What layers of history reside here?


The odd fragment of the shoreline far displaced from Singapore’s current land boundary elicits questions of how and why this urban district has evolved. In this charged site of the Padang, the installation subtly recalls the nation’s pre-founding ruggedness, colonial milieu, and post-independence development.


The anti-monument of a patch of beach reinvokes centuries’ past of activity and spectacle. Between fishing shore, colonial dealings and metropolitan bustle, the Padang has been a quiet and restless witness to Singapore’s changes.