JOYCE BEETUAN KOH
MUSIC • SOUND
A Micropolyphonic Stage
The sun sits high on the Singapore River, casting light and shadow on the facades of buildings lining its bank, forming a magnificent and natural backdrop – a perfect setting for a stage. Along its walkways, a pair of benches, titled A Micropolyphonic Stage, offers shade and calls for a moment of provocation and reflection. The gentle curves of the benches, shaped into an inverted apostrophe and a comma, wrap around the tree and the sitter, inviting them to watch, listen, share, touch, experience, and feel wholly. Allow yourself, for this moment, to observe the sensations of life as something entirely separate from it all, as if it were an excellent play, an outstanding music performance, or a touching dance. Lean into this quiet contemplation, for (also in braille) ‘to understand is to become’.
Part of 'Benchmarks', a new public art trail commissioned by the Civic District Alliance (CDA)
OASIS
Sound and light installation, vinyl mural
Oasis is a site-specific installation that transforms a working cargo lift at Tanjong Pagar Distripark into a fleeting sanctuary, a sonic interlude within a space built for function and flow. Conceived as a “sonic oasis in transit,” the work reimagines a utilitarian structure typically associated with logistics and movement as a site of stillness and sensory awareness.
Elevators are often socially silent, shared only in passing, and rarely considered spaces for reflection. Oasis embraces the distinct character of this lift: its mechanical hums, metallic creaks, upward opening doors, and unhurried pace. Through subtle interventions of sound and light, the installation amplifies what is already present, revealing the quiet textures embedded in transition.
Its soundscape, composed of resonant tones and field recordings drawn from natural surroundings, reates a liminal atmosphere that is part resonance, part meditation. The visual environment is suffused with the deep celestial blue of lapis lazuli, a pigment historically associated with spirituality and the immaterial, heightening the contemplative tone.
Rather than offering spectacle, Oasis invites a shift in perception. The familiar act of taking a lift becomes an encounter with sound, motion, and space, a moment shaped by attunement rather than intent. In doing so, the work opens a space for quiet clarity to emerge, not through stillness but through movement made perceptible.
Commissioned by The Everyday Museum.
