It is actually a temporary art gallery, a 30 sq ft space that aims to inject a dose of art into a busy vein of foot traffic.

Currently, it houses a mural-in-progress featuring large white faces against a red background.

But the work, done by Singapore artist Zul Othman, has a limited shelf life - a few days after it is completed, he will paint over it and start on another mural.

Little surprise that the title of his set of works - there will be five murals over an eight-week period - is EpheMural Space.

The 28-year-old artist said: 'I play with the idea of window shopping. I'm the merchandise on display and also the salesman.'

The gallery, called Wheelock Art Gallery, shares the same temporary building as two showflats for Scotts Square.

This is a luxury 43-storey residential and retail development that developer Wheelock Properties is building on the site of the former Scotts Shopping Centre and The Ascott Singapore Serviced Residences.

The showflats and gallery will be demolished in 2009, but Wheelock's executive director, Ms Tan Bee Kim, 44, said that 'since the foot traffic is quite heavy here, rather than put something commercial, we thought we can support local artists'.

Curatorial fees and commissioning costs for the gallery add up to over $300,000.

The next two artists going on show after Zul are Singapore-based, Uganda-born artist Ketna Patel, who is covering the entire room with vinyl printed with her trademark colourful montages, and Tokyo-based Singaporean artist Lim Shing Ee, who is making a whimsical installation.

In the next two years, nine other exhibitions featuring Singapore artists and a handful from South-east Asian and Asian countries will also go on show.

Visitors can expect some dynamic, quirky art pieces in the middle of the shopping belt.

Curator Joanna Lee, who is the artistic director for this project, said: 'It's not your typical white cube gallery. It's almost fully glass-fronted and like a window display. We have to work a little harder to attract people - so it might be an activity or unusual installation, and not your conventional art forms.'