OH! Open House (OH!) has launched Departures, a new programme that brings artists into places facing closure, redevelopment or transition to explore the people, practices and stories that risk disappearing with them.
Beginning with Kelong E63 and Sin Siong Lim Sawmill, and continuing with a third edition at a vinyl business in Golden Mile Tower in 2027, Departures will invite audiences to encounter these places through art, stories, conversations and experiences. The programme will also contribute to a digital archive documenting the histories, knowledge and lived experiences connected to each site.
Departures asks what is lost when a place disappears: not only its physical structure, but the knowledge, routines, relationships and memories connected to it. Rather than resisting change, the programme considers what should continue even when a place cannot.
Edition 1 – What can the remains of a kelong tell us about Singapore today?
From 23 to 25 October 2026, the first Departures edition turns to Kelong E63, formerly one of Singapore’s last active working kelongs.
Kelongs were once an important part of Singapore’s fishing industry, with more than 250 licensed kelongs operating in the 1940s. E63 was acquired in 2004 by the late Timothy Ng, known as Uncle Timothy, and his wife Maureen Ng, who operated the kelong alongside an adjoining floating fish farm for more than two decades before it ceased operations in 2025.
National Heritage Board’s (NHB) extensive digital documentation efforts have helped preserve a record of the kelong’s physical structure and working practices. Departures turn to what may be harder to capture: the memories and lived experiences that continue beyond the site.
For the first edition, Singaporean artist-curator Daniel Chong works with materials from the kelong, including fishing nets and wooden floorboards Uncle Timothy gave him, exploring how ordinary objects accumulate meaning through use.
Alongside Chong, Kenny Lek, Co-Founder of Pasarfish, presents a dining and storytelling experience that examines how Singapore’s fishing landscape has shifted from kelong-based wild catch to fish farming. Drawing on Pasarfish’s research into local seafood, the experience considers how changes in biodiversity, food security and development have reshaped what Singapore catches and eats.
Presented at Golden Mile Tower, the programme brings together art, archival material, food and personal stories to consider what remains of a way of life after the physical structure is gone.
Venue: Golden Mile Tower
When: 23 - 25 Oct 2026,
By: OH! Open House
