IMBALANCE

IMBALANCE
2019, oil on canvas, 142 x 122 cm, artificial grass 150 x120 cm

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

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“Since the city’s founding in 1819, an extreme form of the human footprint has resulted in extensive habitat fragmentation, loss, degradation and modification. After all, Singapore is highly developed and built up, with only about 4 percent forest cover left. 163ha piece of forest at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve has remained relatively undisturbed. Tan et al. 1 allude to the fact that grassland has never has been a natural vegetation type of Singapore, but today the most common cultivated grass species in Singapore – carpet grass (Axonopus compressus) – is the single plant species covering the largest total area on the island. Like a maleficent caricature of what could be, the English landscape garden type is the most atypical style one could imagine in the tropical clime where tropical rainforest forms the natural dominant habitat. Today Singapore is effectively a “Green City” – at least, a green looking city (..).”*

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*‘BUTTOM – UP LANDSCAPE VERSUS TOP – DOWN CITY’ by Jörg Rekittke (Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)) “1000 Singapores. A Model of the Compact City”, Publisher: Singapore Institute of Architects, pp.157-167

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Photo by Wong Jing Wei