Common Sense, Where Art Thou?

Singapore has been hosting numerous art and culture festivals for years, but has it done us any good?

- Alywin Chew

From the Singapore International Festival of Arts and the Singapore Writers’ Festival to the Singapore International Film Festival and the Affordable Art Fair, we are certainly spoilt for choice these days.

As art is supposed to broaden our horizons and allow us to see things from different perspectives, you would think that these festivals have made us more cultured and learned.

I don’t think so.

Remember Priyageetha Dia, the lady who pasted gold foil on a staircase and hung gold sheets on the parapets of HDB blocks? Or Samantha Lo, the lady who stencilled “My Grandfather Road” on public roads? People were swift to call out on their “vandalism”.