Creative Process Journal #8
Project The Dance of the Flaming Arseholes
We’ve always been intrigued by subcultures existent in Singapore’s history but yet, we have never really gone out of our way to take these references as fodder for our art-making.
Of course there will be a gamut of exciting stories in Singapore’s past that could provide us salient points of departure for our future works but...how can a place like Bugis Street become such a banal attraction/bazaar after it's super-glitzy past?!
We found some images from National Archives that confirmed our mental perception of Bugis Street as “the” place to be in pre-progress-driven Singapore right from the 50s to the early 80s.
Oral history interviews stated Bugis Street as “well-known for services from transvestites, and the various Chinese foods, such as frogs, snakes, and so on were the favourites among the visitors.”
This will be a works-in-progress where we will be exploring accounts of people who lived through that interesting phase of excess, debauchery and celebration.
We will name this project The Dance of the Flaming Arseholes.