Mural
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*Tong Tong machines were once favoured by children who would insert a coin into the machine and turn a knob to receive a surprise toy. Inspired by this memory, ANTZ painted a set of larger than life machines near a row of convenience stalls. Packaged in plastic capsules within the drawn machines are retro toys and games such as opera masks, cassette tapes, flag erasers and more. ANTZ’s trademark monkey stands in front of the machine, ready to try his luck.
*Tong tong is an onomatopoeic term for gachapon machines. The Hokkien word ‘tong’ means to ‘insert’ or ‘drop’ while kia means ‘kid’. Tong kia refers to ‘the kid who plays the game’.
Music
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Laced with deep soulful spoken words and vocals, Kiat and ArunDitha’s track draws upon the notion of chance with unpredictable structure and reggae-ish beats, egging a luck contestant on with catchy chants and poetic lyrics.
ANTZ
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ANTZ is a multi-hatted creative whose practice as an urban artist extends to projects with the RSCLS collective, which he co-founded.
Dubbed “the Pope of Street Art” by a French travel magazine, ANTZ is known for his distinctive style, which draws deeply from the visual vocabulary of classical Chinese myths and vernacular stories.
His aesthetic sensibility has been described as a “juxtaposed-mash” amounting to a playful pastiche of international urban pop and ethnic traditions.
Kiat & ArunDitha
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This soundtrack is a collaboration between electronic music producer Kiat and poet/ performer ArunDitha who are both established artists in their scenes. Formed with spoken word poetics and songbird rhyme drenched in sub-bass line and scattered rhythm, the duo has showcased their body of work live at major festivals such as the Barcelona International Poetry Festival 2018 and Tropika 2018.
