Moving into ‘unconducive’ spaces: Local arts scene ventures into everyday neighbourhoods

SINGAPORE – Sandwiched between two rows of metal letter boxes at the void deck of a block of flats off Guillemard Road is a peculiar kind of bank. 

Like any bank, it has its own bank books, bank tellers, withdrawal and deposit forms. Money, however, is useless here.

Instead, residents in a block of flats in Dakota Cassia come to deposit their “boleh qualities” such as providing haircuts, nannying advice, know-how on caring for dogs, and all sorts of offers linked to food and cooking.  

In turn, they can “withdraw” qualities deposited by others. 

The idea of the Boleh Bank – boleh means “can” or “possible” in Malay – is theatre company Drama Box’s variation of Japanese artist Fukasawa Takafumi’s Tokuino Bank.

The asset bank is aimed at engaging residents and infusing the arts into their everyday lives, and is part of Art In The Commons: Dakota Cassia – an ongoing project started in 2022 by Drama Box and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM).

In the last decade, there have been growing efforts to take the arts beyond the pristine walls of galleries or museums and directly to people in neighbourhoods, arts groups told The Straits Times.

There is also now more interest in attending and volunteering for such projects, as people become more curious about goings-on in their own backyards.

Visual arts company OH! Open House has noticed a 20 per cent increase in volunteers in the last five years. About 80 per cent of its patrons in the last 2½ years have also been newcomers. 

Drama Box, a pioneer of socially engaged art here, has been working with the residents for nearly 10 years. In 2014, a cluster of

17 low-rise blocks in Dakota Crescent built in 1958 was slated for redevelopment,

and most of the 400 residents, mainly elderly folk, were moved to Dakota Cassia in 2016.

Before the big move, Drama Box worked with the residents to stage a production at the estate to help them make sense of losing their old homes.

IgnorLAND Of Its Loss featured residents’ homes and the unique Dakota Crescent architecture, with residents starring alongside professional actors. 

The effort – led by Drama Box’s co-artistic director Koh Hui Ling – has now pivoted its focus to those who live in Dakota Cassia, through surveys and conversations with people in the estate.

Koh said Boleh Bank was set up after conversations with residents revealed a wealth of life experiences and skills they had that younger people may not have. 

“They, too, desire some form of self-worth, are active and able to contribute,” she said, adding that she had sought to dispel the perception that the residents always needed help.

SAM, in a statement, said: “While heritage conservation was initially a focus, the project’s shift towards community and ageing-in-place reflects a broader understanding of preserving not just physical structures, but also community connections and well-being.”

Madam Koh Siew Lian, 78, was one resident who loaned the balcony of her old Dakota Crescent flat to Drama Box for the production before moving to Dakota Cassia. 

Speaking in Mandarin, she said: “It can be difficult to go out, and many of the elderly residents get lonely when staying at home, so it’s nice to have all these activities downstairs.”

And she was happy to offer her “boleh quality” of cooking mee siam because it made her happy to see people enjoying her food. 

Artistic director Koh said: “The works that we do are often looking at either people or spaces that are usually less known or not given the chance to be heard. 

“Theatre naturally gathers people. We use the power we have as theatremakers to gather people and allow these less-heard people and spaces to be heard.”

Co-artistic director Han Xuemei agreed, adding that the company has always believed in working not just with people who are well-versed in the arts. Instead, the arts should be a way to bridge gaps, translate and learn from people about their lived experiences.

“We intentionally want to go to places that are outside very formalised theatre or institutional spaces, spaces that are essentially not very conducive for these kinds of conversations,” she said. 

Drama Box is also working on documenting life on Pulau Ubin and exploring the future of sustainable living with the island’s residents, stakeholders and artists. 

Called Project 12, it is spearheaded by Drama Box founding artist Kok Heng Leun, who said he visited Ubin almost 60 times in the last year to study the way of life on the island – a process he calls “deep hanging out”. 

He said: “In all those trips, we got to know the residents, hear their stories, excavate more and more, and collect more data.

“From there, the company is able to ideate on what projects to develop and how to conduct productions.”

The project began life as ubin – an immersive walking tour on the island commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2022.

The current iteration continues Drama Box’s previous research and aims to put out an audio tour app that will incorporate art and storytelling to provide a better understanding of Ubin.

Meanwhile, OH! Open House has specialised in crafting art tours since 2009, with the aim of bringing art into Singapore’s heartland and oft-overlooked districts.

Its signature Art Walk fuses art and heritage, and brings visitors on guided tours through neighbourhoods such as Joo Chiat, Potong Pasir and Jalan Besar – often weaving in and out of homes, shops and alleys rarely ventured into. 

Interlaced through the trails are museum-worthy art installations at each stop that highlight stories about the neighbourhood, its community and history.

OH! board member and treasurer Christophe Mayol said: “We are looking at the history of Singapore, but through the stories of people who live in these neighbourhoods.

“We work with artists to create a different perspective or exciting, sensorial ways to tell these stories.”

OH!’s latest art walk ran from March 30 to May 12 and highlighted 12 art installations in the popular heritage site Kampong Gelam. 

With the theme of Palimpsest, OH!’s work aims to unearth the lesser-known and forgotten histories of the district. 

A palimpsest is a manuscript or document that has been rewritten over repeatedly, but still retains traces of its original form.

For instance, an installation titled Vines, by artist Chok Si Xuan, references the story of the demolished lodging hut Pondok Jawa, which once housed migrants from Java and served as a gathering place before it was demolished in 2003. 

Twenty years later,

a banyan tree that once stood tall beside it fell

and left behind kaleidoscopic remnants of brick columns, branches and roots. 

Chok’s work – using solar panels, water sprinklers and steel branches – draws parallels to the biology of the banyan tree. It mourns the loss of the giant tree, hut and community that were once there, but also touches on themes like adaptation and evolution. 

The walk also features multi-generation businesses, peeling back layers of rich family histories veiled by unassuming store fronts. 

Like Drama Box, OH! deputy director Lim Su Pei said the company is also anchored by Singapore’s “living heritage”, which includes people’s knowledge and memories.

She said: “There’s no one recording them and all these oral histories will disappear. 

“We try to capture this living heritage and transform it into more ways that people can enjoy and understand.”

Asked about the value of these site-specific projects, Ms Lim said that personal and emotional connections are evoked when an artwork is set in such authentically immersive environments, where visitors can meet the people and spaces the art is based on.

She added that examples of such projects staged in recent years include Drama Box’s Chinatown Crossings in 2019; The Theatre Practice’s Four Horse Road, which was first staged in 2018; and Bahri & Co’s Tampines Boy in 2023.

To stage such programmes and walks, OH! relies on about 200 volunteers, ranging in age from about 16 to 70. The volunteers, Ms Lim said, often join OH! seeking a deeper connection with the city.

Volunteer Cheng Zhi Xin, 17, said she joined OH! in March with her student-run extracurricular group, which wanted to learn more about Singapore’s cultural leadership and art industry.

She said: “These projects are meaningful, especially with urban redevelopment. Knowing our history makes me feel more connected to my family and our culture.” 

Teacher Judith Lam, 32, who has been volunteering with OH! since 2016, said such initiatives remind people to be less passive about the spaces they live in.  

She said: “In a world of change, and where identity is largely tied to the practical value of things, OH!’s narratives urge us to remember to treasure the intangible, priceless things.”

The National Arts Council and National Heritage Board said in a joint statement that they have each partnered with, and supported, various organisations in developing more arts-based community projects.

It added: “The arts and heritage play a vital role in defining what makes us Singaporean… connecting us as a society and making Singapore a more endearing home for us all.”

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, it was reported that The Theatre Practice’s Four Horse Road was first staged in 2020. This is incorrect. It should be 2018. We are sorry for the error.