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SINGAPORE: When you're traversing through crowds along Stamford Road, heading towards North Bridge Road, you may come across a 9m by 9m structure of see-through columns near the entrance of Robinsons at Raffles City.
If it makes you curious enough to want to touch and even wander through it, it has served its purpose.
Named 'disSPACEments', this art installation – made up of 25 seemingly wave-like towers of rubber tubing connected by black fabric straps – is a functioning maze commissioned by the Singapore Arts Festival 2008 as part of its outreach programme.
The aim of the striking presence in the middle of a large public space is to make passers-by stop for just a while and inspire a redirection of emotion towards the idea of meandering through the urban jungle.
This participatory art installation is designed by Chia Yu Hsien, who is an architect by profession and whose works include the design of the floating stage for the 2007 National Day Parade.
"What I was hoping to do was to find a different kind of maze – something that would relate to the urban form of the city; something that would make adults stop and pause as they run through the city in their day-to-day hectic lives," said Chia.
So instead of simply travelling from point A to point B, commuters should take in the sights along the way and, perhaps, try a different route to their destination once in a while.
And even after taking a little turn in the art maze, city dwellers can continue to vary their lives a little with the structure as the paths in the maze will be altered from week to week, conjuring different images of the surroundings.
Contrary to usual mazes that are constructed with formidable high walls, the metal framework of each 3.6m-high tower is wrapped with transparent plastic tubing that glows when lights are shone from the top and bottom of the structure.
This sequence of warm and cool lights casts strands of shadows on the footpaths in the maze, creating an experience that is almost cinematic.
As the official 'Festival Maze', disSPACEments also has a very practical element – maze-goers can find nuggets of information on the arts festival that have been creatively weaved into the structure.
According to Chia, this installation is likely to be used for games and competitions during the run of the festival from 23 May to 22 June as well.
So do make space in your day to discover art and spatiality as you swivel through town.
- CNA/so
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