Residency with Ban Kah Hiang
Collaborative process, poster, workshops
Arts-Business x Business-Arts Residency
Singapore, 2022
Nestled in an aged Bukit Merah neighbourhood, Ban Kah Hiang Trading (BKH) is one of the oldest Chinese religious goods merchants in Singapore. It is as much a business as a mini cultural institution given its long history and the religious practices it helps preserve. Its third-generation owner, Alex Teo, runs his family business using tools like Facebook, alongside his parents who have managed the business for over 40 years.
Beyond economic transaction, the shop is an educational resource for customers who come with queries or situations that require the Teo family's ritual expertise. They are in fact unofficial aides to customers’ maintenance of their relationship to their deceased loved ones, providing emotional reassurance in the face of lifelong grief and remembrance. It is no exaggeration to say they carry generations of largely undocumented knowledge and stories that are fast disappearing today.
Salty Xi Jie Ng's residency attempts to convey and catalogue foundational knowledge in syncretic Chinese religion, business history and family history, laying the groundwork for a process of re-invention and re-imagination.
baibairesearch.art/bkh.html
Arts-Business x Business-Arts (ABxBA) Residencies is a platform that pairs businesses and artists together in hopes of supporting the development of long-term and mutually-beneficial partnerships between the arts sector and local businesses.
IG: @abxba.residency
Arts-Business x Business-Arts Residency
Singapore, 2022
Nestled in an aged Bukit Merah neighbourhood, Ban Kah Hiang Trading (BKH) is one of the oldest Chinese religious goods merchants in Singapore. It is as much a business as a mini cultural institution given its long history and the religious practices it helps preserve. Its third-generation owner, Alex Teo, runs his family business using tools like Facebook, alongside his parents who have managed the business for over 40 years.
Beyond economic transaction, the shop is an educational resource for customers who come with queries or situations that require the Teo family's ritual expertise. They are in fact unofficial aides to customers’ maintenance of their relationship to their deceased loved ones, providing emotional reassurance in the face of lifelong grief and remembrance. It is no exaggeration to say they carry generations of largely undocumented knowledge and stories that are fast disappearing today.
Salty Xi Jie Ng's residency attempts to convey and catalogue foundational knowledge in syncretic Chinese religion, business history and family history, laying the groundwork for a process of re-invention and re-imagination.
baibairesearch.art/bkh.html
Arts-Business x Business-Arts (ABxBA) Residencies is a platform that pairs businesses and artists together in hopes of supporting the development of long-term and mutually-beneficial partnerships between the arts sector and local businesses.
IG: @abxba.residency
Ban Kah Hiang third generation owner Alex Teo & Salty Xi Jie Ng, Ban Kah Hiang Trading
CHINESE RELIGIOUS GOODS (#1-BASICS)
祭拜物品 (#1-基础)
Salty Xi Jie Ng spent her residency in conversation with the Teo family at Ban Kah Hiang, observing the shop —its rhythms, operations, methods of organising— as well as learning to pack goods and assisting customers. Here, learning foundational knowledge is an important starting point for a process of re-invention and re-imagination. The poster was conceived when it became clear that the information needed to be shared in accessible ways with BKH's customers and the public. This was in alignment with Alex's desire for educational resources in his vision of continuing his family business.
The print poster was available for customers in the shop. For downloadable version visit baibairesearch.art
Salty Xi Jie Ng with the Teo family who have run Ban Kah Hiang for decades
BAIBAI BASICS: PRAY YOUR WAY
拜拜基础: 由你来
With deepest thanks to Alex Teo, Mike Teo, Auntie Teo and Ah Hock