2024
OH! Kampong Gelam: Palimpsest (2024) by OH! Open House is a guided art walk that explores how maps have constantly rewritten the story of Kampong Gelam, also known as Singapore’s Muslim Quarter. Prior to colonisation by the British in 1819, the area was home to the Malay aristocracy of Singapore. 12 site-specific art installations leads visitors to understand and unearth stories within this neighbourhood.
Lines and boundaries, scraped and scratched into the surface over and over, until they blend into a palimpsest of fickle lines and faithless memories. For each road drawn, each building gazetted, each heritage plaque erected, there is a missing story that speaks of fractured spaces and communities long gone. This neighbourhood still holds its scars, scrapes and scratches, its dreams and tragedies.
The visual identity we've designed for this art walk centres around the concept of 'palimpsest', defined as something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. The 'patchwork map' visuals draws references from the historical context of this neighbourhood, how maps, plans and blueprints have remade this place again and again, in spite of, and against the lived experiences of the community.
Along the road of Sultan Gate sites the ruins of Pondok Jawa, a former lodging house for the Javanese in Kampong Gelam. That was also the previous site of the famous Banyan tree, a community landmark which has since fallen. We've incorporated the cross section of a tree as a platform for storytelling, personifying the unfolding of the hidden narratives of these contested spaces and displaced communities. The visual language is applied across all key channels such as the field-kit, digital communication materials and way-finding prints.
