resistance in street art in the Singaporean context, and what does it resist? And how do these aesthetics change as her work becomes sited in other spaces? The discussion will then turn to two different examples of art that evoke alternative or counter-cultural landscapes of Singaporean urban space: Sonny Liew’s controversial and celebrated 2015 graphic novel "The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye", and the pop-up "Melantun Records" installation assembled in response to the portrayal of Far East Plaza in David Bowie’s 1983 movie Ricochet. The conversation analyses these cases of Singaporean artistic cultural production as aesthetic works of resistance, what they resist, and speculate: what cultural resistance might look like in Singapore, and the urban possibilities they might create. 

ABSTRACTION AND THE CITY
7 JULY 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speaker Louis Ho

A local poet once eulogised Singapore thus: “They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities. The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points ......” The utopia that is Singapore in the new millennium, some five decades after the anxieties of independence, is indeed the result of meticulous centralised planning, founded on an ideal social order and brought about by standardised design and mass production. The Fordist system of post-war economic growth seems to find an analogue in the visual vocabulary of geometric abstraction, the anonymous rationality and regularity of the first dovetailing with the homogeneous, modular formal contours of the second. The work of local artists like Jeremy Sharma and Anthony Poon may perhaps be said to evoke both the structured impersonality of the urban fabric and the circumscribed modes of social life that has for long been associated with post-independence Singapore; the time is ripe for art history to make those connections.

EVERYDAY MONUMENTS:
STRUCTURING LIFE IN PYONGYANG
4 AUGUST 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speaker Calvin Chua

Exploring the urban transformation of Pyongyang over the past decades, this talk will reveal how the built environment has shaped the way life is routinised in the city. Based on a historical scan and ground observation through interactions with local architects, explore how the evolution of urban form (from block to streets), and preference for interiorised public spaces as well as pastel building facades structure everyday life in Pyongyang.

PPAP, HARLEM SHAKE, GANGNAM STYLE:
A COMPOSER'S DOUBLE TAKE ON VIRAL YOUTUBE MUSIC CONTENT
8 SEPTEMBER 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speaker Chong Li-Chuan

The body has been disciplined through the rapid production, reproduction and consumption of cultural content in a post-capitalist society. Identify the precendents to viral music content in a hypersocial world through an analysis of contagion factors present within Harlem Shake, Psy's Gangnam Style and Pikotaro's PPAP.

CHASING INUKA: RAMBLING AROUND
SINGAPORE THROUGH TAN PIN PIN’S FILMS
6 OCTOBER 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speaker Lilian Chee

In one of Singapore filmmaker Tan Pin Pin’s more recent documentaries Snow City (2011), the camera patiently follows the first polar bear born in the tropics—Inuka—as he swims languorously in his icy tank. The scene, which cuts to an unrelated cityscape, seems arbitrary or flippant at first, especially for Tan, who is regarded as a serious documentarian. Yet, there is purpose to this perceived frivolity. Chasing Inuka similarly traipses through Singapore, using Tan’s postmodern and posthuman spatial perspectives, as its guide. Moving through six films, the discussion makes an argument for the significance of Tan’s accentuated montage process in highlighting the latent network of spaces across the city. It considers the affective and “out-of-field” character of these spaces, which appear peripheral yet strategically augment her documentary subjects, and ultimately, undermine generalisations about Singapore’s spaces.

BUILDINGS MUST DIE:
REFLECTIONS FROM SINGAPORE
3 NOVEMBER 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speakers Stephen Cairns and Jane M. Jacobs

Revisiting the book Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture (2014) from the perspective of Singapore, the discussion makes the case for a sensitivity for the way buildings and cities age, deteriorate and ultimately die – what we call a feeling for the inert. It is argued that such a sensitivity is generally underdeveloped in architecture and urban design, where the disciplinary practice of design focusses on the beginning, rather than middle and end, of a building’s life. How can one propose a broader definition of design to accommodate the complex dynamics of buildings and cities in time? What is the importance of such an approach for considering a wider ecological of design, and what this means for cities like Singapore?

MAKING NOISE IN THE NANNY STATE
1 DECEMBER 2017

Time 730pm – 9pm
Venue The Substation
Speaker Mark Wong

Music has long been a vehicle for political resistance. Uncover significant examples in a close reading of Singapore's music history.