Unmasking the city hall facade a study of its visuality in images 1

UNMASKING THE CITY HALL FACADE:
A STUDY OF ITS VISUALITY IN IMAGES

LEE LING WEI
B.A.(ARCHITECTURE)

A THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (ARCHITECTURE)

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2012


ABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to examine the changes in the visuality, or the culturally
mediated visual perception of the City Hall façade, as symptomatic of larger social
and political practices. This is achieved by tracing the genealogy of the City Hall
façade as an image, or as a vehicle for the propagation of ideas that serve the interest
of those in power. In particular, the myriad visualities of the façade in images are
studied as a series of masks, or devices of deception used to construct illusory visions
that are beneficial to the state. This is achieved by utilizing the iconological approach,
which studies the formal properties of images as symptoms of the cultural landscape
that produced it. In uncovering the symbolic potency of the façade, the image is
studied not just as a site of instrument and agency for the state, but also a place of
resistance and subversion, where slippages abound, and established meanings can be
overturned.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I will like to extend my gratitude to the following persons who have
contributed greatly in the writing of this thesis:

Lilian, for your enthusiasm and invaluable guidance,
Mr Sabapathy, for your insight and kind encouragement,
Kenneth, for providing a listening ear in times of need,
and my family, for their unconditional support in whatever I do.

i


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements

i

Table of Contents

ii

Summary

iv

List of Illustrations

vi

Chapter 1 – UNMASKING: SEEING THE UNSEEN

1

1.1 Seeing Through a Veil

3

1.2 Not What It Seems

16

1.3 A Way of Seeing

19

Chapter 2 – MASQUERADES: DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES
2.1 Signpost

22
23

2.1.1 The Façade as Icon

25

2.1.2 Imagining the Colony

34

2.1.3 A Civilizing Mask

75

2.2 Stageset

82

2.2.1 The Façade Without Body

84

2.2.2 Subsuming the Architectural Body

93

2.2.3 The Mask of Continuity
2.3 Billboard

110
141

2.3.1 The Façade As Image

143

2.3.2 An Ambivalent Mask

152

2.3.3 The Mask of Openness

173

Chapter 3 – MASKING: A REVEALING VEIL

204

Bibliography

208

Appendix A

230

ii


Appendix B

232

Appendix C

234

iii


SUMMARY
The objective of this study is to examine the changes in the visuality, or the culturally

mediated visual perception of the City Hall façade, as symptoms of larger social and
political practices. This is achieved by tracing the genealogy of the City Hall façade
as an image, or a vehicle for the propagation of ideologies by various stakeholders. In
particular, the myriad visualities of the façade in images are studied as a series of
masks used to construct illusory visions.

A survey of the images of the façade is undertaken through its representation on
monetary notes (1972,1976,1987), an artistic intervention titled For Singapore
(2006) by American contemporary artist Jenny Holzer, and the video 9th August
(2008) by local filmmaker Tan Pin Pin. In each of the instance, the City Hall façade
takes on a different visuality, which is only made possible in the image. This is
achieved by examining the utilization of its visuality by different stakeholders, such
as the colonial and postcolonial states, as well as the artists, to construct and
disseminate various ideas and impressions of the political and social enterprise in
which the image was situated. In the study of the images, the iconological approach,
which examines the formal properties of the City Hall façade and its re-presentation
in images as symptoms of the social, political and cultural landscape that produced it,
is utilized. By adopting an art historical approach that reconciles the formal with the
political and social realms, the study departs from existing literature on the City Hall
building that documents its architectural style and utilization as a historical setting to
events such as the national day parades. In reading the formal properties of the façade
and its representations in relation to the social and political landscape, the study offers
a comprehensive understanding of the façade’s role. The façade is revealed over the

iv


length of the study to be not just a passive participant, but an active agent utilized by
artists and the colonial and postcolonial states to selectively convey and conceal ideas
in line with their own agendas.

The images of the façade are thus ideological constructs, utilized by the artists,
colonial and postcolonial states as a device of projection and concealment for their
own benefits. In particular, the study posits that the various visualities of the City Hall
façade are masks used by the colonial and postcolonial states to propagate deceptive
visions of progressive governance, historical continuity, and political inclusivity.
Significantly, the analysis of the representations of the City Hall façade does not just
take into consideration the political motivations of the state, but also the artistic
intentions of their creators. The images of the City Hall façade thus emerge not just as
a site of instrument and agency for the state, but also a space of resistance and
subversion where slippages abound and established meanings are overturned.

v


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1:

Jenny Holzer. For Singapore, light projection on the City Hall façade,
Singapore, 2006
Source: />accessed on 20 June 2010.

Figure 2:

The City Hall façade, Singapore.
Source: Preservation of Monuments Board. “City Hall”. Available
from: accessed on 21 March 2011.

Figure 3:

Façade of the National Arts Gallery.
Source: National Arts Gallery, Singapore. “Winning Design”.
Available from: http://www/nationalartgallery.sg/winning.html,
accessed on 20 June 2011.

Figure 4:

Back design, $1 monetary note, bird series, issued in 1976.
Source: Sim Chuan Hup (ed.). Singapore Money Book (Singapore:
Moneyworld Asia Pte Ltd, 1994), p.28.

Figure 5:

Back design, $10000 monetary note, ship series, issued in 1989.
Source: Sim Chuan Hup (ed.). Singapore Money Book, p.46.

Figure 6:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring nationalistic paraphernalia on the
City Hall façade, 2008.

vi


Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

Figure 7:

Capitoline Temple, 509B.C. Digital reconstruction.
Source: Stamper, John W. The Architecture of Roman Temples: The
Republic to Middle Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p.7.

Figure 8:

Viceroy’s House, New Delhi, India.
Source: Aman Nath. Dome Over India: Rashtrapati Bhavan (Mumbai:
India Book House, c2002), p.52-3.

Figure 9:

Photograph of Municipal Building overlooking the harbor, c1929-38.
Source: National Library Board. Available from:
accessed 15 July 2011.

Figure 10:

Postcard titled “Municipal Building, Singapore”, c.1934.
Source: Cheah Jin Seng. Singapore: 500 Early Postcards (Singapore:
Editions Didier Millet, 2006), p.36.

Figure 11:

Postcard titled “Supreme Court and Municipal Building, Singapore”,
c.1939.
Source: Photograph no. 20050000003 – 0063, “Supreme Court and
Municipal Building, Singapore,” c.1939. National Archives of
Singapore. Available from:

vii


accessed 17
June 2011.

Figure 12:

Scene from the national day parade in 1998.
Source: NDP ’98: Celebrating 33 Years of Independence: Stories
Behind the Story (Singapore: NDP ’98 EXCO, 1998), p.13.

Figure 13:

Closing scene of the national day parade 1998.
Source: Television Corporation of Singapore. National Day Parade
1998, DVD.

Figure 14:

The City Hall façade as stageset in the National Stadium, 1998.
Source: NDP ’98: Celebrating 33 Years of Independence, p.3.

Figure 15:

Corinthian capitals of the replicated City Hall façade.
Source: NDP ’98: Celebrating 33 Years of Independence, p.5.

Figure 16:

Front design, $500 monetary note, orchid series, issued in 1972.
Source: Sim Chuan Hup (ed.). Singapore Money Book, p.24.

Figure 17:

Back design, $500 monetary note, orchid series, issued in 1972.
Source: Sim Chuan Hup (ed.). Singapore Money Book, p.24.

Figure 18:

Front design, $1 monetary note, bird series, issued in 1976.
Source: Sim Chuan Hup (ed.). Singapore Money Book, p.28.

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Figure 19:

Front design, $10000 monetary note, ship series, issued in 1989.
Source: Sim Chuan Hup (ed.). Singapore Money Book, p.46.

Figure 20:

Liu Kang. National Day, 1967.
Source: Liu Kang. Journeys: Liu Kang and his Art. Singapore:
National Art Council and Singapore Art Museum, c2000, p.37.

Figure 21:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring ministers descending the steps of the

City Hall steps during national day parades.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

Figure 22:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring Lee Kuan Yew taking his stand at
the saluting desk.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

Figure 23:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring Goh Chok Tong taking his stand at
the saluting desk.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

ix


Figure 24:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring Lee Hsien Loong taking his stand at
the saluting desk.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th

October 2011.

Figure 25:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring Singa the Lion with Miss Mandarin
on a float.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

Figure 26:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring a float overwhelmed with vegetation.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

Figure 27:

Tan Pin Pin, 9th August, featuring replicas of HDB flats on a float.
Source: 9th August, dir. Tan Pin Pin, available from:
accessed on 27th
October 2011.

Figure 28:

Lee Kuan Yew addressing the crowd from the City Hall steps with
Yusof Ishak on the left in 1959.

x

Source: “The Big Moment... scene in City Hall as Inche Yusof takes
the oath”, in The Straits Times, 4 December 1959, p.9.

Figure 29:

Graduates taking photographs with the City Hall façade as stageset.
Source: Author’s own collection.

Figure 30:

Wedding photographs taken with the City Hall façade as a backdrop.
Source: Author’s own collection.

Figure 31:

The Singapore Art Museum.
Source: “Singapore Art Museum,” available from:
accessed 20 November 2011.

Figure 32:

The Reichstag, before refurbishment.
Source: Norman Foster. Rebuilding the Reichstag (London:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.36.

Figure 33:

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, Germany,

1976-95.
Source: Christo, and Jeanne-Claude. Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 19711995 (Koln: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1996), p.426.

Figure 34:

The Reichstag, after refurbishment.

xi


Source: “The Reichstag, Bundestag building.” Available from:
accessed 8 November 2011.

Figure 35:

A rendering of the National Art Gallery showcasing the street concept.
Source: National Arts Gallery, Singapore. “Winning Design”.
Available from: http://www/nationalartgallery.sg/winning.html,
accessed on 20 June 2011.

xii


CHAPTER 1

Unmasking:
Seeing the Unseen


1.1

Seeing Through a Veil


Figure 1 Jenny Holzer. For Singapore, light projection on the City Hall façade, Singapore,
2006.

3


Against the enveloping darkness, the City Hall façade stood silently, unlit. Two
symmetric columns of illuminated words floated on the façade of the building.
Moving in tandem with each other, the texts traced a slow trajectory from the plinth to
the frieze of the façade. Bold and uniform in its typeface, the texts declared:
DECENCY IS

MUCH WAS DECIDED

A RELATIVE THING

BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

DEPENDENCE CAN BE
A MEAL TICKET

DESCRIPTION IS MORE
VALUABLE THAN
METAPHOR

MURDER HAS

ITS SEXUAL SIDE

MYTHS CAN MAKE
REALITY
MORE INTELLIGIBLE1

Titled For Singapore, the projection of illuminated text onto the City Hall façade was
part of contemporary American artist Jenny Holzer’s Truisms series, a collection of
political statements revolving around the themes of war, peace, sex and death (Figure
1). Taking place over a three-hour interval, the work inaugurated the opening of the
first Singapore Biennale in 2006. Commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC),
the work utilized the façade of the City Hall building as a canvas for artistic
intervention.2 In doing so, the illuminated texts effected a change in the visuality – or
the culturally mediated visual perception – of the façade.

Located in the colonial district of Singapore, the façade of the City Hall building
stands facing the Padang, a flat, wide green field that endows it with unobstructed
visual access (Figure 2). At the symmetric center of the façade is a wide flight of steps

1

The statements of For Singapore are referenced from an unreleased video documentation of the event, provided
by Jenny Holzer Studio. Subsequent statements quoted in the study are referenced from the same source.
2
The National Arts Council is a Statutory Board set up by the state to spearhead the development of the arts in
Singapore. National Arts Council. “About Us,” available from: accessed on
5 November 2011.

4

that leads to a podium. From there, eighteen regularly spaced colossal Corinthian
columns, the most distinctive feature of the façade, rise several storeys high. Running
across the entirety of the facade, the columns are fully articulated by a wall that is set
back some distance behind. The columns frame a series of stripped classical windows
neatly aligned on the wall behind, accentuating the strict classical geometry of the
design. Completing the composition of the façade is a pediment that complements the
steps of the building symmetrically, behind which rises a flagstaff.

Neoclassical in style, the City Hall was commissioned by the British colonial
government of Singapore in 1926.3 Then known as the “Municipal Building,” the
building was situated at the heart of the colonial town, where administrative matters
of the government were carried out.4 Its institutional function meant that access to the
interior of the building was restricted to a select few, such as the governor,
commissioners, and administrative staff. The majority of the colonised population had
never stepped foot into the building before.5 For them, the sole function of the
building resided in the visibility of the façade. For the façade took on the role of a
setting to imperial ceremonies such as the King’s Birthday and Coronation Day.6 In
its capacity as a backdrop to these events, the façade registered as a visual motif, one
that took on a heightened symbolism as the seat of both the governor and the British
monarch.

3

“New Municipal Building”, in The Straits Times, 30 April 1929, p.10
Ibid.
5
The only instance that an ordinary citizen of the colony had cause to enter the building was to pay his/her taxes.
On these occasions, access was gained through the back entrance of the Municipal Building, as the counter for tax
payment was set up at the back of the building. Otherwise, the ordinary citizen of the colony had no reason to enter

the building. “New Municipal Building”, in The Straits Times, 30 April 1929, p.10
6
“Celebration of King’s Birthday”, in The Straits Times, 4 June 1931, p.12; “Proclamation parade in Singapore
today”, in The Straits Times, 22 January 1936, p.12.
4

5


Figure 2 The City Hall façade, Singapore.

6


Crucially, it is the ceremonial function of the City Hall façade as a visual motif that
has persisted to this day, in spite of changes in the programmatic use of the building,
and the passing of different political administrations. During the Japanese Occupation
of Singapore from 1942-45, the building operated as the administrative headquarters
of the Japanese.7 After the nation attained independence in 1965, there was no attempt
to construct new, monumental edifices to commemorate the sovereign state. The City
Hall inherited its function as the administrative headquarters of the country. However,
in 1987, it was annexed by the Supreme Court to accommodate the Academy of
Law.8 The building was vacated in 2005, and an architectural competition was held in
2007, to solicit entries for its refurbishment into the National Art Gallery (NAG) by
2014 (Figure 3).9 Due to the continued institutional function of City Hall in
postcolonial times, it doors have remained closed to the public. The only exception
occurred in 2006.10 Following the announcement of the building’s transformation into
the NAG, the building hosted the Singapore Biennale. Its interiors were made
accessible to the public for the first time throughout the duration of the biennale,
marking City Hall’s transition from a state to public institution.

The façade is thus the building’s primary public interface until now, due to its history
as a state institution. While the building has undergone several changes in use, it is the
function of the façade as a setting to major political events that has endured. In 1959,
the façade served as a backdrop to the country’s proclamation of self-governance.11

7

Gretchen Liu. In Granite and Chunam: the National Monuments of Singapore, (Singapore: Landmark Books and
Preservation of Monuments Board, c1996), p.63.
8
Ibid.
9
National Art Gallery. “About the Gallery”. Available from: />accessed on 20 May 2011.
10
Ben Slater (ed.). Belief: Singapore Biennale 2006, 4th September to 12th November 2006 (Singapore: Singapore
Biennale Secretariat, 2007), p.1.
11
Samuel, Dhoraisingam S. Singapore’s Heritage: Through Places of Historical Interest (Singapore: Elixir
Consultancy Service, c1991), p.128.

7


Figure 3 Façade of the National Arts Gallery.

8


Three years later, in 1966, it witnessed Singapore’s first national day parade.12 Today,

the façade still functions as the setting of the national day parades that take place at
the Padang. During these events, the façade registers as a frontal plane, with no
suggestion of an architectural body. The façade subsumes the building to register as a
single visual motif. Significantly, during the conception of the building’s architecture,
the visuality of the façade as a ceremonial setting emerged as the most debated
element of the design process.13 The classical monumentality of the façade was
conceived for the eyes of the observer. It was, and still remains, an object-to-be-seen.

However, despite its importance, the visuality of the façade has been repeatedly
mediated. Writing on the mediation of visual perception, Mieke Bal posits that:
Visual culture works towards a social theory of visuality, focusing on questions of
what is made visible, who sees what, how seeing, knowing and power are
interrelated.14

Visual culture is a study of the practices of seeing, or “what is made visible, who sees
what, how seeing, knowing and power are interrelated.” It deems the act of seeing as
a mediated process that is informed by the knowledge and interests of the viewers, as
well as the intentions and desires of the producers of visual objects. Visuality, or the
culture of perception, is the socialization of sight. It is both the social construction of
the visual field, and the visual construction of the social field. And it is the latter that
the study is chiefly concerned with.

The visuality of the City Hall façade, transformed by the projection of Holzer’s For
Singapore, thus constructs a visual object that is a reflection of larger cultural and
12

Ibid.
“Municipal Building. Report of the Special Committee”, in The Straits Times, 29 July 1924, p.11.
14
Mieke Bal. “Visual Essentialism and the Object of Visual Culture,” in Journal of Visual Culture Vol. 2:1

(2003), p.24.
13

9


social processes at work. Significantly, For Singapore was not the only instance in
which the visuality of the façade has been mediated. Instead, it is part of an ongoing
process that has been taking place since the inception of the nation in 1965 (Appendix
A). Featured on the back design of the $1 and $10000 monetary notes issued by the
state in 1976 and 1987 respectively, the City Hall façade is depicted in scenes from
the national day parades (Figures 4&5). Titled “National Day Parade”, and “National
Day Parade 1987,” the visuality of the façade was subtly altered over the years
through the stylistics of illustration.

On the other hand, 9th August, a seven-minute video by local filmmaker Tan Pin Pin,
documents the changes in the visuality of the façade as a setting to the national day
parades. Commissioned by the National Museum of Singapore in 2008, the video is
collated from footages of the parades over a forty-year period spanning 1966 to 2006
(Figure 6). The façade is featured decked out in nationalistic paraphernalia such as
banners and flags over the years. More importantly, the video traces the use of the
façade as a visual motif in the parade over three generations of People’s Action Party
(PAP) leaders from Lee Kuan Yew to Goh Chok Tong and Lee Hsien Loong.

In these instances, the City Hall façade takes on a multiplicity of appearances that
project different visual impressions. This is, however, only possible in the visual field,
or specifically, in the image. Offering mediated versions of reality, the image is what
facilitates visuality as a culturally constructed way of seeing the world. It follows then
that:

10


Figure 4 Back design, $1 monetary note, bird series, issued in 1976.

Figure 5 Back design, $10000 monetary note, ship series, issued in 1989.

11