The New Movers & Shakers

From photography to design production, curating galleries to setting up modern creative communes – the people here are all carving out names and niches in the art and design industries (or in some cases, both). Keng yang shuen tells you why they’re the ones to watch.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

From photography to design production, curating galleries to setting up modern creative communes – the people here are all carving out names and niches in the art and design industries (or in some cases, both). Keng yang shuen tells you why they’re the ones to watch.

Olivia lee.
Olivia lee.
Co-working spaces are popping up faster than hipsters can be seen at them these days, but Wonder Facility bucks the overtly commercial nature of such start-ups – it caters specially to the artistically minded design set. Founded by industrial designer/ multi-disciplinary artist Olivia Lee, 32, the 1,000sq-ft space opened in 2016 and is currently home to up-and-comers such as design studio Lanzavecchia + Wai, theatre writer Tan Jia Yee, and artist Clara Yee.
Float (2014), cast
resin, lotus leaves, 
powder-coated steel.
Float (2014), cast resin, lotus leaves, powder-coated steel.
Recognising that there are creatives straddling genres of art, design and technology who are “drawn to co-working arrangements, yet prefer quieter and more settled environments”, Lee created Wonder Facility, located in an industrial building in Ubi. It’s probably the first of its kind founded by an independent designer – part office, part studio, while also a place for events and functioning as a community work space. Through Lee’s innovative layout and use of racking systems (cost-effective, versatile and manoeuvrable) to create individual workstations, space can even be sectioned or opened up to host exhibitions and seminars.
The Marvellous Marble 
Factory (2015).
The Marvellous Marble Factory (2015).

Before Wonder Facility, Lee had already worked with an impressive roster of clients such as Samsung, Aquascutum and LVMH, with her other personal projects often blurring the boundaries of art and design. Take The Marvellous Marble Factory, commissioned for Singaplural 2015, which saw her fashion real-looking “confections” out of inorganic substances such as granite and marble. Her aim? To subvert the function of marble (as a material) and provoke people to rethink the role of “authenticity” in consuming (figuratively speaking) a product. Lee’s experimental streak continues with her participation in Milan Design Week 2017 – the design world’s equivalent of Fashion Week. 

STYLING IMRAN JALAL / PHOTOGRAPHY ZAPHS ZHANG, ASSISTED BY SHERMAN SEE-THO / ART DIRECTION KIM WONG / HAIR & MAKEUP ZIV TEE/FAC3INC.

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