The Food ISSUE: October to December 2014

Page 1

THE FOOD A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF

Nº.3 / OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2014


INSIGHT

The association of food, to notions of domesticity, femininity and erotic desires, have been problematised by many contemporary female artists. The resulting tensions make me nervous when I see a female artist use food, cook or eat as a part of her work. Is she another manic Martha Rosler in Semiotics of a Kitchen (1975), acting like a bored housewife who showcases kitchen equipment as weapons? 1 Is she going to make some kind of bodily sacrifice, like Janine Antoni, who chewed into a huge, solid block of lard, as well as another block of chocolate, in her performance-installation piece, Gnaw (1992).2 In the case of artist Hilary Schwartz, who uses sugar as her medium, the quiet pastels of her work suggest a sense of loss, with melting sugar or pristine fondant subtly provoking a visceral reaction in the viewer. I ask her some questions about the meaning behind her works. Q: How did you come to use sugar as a medium? What are some of its characteristics that fascinate you? Sugar is a loaded material. I have been using it for its symbolic potential, and some of the meaning that is implied. Sugar is a substance that most of us crave and it is also a food that is somewhat policed (it is something that we are told not to have too much of). I think about it in terms of desire, excess, and even addiction. When there is too much sugar or too much desire it can be cloying. Sugar is associated with domesticity and femininity as well. I also use sugar for its physical properties. In a granulated form it is similar to sand. Heated up it can be cast like glass. It can be molded like clay as fondant. It can also be coaxed to form crystals. As a material, sugar is very versatile.

No Excess Sugar: Interview with artist Hilary Schwartz by Joyce Toh

Q: Food in art commonly makes specific cultural references, links to the mundane, abject or the ephemeral. For instance, Ye Shufang’s colourful and local agar-agar pieces to Jana Sterbak’s provocative meat dress. What is the role of food in your work? Is it sweet?, a collaborative video I made with Marcia Ong, has the most notable cultural references. We made this piece about eight months after moving to Singapore from California. She and I were living together here as a queer couple with her conservative, religious family. We noticed that when her mom cut fruit and served it to us, she would always ask if it was sweet. We felt that although it’s a very common question, because of repetition, there was a sense of anxiety and urgency to it. We saw a connection between this and her relationship to Marcia and, subsequently, to me. In the video we are eating mangos and only talking about mangos, but within the subtext, some hints of the relationships between the three of us emerge. We are eating the mangos with our hands. It is both erotic and messy which complicates the experience. Marcia’s mother’s focus on the sweetness of the fruit begins to allude to her expectations for her family. The backdrop of the video is the heartlands, which contextualises our interaction. The video image is also split into three individual panels to play with the notion of the Christian triptych. Q: You use a large amount of sugar in your work. Have you ever faced any ethical conflict about art producing waste, particularly food waste? I do use large amounts of sugar for each piece. Although my work is installed on site and then disassembled at the end of the show, I make an attempt to save as much of the sugar as possible. When I use granulated sugar, I place a layer of plastic sheeting underneath it to protect the sugar that is touching the ground. When the exhibition is over, I scrape off the top layer of sugar, which is usually a bit dirty, and throw that away and then save the rest of the sugar for the next piece. So in

1 Martha Roster is an American multidisciplinary artist whose works centre around the everyday, often focusing on women’s experience. Semiotics of the Kitchen is a video work that was created by Roster in 1975. The work depicted Roster as a cooking show host who presents a number of cooking utensils to the camera, and finds unproductive, sometimes destructive uses for each. 2 Janine Antoni is a Canadian artist whose work focuses on process and the body. Her work, Gnaw, saw her carve two 300kg cubes, one made of chocolate, the other made of lard. The chewed lard and chocolate were then made into boxes of chocolate and lipsticks. 3 Felix Gonzalez-Torres was an American artist. He was known for his process works, where visitors were often invited to take away a piece of the sculpture with them. In these works, he often used materials such as candy, paper, and plastic beads. 4 Tammy Rae Carland is an American artist who works in photography, film, and small run publications. Her works are often preoccupied with recording the bodies and histories of communities related to the periphery, including homosexual and feminist stories.


1

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general, I am able to reuse the same sugar for the next five to ten installations. I have had pieces that intentionally melt or disintegrate over the course of the exhibition, and I am not able to reuse that material. I guess I’ve never seen it as waste. It has a purpose even if the purpose is not consumption. You make fondant look like marble and I like how it similarly imitates the folds of fabrics as in classical sculptures. I’m curious about the diamonds and chandelier. Why did you choose to recreate those forms? Crash, the chandelier, is a phoenixlike form. It has fallen from the ceiling onto the ground but it is lit. There is hope. This piece was conceived after a series of failed relationships. It is about destruction followed by evolution.

associated with it especially when it comes to immigration. Until recently, the U.S., where I am from, did not recognize marriage between two people of the same gender for immigration purposes. This has had a significant impact on my life, as I was not able to help my partner stay in the US and get a green card. I was frustrated with the ways in which I saw marriage (dis)functioning. I decided to use the form of a diamond to signify marriage by casting diamonds out of sugar, and have them dissolve over time. In your sculptures, there seems to be a strong sense of attachment to the ground. There is lightness but also suggestions of viscosity and stickiness when sugar melts in heat. How important is engaging the sense of taste and touch in the viewer’s imagination? When work is placed on a pedestal, there is a symbolic and physical separation from the viewer. I want the viewer to have a more direct connection with my work, which is why I often place it on the ground. At the same time, I want the viewer to want to touch the work but not be allowed to touch it, playing with the notion of the forbidden. I try to create that desire by playing with scent and texture, and then I attempt to make it visibly off-limits by making it look pristine. There is also the implication that since it is artwork in a gallery, it should not be touched.

The diamonds came about because I was reflecting on marriage. In the past five or so years, many of my straight friends have gotten married. Although I’ve never really been interested in marriage as an institution or as something that I want for myself, I am interested in the privileges

The empty chairs and beds in your work suggest a sense of bodily absence. The works of Felix Gonzalez-Torres 3 came to mind after I first saw photo reproductions of your works with the pillows. Would you like to speak more about your theme on queer desire/excess? While queerness is not easily read in all of my pieces, it is coded throughout my work. I use camp’s tenants of exaggeration and excess. Yes, I reference artists such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Tammy Rae Carland 4 who have been very influential to me. They have both made work subverting and queering domestic spaces. The invisibility of queerness is a significant aspect of my own experience as a queer femme. The bodily absence in my work is, in part, a reference to this invisibility.

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See more of Hilary’s work at: http://www.hilaryschwartz.com/ 3

1. Untitled (detail) First day of installation, sugar, 3’ x 4.5’ x 2” (photo credit: Marcia Ong) 2. Is it sweet? Collaboration with Marcia Ong, 22:22 (photo credit: Marcia Ong) 3. Crash, chandelier, sugar crystals, 6’ x 6’ x 2.5’ (photo credit: Marcia Ong) 4. Untitled, fondant, couch, 87” x 28” x 38.5” (photo credit: Malka Goodman-Sills)


COMICS


TOP 5 LIST

Top 5 Food Trends WE WOULD LIKE TO STOP TRENDING

Novelty Dining Eating completely in the dark, eating while entirely clad in white, eating while blindfolded and as random strangers stuff unidentified objects in your crevice; novelty dining makes eating sometimes a Bacchanalian pleasure, sometimes a pretentious pain. We make mystique (and the organisers, money) out of this haute cuisine act of eating when familial and communal eating becomes sadly passe? And when did fine dining mean find out dining? Such first world conundrums when some of us can only lust after nothing more than dust.

ood Organic F

l Ye s, we al sm orga nic. fo r od O rg anic, go is od orga nic fo w . ho on ow e kn at we liv e eart h th st e ta d yo u an d th an e m or nd to cost te all ey es th t im Bu y, so m et ish. Frankl ith w le ss m oredy bo r to toxify ou we want is ge ne tic ally d fashio n ol od go so m e a tif ar icially proc es se d, m odified, d pa ck of ve er d pres rase co lo ured an to para ph hy? ‘CosW s! ut it’s an m pe w is do us’ pe ar l of ant. w e Miley Cyr w t ha e ca n do w our bo dy/w

Cupcakes Cupcakes are twee manif estations of sickly sweet ness that have overrun our food crazy island like a plagu e of poiso nous baby mushrooms. No one that needs that much icing, no one needs who many flavors, and above all, no one of is old enoug h to cut thems elves a slice cake needs a cupcake.

Celebrity Chef Rest aurants The last time we saw a profes sional chef on television who had yet to open a self-na med restaurant was… never. For some reason, someo ne thought it would be a good idea for chefs appear on the telly, write cookb ooks, and open a chain of restaurants across the world that showe d off their rustic, family-style appro ach to fresh produc e and Italian cuisine, at which they would appear in person at the openin g, and never step into the kitchen. Sounds familiar? Ah, the wonde rs of celebrity.

F o o d Po r n N ever has an ot he r pr ac tic e ex pl go od w ill an oite d th e d pa tie nc e of fe llow di waite rs as ne rs an d muc h as th e fo od po tr ying de sp rn ogra ph er erat el y to sq ue eze a pl at e of be go od sh ot ef carp ac ci of a o. O r an el m ee po k. O usive bow r a m eal of l of sushi. O r M cM uf fin. a Sa us ag e A ll we ca n Eg g sa y is, pl ea from w itn es se sp are us sing th e sl ow de sc en of th e fo od t to th e bo po rn o barr tto m el, m ar ke d ar tistic ally by th e da y filte re d ph ot os of inst ap pe arin g ant m ee st on yo ur In ar t st agra m fe no odle s ar ed. ‘But th e lovingly e garnishe d! ’ yo u wail. N o.


PROCESSED

FRIED

WITH FISHPASTE

STUFFED

fishball

tofu

sotong ball

made of fish and squid

taupok

fried tofu pocket

taupok

fried tofu pocket

made of pork

meatball

fishcake

tofu skin

egg tofu

lady's finger

crabstick

cuttlefish

seaweed chicken

bittergourd

imitation crab i.e. not crab

ngoh hiang

chilli

5-spice tofu skin meat rolls

brinjal

2. Pick 7 items.

re ! o m t s o c as Extr

1. Grab bowl and tongs.


(OPTIONAL)

GRAIN

+ rice

made from soybeans spicy coconut

laksa i.e. "dry"

none

flat rice noodle

kway teow

kang kong beansprouts

yellow egg noodle

chinese lettuce

3. Choose broth.

rice vermiclli

chye sim

bee hoon

stock

pak choi

i.e. the brown sauce

sweet bean sauce

i.e. the red sauce

chilli sauce

cut chillies add soy sauce yourself

4. Fill saucers with (free) sauces.

VEGETABLE

te ll A untie


PERSPECTIVES

Still Digesting by He Liwei

The theme of lack seems to be everywhere, but if anything, the prevalence of the hungry is matched by the commitment of the larger community to fight it. When it comes to garnering awareness for hunger issues in Singapore, is visibility the missing ingredient?


HUNGER STRUCK

READY TO SERVE MEALS

Singapore, early August

Singapore, one Tuesday in August

A happy meal. A cup of coffee at a café, minus taxes. Your share of the dessert course at a fine-dining restaurant. What does five dollars look like in food and drink terms to you? Citing the Department of Statistics, Singaporeans Against Poverty, a campaign that aims to raise awareness about poverty in Singapore, estimates that there are some 105, 000 families earning less than $1500 a month, leaving each member with an average of $5 to spend on transport and food. And it was this premise that set me off on a three-day challenge to eat on a budget of five dollars a day for this story.

It’s close to 12pm and I’m in the central kitchen facility of Willing Hearts in Kembangan. Along with strong whiffs of cooked food, a hushed but palpable air of purposefulness hangs in the air as an eclectic roster of volunteers flit about, cleaning up after a morning of cooking while prepping for the next day. This soup kitchen runs like a well-oiled machine. Still, it was startling to learn that this facility churns out an estimated 3000 meals (in some cases, each packet of food constitutes two meals for its recipient) a day to the hungry and needy at close to 40 distribution points across the island.

It was a challenge but what I ate (baked beans, green bean soup, instant noodles and frozen sausages in various permutations) on those three days probably isn’t as significant as what I felt when it ended. Yes, there was a sense of relief. But it became increasingly apparent that I had perhaps bitten off more than I could chew.

Strange as it may sound --- tearing through heads and heads of iceberg lettuce--- it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this connected and engaged with the community. Students, manicured-and-coiffed ladies, would-be NS men, retirees, regular old-timers and ad-hoc drop-ins, a motley cast bound by a willingness and able-ness to serve.

If lived experience was a condition for authenticity, was this self-imposed challenge even legit, given that it was cushioned by the knowledge that there would be an end to this sense of lack? Not everybody has that choice: struggling to put food on the table is a grim everyday reality faced by some in Singapore.

Indeed, volunteers keep soup kitchens running and if you think about it, it really is a venture that places immense faith – hook, line and sinker – in the community to step up to the plate and show up, literally and figuratively.

Just as sharing the pleasures of delicious meal is an expression of conviviality, so the reverse of this, sharing in that hunger, albeit short-lived, are attempts to connect and nurture shreds of empathy (or assuage those self-indulgent middleclass guilt). And while we can all agree that any smidgen of empathy beats apathy, let’s face it: This food for thought don’t mean squat until they contribute to the solution through action and true deeds. Which is how I found myself in the company of folks who have chosen not get all meta and mired in the tangle of contradictions but to roll up their sleeves and act.

That this particular soup kitchen has been operating on a daily basis for close to a decade says a lot about the inspired Goodness of the community (in spite of our tissue paper chope-ing tendencies). Also, it reveals the power of food to unleash that potential, to reach out and meet others’ needs in one of the most visceral and immediate ways. Those Styrofoam boxes contain more than sustenance: they hold the nourishing certainty that somebody else cares. As one for whom the joys and pleasures of living could hitherto be found on a plate, the experience was humbling and unsettling. When we cast our attention to the other facets of food --- the endless buffet of avoidance diets (oh, the searing irony), The Next Big Trend, the parroted vocabulary of ‘taste profiles’, ‘flavour combinations’ and ‘textural contrasts’, and the best Instagram filter to gloss it over with --- it’s easy to forget that greater truth: That food is more than just about #lifestyle --- food is life.

SOUP KITCHENS ENGAGE Live Below the Line Challenge An annual campaign with a presence in six countries where the community can pledge to subsist on the equivalent of the extreme poverty line for five days to raise funds for supporting charities.

Cuff Road Food Program (Transient Workers Count Too) www.twc2.org.sg/what-we-do/cuff-road-food-programme Food From The Heart Not a soup kitchen per se, but an organization that redistributes bread and food items to the needy. www.foodheart.org

www.livebelowtheline.com www.globalpovertyproject.com/live-below-the-line

The Soup Kitchen Project (Post-Museum) postmuseum.wordpress.com/the-soup-kitchen-project

Singaporeans Against Poverty Pledge to take the five-dollar challenge here: www.sgagainstpoverty.org/5-dollar-challenge

Willing Hearts www.willinghearts.org.sg


AUNT AGGIE

A SK Q: Dear Aunt Aggie, I love, love, love fusion cuisine! But I think all this East-west, French-Jap fusion, etc,etc is soooo overdone. Why stick to to just cultural cuisines? I am thinking of greater, loftier creations and experiences! Like steamboat with cola broth, tempura vegetables and Mentos condiments (explosive)! Easter surprise century egg cheesecake with raspberry soya-sauce coulis (like Kinder Bueno but with a full century egg in a cheesecake)! And durian-celery-paprika-Bailey’s mixed milkshake (tried and tested for a guaranteed instant hangover… from the rear end). I intend to start a restaurant, but I am still not sure if the market is open and stable enough for a newbie like me. Prof. Chi-Li Chi-Mi Chang-a Atomic, molecular & optical (AMO) physics Dear mad scientist, So you are just like all those richipsters/ jaded professionals out there who have lots of moola, love to eat or maybe cook, and can’t wait to unleash your Frankensteins on a bunch of clueless food bloggers yes? Just what we need in our oversaturated, competitive, manpowerlacking restaurant business scene! From the descriptions of your creations alone, don’t worry, I think you will destabilise any market, even super and wet ones. You are right: fusion cuisine is past its expiry date and we should be looking at new and amusing concoctions to abuse our palates. I applaud your passion and I would like to see what kind of fused cusine an esteemed professor of physics like yourself would bring to the table to challenge El Bulli’s molecular gastronomy. Just not at my table. If you do open a restaurant, just make sure you have an ambulance, a fire brigade and a lawyer on standby, make your customers sign indemnity forms and keep the doors of opportunity open need you return to your real occupation once the biz goes up in a radioactive fire. of lawsuits or suffer a bankruptcy due to a lack of guinea-pig-slash-customers, whichever precipitates first. Aunt Aggie

Q: Dear Aunt Aggie, I am a food-artist. I create food not for taste, but for how they look and what I want them to mean. I had a work where I made a large pancake layered with sugar frosting, in the shape of Kate Moss and served them to my friends. I called it “Ate Kate: the Emastification of the Body”; they called it “crumbly”, “too dry” and would rather have Lana’s chocolate cake. I remain unfazed. I revere and savour the works of Wolfgang Laib and even, Ferran Adria (chef-as-artist). Oh, and I watch The Great British Bakeoff religiously too. Can you advise me on how I can pursue my goal of being a food artist? Lady Iron Chef-Artist Dear Lady Iron Chef-Artist, Didn’t your mother tell you not to play with your food? And surely she also told you not to be an artist? Must you hurt your dear Mama’s feelings by trying to do both at once? But then if you must, you must know your busts from your bastes. The relationship between Art and Food is undergoing a flux, in some cultural quarters, having Food supplant Art’s mantle as a socio-cultural barometer of one’s taste, knowledge and status. Baloney. Food is not art. Cooking is. So is eating. And twerking is performanceart. Food is just food, like how painting is art but paint is just paint. So basically, what I am saying is ICPAECE- intent, concept, process, action-execution, consequence-effect. Follow my golden rules and you will soon be exhibiting at McMoMA (Mcdonald’s Museum of Mundane Art). Oh, and please send me a slice of Kate Moss. I would love to eat her for breakfast with whipped cream and coke, oops, I mean cola. Aunt Aggie

Q: Dear Aunt Aggie, My favorite weekend activity is to visit the newest independent cafes in Singapore to soak up the quirky ambience, have a café latte, relax, and listen to folksy indie music. I enjoy admiring their raw industrial look, while flipping through Monocle, sipping on my mocha, and eyeballing other customers who dress exactly the same way as I do. I love cafes so much that I think I could open a café that would reflect my kooky personality and exquisite taste. What do you think? Caffeinated-hipster

Dear Caffeinated-hipster Please place a tick next to the item that you foresee will apply to your dream café • Faux distressed / industrial interiors • Bare light bulbs • Wooden / cement countertops • Mismatched chairs • A menu that features anything that is ‘artesian’ or ‘home baked’ or ‘seasonal’ • Cold drip coffee • Music by bands that have played in any recent music festivals largely attended by people under the age of 30 If more than two of the above items apply… No.

Aunt Aggie


EVENTS

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION NIGHTMARE ON ARMENIAN STREET

TAKING THE SUB BY TAN LI TING

Experience the 18 levels of Hell through the lenses of Singaporean filmmakers such as Chris Yeo, Wesley Leon Aroozoo, and Koo Chia Meng. This interactive screening will bring you through film and video works that interpret and represent the different levels of hell, accompanied by a live soundtrack by Sa Trio.

Part musical, part punk retrospective, Taking the Sub is made for punks, by punks and with punks. Drawing inspiration from topics ranging from Kuo Pao Kun to Yngwie Malmsteen, this devised performance features punks at their best and worst with the aim of documenting an uncensored oral history of part of Singapore’s diverse Punk Community. Part of The Substation’s Directors’ Lab

Presented The Substation Moving Images Curated by Nelson Yeo Thursday 23 and Friday 24 October 2014, 8pm The Substation Theatre Admission: Entry by donation (min $5), register to aishah@substation.org

Friday 21 and Saturday 22 November 2014, 8pm The Substation Theatre Admission: $20 / $15 (concession), $35 for performance + punk gig organised by Street Noise productions. Tickets from The Substation Box Office.

FIRST TAKE First Take is a monthly screening of new local short films, followed by a QnA with the filmmakers. It’s a platform for filmmakers and anyone interested in filmmaking to meet and share their work. For more information, email aishah@substation.org or call 6337 7535. Monday 15 October 2014, 8pm Monday 3 November 2014, 8pm LASALLE College of the Arts – Block F, F208, Level 2 Admission: Free BEST OF FIRST TAKE DIRECTORS LAB WORK IN PROGRESS FINAL PHASE Join participants Tan Shou Chen, Agnes Christina, Tan Liting, Eng Kai Er, Pat Toh & Tim Nga during the final phase of Director’s Lab Sharing Session. For more updates log on to www.substation.org/directorslab Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 October 2014, 7.30pm onwards The Substation Theatre Admission: Free, register at directorslab@substation.org

For this special screening of First Take, The Substation Moving Images presents the audience favourites from each monthly screening in 2014. A final vote will also be cast for the top three favourites of First Take, which will be followed by a prize giving to award the top shorts of 2014. By The Substation Moving Images Sunday 14 December 2014 LASALLE College of the Arts – Block F, F208, Level 2 Admission: Entry by donation

SUPPORTED BY THE SUBSTATION LOVE AT THE SUB BY ELECTRICO Homegrown rockers Electrico will perform a mixture of new songs and old favourites, with a pay-as-you-want structure where all the proceeds will be donated to The Substation. Sunday 19 October 2014, 6.30pm The Substation Theatre Admission: Pay-as-you-want. Limited space, visit www.electriomusic/sub to RSVP DECIMAL POINTS 0 BY CAKE THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS Decimal Points 0 is a collaboration between a pole dancer, a sport climber, a visual artist, a theatre performer and theatre designers. Through this mix of disciplines, this project explores the yearning for love in our contemporary times. Thursday 16 to Saturday 18 October 2014, 8pm The Substation Theatre Admission: $25 / $20 (concession). Tickets from admin@caketheatre.com

LOCKDOWN BY HATCH THEATRICS Mrs Nora anticipates the arrival of three very important guests in a school counselling room, but is trapped when a fire breaks out. In the ensuing panic, will the teacher be able to remain a teacher? Or will the teacher prove herself to be a terrible student? Friday 28 November 2014, 8pm Saturday 29 November 2014, 3pm and 8pm The Substation Theatre Admission: $20 / $15 (concession). Tickets from The Substation Box Office


About the Contributors

A chat with illustrator Shu Han Lee about the centrefold illustration, How to Order Yong Tau Foo.

He Liwei, Writer He Liwei is a freelance writer, copywriter and translator who lives and works in Singapore. She was trained in Sociology and is a longtime, hand-on-heart admirer of home cooked meals. Joyce Teo, Artist

Q: Why did you choose yong tau foo?

Joyce Teo is an art teacher in a secondary school. She holds a strong personal liking for short, powerful texts with enigmatic meaning that acts like resonating orchestral music. Her past works can be viewed on oeeeo.tumblr.com.

The yong tau foo idea came about when an angmoh friend living in Singapore told me how intimidating the yong tau foo stall was. “How many things can I choose? What’s the minimum? How much is it for each extra? What are these things stuffed with? What choices do I have for noodles? What choices do I have for soup (or wait I can have dry?!) What’s all these condiments? Are they free? How much can I take?”

Shu Han Lee, Graphic Designer / Illustrator Shu Han Lee is a graphic designer and freelance food stylist and writer. She cooks too. Visit her at shuhanlee.com and mummyicancook.com

I thought it would be fun to do an instructive menu, sort of like those you get plastered on the walls of Subway

Would you like to contribute to ISSUE?

teaching you how to order a sandwich, but with infographics and an element of fun thrown in. It would be helpful to the noobs (and amusing to the locals). Q: What is it about food that inspires your artwork? I think the marriage of food and design happened quite inevitably. I was studying graphic design, and I was cooking a lot and writing about it, so by some inevitable force, I ended up twirling noodles and rescuing wooden boards from the dumpster to make food look beautiful; by that same inevitable force, a lot of my design projects feature the edible. I don’t know what it is exactly about food that inspires me...there is so much to explore! I never get bored. Q: What’s your favourite dish to cook? Noodle soup. I could have noodle soup every day. I do have noodle soup every day actually... I vary the stock and the noodles and the toppings so it never gets dull.

ISSUE is a publication by The Substation that features a different theme every quarter. If you like what you see, and would like to contribute as a writer, illustrator or help distribute ISSUE, please get in touch with Chelsea at chelsea@substation.org.

About The Substation The Substation was founded in 1990, and is Singapore’s first independent contemporary arts centre. We promote research, experimentation, and innovation in the arts, and have worked with some of Singapore’s finest artists, writers, and intellectuals. The Substation is a non-profit organisation. It is 100% reliant on financial and in-kind support from the general public, commercial organisations, and foundations. The Substation is a registered charity, and as such, donors receive a 250% tax exemption on any amount donated.

Contact Us 45 Armenian Street, Singapore 179936 www.substation.org The Substation Gallery Open daily, 12pm – 9pm, closed on public holidays

For courses, ticket sales, and enquires about our events, please contact The Substation Box Office

For all other enquires, including those pertaining to venue rental, please contact The Substation Office

Open Monday to Friday 12pm – 2pm / 5pm – 8pm

Open Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm, closed on public holidays

One hour before start of show on weekends

T: 6337 7535 E: admin@substation.org

T: 6337 7800 E: boxoffice@substation.org


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