updraft: A durational sonic presentation
by Kin Leonn
Daily from 16–24 Nov | 10am–7pm
Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Front Stairwell, Lobby B, next to SAM
Free, self-guided

updraft is a sonic presentation by Kin Leonn that spans three levels of Tanjong Pagar Distripark (39 Keppel Road, Lobby B), starting from its front stairwell, and ending with a focused listening space on the third-floor corridor facing the highway.

Inspired by the swirling of air currents from both manmade (perpetual highway traffic) and natural sources (weather and nearby sea breeze), an ambient composition flows through the stairwell on a multi-channel loop, traversing up and down the space through 12 speakers. On the third-floor balcony, a focused listening station with two sets of heaphones is situated facing the highway. Here, listeners can briefly shift the ongoing environmental noise into the background, immersing themselves in a separate composition which serves as an imaginary sensory soundscape to filter and modulate the present manmade scene.

The space embodies a somewhat liminal environment overtaken by the harsh sounds of a modern city. Yet, in the same way that wind can be a force of physical change, a carefully balanced soundscape can transform one’s relation to their surroundings. In this case, a softening of the rhythms of the city effectively re-contextualises the echoing highway noises into a more intentional cacophony, akin to the white noise of great billowing gusts of wind or ocean waves. Rather than suppressing manmade noise, this work seeks to understand its rhythms and frequency, and to offer a new sonic perspective on it.

p a c e: A dance and sonic activation across Kampong Bahru Bus Terminal
Sat, 16 and 23 Nov | 4.30pm–5.30pm
Kampong Bahru Bus Terminal
Free with registration

This work is set in Kampong Bahru Bus Terminal (KBBT) and was made as a response to Tan Pin Pin’s video documentary of walk walk (Singapore Deviation version).

The active bus terminal is a place of beginnings and endings, where daily commutes often follow the pulse of the city. Nearby, the Rail Corridor bustles with activity with joggers, cyclists and people, passing through the bus terminal as a waypoint. walk walk has screened every day at KBBT for 2 years. In the film, Tan Pin Pin, together with Amanda Heng and interviewees, respond to the theme of walking. The artist further expounds on one’s freedom of movement and how the body politic is folded into the freedoms we are perceived to deserve or not.

p a c e is a performance centred on rhythm. It follows people moving in and out of sync, exploring how we move, move together and move with one another. It is an invitation to reimagine the act of waiting, walking and the way we move through transient spaces.

Special thanks to Land Transport Authority and SBS Transit.

Bodily Meander: A site-specific movement connection
Sun, 17 and 24 Nov | 5pm and 8pm
Duxton Plain Park
Meet between Essen@The Pinnacle and the Indian Rubber Heritage Tree next to Poh Toh Si Temple (click on Google map link for exact location)
Free with registration

Bodily Meander draws its primary impetus from Aki Hassan’s public art commission, Grounding Points: Settled and Settling In, which mark the northern and southern points of Duxton Plain Park. Through [the genre of] contemporary dance that embraces diverse movement expressions, this roving performance introduces fluid levels of performativity in the communal space. Bodily Meander invites the audience to wonder about a space beyond its functional existence and connect to a place with its own memories in new light. The corporeal bodies become the main medium of connection. Both the performers and audience imprint ephemeral physical traces of engaging with the sculptural artwork and its environment – highlighting observations in reciprocity between the organic and synthetic, human and non-human, movement and stillness. Like a river depositing sediments as it flows, the performance transforms into a conduit for heightened sensibilities within Duxton Plain Park.

Bodily Meander calls for us to pause in our tracks, allowing detours or even retracing one’s course, and seeks to explore personal experiences of connection through physical engagement.