The ageing aquarium from my first visit to Singapore had all but disappeared. Its only trace was the mark of a winding pathway making a patch in the otherwise immaculate grass. From above, I watched a gardener carefully fill the spaces.

My interest in the history of Sentosa Island arose as I witnessed the erasure of a place from my memory. However, I soon became aware that this island was attached to a much deeper history of erasure when I encountered Yeo Tze Yang’s essay “An Erased History of Pulau Belakang Mati”. As Yeo outlines, a culture dating back many generations with a tight-knit community was forced to leave the island in 1975 to make way for the development of ‘Sentosa Island’, the tourist destination that it is known as today.

This photo series was an attempt to reflect on my new awareness of the history of this place and my role as a patron of this tourism industry. The photos were taken at various locations in Singapore including Sentosa Island, Xiao Guilin and Kampong Lorong Buangkok. My intent was to evoke a sense of something erased, and to imagine what might have been.

 

Yeo, Tze Yang. 2017. “An Erased History of Pulau Belakang Mati.” Imagined Malaysia. https://imaginedmalaysia.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/an-erased-history-of-pulau-belakang-mati/