This year’s Singaplural was a sensory spectacle in the very best sense. Here’s what we took away from this weeklong celebration of all things design.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from design festival Singaplural – also the anchor event of Singapore Design Week – it’s that Singapore has talent. During this local-centric event, we interacted with a spectrum of performances and works of art, unleashed our creativity with craft workshops, went behind the scenes of local brands through walking tours, as well as picked the brains of personalities from the creative industry through sharing sessions. It was a true feast for all the senses – which would make sense (hah) since the theme for this year’s Singaplural was “Senses: the art and science of experiences”. There was so much to see and do at the weeklong celebration that we struggled to pick our favourites, but here are five installations that have stood out the most for us.
- XOXO by Meng
Our first thought when we entered this installation was, “Are these edible meringues hanging from the ceiling?” Truth is, they were made of clay. You have to understand our confusion – the space was engulfed in a saccharine sweet smell and those things looked pretty enough to eat. - 26 STROKES IN CAVA by Yunrubin
While not the most visually grand installation, this new typeface by Singaporean-Danish artist duo certainly impressed us. Each symbol was adapted from the Latin alphabet and then reinvented to create a new letter. It led us to think deeply about our ability to give meanings to shapes.
- ENGULF by XTRA and Celine Ng
If you have ever wondered about how a breaking wave looks and feels like from underwater, Celine Ng shows us in her installation. She uses the scale tiles from the Flow collection of BOLON, which is carried by furniture label XTRA, to create an almost hypnotic experience made all the more otherworldly with sounds and lights that mimic those of underwater.
- A BREATHE RESPITE by Panelogue and Poiesis Architects
One of the key ingredients used in this installation was Organoid, a new, all-natural surface material made from materials like rose petals, lavender and coffee beans. The great thing about it is that it retains the scent of the raw materials. By placing the surface material throughout the installation, it infused the space with a smell that conjured up images of a luxuriant garden.
- TILE IT UP by Hafary and WY-TO
The next time you are tiling up your home, take a leaf from this installation by design studio WY-TO. They created unique surfaces by combining different Hafary tiles to make up patterns and shapes.
This was adapted from an article originally written by Ho Pei Ying that appeared in the April 2016 issue of SquareRooms
