SIFA 2015 / Septfest 2015: Exploring homes in two different tours
If you pay attention and are patient enough, many places have secrets to divulge, stories to tell. Two ongoing arts festivals, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) and The Substation’s Septfest, are currently offering little tours that let you have a peek at these. In the latter, the stories are embedded in the very bones of its storied building, while the former offer revelations of ordinary folks scattered all over the island.
THE SPIRITS PLAY
We’re certain many of the arts scene’s iconic spaces have lots to tell. But these days, they’ve either disappeared, been spruced up or even disemboweled (the old Drama Centre at the old National Library, the old National Theatre, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall), or are still relatively new (the Esplanade).
The Substation, however, is another story altogether. It has been around in its original state, more or less, since its beginnings as a power substation from 1926 to the 1970s and its subsequent revival as a “home for the arts” in 1990, spearheaded by the late Kuo Pao Kun. On its 25th anniversary as an arts centre, there’s an ongoing nocturnal audio tour that reveals some of its secrets — of the otherworldly variety.
It’s a cheeky, lighthearted one in line with the ongoing Hungry Ghost Month, and the perfect venue to boot — The Substation is notorious for its ghostly inhabitants, ranging from a little girl to a doppelganger to an Indian soldier. The stories have been compiled by poet Tania de Rozario in the piece Hearing Things, which casts some of the more public areas — the classrooms, rehearsal space and the theatre seating gallery — in a different light. It also opens doors to previously off-limits areas such as the control room and, the most interesting of the lot, the eerie and claustrophobic basement, site of an urban legend regarding a sealed-up doorway into a secret tunnel that supposedly leads to Fort Canning. In focusing on the supernatural vibe, the tour emphasises it’s not just warm-blooded artists and patrons whose lives are intertwined with the space but how they “share” these with others of the unexplainable variety. Perhaps all these stories are simply a matter of “25 years of collective imagination”, as the audio tour narrator goes. But there’s something interesting in the metaphorical parallel between the supposed abundance of ghosts and The Substation’s reputation as a haven for alternative discourses and artists, many of whom stand in the periphery of the mainstream — the punks and performance artists, the experimental theatre groups and emerging visual artist.
MEET YOUR HOSTS
Meanwhile, SIFA’s Open Homes takes place in broad daylight. A counterpoint to Kumar’s earlier travelling show Living Together, which brought strangers out of their homes for a communal theatre experience, this one brings a handful of strangers into people’s flats and condominiums to listen to specific stories of residents. (This isn’t the first time it’s being done though — the popular Open House series has been doing something similar for a few years now, most recently in Joo Chiat.)
Done in collaboration with People’s Association’s PAssionArts, it comprises hour-long revelations in various homes, conceived together with artist-mentors. It’s spread across the island and you’ve got an assortment of hosts — from a retired carpenter to a herbalist to musicians and artists — who regale you with stories ranging from Hindu wedding ceremonies to creating a “museum”. (We also spotted something about a home being turned into a xinyao-inspired “time machine” in the list.) And, for pet lovers, you’ve also got the occasional bonus of cats or dogs.
For an arts festival, we couldn’t have picked a better house than that of retirees William Teo Jui Wah and his wife, Jessie Ng Wai Kum. Mentored by Young Artist Awardee and theatremaker Ian Loy, the couple offered a visual art-music package of sorts. The missus, an amateur musician, took out her ukelele and also played on the piano. But it was Mr Teo who intrigued us, an amateur photographer who consciously decided to specialise in Chinese opera (mainly in Singapore), offering his services for free to support a dwindling art form he adored as a young child. Going by the exceptional quality of his works, it’s a surprise that he hasn’t held a solo exhibition yet (although he does have a website and would print calendars with his photos).
This impromptu exhibition (his photographs are all up on the walls) was simply the icing on the cake as he also shared how he started shooting, showing off his first camera (a gift from friends in 1965) and other treasures: Old family photographs and images of the National Theatre, the Satay Club and even of Goh Keng Swee, who visited the factory of Caterpillar, where he once worked (his colleagues knew of his passion and let him take photos).
As he went through a slide show presentation of his other Chinese opera photos and current ones (including of the recent National Day Parade), his eyes would light up as he explained how he got these picture-perfect moments. “These are what keeps me going,” said Teo. “These are what I live for.”
In these two tours, art, it would seem, is the lifeblood of both the living and the dead.
Hearing Things runs until Sept 9, 7pm onwards, at The Substation. Tickets at S$17 from Peatix. For more info on this show and other Septfest events, visit http://www.substation.org/septfest/
Open Homes is on Sept 12 and 13, various times. Free with pre-registration. For more info on this show and other SIFA events, visit http://sifa.sg/sifa/show/open-homes
