November 2020 Arts in Your Neighbourhood Self-Guided Walk around Tanjong Katong Road

For a change of pace, we headed off to Geylang for a walk. Primarily along Tanjong Katong Road to be exact to check out the Brilliant Corners: The City is Blooming Art Trail there. This art trail is part of the Arts in your Neighbourhood November 2020 programme.

November 2020 Arts In your neighbourhood: The city is blooming self-guided art trail / walk around Tanjong Katong Road map. — Here’s a view of where the murals along the trail are located. We visited the four that were somewhat more clustered together in the lower half of the map.

MUSIC ACCOMPANIMENT: The Brilliant Corners playlist on Spotify features tracks for walking around in Geylang. According to the website, these were on heavy rotation during the creation of brilliant corners. Click here to listen while you scroll through this post!

You can also go to www.brilliantcorners.club to see the original write-ups of these murals.

First stop: Geylang Park Connector Underpass

I figured along the Geylang Park Connector was a good place to start for our boy and our dog. Haha. Pretty sure Donna would be more interested to inspect the grass than inspect the art on the wall.

The first thing we saw was a crow along the Geylang River, but Little P was more interested to look at the river itself. Donna was marking the grass. See!

Little P was briefly interested in the giant red fish on the wall, but was soon more keen to continue down the underpass to see what else is there to explore. You can see his cheeky smile in the photo below as he turned to go further into the underpass!

Boy and dog at Geylang Park Connector Underpass Wall Mural. "The Flight of the Arowana" by Didier Jaba Mathieu. This is part of the Arts in your Neighbourhood November 2020 programme. — Look at the BIG fish!!
“**The Flight of the Arowana” mural by Didier Jaba Mathieu**
Native to Southeast Asia, the Arowana or “dragon fish” was nearly depleted in the wild in the 1970s. This endangered species is often regarded as a symbol of luck, wealth and prosperity among the Chinese community.
Location: Underpass along Geylang Park Connector next to Blk 62 along Old Airport Road.

But that’s not really where we intended to go, so we headed back out and were rewarded with two workers rowing their barge down the river.

Two workers rowing a barge down the Geylang River. — This is really timely for us as we visited the Singapore Yacht Club last week and little P was really taken by the yachts and the bumboats there! So here’s one more water transport to add to his collection of water transport three part cards and home wall art. :P

Second stop: Swanage Road along Tanjong Katong Road

Beware the magic mushrooms… they will make you think the flowers are spying on you~
**“Fleeting” Part I by Kiat**
According to residents, hummingbirds often visited here to drink from the alleyways’ water pipes and feed on the flowers blooming in the residents’ gardens. This mural makes the fleeting sightings of these hummingbirds feel unreal.
Location: From Tanjong Katong Road, turn into Swanage Road and then turn into the first alleyway along Swanage Road.

The kids’ review? Donna was just here to sniff at the backdoor of restaurants and eat treats. :P Little P was more interested in the overall environment and erm, bugging Donna. After this, he wanted to continue down the alleyway to explore. So we did.

Little P asserting his independence and wanting to carry the umbrella.

It was raining slightly. We observed the rain dripping down from the roof. We peeked into the doorways that led to the old-style staircases that spiral up to the sky.

The familiar juxtaposition of unwanted trash along the back alley, random pots of plants, rain stains and algae on the walls with the architecture of older days always did give me an odd sense of quaintness and decrepitude as I walk along such alleyways. I wonder how much of these Little P took in as he toddled along. He did want to check out the spiral staircase because… stairclimbing is definitely a hobby at this age. :)

An unexpected treat: Volvo Asphalt Paver

Back along Tanjong Katong Road, Little P was excited to see roadworks happening. We see lots of excavators and dump trucks in our area, but it is not that often that we see this! An asphalt paver!

A Volvo asphalt paver along Tanjong Katong Road. An Asphalt Paver lays the asphalt flat and provides minor compaction before it is compacted by a roller.
Some more images of asphalt pavers here for anyone interested (may not be the exact model).

To be honest, this was the sight that most captured Little P’s attention for this trip. He wanted to just stop and stare despite the rain. I would have stood there with him, if I hadn’t brought Donna along. :P

If you have a toddler that is similarly as entranced with construction vehicles here are a couple of books we own and love that you can borrow from your local library or buy on Amazon. :)

**Check it out on Amazon!** Roadwork for English readers and 来！大家一起修马路 for Chinese readers. The Chinese book in particular features the Asphalt Paver.

Third stop: Wareham Road along Tanjong Katong Road

**“Fleeting” Part II by Kiat**
In fact, the so-called hummingbirds in this area were actually sunbirds! This mural cloistered behind a wall of potted plants and some makeshift barricades on one end is a tribute to the real protagonist of this story. It’s right by the road so it’s too dangerous for me to take photos of the kids there.

Fourth stop: Branksome Road along Tanjong Katong Road

We came to our final stop by the side lane of Vets for Life Animal Clinic and found the very relevant and appropriate (given the context) Animals for Life mural there.

Little P was pointed at the rabbit and was more interested in this particular mural than the ones that we visited before… until his attention was taken up by three big trucks reversing at the corner. :P

Oh my, look at those trucks!
**“Animals for Life” by Oak & Bindi**
This mural features real life residents of Katong! According to the website, the Netherland Dwarf rabbit lives in a nearby creative studio and the white Samoyed is often sighted walking past the wall’s location.

And so Donna was left at the wall. A very important reminder to all that Black Pets Matter too. Thank you. :P

Also check out this post in my Dog Adoption Series: Leyla the Black Stray Puppy with White Spitz Sisters.

Thoughts from the walk

I wasn’t really thinking that it would rain and it did. It wasn’t heavy rain so I decided to go ahead with the walk since we came all the way here! Little P and Donna did not appear to be overly concerned about the rain either. I was very thankful that there was no thunder because then that wouldn’t have been the case with Donna.

As with kids and dogs, the walk took 4 times the length of time it would have taken if adults were walking. Ok, I lie. Two times since I did not let them meander as much as I would have if it were not raining. :P

But I am glad Little P got to see the barge at the Geylang River, the Asphalt Paver at Tanjong Katong road and also the dogs and trucks outside the vet at the fourth stop.

If you are visiting with only the kids in tow, you can even take a walk around the fresh fruit and vegetable markets and Indian markets housed in the shophouses along the way from stop to stop. :)

The murals were after all, just an excuse for us to get out of the house and see more sights! It’s about the process of getting there and exploring (despite the weather) more than the actual result of visiting the murals themselves. Although I have to say that the photos taken will remain precious memories for me too. I love capturing their interactions at each spot!

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PLEASE RESPECT THE CREATORS' COPYRIGHT: I have watermarked all my kids' photos as their rights to their own images is important to me. That said, I respect that the wall murals are works of art by the individual creators.

Please do ask me if you would like to use any of the photos on these post, even if you have asked and been given permission before. I do consider such requests on a case by case basis depending on the context the images will be used.   

Copyright information for images used in this post are either watermarked within the image itself or attributed and linked to Amazon or other third-party sales sites where they were originally sourced. Weliveinaflat does not claim copyright for any of the images that were sourced from these third parties. And where relevant, permission has been sought from individual third parties with the regard to the use of their photos on specific weliveinaflat posts only.

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