Singaporeans say they want creativity. But do they mean it?

Innovation requires room for experimentation. Artistic creativity deserves the same tolerance for trial and error.

- Karen Tee

In Singapore, the term “struggling artist” is more than a cliche. Unfortunately, it is often a reality.

This is not just because making a living from the arts is difficult, although it certainly is. Artists and creatives contend with irregular incomes, uncertain career paths and persistent questions about whether what they do is practical, useful or necessary. But they also face another challenge: being treated by some as a problem to be managed rather than a source of creativity to be nurtured.

Recently, power-washing artist Marcus Pang found himself at the centre of that tension. Pang had been creating a work titled Heart Of Mountbatten on a pavement near Mountbatten MRT station. Using a power washer and water, he creates images by cleaning dirt from surfaces rather than adding paint or other materials.

According to Pang, the police were called to the scene but found no issue with what he was doing. But the work in progress was later removed when the area was “whitewashed” by SMRT, leaving behind a square of freshly washed concrete.

The incident joins recent cases involving creative uses of public space. Earlier in 2026, mirrors installed in an underground linkway at Bayfront MRT station that had become a popular practice venue for dancers were frosted after complaints that those dancers obstructed pedestrian flow. In 2024, debate surrounded the removal of a smoking samsui woman mural in Chinatown following concerns that it normalised smoking.

The circumstances may have differed but each case involved resolving tension between spontaneous creativity and the management of public spaces.