Pictures of Geylang
2016 Untapped Emerging
Visual Arts Development Association
Shophouse 5, Singapore
4 June – 26 June 2016
Produced in direct response to the neighborhood surrounding Shophouse 5, this series of small oil paintings by Yeo Tze Yang examines the complex urban fabric of Geylang. Unlike the highly standardized residential zones found throughout Singapore, Geylang maintains a distinct, unvarnished history defined by its shophouse architecture, clan associations, migrant labor communities, and red-light districts. Presented as part of the inaugural UNTAPPED Emerging exhibition, Yeo's studies bypass nostalgic tropes. Instead, they utilize a compact, immediate scale to document the everyday realities and human architectures that characterize one of the city's few remaining zones of organic urban friction.
