Teck Whye Secondary Assembly Graffiti Talk

“The kids like the demonstration alot. They were in “oohs and aahs” about the graffiti piece. Many visited the Art Room to take a look at the piece as it left a deep impression on them. On the whole it has been an informative session with the kids, a million thanks for coming to our school” Ms Siti Shahira, Art Teacher, Teck Whye Secondary School

Street Art in Singapore

by Mark Holsworth,
The Melbourne Art and Culture Critic.
Republished with permission from http://melbourneartcritic.wordpress.com

Street art in Singapore, government funded stencil art classes for Singaporean high school and junior college students, a skate park with legal graffiti walls, are we talking about the same SE Asian city state with a reputation for law and order? Street art is an international art movement but would it be true to assume that Singapore does not readily embrace it. I was curious and so I started to exchange emails with Kamal Dollah, a Singaporean artist and art educator who teaches graffiti and blogs about it: Kamal Dollah’s Art Journal. Here is a dialogue that I’ve extracted from our emails that we intend to publish on both our blogs.

Kamal: It sounds crazy but I got my government backing to teach kids graffiti. My friends in USA could not belief that I got away with this. When I wrote this graffiti programme for the schools in 2004, I did not expect it to be approved for funding as its never been done before anywhere. My view is, you can bore these kids with Picasso and Rembrandts or you could get their attention and still teach them about colours, shape, form, calligraphy and some soft skills like respect and responsibility. Writers have ethics too and somehow that sinks into their head better than any civic class.

Mark: I know that Singapore is serious about vandalism and I didn’t see any graffiti last time I was there. So I thought if there is legal work going on then Singapore is proof that the extreme anti-graffiti lobby are wrong when they say that legal aerosol work encourages tagging and other illegal graffiti. Is this true?

Kamal: Well the anti-graffiti lobby may be right. The situation is different here because this is a high maintenance place. Graffiti get removed very fast. I believe you are familiar with the ‘broken-window theory’. There will always be un-established writers, punks and anti-establishments that will do illegal work.

Mark: Where is the legal street art mostly seen by the public in Singapore?

Kamal: Legal walls are provided by a government agency that oversees youth activity. You can spray anywhere in the skate park located in Orchard Road.

Mark: Do you mean that the skate park on Orchard Road is open to anyone to spray, go down and add your stencil when you finish it, or is there an application process? Has it ended up a mess or has a code of conduct emerged?

Kamal: The skate park in Orchard Road and the Youth *scape park is open to anyone to tag or bomb. No permit or application necessary. They also hold exhibitions and concerts for youth. Street artist hang out there mostly and learn from each other. Visiting writers from abroad has also done their pieces there.

Believe it, these walls are not messed up with vulgarities but beautiful pieces. This happens when artists are serious enough to own their space.

Mark: In Australia and America, there are little shops selling street style clothing, t-shirts, stickers, skateboards, magazines etc. with poster racks of street artist prints, paintings hanging above the cloths racks or a tiny gallery out the back. Does Singapore does have any of this commercial side of street art?

Kamal: There is a concentration of boutique shops specialising in street wear and that area is bombed pretty bad. Its called Haji Lane. Its a small lane with small shops with reasonable rent. These businesses come and go. I suppose its the same in every city as we are a connected global village. Yes there are young entrepreneurs here that have tried to commercialise the craft. There is always someone pushing idea for a new magazine, crew, label etc.

Mark: Have any art galleries started to regularly show street art? The only two Singapore galleries that I’ve visited are Plastic Kinetic Worms and the Singapore Art Museum.

Kamal: Plastic Kinetic Worms just closed last year I think. They were pushing the envelopes of contemporary art when they existed but it is not right to say they promoted street art, I doubt they even noticed what happened on the street. Graffiti was not on the radar of high art even though occasional block busters like Keith Haring and Basquiat emerged from the streets in the 80s, recently Banksy and most recently Shepard Fairey (Obey). Art institutions rarely could see the diamond from the rocks. There are occasional exceptions like when the Singapore Art Museum invited eleven writers to bomb their wall in 2006 in conjunction with an exhibition on street art but that wall only lasted two weeks as some conservatives wanted it cleaned prior to the IMF and World bank meeting in town. We also have a supportive National Arts Council. They do recognise that youth like street art and fund some of these artists as long as they prove artistic merit. We do have a healthy exposure to the arts here. I hope that clears any assumption that we are oppressed citizens of a police state. Maybe not you, but that’s what most foreigners (even some locals) like to think.

Mark: In Australia the contradictions between the illegality graffiti and its image of cool urban youth are confusing. It would be good not to have to deal with the confusion and contradiction and just be able to enjoy the images.

Kamal: In Singapore there is no contradiction between graffiti and graffiti graphics as like I said, the city is clean and people generally are not victimised by it. The concept of graffiti is not frowned upon here because it is not so much viewed as vandalism as the public don’t suffer from it and graffiti is associated with youthful trend and art. That makes graffiti appear cool and established artist get engaged for gigs at promotions and public events. Most of the event are organised by government agencies to attract youth. Most writers know of the harsh penalty for vandalism under the Singapore law and how efficient law enforcement is, so it is really pointless to ‘get-real’ when there are legal alternatives. My observation, Singapore is different from other SE Asian countries as we are a small city. The graffiti impact here is very well contained.

Banner at the Skatepark near Sommerset MRT in Orchard Road – by the National Youth Council.

“ARTS FOR LIFE 2009″ Graffiti Art Workshop at Anderson Junior College

We were invited again for the third time to conduct another graffiti workshop at Anderson Junior College. Every year they have an arts appreciation event for the students to explore the various art forms that had been organized for them. This year 60 students sign up for our graffiti workshop. Two groups were split over two days and had to take on a 30 ft wall. It was very challenging for the students as they not only had to complete the 30 ft wall but they had to do it under the hot sun as well. The students take turn to rest at a nearby shelter at the same time completing the wall.

Batik Demonstration at the Singapore Art Museum

We were invited by our association, APAD (Association of Artists of Various Resources), to conduct a batik demonstration at the Singapore Art Museum as part of their weekly arts programme. The session introduces the audience on batik painting and how it is done by using the tjanting and hot wax.

Batik Painting Course 2009: 5th Intake

This part-time art enrichment course runs over 8 evening sessions. It covers basic to intermediate skills in batik painting techniques. If you are keen to sign up for the programme, please enquire with Nafa’s continuing education department by calling 6512 4214 / 6512 4216.

Punggol Primary for Singapore Youth Festival

Cartoon Workshop @ Singapore Sports School

 

 

 

CHIJ Toa Payoh Stencil Graffiti for “Celebrate Learning @ IJ”

CHIJ Toa Payoh(Sec) organizes “Celebrate Learning @ IJ” for its cluster. Various schools from its cluster were invited to participate in this workshop. There were various workshops going on, on that day ranging from visual arts, literary and music. We were grateful and overwhelmed with the response received by the students and teachers as they were given an insight in Graffiti Art. A big thank you to Mr Sam Lim, Art Teacher, for having us on that day.

Our instructor, Mr Luthfi demonstrating the effects of stencil art.

A teacher participating in the workshop.

Photo montage of chij toapayoh stencil graffiti workshop.

Cartoon Workshop @ITE Bishan

ITE Bishan conducted a cartoon workshop for its students at the school library. Ms Suselarani, Teacher, engaged us to encourage the students to use the facilities and resources as part of the school library activities weekly session. It was good that she held it there as there were a lot of references to guide the students during the workshop.

Characters the students came up with during the workshop.

The students creating their own comic strip.