{"transform":"v4","header":{"headline":"‘I have a connection with all that I painted’","bg":"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5)","class":"red","style":{"--headline-color":"red"},"deck":["One brush stroke at a time, over 18 months. Local visual artist Yip Yew Chong painstakingly captures his memories of old Singapore in a painting spanning 60m long. Here is a sneak peek of the artwork, which will be exhibited later this year."],"byline":"BY [ANTON DZEVIATAU](https://www.straitstimes.com/authors/anton-dzeviatau), [STEPHANIE YEOW](https://www.straitstimes.com/authors/stephanie-yeow) AND [YIP YEW CHONG](https://yipyc.com/) | PUBLISHED: MARCH 29, 2023","datetime":"2023-03-29T00:00:00+0800"},"menu":[{"name":"Main","href":"/","selected":"yes","name-":"Chapter 1","href-":"#chapter-1","selected-":"no"},{"name":"Video","href":"banner-video","selected":"no"},{"name":"Image","href":"banner-image","selected":"no"},{"name":"No banner","href":"banner-empty","selected":"no"},{"name":"No menu","href":"no-menu","selected":"no"}],"credits":{"producedby":["Anton Dzeviatau","Jason Quah","Hannah Ong","Ng Keng Gene","Rodolfo Pazos","Ryan Chiong","Stephanie Yeow"]},"relatedarticles":{"articles":[]},"fbcomment":{},"lang":"en","title":"“I have a connection with all that I painted” | The Straits Times","meta":[{"content":"“I have a connection with all that I painted”","name":"description","Content":"Across 27 canvas panels, Singaporean visual artist Yip Yew Chong’s latest work captures his memory of everyday Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s, from a bustling Change Alley in Raffles Place to an army bunk in Pulau Tekong’s Basic Military Training Camp 1."},{"content":"Singapore news","property":"article:section"},{"content":"“I have a connection with all that I painted”","property":"og:title"},{"content":"Across 27 canvas panels, Singaporean visual artist Yip Yew Chong’s latest work captures his memory of everyday Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s, from a bustling Change Alley in Raffles Place to an army bunk in Pulau Tekong’s Basic Military Training Camp 1.","property":"og:description"},{"content":"https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/assets/facebook_images/2023/03/yip-yew-chong-60m-artwork/yip-yew-chong-60m-artwork.jpg","property":"og:image"},{"content":"https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/2023/03/yip-yew-chong-60m-artwork/index.html","property":"og:url"},{"content":"SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE HISTORY, SINGAPORE HERITAGE, SINGAPORE ART, VISUAL ARTS, ARTISTS, INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS","property":"article:tag"},{"content":"SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE HISTORY, SINGAPORE HERITAGE, SINGAPORE ART, VISUAL ARTS, ARTISTS, INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS","name":"news_keywords"},{"content":"I have a connection with all that I painted","name":"twitter:title"},{"content":"One brush stroke at a time, over 18 months. Local visual artist Yip Yew Chong captures his memories of old Singapore in a painting spanning 60m long. Here is a sneak peek of the artwork, which will be exhibited later this year. via @straits_times https://str.sg/artwork","name":"twitter:description"},{"content":"https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/assets/facebook_images/2023/03/yip-yew-chong-60m-artwork/yip-yew-chong-60m-artwork.jpg","name":"twitter:image"},{"content":"summary_large_image","name":"twitter:card"}],"sections":[{"class":null,"components":[{"type":"scrolly","value":"","mode":"mycustomscrolly","p":["

At the start of 2023, Yip completed his epic acrylic artwork, comprising 27 panels measuring 2.2m x 1.1m each. On them, he depicted 27 prominent scenes of Singapore in the 1970s and 80s.

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Adjacent panels flow into each other. Put together, they form a long, continuous strip about 60 metres long.

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We invite you to take a stroll through old Singapore – guided by the artist himself – and discover interesting details about life in the years that have gone by.

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1980s: Beside Woodlands Checkpoint is Kampong Lorong Fatimah, a coastal village where Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) trains rumble past day and night. The villagers – many KTM staff – have to pass the checkpoint to get home, and always have their identification documents on hand.

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1980s: One platoon defends the grounds while another attacks, during a military exercise on the long ridge of Marsiling’s hills. A looming storm threatens to end the exercise – much to the trainees’ delight. The ridge remains alongside Marsiling new town and the Seletar Expressway today.

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1980s: A hilltop village in the Sembawang-Nee Soon area overlooks the Sembwang shipyard and river prawn farms in Khatib – an unforgettable scene lost in time. Smells of farm produce, sights of village life, the whirring swoosh of RSAF Super Puma blades and the warm, swirling mist from a hot spring overwhelm the senses.

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1980s: Bukit Timah Hill – Singapore’s tallest – is rich in biodiversity. New buildings and roads were constructed using granite from quarries surrounding the hill, which ceased operations in the early 1990s. Rainwater trapped in disused quarries have since turned them into ponds and lakes.

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The legendary Bukit Timah “monkey man” looks like a monkey, is 2m tall and bipedal. It was apparently spotted in many accounts, including by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

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1980s: Thomson Road is among Singapore’s oldest North-South trunk roads. The area used to house the Police Academy and Singapore’s main TV and radio broadcaster. A drama starring Xiang Yun and Huang Wenyong is being filmed, while the Pek San Teng cemetery hills – where Bishan is today – can be seen in the distance.

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1980s: I have childhood memories of school excursions to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens, bird park and science centre in Jurong. As a young man, I was trained in Safti camp and attended school at Nanyang Technological University. The long bus rides, and later, journeys on the newly-opened MRT line, were especially memorable.

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1970s: At Haw Par Villa – a colourful, educational and scary theme park by the sea – visitors mill around, fascinated by thousands of statues. But in the park’s 10 Courts of Hell, children are literally scared as hell. Though the park’s popularity has waned, it remains a globally unique heritage site.

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1980s: Pulau Seking is one of over 80 islands in Singapore’s waters. Many of the island’s inhabitants – the Orang Selat – were fishermen and workers at Pulau Bukom’s oil refineries. The islanders were relocated in 1994, before Pulau Seking was merged with Pulau Semakau to form an offshore landfill.

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1980s: An aerial view of Collyer Quay and Raffles Place, with a floral clock in the open square. In Change Alley, money changers and souvenir shops tout their services and goods – a sight no longer familiar, given the area’s constant and rapid change. Can you spot the buildings that remain today?

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1980s: Blue and white wooden blinds adorn some balconies in Tiong Bahru, while other windows are covered with glass, capturing the area’s modernisation over time. At the famous “bird corner” – closed in 2003 – birds sing loudly, attracting visitors from all over the world.

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1970s: I painted this last scene in January 2023, depicting an everyday, bustling scene of Kreta Ayer – where I grew up. In the kitchen, residents wash and cook, as those in the streets keep busy with trade and errands. Meanwhile, a pugilist and a lion dancer practise on a clan association’s roof.

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1970s: I started my 60m-long work with this panel in August 2021, which captures an enchanting night scene in Kreta Ayer, where my family lived on the second floor of a shophouse. As the main tenant, we had the luxury of windows, through which we caught street opera performances. Our sub-tenants were deeper in the building, in stuffier cubicles.

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Where there are entertainment performances, we cannot miss the kacang puteh (nuts) seller. Paper cones are used to pack the nuts.

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1970s: As a child, I was awoken by pungent smells from the Singapore River as my school bus passed it by. Each morning, I saw the river teeming with boats, cranes and workers. Nearby, skyscrapers sprouted, each growing taller by the day. The last phase of the river’s clean-up started in 1984 – changing this scene forever.

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1970s: Near a corner of the sea-facing Padang is the popular Satay Club, a hawker centre where diners can witness traditional boat races. Around the Padang is a stately assemblage of civic buildings – joined in 1972 by the Merlion, which guards the Singapore River’s mouth. Can you spot Members of Parliament – including Mr Lee Kuan Yew – in the chamber of the former Parliament House?

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1980s: I spent countless weekends in the Bras Basah area, known as the world of books. There was the iconic National Library, the MPH bookstore, and a row of bookshops that lined Bras Basah Road. Trips to the area often ended with a bowl of ice kacang – irresistible to bees – at a red-roofed canteen outside the old National Library.

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1980s: I loved Orchard Road as a teenager – it was hip, funky and trendy. The wide boulevards and cool shopping centre atriums were great places to people-watch. There were buskers, breakdancers, “McDonald’s kids”, lost tourists, fervent shoppers and dating couples, and I loved to be among them all.

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1980s: Singapore’s multiculturalism and diversity is captured in Serangoon Road, with various places of worship seen here. The area is not monoethnic, despite being named “Little India” in the 1980s for tourism promotion purposes. Colourful shops that spill onto the road make the place pulsate with energy all night long.

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1970s: As the fourth inland road parallel to the historical seafront, Waterloo Street is also known as “Fourth Street”. The original Guanyin, Sri Krishnan and Central Sikh temples are shown here – a great example of a multicultural Singaporean street. A night soil collection centre is depicted, and so is Sungei Road Thieves’ Market.

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1970s: Sultan Mosque’s domes and minarets dominate Kampong Glam’s skyline. Around the mosque, streets are lined with various cottage industry specialists, such as blacksmiths, coppersmiths and tombstone carvers, as well as textile, basket and diamond traders. Hajj agencies and boarding houses serve pilgrims en route to Mecca.

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1970s: Farmlands stretch from Potong Pasir to Hougang, and Serangoon River in the north. The farms also surround Paya Lebar Airport, from which a supersonic Concorde takes off. It rattles the zinc roofs on land, makes the chickens and dogs run wild, while the children drop everything to watch it fly by.

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1980s: Geylang Serai residents watch Malaysia Cup football, some gathered in flats with colour TVs – these scenes evoke the old kampung spirit. In a coffee shop, the cheering drowns out the rain. But in nearby Lorong 24, the mood is different – dim red lights make for a sleazy and mysterious scene.

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1980s: At the void deck of a block of flats, a funeral is about to begin, as a carpark warden issues a fine. Nearby, cleaners are clearing the refuse chute, while various activities take place in a neighbouring school – classes, photo-taking and teeth-brushing. At a playground and community centre, children are having fun.

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1980s: Most Singaporeans live in HDB flats, and blocks built in the early days have long corridors, where laundry is hung, doors are decorated and footwear is lined – a pair of army boots hints that a national serviceman lives here. Residents are spoilt for food choices at a hawker centre.

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The traditional “traffic light cakes” with red, green and amber jellies and thick butter are always distributed at weddings and baby-first-month celebrations.

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1980s: This HDB town centre is inspired by those built in the 1970s and 1980s, in towns such as Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio. Often, a fountain is the focal point, accompanied by supermarkets, cinemas, a bus interchange and a sports complex. Here, heartland-dwellers shop, eat, play and live.

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1970s: Katong’s seafront is altered as land reclamation takes over the east coast area, making seaside bungalows “retreat” inland. Conveyor belts carry soil quarried from Bedok hills and Tanah Merah’s red cliffs to the coast. Bedok Reservoir emerges from a gaping hole left behind, with Marine Parade soon to rise on reclaimed land.

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1970s: Amid a storm, a rain-soaked Changi Village exudes an air of mystery. The ghosts of the landmark Changi Tree, Changi Hospital, and the Changi creek bridge tell spooky stories. Fret not – the wind and waves will carry all fears away.

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1980s: In my junior college days, I had fun camping, hiking and canoeing in the waters off Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong. Subsequently, I did my national service basic military training at Pulau Tekong Camp 1 in 1987. I feared “stand by bed” (bunk inspections) the most, was most worn out by the standard obstacle course, and dreaded the book-in rides on the RPL (Ramp Powered Lighter).

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