The Telok Ayer “Stories” Project is a site-specific project of art interventions in the Telok Ayer district as a form of “story-telling” of the history of the area. Managed by students of the Arts Management programme of LASALLE College of the Arts in Telok Ayer and in collaboration with the Urban Redevelopment Authorities (URA), the selected artists draw on historical sources, community memories and stories, and the contemporary setting of Telok Ayer, to conceptualise and produce physical art installations that will ultimately contribute a sense of delight and social and historical significance to the Telok Ayer district.

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Stories from the Sea is a documentation of descendants’ stories of their grandparents or parents’ journey to Singapore. Through their oral history, these participants will document their stories (through a design created during a workshop) onto a porcelain plate, which would then be installed at the selected site.

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For this work, I worked closely with the Indian Muslim Nagore Dargah Heritage Centre which currently runs an exhibition on the descendants’ stories. I spoke to many of their community members during a Kenduri session, and asked them to contribute stories and images which are then used in the drawings. It is my hope that these selected images best encapsulate a significant part of their stories. 

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The porcelain plates with the drawn images are then grouped in clusters to narrate their stories, and then installed at the site (Eden Cafe) just across from Nagore Dargah. 

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More about the Rediscover Telok Ayer Project

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