In visualising and creating various everyday and specialty dishes across generations, Singapore has proudly carved its own identity and passion centring around the subject of food. With the introduction of dedicated spaces for hawker stalls and their constant development over the years, the uniquely-Singaporean hawker culture continues to remain strongly rooted in the hearts of locals.
This commission by the National Museum celebrates Singapore’s first nomination to the UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity – “Hawker Culture in Singapore: Community Dining and Culinary Practices in a Multicultural Urban Context” was successfully inscribed in December 2020.
In visualising and creating various everyday and specialty dishes across generations, Singapore has proudly carved its own identity and passion centring around the subject of food. With the introduction of dedicated spaces for hawker stalls and their constant development over the years, the uniquely Singaporean hawker culture continues to remain strongly rooted in the hearts of locals.
RSCLS and MARIHADALITTLESHEEP (featuring Rene Foo) have come together for this video collaboration to paint their take on their observations of the streets. In the process of creating this piece, the artists visualise street art and food as two beings growing hand in hand as they undergo parallel changes over time. Embodying a hint of playfulness and vibrancy, the artwork aims to introduce a fresh perspective on hawker culture to audiences, highlighting the subtle similarity in the identities of the streets and its food and art.
The life-sized pushcart and the hawker apparatus on view here are an artistic salute to the street vendors who have contributed to our rich heritage and culture.
