Inspired by a commonplace activity along the Rail Corridor, walk walk (Singapore Deviation version) is a video and an installation on the theme of walking. While mundane, walking is a carefully managed practice in Singapore, shaped by public agencies and private developers. The island-nation is designed to be very walkable, with air-conditioned shopping malls and wellmaintained sidewalks shaded by trees. Siting this work in a bus terminal, artist Tan Pin Pin highlights ideas about freedom of movement, how walking is a basic expression of this freedom, and how public transportation further supports our mobility.

walk walk (Singapore Deviation version) comprises a video and text installations. The video documentary installed at the terminal’s Transitlink Office features several individuals discussing the role of walking in their lives. On the ceiling beams above the bus berths, lines of text reveal a poem about walking as commuters pass through the terminal. Read together, the lines create an onomatopoeic effect, mimicking the rhythmic movement of steps.

In the nearby National Transport Workers Union (NTWU) Cafeteria frequented by bus captains between trips, an LED text installation of the common parting phrase, “慢慢走” (walk slowly) imparts well wishes to the bus captains as they embark on their daily journeys.

About the Artist
Tan Pin Pin's (b. 1969, Singapore) films question the national identity of Singapore. From documenting Singapore's everyday rituals in IN TIME TO COME (2017), to interviewing exiles in To Singapore, with Love (2013), Tan's films speak to gaps in the city’s history, memory, and documentation. According to Moviemaker magazine, “Self-examination—both its necessity and its limits—as well as the intersection between the personal and the public, are the thematic foundations to Tan’s work.” Her award-winning films include Singapore GaGa (2005), Invisible City (2007) and Pineapple Town (2015). www.tanpinpin.com

In Stagecraft: Landscaped Grounds, Hilmi Johandi collages and re-interprets travel advertisements depicting early 20th century British Malaya. Set in the open landscape near what was once a critical transport passage, this installation uses methods of stagecraft, or theatrical set design, to connect the railway’s colonial and migratory past with its present-day function as a recreational trail

Billboard-sized printouts of lithography printed shapes and forms drawn from early advertising posters of the Federated Malay States Railways (1901–1948) are collaged and arranged across the landscape. As visitors move through the entrance of Wessex Estate from the Rail Corridor, they encounter an immersive tableau. Through his act of extracting and recompositing elements from early tourism advertisements, Hilmi creates a confrontation with a familiar yet unexpected space.

About the Artist
Hilmi Johandi (b. 1987, Singapore) works primarily with painting as a medium and explores interventions with various media to pursue ideas of image-making. He revises images from film, archival footage and photographs, bringing them together in montages that hint at the social effects of rapid development. Beyond evoking nostalgia, Hilmi’s work also encourages a critical reflection on Singapore’s historical narratives. Hilmi is the recipient of the Young Artist Award 2018, NAC Arts Scholarship (Postgraduate) 2017, LASALLE Scholarship 2017 and the Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award. His work has been exhibited in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York and London.

Referencing the Rail Corridor as a place of passage between the constructed world and unkempt wilderness, Moonlight transports us deep into a sublime and timeless territory.

A cast bronze sculpture that embodies the fossilised remains of terrestrial vegetation. During the day, the sculpture is a sublimation of a burnt log, its digitally-modified body appearing as a mirage amidst the landscape of Wessex Estate. At night, the sculpture recedes into the shadowy vegetation surrounds. Encounters with this peculiar object along the clearing is quite like traversing the boundary between imaginative form and objective reality.

Dealing in an adventurous vocabulary of matter, Ang’s work toes the line between the sublime and transcendental. The delicate balance and the elemental nature of her work echoes the spontaneous, dream-like quality travel undertaken along the lush and uncultivated Rail Corridor.

About the Artist
Sookoon Ang (b. 1977, Singapore) lives and works in Singapore and Paris. Her work is underpinned by existential anxiety and addresses the relations between the physical and metaphysical world. Ang’s work is inspired by her belief that there is no singular, objective reality and responds to the transient, imperfect nature of things, emotions and ideas. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Palais de Tokyo, Beijing Biennale, Art Basel Hong Kong, International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, and Fribourg International Film Festival. She has been awarded several international fellowships including the Freeman Fellowship and Asia-Pacific fellowship, and has participated in residences such as the Rijksakademie, MASS MoCA and ISCP.