You see a 1.1m-tall sculpture of an adorable bird standing on a public lawn. What do you do?

Admire it? Take a selfie as you pat its beak? Or get someone to snap a shot of you sitting astride it?

It seems the last two options are the most popular when it comes to Local Mynas, a trio of sculptures of the titular bird outside the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall.

This, despite a nearby A4-sized sign that reads “Please refrain from touching the sculptures” in font size 10, which is just slightly bigger than this story’s text size.

The sculpture is among 14 sets of artworks on display as part of an outdoor exhibition called Envision: Sculptures @ the Garden City stretching from The Arts House to Fullerton Bay Hotel.

Launched on Jan 16, it features works by 11 home-grown and international artists. It ends on April 23.

Like Local Mynas, a few other sculptures have had to suffer the same indignity. The results are ugly scratches, cracks, holes – and a group of concerned artists and curators.

A bronze sculpture showing four people seated round a table even had a sticker stuck on the lower half of the work.

German tourist Reinhold Pause, 44, was seen placing his 1 ½- year-old son on top of one of the mynah sculptures on Wednesday.

Why put the boy on the mynah?

“It makes a good photo. The bird is cute,” he says, adding that he did not see the sign.

His reaction is like that of many people The Sunday Times interviewed when asked why they touched or sat on the art installations.

Organisers of Envision estimate that at least three of the artworks have been damaged.

The biggest casualty is Road To Fifty, a display of 50 giant saga seeds made of fibreglass.

Three of the seeds sport cracks and gaping holes likely as a result of people lifting, moving and sitting on them.

Indeed, Instagram and Facebook abound with photographs of people doing just that.

Although the organisers had allowed visitors to touch this display, they did not expect people to sit on the seeds.

A 49-year-old man, who declines to be named, posted on Instagram photos of his family of five perched on the seeds in January. He says: “So many people sat on the seeds, I thought it was okay.”

Singapore art gallery iPreciation, which is behind the outdoor exhibition, is “disappointed” with the public’s lack of respect for the artworks.

In total, there are 15 signs telling visitors to refrain from touching, and four smaller plates, where the line “Please refrain from crossing the barrier and touching the sculptures” is printed in font size 22.

iPreciation’s managing director, Ms Helina Chan, says: “The signs are fairly prominent and they are a standard size for art exhibitions in an outdoor environment.”

For the artists involved, the public’s careless treatment of their works has left a sour taste.

Singaporean artist Kumari Nahappan, 62, who was behind the saga seed sculptures and whose public artworks have been vandalised, says: “I am surprised that this happens time and again.

“With all the exposure that people have had to public artworks over the years, I would have thought their attitude and sense of appreciation for art would have progressed.”

She adds: “I’m happy people engaged with the work. But I wish they can see the bigger picture that it should be shared with a larger audience over a longer duration.”

Home-grown sculptor Lim Soo Ngee, 54, who created the mynah sculptures, has been touching them up since the exhibition started, applying fresh paint twice to areas where the paint has chipped or peeled off.

He is resigned to people damaging his work, saying: “When people encounter something unfamiliar in a public space, it is only human nature to get excited and want to touch it.”

But in the eyes of some people, it is only natural for members of the public to want to touch public artworks, especially when the works are not cordoned off.

Can the public be educated about respecting public artworks? Singaporean artist Karen Mitchell, 42, whose installation at the 2013 Night Festival was tampered with, says that oil and dirt from fingers can cause artworks to deteriorate faster.

She usually sets aside half the amount of money spent on making an artwork towards fixing and maintaining it.

Ms Cheryl Ho, director of private art consultancy Articulate Consulting, says: “People will always be curious about public art and a small percentage will always cross the line. I think that if people understand the value of artworks as well as the tremendous effort that it takes to create each sculpture, they would think twice about touching it.”

Veteran artist Lim Leong Seng, 66, who has created more than 30 public sculptures here, says: “I don’t think Singaporeans have reached the stage where we are all culturally informed. There are people who still do not cherish artworks.”

Artist-architect Kum Chee Kiong, 53, who is not involved in the Envision event, says: “If there is a sign saying the artwork should not be touched, then viewers should follow it.

“Whatever happened with the sculptures is beyond meaningful interaction. These are artworks. It is not a playground.”

Lim proposes using reason to inculcate civic consciousness.

He recounts how he once ran into a man who let his elderly father sit on a public sculpture near the Merlion. Lim borrowed a chair from a nearby cafe for the older man and took the chance to educate them.

“I told them it was not good to sit on a public sculpture, which an artist probably took a long time to make. If they were tired, they could always order a drink at a cafe and rest there.”

And if all else fails? Mitchell suggests in jest: “Maybe harsher signages such as ‘High Voltage’ or ‘Toxic Paint’ would work.”

This article was first published on April 10, 2016.
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A gambler with assets in Perth failed to shake off a debt of over $620,000, owed to Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), on grounds that Western Australian law does not allow gambling on credit which he used to chalk up the losses here.

The Western Australia (WA) Supreme Court dismissed the move, making clear that while many in Singapore and Western Australia may think it is morally and ethically wrong to allow credit for gambling, that is not the point.

“It cannot possibly be said Singapore is not entitled to make its own decision on that question,” wrote Master Craig Sanderson of the WA Supreme Court in judgment grounds released last week.

Some countries’ judicial systems have a Master. This is a judicial officer who usually deals with preliminary or short matters assigned from a judge’s list of cases.

The case is significant in testing whether the Western Australia law that forbids credit gambling serves as grounds to stop any Singapore judgment on casino gambling from being recognised and enforced there.

RWS had taken the case to Perth to recover the debt owed by Mr Lim Soo Kok, a Malaysian who is understood to have assets in Australia. He had incurred losses when he visited RWS several times over four months prior to March 2013.

He had sought credit facilities, the terms of which included having to repay within seven days of drawing down. By March 2013, he owed $622,363. Talks followed and both parties agreed in August 2014 for him to repay thisin $50,000 monthly instalments.

But he reneged on the deal after the first instalment and RWS sued him in the Singapore High Court where it won a default judgment against him in December 2014.

His appeal failed and RWS then applied to register and enforce the judgment in Western Australia under reciprocal arrangements between the two judicial systems.

Mr Lim applied in the Perth court last month to set aside the move, arguing it was against public policy in the state – which meant the court could intervene and reject enforcement. But the judicial officer ruled that for the court to intervene, it was not enough to show Australian law would have produced a different result for the issue of gambling on credit compared to Singapore law.

While Western Australia law prohibits credit gaming, he said, such a prohibition does not “in any way” undermine the judgment obtained in Singapore. He said the Western Australia legislature exercised its power to enact laws to reflect its approach to gambling and the social problems it can cause, but it does not apply universally.

“A system which does allow the provision of credit for gambling is not so inherently evil as to render it contrary to public policy,” he said. It was for Singapore to decide its stand on the question.

“Having made the decision, and having availed himself of that facility, public policy in Australia does not dictate that registration of the judgment be set aside,” said Mr Sanderson.

This article was first published on April 11, 2016.
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