Tiong Bahru thru the eyes of a painter

Have you ever thought how our SIT estate would look through the eyes of an artist?
You can now satisfy your curiosity, as well as perhaps buy one of the paintings of Tiong Bahru's backlanes, at the following exhibition.

It is good to know that our estate is the inspiration for many artists. If our estate was better maintained, it may attract even more attention, and have more art work created!

Perhaps one day, we will have a feature film set here!

In the meantime, do visit the show in nearby Kreta Ayer, South Bridge Road. This is also one form of 'community outreach'. By the way, Keng Hock is a local boy, who grew up in Tiong Bahru.

Do you recognise YOUR backlane?



UTTERLY ART cordially invites you to visit the haunts of the


BACKSTREET GIRL
TAN AI NGIN


THURSDAY 21st January 2010 7pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space
(diagonally opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, Pagoda St Exit)
229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778
Call Keng Hock for appointments Tel: 6226 2605 or 94872006
E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
Mon-Sat 12 noon - 8 pm Sun 12 noon - 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs to SUNDAY 31st Jan 2010 .


About the exhibition:

While hardly reminiscent of a boy band, Singapore’s very own Backstreet
Girl wanders the quiet passages behind our older housing estates to get
inspiration for her own impressionistic compositions with paint and brush.
Capturing a facet of Singapore’s urban landscape rarely broached in local
art, Tan Ai Ngin finds artistic angles and viewpoints to romanticize hidden
communal spaces amidst dense apartment blocks. Venturing from previous
painterly forays into Tiong Bahru and Kampong Bahru, she now includes
glimpses of Geylang and Tanglin Halt. Painting plein-air might attract nosy
neighbours, but it allows her access to a diversity of atmospheres,
cultures, people, weather and scenarios to document the unique charm and
peculiarity of living in Singapore.

About the artist:

Tan Ai Ngin (born 1972, Singapore) obtained her Diploma in Fine Arts at the
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1996 and her Bachelor of Arts in Chinese
painting at the Nanjing Arts College, China in 1999. She went on to
complete a one-year course in visual arts at the School of Fine and
Performing Arts Constantijn Huygens, in Kampen, The Netherlands in 2001.
She has been collected by the Frans Walkate Archief in The Netherlands and
the Tokyo office of the Singapore Tourism Board. Backstreet Girl is her
fourth solo exhibition.


Kampong Silat SIT estate

New at the Community Centre

After a few months of work, we have finally put up the Tiong Bahru Estate Heritage Wall at the main lobby of the Community Centre.

Looks great doesn’t it?

The content tells the story of how Tiong Bahru SIT Estate came to be, and has some lovely old archival pictures as well as more recent images.

Now when your friends and family visit you and wish to find out more about the history of this estate, you can start them off at the CC!

Opening hours of the Community Centre are from 9 am to 10 pm daily.
The Tiong Bahru Community Centre is located at 67A, Eu Chin Street.

The Heritage Club would like to thank the CC and its Manager for showcasing our history, and for thanks to the members of the Club who put the pictures and design together. To find out more about conservation, do visit URA's website.

Upcoming - the information will be translated into Chinese, Malay and Tamil and also put up on the wall.

The Beginning

Lets start from the very beginning - a map of the Pre- and Post War Singapore Improvement Trust Estate at Tiong Bahru.

You can see the difference between the two different planning philosophies from the two different eras.

But both are of course, relevant and charming in their own ways!

The Pre-War Estate was planned to create the semblance of a traditional street-scape, with a strong urban edge and feature corners. This is not unlike the old city of Singapore.

For the Post-War Estate, the planning was focused on ensuring that the flats were oriented East-West, to minimize heat gain from the sun, entering the flats. Green spaces were introduced between blocks to allow for breezes and sunlight to pass through - believed to be beneficial to human health.

Along Tiong Bahru and Lim Liak Streets, the buildings were lined up, with staggered blocks, to create a visually interesting street.

Most of us would agree that visually, and environmentally, it is quite a success.