State Curated Street Art

<p>Singapore isn&rsquo;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&nbsp;<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&ndash;8 strokes.</p> <p>It doesn&rsquo;t matter if it&rsquo;s Art or Graffiti. It doesn&rsquo;t matter if you&rsquo;re Picasso. If you didn&rsquo;t get written permission from the owner, it&rsquo;s vandalism and you&rsquo;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&rsquo;t any street art then.</p> <p>Instead, there were constant government campaigns aimed at shaping behavior at scale. When I was there, the &ldquo;<strong><em>Have Fun</em></strong>&rdquo; 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>
Tags: Street Art