@ Aliwal Art Centre: Music Studio (beside MPH), Courtyard, Exterior wall
For its debut under the theme “The Dreamer”, AliWALL Festival brings contrasting worlds of fantasy and reality, both indoors and outdoors to Aliwal Arts Centre for a weekend-only showcase from 21st to 23rd January 2022. The Dreamer unfolds in three parts across the premises to draw new imaginations with activities that seek to uplift and engage visitors.
AliWALL Festival 2022: The Dreamer is organised by Arts House Limited, curated and produced by MAMA MAGNET.
Vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS)
Kindly note that Festival audiences attending AliWALL Festival 2022 will have to be fully vaccinated. Only individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 within 180 days, medically ineligible for COVID-19 vaccination, and children aged 12 years and below may be exempted from Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS).
For more info, please refer here.
Guest Curator: TULIKA AHUJA
Tulika Ahuja is a curator, writer and creative consultant interested in the intersection of urban art, technology and accessibility. She studied Mass Communication and Art History at NTU, and graduated in 2016. Her curatorial practice reflects on world-building, often drawing on sensorial touch points to activate viewers of art. Practicing from Singapore’s innate competitive environment, she is especially driven by collaboration and cross-disciplinary experiments. In 2020, she founded MAMA MAGNET, a multimedia art programming consultancy creating work on accessible themes.
Tulika has worked with AHL on past projects; in 2019 she and Kult Gallery launched the Aliwal Urban Art Festival 2019 – A Sign of the Times. For AliWALL Festival 2022: The Dreamer, she is working with a team of creative producers, Ashley Erianah and Cats On Crack.
MAMA MAGNET was founded to create greater public access to a diversity of art, ideas and perspectives - whether cultural, social or digitally-relevant. Through public programming and counter-culture archiving, we create offline and online encounters for the community to navigate unconventional futures.
Image courtesy of Tulika Ahuja
PROGRAMMES
Reality in Construction
Reality in Construction is a participative outdoor mural, activating the large iconic wall on the right side of the Aliwal Arts Centre building.
Spaz and TraseOne from urban collective, RSCLS, are joined by artists Has.J, Kristal Melson and Slacsatu to paint a narrative-driven mural inspired by urban living. The artists visualise our inner and outer world realities in multiple and unique styles, to offer visitors a tighter grasp on our current times.
Festival-goers will also be invited to contribute to a designated section of the mural, under the artists’ supervision.
Work on the mural wall starts from end Nov – January 2022 and the complete work will be launched during the festival weekend in 2022.
Photo credit: Aliwal Arts Centre
ARTISTS INVOLVED
SPAZ
TRASEONE
HAS.J
KRISTAL MELSON
SLACSATU
Mural Artist: SPAZ
SPAZ (Laurie Maravilla), a Singapore-based urban artist and researcher from Manila, Philippines, is a two-time recipient of the LASALLE Scholarship, and the first Southeast Asian to win the Takifuji International Art Award in 2013.
She co-founded The Solidarity Movement, an initiative that seeks to establish and document graffiti and street art as a culture and art discipline in the Southeast Asian region. Her works and writings possess a radical slant, expressing her personal experiences of motherhood, politics of gender and self-determination. She has also established Rebel Daughters, a movement that empowers women in male-dominated industries.
Image courtesy of SPAZ
Mural Artist: TRASEONE
Sufian Hamri began his artistic career in 1999, making his mark in the streets of Singapore under the moniker “TraseOne”. Today, he has global exhibitions and prestigious national accolades under his belt, including the Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise, SSF Star Leader Award and LASALLE Degree Scholarship.
Interested in socio-cultural behaviour and current affairs, Sufian very often engages the viewer to identify underlying issues hidden beneath his subversively playful and conceptually witty intervention works. His paintings are not merely visuals on surface; they interact with the canvas or its space to create a more intimate relationship between subject and surface.
He holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts (2007), plus a string of heavyweight clientele such as OCBC Bank, Facebook, Paypal and Spotify.
Image courtesy of TraseOne
Mural Artist: HAS.J
Has.J is best known for his funky, experimental and illustrative typography. His recent works marry his skill as a photographer and experience as a graffiti artist, exhibiting an interplay of organic and geometric shapes to draw attention to compositions in the background and foreground of his pieces.
Image courtesy of Has.J
Mural Artist: KRISTAL MELSON
Illustrator and visual artist Kristal, aka Krisonautopilot splits her time creating colourful images for music, fashion, publications & brands. With her witty and vibrant illustrations attracting a range of commissions, her drawings, both traditional and digital, are perfect for the internet age. Informed by her upbringing in Singapore and previous training in graphic design and illustration, Kristal's style is bursting with experimental shape, pattern and composition, adding a computerised dimension to her tropical surroundings.
Image courtesy of Kristal Melson
Mural Artist: SLACSATU
From rebellious youth to revered graffiti artist and teacher, Slacsatu is a veteran who has been colouring the scene with his realistic style of spray painting since 1998.
Counting the raw energy of traditional graffiti as an influence, his works often fuse abstract flares with a painterly approach that result in pieces that are striking with rawness.
You might recognise his ‘AlphaBatik’ murals around Kampong Gelam. Slacsatu is additionally adept with realism paintings that are equally bold in their shapes and colours..
Image courtesy of Slacsatu
Permission to Dream
Permission to Dream takes over Aliwal Arts Centre’s Music Studio, transforming the indoors into an uplifting and surreal escape, and giving you the permission to dream unbound.
Photo credit: Artwork by Howie Kim
ARTISTS INVOLVED
HOWIE KIM
AMMAR AMEEZY
SANDHYA SURESH
SONIA KWEK
TYSHA KHAN
AKBAR SYADIQ
Visual Artist: HOWIE KIM
Howie Kim is a visual artist based in Singapore who is recognised for his striking visual style and kitschy experiments with new media. He works with various mediums including digital illustrations, animation, gifs, photo manipulations, creative direction and paintings. His knack for visualising the bizarre into augmented reality face filters have found their way into the devices of thousands of users around the world.
Notable publications such as i-D Magazine, The Straits Times, VICE and more have recognised Kim’s art for its entertainment value and fun outlook. For AliWALL Festival 2022’s theme, ‘The Dreamer’, Kim is working closely with curator Tulika Ahuja (MAMA MAGNET) to bring a sense of fantasy and escape amidst the uncertainties of our current times.
Kim has also presented his pop-surrealistic worlds at GIFFEST, Singapore Chinese Cultural Center, 8Q at Singapore Art Museum, Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall for building-mapping festival Light to Night, and in retail spaces such as Funan. Kim’s whimsical style of works have also been commissioned by establishments such as IWC Schaffhausen, Universal Music Group, DBS, Martell, Tiger Beer and GCDS.
Image courtesy of Howie Kim
AMMAR AMEEZY
A creator on both the dance floor and through the lens, Ammar spends most of his time creating magic. Driven by adrenaline, he loves pushing and transcending boundaries and believes in experiences more than certificates. Ammar was born hearing and became deaf growing up thus, he lives in both Deaf and Hearing worlds. He witnesses and identifies many differences and similarities in both worlds. Despite his deafness, he has had a passion for dance since young. He has performed both locally and to international audiences - in Japan, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Norway and the UK.
Ammar joined Redeafination dance crew in 2011 and it has taken his passion to a greater height. He is currently also an associate artist with Access Path Production where his work’s focus is primarily on the relationship between body, disability and music. Through his work, Ammar emphasises that talent is first, disability last. Ammar’s focus goal is to integrate the relationship between deaf and hearing to spread a message that both worlds can work together, similar to how it takes two hands to clap.
Image courtesy of Ammar Ameezy
SANDHYA SURESH
Prior to attaining her BA(Hons) in Dance, Sandhya was trained in classical Ballet under the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus and has also completed her Arangetram, a debut Bharathanatyam graduation solo in the year 2012, from Temple of Fine Arts (TFA), Singapore. She has been working with Chowk, Singapore for the past 8 years, and is currently their Associate Artistic Director.
Sandhya has worked with many local and international choreographers, and has also choreographed her own works such as Man.Untold (2018) and Sole Searching (2021) both commissioned by The Esplanade, Singapore, co-choreographed and performed Closing Moment, a duet with Rianto (Indonesia, Japan) in 2016, and has been focusing on expanding her body of work through choreographing and performing Body Language I, II and III (2020), an exploration of the classical form of Odissi on a contemporary Body, to name a few.
Image courtesy of Sandhya Suresh
SONIA KWEK
Sonia's practice is rooted in working with the body and performance, with a curiosity for materials and a potency of their politics. Her works often manifest as live performance, installation, and experiential experiments with elements of the participatory and perishable. She also works actively as a creative collaborator, performer (actor/mover/life model) and facilitator/educator across varying projects and spaces. Concerned with the unseen and unspoken, Sonia seeks to create space/time for intimate encounters and visceral experiences. Sonia is a graduate of the Intercultural Theatre Institute and an associate artist with dance company P7:1SMA.
Image courtesy of Sonia Kwek
TYSHA KHAN
Tysha Khan is an artistic force, known for her versatile acting and powerful writing. Her practice centres around extracting truth, and finding simple ways to present it, in order to facilitate understanding.
She is a graduate of the Intercultural Theatre Institute, and can currently be spotted on meWATCH and Suria playing the role of Sarah in the sci-fi thriller Dualiti.
Image courtesy of Maria Khoo
Stage Designer: AKBAR SYADIQ
Akbar Syadiq is a freelance designer who crosses mediums, materials, space, and discipline. He collaborates to realise processes and ideas, focusing on digital design, photography, stage design and props making. As an individual and formerly part of design collective, neon tights, he has worked with companies such as Esplanade Theatres By The Bay, NAFA, Cake Theatrical Productions and is currently an associate designer with Teater Ekamatra.
Image courtesy of Akbar Syadiq
The Courtyard
On Saturday from 11am - 9pm, The Courtyard will also house Saturday's Plan, an art market presented in collaboration with North East Social Club, a counterculture network of creatives. Pick up prints, zines, stickers, and even give a forever home to a flash tattoo.
Photo credit: Artwork by Howie Kim
ARTISTS INVOLVED
HOWIE KIM
NORTH EAST
SOCIAL CLUB
Visual Artist: Howie Kim
Howie Kim is a visual artist based in Singapore who is recognised for his striking visual style and kitschy experiments with new media. He works with various mediums including digital illustrations, animation, gifs, photo manipulations, creative direction and paintings. His knack for visualising the bizarre into augmented reality face filters have found their way into the devices of thousands of users around the world.
Notable publications such as i-D Magazine, The Straits Times, VICE and more have recognised Kim’s art for its entertainment value and fun outlook. For AliWALL Festival 2022’s theme, ‘The Dreamer’, Kim is working closely with curator Tulika Ahuja (MAMA MAGNET) to bring a sense of fantasy and escape amidst the uncertainties of our current times.
Kim has also presented his pop-surrealistic worlds at GIFFEST, Singapore Chinese Cultural Center, 8Q at Singapore Art Museum, Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall for building-mapping festival Light to Night, and in retail spaces such as Funan. Kim’s whimsical style of works have also been commissioned by establishments such as IWC Schaffhausen, Universal Music Group, DBS, Martell, Tiger Beer and GCDS.
Image courtesy of Howie Kim
NORTH EAST SOCIAL CLUB
Centred around music and culture borne from jamming studios and restless bedrooms, North East Social Club’s efforts have taken them from free-entry parties — to marketing campaigns for an up-and-coming rapper — to a collaborative effort with the National Gallery Singapore.
Image courtesy of North East Social Club
D'Tour
Date & Timings:
Friday, 21 Jan 2022 | 6pm, 8pm
Saturday, 22 Jan 2022 | 4pm, 6pm
Sunday, 23 Jan 2022 | 4pm*, 6pm
Saturday, 29 Jan 2022 | 4pm, 6pm
Meeting point: Entrance of Aliwal Arts Centre
Max capacity: 20 pax per tour
Conducted in English
Experience Kampong Gelam through the stories and anecdotes by RSCLS and other artists in this alternative walking tour of the street art that is iconic to this trendy and yet deeply cultural neighbourhood!
Last presented in 2019 and 2020 to full-capacity attendance, RSCLS creates an up-to-date iteration of the well-loved tour for the inaugural AliWALL Festival, documenting the changing landscape of graffiti art and murals in Kampong Gelam. Listen to a de-facto parallel history of the neighbourhood as told by artists, and see recently completed works such as Southeast Asia’s first graffiti Hall of Fame which was unveiled in April 2021.
If your idea of graffiti art is simply about an artist with a spray can, think again!
Photo credit: Aliwal Arts Centre
* With interpretation in Singapore Sign Language (SgSL):
Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) interpreting services will be provided for the tour on Sunday 23 January, 4pm. If you have any queries or access requirements, please contact Hoo Kuan Cien at hookuancien@artshouse.sg.
ARTISTS INVOLVED
RSCLS
RSCLS (pronounced ras-kuhls) propagates acts of artistic nonsense through open uninhibited random collaborations and discourse.
Image courtesy of RSCLS
Street Art and Murals: Beyond Framed Narratives and Cliches
Saturday, 22 Jan 2022, 8pm – 9.30pm
Online
Free
WATCH HERE
One of the most prominent forms of street art in the last decade and more, mural art and its rise and resurgence in urban spaces around the world cannot be denied. In this panel discussion complementing D’Tour by RSCLS, various mural artists come together to discuss select artworks from Singapore and elsewhere, reflecting on the social impact of their art form and practice.
They ask, "What is the place of mural art besides being colourful backdrops for Instagrammers and TikTok videos, branding advertisements and nostalgic clichés?".
Image: Wak Cantuk (2019) by Zero, commissioned by the Malay Heritage Centre for the Singapore Heritage Festival.
ARTISTS INVOLVED
RSCLS
SPAZ
ZERO
SKL0
RSCLS
RSCLS (pronounced ras-kuhls) propagates acts of artistic nonsense through open uninhibited random collaborations and discourse.
Image courtesy of RSCLS
Mural Artist: SPAZ
SPAZ (Laurie Maravilla), a Singapore-based urban artist and researcher from Manila, Philippines, is a two-time recipient of the LASALLE Scholarship, and the first Southeast Asian to win the Takifuji International Art Award in 2013.
She co-founded The Solidarity Movement, an initiative that seeks to establish and document graffiti and street art as a culture and art discipline in the Southeast Asian region. Her works and writings possess a radical slant, expressing her personal experiences of motherhood, politics of gender and self-determination. She has also established Rebel Daughters, a movement that empowers women in male-dominated industries.
Image courtesy of SPAZ
Mural Artist: SKL0
Sam Lo / ‘SKL0’ is a trans non-binary visual artist based in Singapore with humble beginnings as an urban artist. In their formative years, their intrigue with the concept of culture and bold execution in some of their earliest forays in street art dubbed them the "Sticker Lady", a nickname lovingly given by the city in reference to the saga that was birthed from their work in the streets. Since then, their practice has grown to be reflective of their personal journey and beliefs- a non-subscriber to traditional notions of a dedicated style, theme or visual language, they believe that the human psyche has multiple dimensions that make us complex, layered individuals which enable us to vastly explore and express a multitude of motivations in this shared human experience.
Mural Artist: ZERO
ZERO’s artistic practice has spanned almost two decades, delving into graffiti, street art and urban visual culture. ZERO has shown his works in numerous exhibitions and events both locally and internationally. A recipient of NAC Young Artist Award in 2013, ZERO also holds a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from LASALLE / Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Mixtape v2.0
by RSCLS
Online on Instagram and Spotify
Free
Call for entries from now till 23 January 2022
First created for Aliwal Tracks in January 2021, Mixtape by RSCLS was a large collaborative mural painted on the side facade of Aliwal Arts Centre. A Spotify playlist accompanies the artwork – a digital mixtape of music put together by the participating artists. The 27 tracks in the playlist encapsulate the nature and spirit of Kampong Gelam in the artists’ collective heart and mind; while each track, on its own, expresses the dissonance between the neighbourhood’s manifold spaces, histories and identities.
In Mixtape v2.0 for AliWALL Festival 2022, RSCLS invites members of the public to contribute music and song titles to a sonic collage of Kampong Gelam and create a cacophonic mixtape of this distinct neighbourhood. These submissions will eventually be added to a new Mixtape v2.0 Spotify playlist. If Kampong Gelam was a piece of music, what would it be? What sound(s) does the neighbourhood remind you of? What would be the theme song for your Kampong Gelam?
From now till 23 January 2022, create an Instagram story or post and tag @rscls and @aliwalartscentre with the hashtag #AliWALL2022. The five wackiest, most endearing and rad entries handpicked by RSCLS will win special merchandise from the street art collective. Remember to set your account to public in order for us to view your submission!
Image courtesy of Zero
ARTISTS INVOLVED
RSCLS
RSCLS (pronounced ras-kuhls) propagates acts of artistic nonsense through open uninhibited random collaborations and discourse.
Image courtesy of RSCLS