Introduction 

‘1 X 1 Metre Space’’ is a process-based art investigation that explores notions of loss and recovery for subjects/objects in transit . Many people working and living in the Jalan Besar area and visitors to Sungei Road bemoan the changes in the landscape but are also proud and approving of the good roads built and the train station now in construction.

Our city is sprawling but in a constant flux, and ‘1 x 1 Metre Space’ is situated as an interrogative project that explores the relationships between new changes and the old lifestyles.

Employing photography as a documentary device, narratives of the Jalan Besar/Sungei Road area will be recorded, interrogated and retold/re-performed in this site-specific art installation and proposed publication and critical essay.

How do sungei.net projects work?

As the title suggest, ‘1 x 1 Metre Space relates to the space allocated to a Sungei Road Street Vendor. The ubiquitous bundles of ‘2nd-hand goods’ are carefully arranged along the streets of Sungei Road.

Over a duration of 3 – 6 months, the artists adopt a research-based approach in coming up with artistic expressions that delve into notions of loss, memory and identity.

Two-fold Discovery Process

1. The artists will dialogue and reflect on the mapped out territory, each proposing a work that engages the community and connects the found objects/concepts to understandings of local and located praxis.

2. Visit the literal spaces of Jalan Besar/Sungei Road and find objects, traces of objects or subjects, which generate narratives and articulate ideas around their chosen mediums.

3. Series of field notes (or sketch books) to be developed to record observations or interviews and presented during art installation.

Engage the community

The more one investigates and interrogates a mapped territory, the more one learns about the complexity of its dimensions as a physical as well as a virtual space of collecting and exchanging both ideas and objects.

Singapore has many interesting spaces where the exhibition’s ideas of land contestation and physical change could potentially play out. What attracted you to the Jalan Besar enclave and the Sungei Road Flea Market in particular?

Definitely the colourful nature of the space and confluence of communities in the Jalan Besar and Little India area. I have been observing the place for quite a few years and had many conversations with artists and architects, even being brought on a tour by someone who lived there all his life.

The Jalan Besar enclave is a city-fringe zone, and almost feels like it is been left unobserved and intentionally untouched by authorities. I was drawn to this ‘No Man’s Land’ of perpetual road-works, regular construction and the under-construction train station that brought up this issue of ‘sungei road flea market will be no more.’ To me, the Little India, Jalan Besar and Sungei Road area has an aura of authenticity, a BUZZ unlike our shopping or financial district. That drew me to the space.

Why have you decided to use an artistic approach to interrogate such ideas, as opposed to say, education or social activism? Would you consider the exhibition a form of social activism?

There are plans for the exhibition to be made into a publication or to lead on to a symposium to dialogue about the space. All these outcomes are tangible results of this artistic approach and they do have educational or social-value.

How have you chosen your collaborators? Was there a certain thought process or collective vision behind this?

There was no open call but through conversations, collaborators came on board. The thought process was for sharing and exchange of ideas between artists who knew more about the place and artists who knew nothing of the space.

Has the exhibition changed the way you perceive the Jalan Besar enclave and the Sungei Road Flea Market? What new insights have you gained?

“I will miss them after this exhibition” was something mentioned by Jennifer (one of the artists) and that resonated with all the artists involved. The process of visiting the Sungei Road Flea Market regularly has changed how we perceive the area for sure. Over time, addressing them as this auntie and that uncle has evolved to a first name basis like ‘Today Linda…’ and the artists all start to share similar stories of their personal encounters.

The human interaction has humbled us as we start to realise that what we do with a small art exhibition may not be useful to help them continue plying their trade in Sungei Road.