Second Graffiti Workshop at Outram Secondary School

This year’s batch of 25 students assigned to my 15-weeks graffiti workshop is not much different from the previous year. There is somehow the same mix of jokers and dreamers that look alike, but overall they are good kids. I must stress that the principal of this school is a progessive thinker and is supportive of the programme. She dropped by one lesson and told us how this year she does not even have to sell the idea like previously due to the success of last years programme which taught the kids about social issues and responsibility. It is one of the nicer school I’ve worked in and it is also the shooting location for a TV musical ‘Schoolhouse Rockz’ on Kids Central. If you watch closely, you’d probably see some of the damages done by my crew. This workshop is still ongoing so we’ll see if this years batch is better than last years.

We introduced stencil art module at the early stages of aerosol spray can technique.

Every student should be able to do a decent throw-up after lessons in graffiti techniques.

Graffiti mural for a school library

Unity Secondary School students reclaimed their library wall with a nicer mural over the previous one done during an earlier graffiti workshop session.

Dunman High School: Kaleidoscope 2008

It was a day set aside for exposing students of Dunman High to the diversity of art. Our graffiti programme was very well received with 120 students signed up. Participants were exposed to the history and practices of graffiti vis-a-vis, street art followed by a hands-on session in stencil art within a short period of two hours.

Most people think that graffiti is easy because they have seen it being done with ease. We knew better and were not expecting any fantastic work of art from these JC students but rather, our objective was to make students aware of the world around them and expose them to a new experience. In the end they would appreciate that graffiti art (writing) requires a lot of passion, strength and skills. It is from this experience that we filter the better students to develop their interest in hopefully future engagements.

The stadium turn out to be a great venue for teaching spray can techniques.

Graffiti workshop for school principals

The North Zone Arts Cafe for Principals 2008 was held at St. James Power Station, a hip night entertainment venue. It is an assembly of all school pricipals and superintendents from the northern sector of Singapore. There were numerous activities and including a graffiti workshop by yours truly.

I gave the participants a briefing on what is graffiti, traced its origin, up to current trends and showed the positive side within the context of art education that can benefit their students. The debate between art and crime was of special interest to these experts. I was initially concerned that I may be faced with a sceptical audience. Turned out they are keen to understand current trends and the likings of young people. It was an enjoyable and educational hands-on session though they did not have time to produce a great piece.

Graffiti at Haji Lane: News Coverage by NewPaper

Every now and then when the topic of graffiti in Singapore surfaces, I am called upon to comment. I am more than happy to do so because it is an opportunity to correct the misconception that Graffiti is typically related to vandalism.

In the The New Paper article today, I was quoted as:

Local artist and art educator Kamal Dollah said young graffiti artists, unaware of the harsh penalties, ‘tag’ walls to establish themselves.

He believes aspiring artists should look at other avenues to hone their skills instead of defacing public property.

His advice: ‘Spray at the skate park, improve your skills on paper, or display your work on websites such as Deviantart instead of putting it up on the street.’

I would have added the word ‘illegally’ on that last sentence. I suppose I was misquoted by the press. I have no apologies for not ‘keeping it real’ - Just keeping it alive.

Over the months, this blog has archived some interesting coverage on the issues which surrounded the question of legality and artistic merits of graffiti. For the sake of those doing research on graffiti and looking for resources on the topic, I have compiled below the links to my other interviews:

Lianhe Zaobao on 9th December 2007

Straits Times Life on 21st June 2007

Today on 12th June 2007

Chinese Newspaper featured my graffiti education programme

Lianhe Zaobao ran an article about graffiti in Singapore on 9th December 2007 which featured my effort at educating youth towards the positive side of graffiti and how I got started. They also interviewed other writers who has had a brush with the Singapore law. The vodcast of my interview (in English) is on their news portal www.omy.sg.

Click here to see the full newspaper article (in Mandarin).
Online version of the article with vodcast link here.

One World: Themed Graffiti at ACS International

Anglo Chinese School (International) had us conducting a graffiti workshop cum competition with the theme ‘One World’. The theme was chosen by the school to reflect the multi-nationality of its students. This workshop introduces the entire level of secondary two students (134 attended) to the art of graffiti. It is also a competition to identify the best crew that gets to work on several designated walls in the school.

The feedback received is most gratifying.

“Thank you for holding such an engaging and fun-filling workshop for the students. They have enjoyed themselves tremendously and from the feedback gathered through the evaluation forms, they have indicated very positively that the workshop was a success. Most importantly, they were able to point otut the difference between Vandalism and Graffiti art. I think most of them are able to appreciate Graffiti art better. It is not something that is done randomly to be called art. Other students from the higher levels even lamented that why they did not get to do Graffiti art.”

Ms. Chang Hung Tho, Art Teacher

Graffiti artist/ instructors: Kamal Dollah, Dino Hafian, The Killer Gerbil, Antz, Kelvin Tan, Glenn Koh, and Rosman Mohd Sahid.

Graffiti Wall at Outram Secondary School

Outram Secondary school has a legal graffiti wall created by 25 secondary-two students for their ‘Art Alive’ programme. The wall located at the 5th floor atrium was ‘bombed’ and ‘buffed’ repeatedly for 14 weeks and this is the finale. It really brightens up the school. The principal, Mdm Choy Wai Yin, the school staff and other students are very supportive of the programme.

Those students in this programme, they’re nice kids and I really enjoyed working with them for the entire semester. So much so, The Killer Gerbil and I left behind a little reminder of our presence in the school. We also got a nice testimonial:

“Students really enjoyed the course. It was good that values were imparted to the students as well on top of the curriculum. The trip to Youth Park gave students a good experience and was an eye-opener to some of them. They have learned that graffiti is not just a form of vandalism but can be a form of art as well.”

Ms. Chan Hean Mei, Teacher

Click here to view the entire wall and earlier postings of their excursion to *scape Skate Park and artist demo session.

Students spraying graffiti at *scape skate park

This may seem odd if you were there. I had a bus load of students in school uniforms running wild in the blistering heat of noon armed with spray cans. The bizarre scene took place at the skate park next to Sommerset MRT station. They were gone before anyone had a chance to call the police… well actually they complained of thirst and scurried over to the nearest coffee shop. This was part of Outram Secondary School’s innovative 14-weeks ‘Arts Alive’ programme where I am conducting the graffiti workshop. This educational excursion was to expose the students to the works of other writers active in the scene and to get them acquainted with the concept of legal walls.

Graffiti for National Education: NEtwork Conference 2007

Patriotism through graffiti? An unconventional approach indeed for promoting Singapore’s national identity. Apparently some schools that we worked with has chosen National Education (NE) as the theme for their graffiti mural workshop. Since the sudents did it with a lot of enthusiasm for graffiti, the results were remarkable. This caught the interest of NEXUS - a government agency that facilitates National Education and we were invited to present our extraordinary approach at their NEtwork Conference 2007 which was attended by more than 850 NE facilitators (mostly teachers). We were happy to share the experience with many participants that visited our booth as most of them could now see the positive side of graffiti as an art form that could be used constructively.

Dino Hafian at our DIY booth completed with bricked wall decor and our new mascot character on our overall suit.

Minister Of State, RADM Lui Tuck Yew, Perm Sec (Defence) and Perm Sec (PMO) and other VIPs being briefed about our unique graffiti programme.

Answers to concerns by teachers about using graffiti and street art in a positive way.

Quoted from the Ministry of Educations’s micro news site for parents with features from schools and teachers, www.schoolbag.sg on Friday, September 14, 2007:

“Even graffiti art was par for the course. Mohamed Kamal Bin Dollah, a graffiti artist and part-time lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts as well as founder of Bob Associates, took part in the accompanying exhibition, explaining how he teaches students graffiti art and helps them to create wall murals in their schools based on NE-related themes - graffiti-style, but with the school’s stamp of approval, of course. In the process, he also teaches “art and crime”, educating students on the difference between art and vandalism, and cites the 1994 story of the caning of Michael Fay, whom many students today are not aware of. “