August 12, 2010

Singapore







I left Hawaii for Singapore to participate in the Night Festival, which is an annual cultural event put together by the National museum of Singapore and Theatreworks. I was there with Tyke Witnes as part of VietNam the World Tour, which is an ongoing traveling art project oganized by the Propeller-Group. Along with painting for the festival, I met up with my talented friend Jaba, who lives there and helped secure a good wall to paint at Post-Museum. This is that wall. I have to say it felt very strange painting a mural in Singapore, as it's a huge modern, international city, yet graffiti doesn't really exist there (seriously) and ANY kind of public art whatsoever is a rare sight. Singapore is infamous for its extreme penalties for things as minor as littering, they don't have jury trials, and one can get the death penalty for possessing just about any kind of drugs there (yet somehow alcohol is easily available at all hours?). As you can imagine, acquiring a permanent, visible public wall and painting it with spraypaint is not an easy task. Everything worked out just fine though, and with the support of the folks at Post-Museum and the Propeller group, Tyke and I were able to paint something nice for everyone. I based my piece on a photo I took of a man in Miami last year. He blended right in with the people in the area we painted, called "Little India", which happened to be one of the more vibrant parts of the city.
Thanks again to the Propeller-Group, Theatreworks, Jaba, Soph, Jennifer, Post-Museum, Tyke, and the National Museum of Singapore!
Next stop: Viet Nam

1 comment:

Minister of Mousetraps said...

Happy to see some 'dirt" (good dirt) in the antiseptic city/state.
Trip Allen, Singapore