Introducing

Singapore’s

Public Art

By Jonathan Berg, Author, Birmingham’s Public Art Comparing public art in world cities helps so much with understanding that of Birmingham’s own endeavours on which I write and photograph. In October 2024 we took a trip to Singapore and then on to Australia. It was great to take in the public art of four major world cities during this extended vacation. So, to Singapore first, and a 3-day stopover. What a lot of public art there is on this crowded island. As a first time visitor I just let the public art do what is intended – confront me, the unsuspecting visitor, as I explored this place of such significance on the world stage.

Public Art Abounds

You can not walk very far without coming across public art in Singapore. Our first foray took us along the river from our hotel. There was a mix of commemorative art and some modern pieces, including the almost obligatory reflective balls. Many pieces were looking at various aspects of the history of Singapore. There is a lot of rather traditional bronze sculptural works around. The free standing and mural works we saw nearly always had explanatory signs giving the artist and date and usually the name of the artwork and sometimes an interpretation.

Central Business District

Approaching the CBD one comes across a range of high-end public art installations, including many by acclaimed international sculptural artists. Seemingly the pieces are often connected to the individual developments. It all reminded me a bit of the ‘one percent’ for art initiative in Birmingham in the 1990s, where new developments included spending 1% of the budget on artistic embellishment. However this was on a huge scale both in number of installs and the huge investment over a much longer timeframe. One has to surmise that planning permission in Singapore demands some artistic additions for success. Certainly there was a lot to see and we even managed to find a really nice Antony Gormley pair in public view, though protected in the foyer of an office block. You can see some of the CBD public artworks that we discovered here….

Gardens by the Bay

Singapore’s huge Supertrees are famous statement pieces of public art which adorn a new book on world public art. Certainly Singapore deserves this recognition, for the depth of long term investment in public art in this place deserves recognition at a world level. Below the Supertrees the Gardens by the Bay are sculptural gardens with many significant art pieces to explore. They show the depth of public art commissions with pieces going right back to the time of Singapore becoming an independent country moving on up to the present day. See more public art from the Gardens by the Bay here….

Botanical Gardens and More

The free to enter Botanical Gardens and other places around the city surprise you with even more public art of all descriptions.

Walking Tours Help Hugely

We were lucky to take two amazing walking tours during our stay. So useful in explaining this place with two highly experienced guides really adding to the understanding of Singapore’s history and present day. Public art is certainly useful to walking tour guides as it both adds interest and of course can help to explain and interpret the history and current day city with something tangible to hang the stories on. Indeed, that is surely one of many reasons that world cities, serious about their tourism, put so much emphasis on public art. Both our tour guides certainly did that and the guides were also receptive to answering questions and both had in-depth knowledge of public art on top of everything else about the city. [See details of the tours at the end of the Singapore Street Art page here…]

Street Art and Graffiti

The street art is there to be found in Singapore but there is very little graffiti. The risk of spraying a quick tag is apparently 5 lashes if you pass the fitness criteria for the punishment. There is a small amount of graffiti on the mural work under some subways, perhaps where CCTV is not around, but it is certainly not a common sight in Singapore. However, there is plenty of street art around and this generates considerable interest for tourists. Indeed mural street art telling the stories of the different districts of old Singapore is certainly encouraged and licenced by the authorities. One artist has taken on the mantle of King of Singapore’s street art and his work dominates current mural artworks. Yip Yew Chong has work all over the city. From his huge piece close to the site of his family home to other commissioned pieces around the city. Clearly Singapore saw the potential of street art as an important aspect of popular culture and as part of the visitor experience. Yip Yew himself is moving on, and even as we viewed his works in Singapore he was busy producing similar pieces in China. The street art of Singapore tells interesting stories of the history of Singapore. Like the more formal sculpture it is extremely well done but lacks an edginess that one gets with a more free and easy approach that we get back in Birmingham. See more about Singapore Street Art here

Other Buying Options

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