Punggol was the focus town for the November 2019 Arts in Your Neighbourhood edition, held from 7 to 24 November. The National Arts Council programme brought performances, public art and participatory projects into the neighbourhood.
The history of Punggol’s 2019 arts programme includes Five Stones by Twardzik-Ching Chor Leng and Sensing Punggol by Spang & Lei. One enlarged a familiar childhood game; the other used residents’ environmental observations to create interactive art.
A celebration of Five Stones took place at Oasis Terraces on 24 November 2019, with Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. These projects belong to a dated cultural chapter in Punggol’s history, rather than a list of installations guaranteed to remain there today.
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A neighbourhood programme in November 2019 · Five Stones and the Bicentennial celebration · How residents helped create Sensing Punggol
The National Arts Council’s FY2019/2020 annual report identifies this as the 13th edition and describes an emphasis on younger audiences. Sweet Tooth’s A Rainbow Odyssey offered activities and performances for parents and children.
NAC also described Sensing Punggol as the programme’s first digital artwork. Bringing these forms together made the town a setting for both shared play and an exploration of everyday surroundings.
The 24 November 2019 speech confirms the Oasis Terraces celebration. Five Stones was one of three Public Art Trust commissions for the Singapore Bicentennial, alongside works at Jurong Lake Gardens and East Coast Park.
Heng described three-metre inflatable stones and connected the work with memories of playing the game across communities. He announced that the stones would leave Punggol the next day, travel to other locations and reunite in the Civic District during Singapore Art Week in January 2020.
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Spang & Lei’s project account describes three workshops in which participants assembled sensor kits, collected environmental data and translated it into graphs. Straws, pegs and balloons became materials for representing those observations.
Participants also used electric paint for sound paintings. The gathered data and residents’ stories then informed interactive sculptures, drawing on Punggol’s places and natural elements such as sunlight and air.
Our reading of these projects is that local history includes ways residents notice and interpret their town. Explore the wider sequence of public spaces and community milestones in the Punggol history directory.
