Venue: Singapore Art Museum
Duration: 16th October - 30th Nov 2008
*A major exhibition of paintings of Singapore’s public housing estates in watercolour and acrylic, together with a book and video presentations of significant places present and past, as well as interviews to capture the creative process.

CREATIVE CONCEPT

This is a project that I have planned to embark on for a few years now, but have not done so yet because of the cost and time needed. It will include a major exhibition of new paintings in watercolour as well as in a medium I use much less often – acrylic. In addition, my plan is to publish a book and a video record of significant places in Singapore’s public housing estates. The works will employ an innovative method of using paint to capture and evoke the past superimposed onto images of the present. It will use techniques I have not presented publicly in this way before. This will also be an innovation of heritage in capturing a vital slice of Singapore’s architectural and social history.

The subject matter will use actual archival materials of Singapore’s past to form a record of – and a tribute to – the HDB “heartlands”, where the soul and spirit of the country are grounded. This project will be a unique marrying of art and heritage, using a subject and techniques never tried before in this way. On exhibition are paintings done in the 60s , 70s, 80s and early 90s of areas that were not developed into Housing estates . Areas like Bukit Ho Swee , Kampong Tiong Bahru, Kampong Radin Mas , Telok Blangah , Potong Pasir , Toa Payoh and Ang Moh Kio are included in this exhibition.

Why this Exhibition ?

When I was a kid I dreamt of a proper home - a home which is safe from crumpling down , flooding during the monsoon and worst of all , fire !

However to my nightmare, I experienced all this during my childhood and teenage days . My old attap house at 238-6 Silat Road was beyond repair and there were too many leaks so much so that during raining days I had to get tins and pails to collect rain water leaking from the attap roof . On sunny days, it was fun as we can could see streaks of light forming patterns of egg shapes on the mud floor .

Being the only child living with my granny and mother was not easy life for me, as I had to bear it all - a target for happiness and anger !

Mum was afraid I might join bad company and turned into a gangster. which Silat Road was a notorious neigbourhood in those days, where triad secret societies like 08 , 24 . 32 , Siew Koon Tong , Seow Ho Heng etc built their strongholds. Gang fights were frequent.

Art was something that saved me from the gangs as they don’t didn’t bother me since I was, what they called in those days, “ a boy artist” , who knew only how to draw, and knew nuts about fighting not to say of killing ……..

The trouble was not over because there was the other concern from my mum - she was afraid that I had the growing inclination of joining the leftists organizations which taught fine art as well as literary arts . Personally I felt these should be the type of people I should mix around with since they were well cultured. I was not aware that these people were planning to change Singapore during the early break-away of the PAP factions forming the Barisan Socialist .

To live in such run down conditions made me aspire for a home which I would could call “home “. The attap colony is not so private a place as it was prone to some much dangers and farce although people tend to help each. At the same time they also border each other and poked their noses into other people’s business.

Soon the resettlement of the dwellers in Silat Road came in the early sixties and my mum and I ( my granny who was the only one who supported my painting flare flair passed away in 1962 ) moved to Gegak Selari Barat ( Bukit Merah Road) . Living in a one–room HDB flat was a great change for me. Although the dangers of worned–out roofs and frequent fire alarms became a thing of the past I found the place was much too small - smaller than my old house . This was a rented flat from the HDB and my mum kept telling me that one day I would own a much more spacious flat if I work hard - but not through painting !!!

There was more privacy here the neighbours were as friendly as before and the place well maintained . We had our own utility supply and even a lift to bring me to my fourth storey home. Although small, the experience of living in a concrete flat for the first time was fun and that started my life in an HDB .

Since my early days I painted areas around my attap house and also some areas around Singapore still in its rural state not knowing that one day these areas would become Singapore’s heartlands of HDB flats . One could never imagine that what appeared so real one day, would so quickly become a memory, with life only in the imagination – and in my paintings!

I started to be more aware of public housing and its significance. Very rarely had I come across artistic depictions about our public housing, even though some 80% of the population dwelled in such housing – many of whom were also artists. I felt that this way of living was unique to us, and had formed such a deep part of our collective consciousness, our shared history and our national identity and yet, there was no art that managed to express this experience.

I wondered if there was some kind of persistent stigma about living in public housing that made us reluctant to admit our residence, and if these were linked to ‘class’ or social divisions that made people feel uncomfortable. I started to think about putting up a show that would somehow address all these complex aspects of public housing.

After I moved into the Hougang Housing Estate ,the former Ponggol, I thought it was time to fulfill my dream of launching an exhibition of works depicting the HDB since I was so much a part of it. I had in fact spent some 30 years as a resident in public housing, and had witnessed first hand all the shifts that had occurred.

Due to my travels and annual solo exhibitions covering other themes this idea was shelved for many years till 2005 when I told myself it was now time to start working towards the HDB theme !

With the grant from the Cultural Medallion Grant , the encouragement from the NAC Visual Director ,Mr Lim Chwee Seng and the sponsorships of the HDB, Standard Chartered Bank and Singapore Art Museum I was able to put up this exhibition.

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