Public Art Commissions at Mapletree Business City II
By Vivyan Yeo

‘Culture City.Culture Scape’, 2021, published by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Image courtesy of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.

It is usually a joy to see public art in everyday life. They encourage us to pay attention to our environments and provide food for thought on their site-specific meanings. Given their public nature, the importance of physical and visual accessibility is a given. What then, besides having a general appeal, should be the aim of public art? Professor Joseph Liow points out in the book ‘Culture City. Culture Scape’, public art is about “continued engagement and educational potential across many areas of inquiry, from the humanities and social sciences to science and engineering.” Published by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA) and edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Sophie Goltz and Khim Ong, this thoughtful publication details a series of public art commissions curated by NTU CCA at Mapletree Business City II (MBC II). It features works by Singapore artist Zul Mahmod and international artists Dan Graham, Tomás Saraceno and Yinka Shonibare. Understanding MBC II as an integrated “micro-city” that combines business, leisure, community and nature, the publication references a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, economics, electronics and social history.

As the public artworks were commissioned by a business hub, one might immediately think of profit-driven goals and stiff corporate branding. The format of ‘Culture City. Culture Scape’ challenges these notions by focusing on organic conversations between the project’s contributors. The book is broadly sectioned into three parts: essays from the curators, a conversation between Bauer and Edmund Cheng, Chairman of Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd, and in-depth discussions between the featured artists and curators, which form the bulk of the publication. In line with NTU CCA’s role as a national research centre, these conversations are critical and reflective. Apart from delving into the artists’ general practice, they address pertinent questions about creating art for diverse audiences, receiving mixed feedback from the public, how the works interact with a corporate space, adapting the pieces for the Singapore environment, and many more. The publication presents these public art commissions as opportunities for learning, an aim exemplified further by the Mapletree-NTU CCA Singapore Public Art Education Programme, which includes guided tours, workshops, collaborative events and conferences for visitors to enjoy. Contrary to a top-down approach associated with corporate investments, ‘Culture City. Culture Scape’ embodies the project’s educational aim and documents the close involvement of artists from across the globe.

Zul Mahmood, ‘Sonic Pathway’, 2017, commissioned for Mapletree Business City II, Singapore. Image courtesy of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.

The book offers insights on lesser-known topics through the discussion of public artworks at Mapletree Business City II. In particular, the broader context of sound art is explored in the conversation surrounding Mahmod’s work, ‘Sonic Pathway’, which is composed of copper pipes attached to the ceiling of a passage. Over 500 solenoids (electromagnets that create controlled magnetic fields) hit the pipes to produce sound, and are further complemented by ambient noises recorded and remixed by the artist. The publication features the artist speaking with Ong, the Deputy Director of Curatorial Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore at the time. Interwoven with images of Mahmod’s work, the conversation expands on the importance of listening. In the artist’s words, “We often look at art but seldom listen to art… Especially when we live in a city, we just tune out a lot of sound.” The unconventional sounds created in ‘Sonic Pathway’ then compels visitors to pay attention. On the flip side, Ong raised the point that the work received mixed feedback from tenants due to its constant sound production. Perhaps such responses are expected in public artworks. “They are not pretty things that you put in a space that people don’t notice,” Ong explains, “They should activate and change the way we feel about, behave in, or use a particular area.” With an open discussion on fresh subjects and audience feedback, the publication effectively expounds on the challenges and significance of creating public art.

Yinka Shonibare CBE, ‘Wind Sculpture I’, 2013’, Mapletree Business City II, Singapore. Image courtesy of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. ©Yinka Shonibare CBE. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021.

Engaging artists from the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom and Singapore, the book productively grapples with international perspectives. The commissioned work by British-Nigerian artist Shonibare ‘Wind Sculpture I’, for instance, references complex trade routes throughout the globe. In the form of billowing sails, the sculpture is adorned with Dutch wax fabrics, a design entrenched in the history of Indonesian colonialism. The fabrics were later sold to the African market by the Europeans in the 19th century. As Shonibare points out in his conversation with Goltz, the then Deputy Director for Research and Academic Education at NTU CCA, Singapore too was colonised by the British and had global trade routes connected to the Netherlands and Africa. ‘Wind Sculpture I’, placed symbolically in a bustling roundabout, is a nod towards Singapore's roots in historical maritime trade routes. It reminds us of the constant exchange of materials, business and culture across borders.

All in all, ‘Culture City. Culture Scape’ is a welcomed reference book on the discourse of public art in Singapore. With a critical, interdisciplinary approach, it successfully marries cultural and corporate interests to provide public education. After finishing the book, however, one might wonder: How might the project have differed if there were more gender-diverse voices from Southeast Asia? The permanent and public nature of these works hand them a substantial amount of power; the knowledge of not only their meanings, but also their creators are bound to play a role in the experience of art trails and workshops conducted by the Mapletree-NTU CCA Singapore Public Art Education Programme. As the number of public art commissions grows in Singapore, perhaps we can look forward to seeing future projects that further reflect the perspectives of the local, or regional community.

The book is available for purchase at NUS Press.