Artwork: My Grandfather Road 2016, photographic print on sihl artistic textured archival paper, 90 x 160 cm

Born in 1986 Sam Lo (aka SKL0) is a Singapore-based, trans-masc visual artist whose work revolves around social commentaries fuelled by daily observations of their surroundings and research into the sociopolitical climate. Their intrigue with the concept of culture and bold execution in some of their earliest forays into street art dubbed them the “Sticker Lady”, a nickname lovingly given by the city in reference to the saga that was birthed from their work in the streets. Since then, the artist’s work - whether installations, large scale murals or digital designs - has been centred on understanding the world around us and how our actions are interdependent on each other.

Over a period of five years, Sam Lo (SKL0) pasted stickers all over the Singapore cityscape. Small, inconspicuous, and mostly uniform in design, the stickers appear to be the unremarkable insignia of corporate advertisement, or an ordinary feature of urbanised space. But in the Singaporean context, where the state has historically taken a heavy-handed approach to regulating public space, Lo’s stickers generated major controversy and were denounced as acts of vandalism. Seemingly anticipatory of the furore, Lo’s stickers bear tongue-in-cheek phrases in Singlish, a creole language that is widely spoken in Singapore but frowned upon by the government for its perception as a form of ‘broken’ or ‘bad’ English. One sticker placed on a lamp post captures this flippancy in its tagline: ‘Anyhow paste kena fine’ (just paste it anyhow and cop a fine). 

In 2012, Lo was arrested for spray-painting the words ‘My Grandfather Road’ on roads throughout the Central Business District, leading to a year-long court case and a subsequent charge of 240 hours of community service. Lo’s photographic documentations of her work, which survive the actual material interventions, serve not only as a record of their ‘crime’, but also as an intimate snapshot of the entangled relationship between community, space, and the city-state unique to Singapore. The phrase, used colloquially in Singapore to berate people for obstructing others in a public space (“you think this is your grandfather’s road?”) is repurposed in Lo’s work as a way of reasserting a sense of place in the face of Singapore’s rapid urbanisation, economic development, and attempts to rebrand itself as a model global city. Here, the photographic remnants of Lo’s transient material markings invite us to reflect on the ways in which the connection between people and place can be re-imagined, reinvigorated, and reclaimed over time. As Lo suggests, the power of their art can be found in its subtlety—’It was like a little inside joke, our intimate moment found in a chance encounter on the streets to make it feel like home again.’

Artist’s website: https://sam-lo.com/

Think About/Discuss:

Lo’s sticker interventions into public space, and their spray-painted sarcastic comment in ‘My Grandfather Road’, attempt to reclaim public urban spaces that have been consumed or altered by rapid development. Lo uses humour to create a conversation about the privatisation of public space and about the alienation felt by city dwellers as their memories and personal histories are swept away by demolition and redevelopment. Can you think of any local examples, such as “guerrilla gardening”, graffiti, murals or “yarn bombing”?

Compare Lo’s urban interventions with any of the following:

Consider these BIG questions:

  • Who is the audience for “agit-prop” public art?

  • What happens when art moves outside the white cube of the gallery space?

  • Can (or should) artists be activists? Can art change society?