“My Grandfather Road” has been the talk of the town lately due to the recent arrest of a young street artist, Samantha Lo (aka SKL0), believed to be the one who sprayed the wordings on several roads as well as pasting black and white stickers with catchy captions such as “Press to time travel”, “Anyhow press police catch”, “Press to Nirvana” around prominent location of Singapore.
Samantha has always been passionate about exposing local talents and giving them a platform to shine with her RCGNTN.ORG. I had the chance to interview her sometime back, by speaking to her, you can feel the drive she has with the aim to shape and change the local scene. People who are in the local arts and culture scene would understand the futility of walking in the opposite stream, which is a daunting task. But Samantha did not waver and she did what most would not . Using excuses of being too afraid or having difficulties in the execution of work did not stop Samantha from trudging on with her silent movement.
Charged with Vandalism, Samantha faces up to 3 years in prison, along with a S$10,000 fine for her work.
A lot of people have expressed their support for Samantha while a lot of other people expressed dismay… As per the saying goes, there’s always two side to every coin.
Of those who expressed support is Flesh Imp ; the decade old home grown label that comprised of the dynamic duo Vincent and Nicholas. To show their support, they present “Press to Release”, a T-shirt designed to give support for Samantha Lo (aka SKL0) who represents the small voices of artists in Singapore that fear persecution for their art. “Press to Release” was designed in hopes of raising at least S$1500 for Samantha. Retailing at S$25 each, each purchase comes with a free badge. S$15 from each shirt will be donated to help the artist with the fine that she might face. Should there be no fine or less than the amount raised, the proceeds will be donated to an arts movement that Samantha supports.
The “Press to Release” shirts will be available at Flesh Imp SCAPE from 24th June 2012, with preorders being available effective 8th June 2012.
There is a petition to the Ministry of Home Affairs to move the charge from Vandalism to Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) on top of other requests. You can find out more about the petition here.