Art Collective Climbed 40 Floors To Create Latest Public Installation
Singaporeans who live in the heartlands (i.e. about 81% of us) might find the scenery somewhat monotonous.
Thus, an art collective aims to brighten up our urban spaces with a bit of colour – though their installations are short-lived.
Their latest one took place at a Clementi HDB block, which was decked in rainbow lights for just a few hours on 1 night.
Those who want to catch their next exhibition won’t have to wait long, as it’ll be in Dec.
Installation set up on 20 Nov
Fans who’ve been monitoring the Facebook page of Very Small Exhibition may have noticed they announced the setting up of a new installation last weekend.
Known for many versions of their “very momentary exhibition”, the latest one was going to take place last Saturday (20 Nov).
However, it was only announced the day before.
Clementi block is 40 storeys high
The venue was Block 312A, at Clementi Avenue 4. It’s a total of 40 storeys high, according to PropertyGuru.
Ordinarily, the very tall but unassuming block looks like this:
On 20 Nov, it looked like this – but for only a few hours.
Stairwell lights covered with cellophane
How did they achieve this?
That night, A Very Small Exhibition painstakingly climbed the stairs, covering each fluorescent tube in the stairwell with cellophane of different colours.
They did this till each stairwell glowed with a different colour.
The effect was stunning when seen in its entirely.
Installation taken down after 1 hour
According to the artist, the whole installation took him 2 hours to put together.
However, after leaving it up for 1 hour, he took it down.
Since he took so much trouble to set it up, why take it down so quickly?
He said the momentary nature of the installation is what makes it special.
Collective started by 3 friends
According to the Very Small Exhibition’s About page on Facebook, the collective is started by 3 friends.
They felt that Singapore is being “increasingly overrun by cookie cutter malls with identical retail programming”.
Thus, they explained,
our intention is to give designers/artists a platform to experiment / showcase their work and hopefully bring a smile, curiosity or even wtf-ness to anyone walking past the work.
Previous works in HDB estates
Their previous works have also taken place in Singapore’s urban sprawl, especially in HDB estates.
In Mar, they converted a Jalan Batu HDB void deck into a kaleidoscope of colours.
This installation was also momentary – and also impromptu.
On 9 Oct, they struck at Block 811, French Road in Jalan Besar, in another staircase.
On 10 Sep, they beatified Merlion Park.
On 6 Nov, they trundled a glowing “LOVE” sign around East Coast Park and Changi Beach Park, for people to take photos and write messages on.
In Jan, the sign will be pushed around Singapore for 6 consecutive nights, so do look out for it.
Next installation in Dec
Now that you’ve heard of them, you might be interested to catch their next work.
Apparently, it’s going to be in Dec, they said, on a date yet to be announced.
In a reply to a netizen, they said upcoming installations are usually announced on social media 5 days before.
That’s because they have to make sure the weather is good before embarking on an installation.
Imbuing our landscape with vibrancy
Very Small Exhibition’s installations certainly help to imbue our landscape with some much-needed vibrancy.
The ephemeral nature of their pieces also serve to encourage people to make the effort to come down if they want to witness it with their own eyes.
We’ll be monitoring their social media so we can catch their next work.
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Featured images adapted from Very Small Exhibition on Facebook and Lee Hong Poh on Facebook.
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