Four Stories
| about Singapore |
Four Stories is a series of four mono prints depicting the faces of various Housing Development Board residential units around Singapore. While these buildings follow a standard base format across the island, each unit tells a different story based of the residents there and then.
Four Stories (i) Dover
August 2015
Monoprint - Oil on Stonehenge
70cm x 50cm | 27.6" x 19.7"
I drew inspiration from the places closest to school (where I made these prints) which included the Dover residential area in this case. This particular print is based off an eye-level view on one of the many identical HDB units i the area.
The iconic pale-brown walls and fading orange paints make up the systematic columns that appear to vary in depth across the print. I break this pattern with the occasional placement of coloured laundry as well as the diagonal shadows that come about accordingly.
Four Stories (iI) Chinatown
August 2015
Monoprint - Oil on Stonehenge
70cm x 50cm | 27.6" x 19.7"
Four Stories (II) Chinatown is the face of an older People's Park Complex. The concept of this particular print places emphasis on the minute details.
Here, the print juxtaposes the structured grid of the Singaporean HDB against a foreign zest of randomly arranged air-conditioning units. Visually, the erratic white squares disrupt the continuity of the streaked orange and brown rows.
Four Stories (IIi) Boon Keng
August 2015
Monoprint - Oil on Stonehenge
70cm x 50cm | 27.6" x 19.7"
Four Stories (III) Boon Keng is similar to the previous print in the series as there is a shared emphasis on the minute details across the print.
The HDB block on display is of a relatively newer unit where mostly younger families call home.
The attribute in focus here is the random spread of Singaporean flags. The national flags that come out once a year usually depict these new blocks at their most decorative.
Four Stories (IV) Commonwealth
August 2015
Monoprint - Oil on Stonehenge
70cm x 50cm | 27.6" x 19.7"
Four Stories (IV) Commonwealth is different than the earlier three prints because the HDB block referenced is of an unfinished one. My decision to include a semi-constructed unit as the concluding print of the series leaves the direction of Singapore's identity (as seen through the ever changing display of HDB blocks) ambiguous and vague.
The display is typical of a building under construction in Singapore with the incomplete window frames, the green nettings and scaffolding, as well as the consecutive floor numbers hung outside the windows. The nitty gritty texture of a building under construction is also emphasized through the characteristics of a monoprint.
