“Us” and Experience: Finding Meaning in Street Art Through the Collective

Abstract

It is not often that I feel like a tourist in my own country. At Haji Lane, I see spray-painted murals littering the walls, some oversaturated with lurid colours and some an alluring monochrome, and tell myself, “What an anomaly this place is!”
Haji Lane sandwiches itself between unassuming streets, amidst rumbling construction sites and tour buses, almost hidden by the main road. Inside, a whole other world unfolds where foreigners unleash their open-mouthed wonder. I mirror their expressions as I walk. It is one of the few places where graffiti is not something to get rid of. Rather, their garish distortions of the English text create a homely insulation for the youth of Singapore to make a statement of themselves.