Wild lalang (Imperata cylindrica) forms a core component of PG Lee’s Pretty, Please (Sleep Tight) (2025), featured in SAM Contemporaries: How To Dream Worlds. Though native to Southeast Asia, lalang is often treated as a weed to be culled to maintain Singapore’s manicured beauty since its push to become a “Garden City” in the 1960s.
This impulse to control the cityscape refl ects broader systems of order shaping how we live and move in Singapore, often extending into our homes and personal lives. PG sometimes likens himself to a “gardener,” compelled to clear away undesirable elements such as lalang. From this perspective, he engages landscape architect and educator Bronwyn Tan, who also “curates” and engineers the cityscape—yet in contrast, seeks to work in harmony with both urban systems and natural growth.
In bringing together PG’s artistic refl ections and Tan’s architectural practice, the conversation opens up the tensions between control and coexistence, inviting us to reconsider what it means to live within a garden city—whether we choose to tame nature, or learn to embrace its unruly growth.
Venue: The Engine Room, Level 1, SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Admission: Free (A $8 refundable deposit is required for participants to book a slot)
Register HERE
When: 19 Oct 2025, 2.30pm - 3.30pm
By: Singapore Art Museum (SAM)
