Street Scene ("Hylam Street")

Street Scene ("Hylam Street")
Street Scene ("Hylam Street")
Title

Street Scene ("Hylam Street")

Year

Undated

Media

Watercolour on paper

Theme

Landscape

Poh Siew Wah’s watercolours are soft-edged with subtle detail, mostly painted in the earlier years of his artistic career. Poh may be better known for his abstract artworks but it is clear that his realistic watercolours are creditable works as well. 
This undated work Hylam Street was purchased from the Kim Keat Art Fair in 1989. It is likely that this painting offers one of the last views of Hylam Street in Singapore, which was demolished in 1985. The work details the old Singapore Chinese shophouses and dwellings of the early migrants as they were in the 1980s. Poh fondly documents the faded shutters and tarpaulins, drink bottles stacked in crates, its resident hawkers and vegetable sellers. 

Also in the Singtel collection are two abstract works by Poh Siew Wah - September Chronicle (1989), and  Untitled (1994), which utilises calligraphy and collage.