Dellaboration
In the fashion, music, and graphics scenes, collaborations are coveted and trendy. They emphasise and refresh their circle of counterparts through the blatant derivations of everyday things and experiences as high culture.
Turning collaboration on itself, Dellaboration is a collective research by the designers ofNextOfKin Creatives (NOK), who calls Little India district their place for creative endeavours, to denounce the interactions of Little India with the designerly and the artistic. In this exhibition, the selected objects and interactions from the district maintain their protagonistic role through an appropriate acknowledgement of these accessible yet authentic encounters.
New World Amusement Park was seen as a site of new discoveries and entertainment. Dellaboration thus invites visitors to satisfy that purpose — feel and experience these creations. Similar to New World Amusement Park, NOK uses Little India as a playground of exploration to activate its encounters and experiences.
Discipline: Design Research
Carrier
by Rodney Loh & Nicole Tan
From Various Kitchen Goods Stores in Little India
The iconic plate that serves us Thosai is reconfigured into an accessory that carries our everyday items. By creating handles and providing pouches, Carrier further glorifies the plates' intuitive, efficient, and well-organised nature through a dual action of subtraction and addition— industry, heritage, and function revered via a fashion statement.
Made Up Artefacts
by Yang He Xiang
From Milan Gifts Along Serangoon Road
Curatorially-designed using museum displays, a series of mass-produced yet unique make-up compacts are found and presented as culturally significant artefacts. These objects of self-ornament and self-care are ironically pre-preserved as post-historical pieces of heritage from Little India — an irreverent prognosis of what is yet to be deemed worthy of preservation.
Supported by Nur Rasyiqah Nabilah, who provided her knowledge on museum display mounts.
Trend Reset
by Emily Wu & Jacelyn Yap
From Mustafa Centre
"In its deliberate attempt to be real, itʼs more real than the real thing." - Deshuu Kaiki
The ubiquitous imitation sneakers, despite (or precisely due to) being piled up in shops across Little India (and notably Mustafa Centre), is an iconic sight of Little India. Bought for practicality over branding, and rooted in the Little India experience, its real-ness is further designed with Trend Reset, inviting one to consider notions of identity and authenticity.
De Rangoli
by Alvin Ling & Winnie Lim
From Various Hardware Stores in Little India
When viewed from afar, De Rangoli is just like any other ordinary Rangoli artwork. Upon closer inspection however, De Rangoli offers a twist. Instead of coloured powder, it is made up of bristles that were extracted from the hardware storesʼ neon brooms which are commonly found along the streets of Little India. Securing the materials on a board and framing it up, the fleeting nature of Rangoli art is now made permanent for unceasing appreciation.
Find Unica in Little India
by Deborah Wong & Patrice Ong
From Various Spots in Little India
Instead of experiencing Little India like a tourist, Find Unica in Little India seeks to inspire one to discover its nooks and crannies on the most ordinary level: by finding Designed-in-Singapore Red Unica Stools. A tote bag is embedded with a map of Little India to facilitate such an adventurous exploration. When one spots a Red Unica Stool, one pins a badge onto the spot on the map. As such, no bag will ever be the same, much like one's experience of Little India.
Garland T-shirt
by Doris Ng
From Mustafa Centre
Inspired by the garlands of Little India, individual flowers are sourced and rearranged as decoration on a T-shirt. Garland T-shirt is without apology, a direct response to the co-existence of contemporary fashion and heritage.
Muru-necklace
by Andy Shi & Beacher Chen
From Various Corner Shops Selling Snacks in Little India, Necklace from Milan Gifts Along Serangoon Road
Through a quirky fusion of food and expression, Muru-necklace is a jewellery that comprises cut Murukkus fixed to a strip of acrylic linked together with a gold chain. Pre-existing iconic heritage symbols are blatantly combined for a blend of higher cultural significance.
WKDNR - The Little India Shirt Collection
by Fabian Ong & Sim Hao Jie
From Various Clothing Vendors around Desker Rd, Serangoon Rd and Tekka Market, Tailoring by Tailors in Tekka Market
A dellaborative apparel series that features the Lungi fabric re-woven into a new symbolism of utility: pockets, tote bags and deployable picnic mat merged onto wearable fashion. Choosing to highlight the quotidian Lungee fabric, WKNDR celebrates the graphical patterns and hues of Little India by weaving it directly onto a ready-to-wear apparel and accessories collection. The WKNDR project aims to create clothing that serves, engages, and enables Little Indiaʼs place-as-function.
Pik Piak!
by Melvin Ong & Nicole Tan
From Various Shops in Little India
Pik Piak! embraces the subversive use of 'Flip Flops' as tools to ʻshooʼ off unwanted pests. To reinforce the transition from footwear to hand tools, we took inspiration from handcrafted traditional Indian brooms and ornate knot tying to breathe a new lease of life into these abandoned 'Flip Flops' as a hard-hitting insect deterrent, Pik Piak!
Dhoop
by Jexter Lim, Xu Xiao & Deron Gow
From Various Shops in Little India
Dhoop is a statement piece that celebrates the practice of Rangoli. Inspired by the rich history that lies behind the practice of Rangoli, Dhoop highlights the beauty of Rangoli represented with coloured incense found in Little India.
Gift of Time
by Kelly Boon & Nafisah Abu Bakar
From Milan Gifts Along Serangoon Road
A Bilano watch gift box is repurposed to hold two watch faces with different time zones. One watch face with the words 'Little India', and the other with the word 'India' on it. Designed like a locket, Gi of Time is a parting gift for people separated by Little India and India to remember one another through the (a)synchronicity of time.
More Than Just a Dot
by Shervon Ong & Nicole Tan
From MKM Costume Jewellery Pte Ltd
The Bindi, a quintessential adornment of the Hindu culture holds more weight than we know of. More Than Just a Dot signifies that the Bindi extends beyond just being an ornamental decoration but an exemplification of beauty, grace and intelligence to the person who wears it. Through the series of work, patrons are encouraged to take a Bindi from the canvas in appreciation and understanding towards the culture. This participative act in turn would be the finishing act in creating the art piece in its final form.
Singapore Bilano
by Sheryl Ang
From Milan Gifts Along Serangoon Road
Gold is a hallmark of Indian culture, sought after as a symbol of wealth and status. However, not all that glitters in Little India is gold. As an amusing commentary on the masquerade of luxury that also pervades Little India, gold is subverted as the centrepiece through the augmentation of a local brand found in the same district: (Swiss) Bilano. By transforming the timepieces into bracelets that flaunt the brand-imprinted clasps, this deceptively local brand is celebrated through a veil of opulence.
Bringing Little India to You
by Adriane Lee & Syahrul Salleh
From Various Kitchen Goods Stores in Little India
A common sight in Tekka Market are large silver pots filled with steaming hot biryani rice parked at food stalls. Typically immobile, the metal pots are reimagined and transformed into a convenient ʻpot basketʼ for picnic and leisure. Now mobile, and easily transported with a carrying strap, it has a layer of decorative twine that evokes the imagery of a traditional rattan basket. A picnic basket that shouts the message: 'Bringing Little India to You'.
research 01: Dellaboration
The research book features all the curated exhibits that were part of the Re-route Festival 2022. The publication also includes each team’s take on Dellaboration.
The book is available for purchase, feel free to reach us at studio@nok.design for enquiries!