A Demolition Party at Singaporean design hub The Milll photo courtesy of Charles Osawa, 2015
In Singapore’s district of Tanjong Pagar, cranes and cement trucks have taken over the area where the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre used to be. Once home to local art groups and cultivated events, the historic facility has remained marked with a red sign reading "Changing the Landscape of Cecil Street" despite its closure in 2013. On this small island, a perpetual flow of urban development, where old buildings are replaced with new buildings soon-to-be demolished, has given birth to a movement: demolition art.
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The act of transforming foreclosed properties into artistic spaces before bulldozers arrive has become something of a trend in the Southeast Asian country. Lasting anywhere between a weekend and a month, demolition art sees the gutted walls of buildings occupied with paintings, installations, and performances, making something new in an area set for change. Similar to street art, the act of creating temporary pieces—also referred to as ephemeral art—partners well with Singapore’s booming economy.“Singapore is an extremely fast paced city,” Spencer Chen, a member of the Singapore-based art collective WeJungle, tells The Creators Project. “Ahuge number construction projects take place all the time.”For more on Singapore's bustling art scene, check out Art World: The Bold New Voices of Singapore:WeJungle produces work reflective of nature, believing that, “creativity sparks from freedom." For them, demolition art incorporates street culture’s unrestrained boundaries of expression, opportunities that a lot of Singaporean artists don’t have today.“This trend is one of the only ways for young and budding artists to showcase their work, other than approaching galleries who usually already have their own contacts,” Chen tells The Creators Project. “Private investors and patrons are few.”
Before its demolition, walls of The Mill were covered with paintings and graffiti like work, photo courtesy of Charles Osawa 2015
In amongst the works of art displayed at The Mill, some of the demolition had already begun, photo courtesy of Charles Osawa, 2015
Ahead of the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre destruction in February 2013, WeJungle hosted a party to give up-and-coming artists the opportunity to exhibit. Some of the pieces stuck around until “the wrecking balls came,” as Chen puts it.
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