State Curated Street Art
<p>Singapore isn’t an edgy place and neither is its street art. Any public expression that seriously challenged authority would not last one day.</p>
<p>Street art began as a provocative violation of property rights. Cities fought it. Street artists were major outlaws once.</p>
<p>Singapore made a law against provocative violations of property rights over 50 years ago, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandalism_Act" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Vandalism Act of 1966</strong></a>. It stipulates mandatory fines, prison time, and corporal punishment; ie. caning, 3–8 strokes.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if it’s Art or Graffiti. It doesn’t matter if you’re Picasso. If you didn’t get written permission from the owner, it’s vandalism and you’re in deep shit.</p>
<p>I traveled to Singapore developing educational programs a half dozen times in the early 2000s. I rode the MTR all over the tiny country, got out and walked around frequently. There wasn’t any street art then.</p>
<p>Instead, there were constant government campaigns aimed at shaping behavior at scale. When I was there, the “<strong><em>Have Fun</em></strong>” campaign was starting up. Officialdom had decided that people needed to let down their hair a little more, just a little though.</p>
<p><a href="https://tomnickel.medium.com/state-curated-street-art-a7f640d2a5f"><strong>Visit Now</strong></a></p>