Arts Picks: Keong Saik audio tour, Ho Rui An’s solo show and Starch’s food-themed art show
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Charmaine Leung, author of 17A Keong Saik Road, narrates the audio tour based on her book.
PHOTO: NICHOLAS YEO
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Untold Stories Of Singapore’s Red-Light District – Keong Saik Road
In uniquely Singaporean fashion, this self-guided audio tour of Chinatown’s Keong Saik Road begins at Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple and an anecdote from author Charmaine Leung on growing up watching Thaipusam celebrations at this landmark.
Readers will know Leung as the author of 17A Keong Saik Road, her memoir of her childhood in the neighbourhood as the daughter of a brothel keeper, published by Ethos Books in 2017. Leung provides the voiceover of the audio tour, aided by some short dialogues in Cantonese and sound design that does some aural scene setting.
The tour is a charming, highly condensed version of the book and can be done in about 40 minutes at a leisurely amble.
Keong Saik Road today is the haunt of slick boutique hotels and upscale eateries, so it takes a bit of imagination to recreate in your mind’s eye the neighbourhood mamak shop, Tong Ah Eating House and seething street life, with wayang and the aforementioned Thaipusam festival, as well as the popular brothels that once enlivened this quarter.
The only building that is unchanged is the Cundhi Gong Temple, where young women from China used to visit to take vows of celibacy as majie, the domestic workers familiar in their distinctive black-and-white samfoo outfits.
The tour is aided by the fact that Keong Saik Road is relatively short and it is easy to follow the audio directions as they instruct the listener on detours into Jiak Chuan and Teck Lim Roads, as well as Duxton Plain Park.
You will need to download the Cinewav app to access the tour after buying a ticket.
Where: Keong Saik Road
MRT: Outram
When: Any time
Admission: $25
Info: str.sg/ry4J
Post-Production Fever
24 Cinematic Points Of View Of A Factory Gate In China will be part of artist Ho Rui An’s new solo show, Post-Production Fever.
PHOTO: HO RUI AN
This is 2022 Young Artist Award recipient Ho Rui An’s first solo show in Singapore after overseas solo shows in countries including Austria and Canada.
As befits the name, Ho explores the concept of post-production in this show which juxtaposes his works – both old and new – with a selection of archival materials collated by curators Zian Chen and Clara Che Wei Peh as part of the research for the exhibition.
24 Cinematic Points Of View Of A Factory Gate In China, which premiered at the 2023 Singapore International Film Festival, will be presented as a video installation alongside archival materials about Chinese industrial workers which Ho gathered as research in China.
A new mixed-media installation models an oil executive’s office decorated in a botanical theme in a commentary that contrasts Singapore’s Garden City appellation with its key position in the international oil industry.
Where: ArtSpace@Helutrans, 01-05 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road aplusart.asia
MRT: Tanjong Pagar
When: July 13 to Aug 11, 1 to 7pm, Wednesdays to Fridays; 11am to 7pm, Saturdays and Sundays
Admission: Free
Info:
Sensory Consumptions: A Metaphorical Feast
Nazerul Khairy Ben-Dzulkefli’s When Can We Eat Together Again, 2024, is on show at Starch.
PHOTO: NAZERUL KHAIRY BEN-DZULKEFLI
It is no surprise that food-obsessed Singaporeans would bring that topic into the art gallery. Artist-run space Starch’s ongoing exhibition features works by five South-east Asian artists who engage with food as subject, as metaphor and as medium.
There is an engaging range of work. Lizzie Wee’s Single Living Starter Pack is a witty statement on adulting anxieties transplanted onto familiar food items such as a peanut butter bottle.
Subashri Sankarasubramanian’s Eat My Smelly Flower plays with multiple layers of perception and mimicry. Despite the title, the viewer cannot smell the flowers – orchids created with onion skins, which are captured in a photographic image.
Crockery comes in for examination in Perth-based Malay artist Nazerul Khairy Ben-Dzulkefli’s When Can We Eat Together Again, which incorporates ceramic bowls with stories about halal eating.
The show also includes work by Edmund Kerk and Ha Chau Bao Nhi.
Where: Starch, 02-11, 81 Tagore Lane starch.sg
MRT: Lentor
When: Till July 28, noon to 7pm, Thursdays to Sundays; by appointment, Mondays to Wednesdays
Admission: Free
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