The seventh Aliwal Urban Art Festival (AUAF), put on by Arts House Limited (AHL) will take place at the Aliwal Arts Centre (AAC) on 14th January 2023, to highlight Singapore’s thriving urban culture scene. 

THE AUAF will take place on the final weekend of the Singapore Art Week in 2023, and will feature well-known local artists from various urban art disciplines in a fun selection of free events like live graffiti painting, music and dance performances, and a pop-up artists’ market in Kampong Gelam.

Introducing New Collaborative Platforms 

Refreshing the iconic façade of the side alley wall at AAC with a new mural that reflects the artists’ responses to one another’s distinctive practices, renowned visual artist and founder of RSCLS, ZERO, and Yogyakarta-based graffiti artist TUYULOVEME will work together for the first time. In the weeks leading up to the Festival, onlookers will also be able to see them in action along Aliwal Street. 

Twelve well-known urban artists, including ANTZ, BONY, Demster, nuriman, KILAS, PHATNOEZ, SAM LO, SPAZ, SPEAK CRYPTIC, TraseOne, TUYULOVEME, and Boon Baked, will demonstrate their artistic prowess for FLIPSIDE, an exhibition in which they are required to work in the tabula scalata format by presenting two images on a single canvas. In order to see and take in the entire piece, audiences will move around the space actively participating in the work. Visitors are invited to consider the necessity of varying and shifting perspectives in order to interact and coexist in a changing urban environment by virtue of the physical movement of audiences and the presence of multiple images within a canvas and exhibition space.

Live Exhibitions Of Various Forms Of Urban Art 

A day of live urban art events, including dance, music, and visual arts, will be part of the Festival, bringing the area to life. Viewers can get a glimpse into the process of a graffiti artist by watching two Live Graffiti Painting showcases where artists paint the walls of AAC from beginning to end. Has.J will use his well-known geometric compositions and experimental typography to transform the back wall of AAC, and Titan Aerosol Crew, one of Singapore’s original graffiti crews, will motivate viewers with their mural in Courtyard A.

David Siow of Steady State Records will present a line-up of independent bands and artists of various music genres, from math rock band woes to feel-good R&B band Astronauts, featuring Thai artist Lukpeach with whom they are planning a future collaboration, for those who want to move and groove to urban dance and music. Street dance duo ScRach MarcS closes out the celebrations by honoring the origins of street dance through a block party. This is the last chance for everyone to come together and dance the night away while enjoying dance performances and exhibition battles.  

Possibilities For Provoking Inventive Dialogue And Interaction

Listen to SAM LO, SPEAKCRYPTIC, TraseOne, and SPAZ as they discuss their artistic process while working on FLIPSIDE in the panel discussion moderated by ZERO. The sharing will explore issues of interaction, identity, and representation within and between communities while inviting viewers to participate and add to the discussion.

Finish the day by participating in urban art and street culture activities and having in-depth conversations with the practitioners, artists, and creators involved. The RSCLS-curated pop-up Black Market will have something for everyone interested in learning something new from the street culture scene, including silkscreen printing, street art tours around Kampong Gelam, bike fixing, and graffiti workshops.

According to Sim Wan Hui, Director of Venue Programs at Arts House Limited, “Arts House Limited is excited to bring the creative community back together again for a fully in-person edition of Aliwal Urban Art Festival 2023. With a wide array of interactive activities lined up by our creative community, we hope that families and youth alike will come spend their Saturday with us to experience urban arts of different mediums and by various communities.”

The Aliwal Urban Art Festival, which is FREE to the public and is held in conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2023, is a celebration of the precinct’s vibrant and varied urban arts scene. Through joint ventures and community outreach initiatives, Arts House Limited collaborates with its resident artists, art companies, and precinct stakeholders to further develop Singapore’s diverse arts scene.