Sketch 4/30 - Tiong Bahru (November 2010)

Tiong Bahru Estate was primarily a Chinese area so I thought the use of Chinese ink for the tree was appropriate.

This is Tiong Bahru - the venue of a new friendship formed one evening in 2010 over hawker food. I-Jin introduced to Kok Ming who kindly brought me to the neighbourhood where he grew up. Most of it has changed and road names altered but the Streamline Moderne flats with the rounded balconies and flat roofs are still there. So are the Straits Settlement shop-houses - I liked what I saw, so I went back the next morning to sketch.

An afternoon in Tiong Baru

Each time I am in Singapore, I am drawn to Tiong Bahru - not for the hawker food that everyone assume is my goal. I am drawn to the public housing in the area. Or more precisely, I am drawn to the period that these buildings were built and what that era represented - a new beginning and the hope that came with it. Perhaps that is why the corners of the buildings have such heraldic detailing.

The Council flats of Tiong Bahru - I like the staircase with its slightly nautical theme.

For the same reason, I like watching movies from that era when men wore hats and women wore gloves; and they spoke proper English. Over the Chinese New Year break our Astro (cable TV) broke down and I resorted to watching my Alfred Hitchcock collection - from 'Rebecca' to 'The Rear Window'.  

Some of the architecture and interiors in these movies are worth a second look - at times the second look made me realise I was looking at a stage set.  Nonetheless,  I have fallen in love with Joan Fontaine - who is still around apparently. Perhaps I ll drop her a line.

The ground floor of this block are shops; the white walls are accented with face brickwork and Hokkien spoken enthusiastically by the local kopi-drinkers

A wander through the back lanes in between the housing blocks is my way of returning to the past; the smell of laundry drying in the mid morning sun. Even the smell of lunch cooking seem to come from the past.

Hero Drawings

These are Kok Ming's recent ink drawings; done with a Hero drawing pen. 

He says these sketches remind him of wood cuts. I used to do wood cuts in high school; I wonder if I still have the tools (and skills) to do them again. Have to find some lino; they are an easier and more accessible  material - meanwhile, here is my favourite woodcut, Escher's self portrait.