From sight to hearing, and now taste—our #GoodReviewCircle writer Alfonse Chiu serves up yet another inquisitive, policy-driven piece on the sensorial experience of navigating our public spaces, this time by dissecting the fall and rise of our divine national icon: the Singaporean Hawker.
Long live the hawker.
Read MoreNg Yi-Sheng talks of harrowing times. From the Coronavirus to SARS to AIDS, from the personal to the societal, he remembers states of fear and—on occasion, of solidarity and looking after for one’s own. Finally, offering a clarion call to empathy and vitality, he reminds us to remember to live, with heart and art—even amidst face masks and kiasu-ness.
Read MoreIn her fifth piece for GRC, Akanksha Raja reviews an entirely immersive and occasionally discombobulating experience, Secretive Thing 215, by role-playing theatre company Lemon & Koko. Like in the game itself, one is transported to a space of simultaneous choice and control, where suspension of belief happens only insofar as the irony of allowing yourself to be manipulated; perhaps a metaphor or just a game, the experience posits how space and environmental experiments can induce behaviours and anxieties…Love is Blind, anyone?
Read MoreFor her fourth GRC piece, Akanksha Raja reviews the Lorongs of Wisdom by Geylang Adventures, which is part of the Coordinates Projects series of Singapore Biennale. The projects facilitate various modes of direct connection and exchange with specific communities and spaces.
Read MoreThrough a book review of Jane Jacobs’ most known work, Ng Yi-Sheng delves into the approaches and ideas of urban planning and draws parallels to the urban landscape of Singapore.
Read MoreFor her third GRC piece, Akanksha Raja reviews the 12th edition of Urban Ventures, a placemaking initiative by urban design studio LOPELAB, held on Keong Saik Road. In experiencing the artworks at the event in relation to its street, and the undeniable gentrification of these “heritage” neighbourhoods, she asks what becomes of a place, and what it means to “make” it?
Read MoreIn his second GRC piece, Alfonse Chiu deconstructs performativity—of an ostensibly passionate public, and the reality of regulations that corral the humble street performer. Tracing the ethos of street performance alongside the state’s designs on a cultural economy, Alfonse contextures an aural fabric of what is creatively permissible and marketable in this global arts city.
Read MoreIn his second piece for GRC, Ng Yi-Sheng goes shopping. Analysing our stratified relationships with malls—whether loved or reviled, avoided or embraced so you can dry your sweat in sub-zero-air-con, he puts this questionable symbol of the Singaporean public on display.
Read MoreIn her third piece for GRC, Reena Devi plumbs the depths of human existence through a seemingly trendy tendency towards the deeply spiritual, and the sometimes downright shamanistic. Beginning with the hermetic paintings of Hilma Af Klint (and her hugely attended retrospective), as well as other contemporary artists who dabble in mystical practice, Reena broadens this generation’s and its artists’ call to the spiritual, into a contemporary question germane to all.
Read MoreIn her second piece, GRC writer Akanksha Raja discusses the Singapore Climate Rally—a decidedly non-protest held last month in Hong Lim Park—to address this generation’s approach to the larger, geopolitical conversation on climate crisis, as well as the ambivalent responses from our local public. Positing notions of what advocacy and activism could mean in a place like this, she asks where the public and pragmatic coincide.
Read MoreIn his second GRC piece, Sharaad Kuttan reviews “Merdeka / 獨立 /சுதந்திரம்”, WILD RICE's recent play by Alfian Sa’at and Neo Hai Bin. Sharaad traces our artistic inclination to question our colonial past back to an earlier intervention by the late Lee Wen—AIM (Artists Investigating Monuments), a performance piece staged in 2000.
Read MoreIn her second GRC piece, Reena Devi comments on the practice of London-based multi-disciplinary research group Forensic Architecture and explores the shifting parameters of a seemingly insular art world, and the power of art (and revolutionary praxis) to incite change.
Read MoreFor his first GRC piece, Ng Yi-Sheng unearths the history and power subsoil of our very own Padang—from its early colonial beginnings to the steroidal spectacle catchment area that it is today. Making comparison to Persian and Indonesian models of public squares to project a future for assembly.
Read MoreIn his inaugural piece for GRC, Alfonse Chiu observes public space, and the public’s place within—or without it. Drawing lines of sight between the visible and permissible, the democratised street view and the panoptic eye, to map attitudes towards the ostensibly public and subtly private.
Read MoreConcerned Citizen, Kristian responds to the first few weeks of lecture sessions with a piece, Hands.
Read MoreConcerned Citizen, Mysara reflects upon her first two weeks of lectures with various guests speakers at the Concerned Citizens Programme.
Read MoreThrough her review of the exhibition Chinternet Ugly, Reena Devi delves into the layers and domains of the seemingly endless space known as the Internet. Exploring how the artists navigate and negotiate contemporary life in relation to the complexities of China’s digital realm, she projects artistic possibilities in a future perfect Singapore.
Read MoreFor her first GRC piece, Akanksha Raja explores Hidden People, Hidden Spaces, an experiential journey into the spaces of disabled communities, and delves into the struggles faced by neuroatypical individuals—even when navigating places they call home. She speaks with Debra Lam, co-founder of event organiser Society Staples, a social enterprise focusing on inclusive futures for PWD (Persons with Disabilities).
Read MoreFor his first GRC piece, Sharaad Kuttan muses on the circumstance for conversation—through his work, political context, and life—and how its curation sets the scene for the forum of the public. In a world devoid long of objective truth, Sharaad posits how one—individual or institution, alike—might bridge the yawning distances between us by considering the hows and whys of talking to each other.
Read MoreSince I joined The Substation as Artistic Director in October 2015, there has been significant change. It’s created some confusion and anxiety about The Substation that many of us have come to know and love. After 25 years, we’re proud to say we are a national institution, a definitive part of Singapore’s history. In all those years, our city and culture has changed drastically.
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