Hidden in Plain Sight
Discovering singapore's vibrant street art scene by Jennifer Williams and Isabelle Tadmoury
Little India There are few neighborhoods as distinctive as Little India. The colors, the flowers and the aroma of spices tickle the senses. During the Deepavali holidays in early November, Little India becomes especially magical. While there are plenty of reasons to visit, there also are a lot of murals and public art to discover. We start our tour at the center, the House of Tan Teng Niah. This small villa with a rainbow of colors sits in the middle of food stalls and shops. It belonged to the owner of a prominent Chinese sweets-making factory that operated in the area. The wooden shutters and molding details that line the bottom of the roof give this house an architectural quality that is rarely found in other homes on the island.
On the other end of the square from where the Tan house sits, a huge mural pays homage to the traditional trades of the Indian community, including garland making, parrot astrology and laundering (8 Bellios Lane). Note: Did you know that "Dhoby" is the Hindi term for laundry and "Ghaut" refers to the flight of steps leading down to a river? Hence, "Dhoby Ghaut" loosely translates as "laundry by the steps of a river," a far cry from the bustling mega-center that Dhoby Ghaut is today.
Known as Little India since the 1980s, the area previously had been known as Serangoon, after Serangoon Road (one of Singapore’s earliest roads). It was a bustling crossroads of transport and commerce centered around the cattle and buffaloes that grazed
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Cattleland
Kathak dancer
and swam in the nearby mangrove swamps and Rochor River. The street names (such as Buffalo Street) retain these links to the past, as do the murals. On Kerbau Road (beside Little India MRT Station Exit E), “Cattleland” is a playful depiction of cows walking in the clouds and riding on bikes.
A short stroll to Upper Dickson Road takes you to an artist we’ve included in previous articles, Didier "Jaba" Mathieu (see our Kampong Glam edition). Here, Jaba has used his signature vibrant color scheme to portray the dancers of Kathak, a traditional Indian dance form that narrates stories and folklore.
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AWA Magazine Nov/Dec 2021
