Artist gains fame online for miniature wet market to commemorate hawkers

Singapore — An artist has gained Internet fame for his miniature model of a wet market stall.

Trash to Treasure “Our Hawkers, Our Heritage” Cardboard, waste paper, recyclable materials, 1:20
byu/CheahWilfrwd insingapore

Does this image look real? Well, it is a 1:20 miniature model of a provision shop, made from cardboard, waste paper and recyclable materials.

Creator Wilfred Cheah is a recyclable cardboard miniature artist. He spent a month creating this miniature model. The artist painstakingly printed out the labels to cut and paste, as well as hand-sealed the plastic bags. Food items such as ikan bilis were hand-made out of clay.

He made this artwork in commemoration of the hawker culture in Singapore. The hawker culture is especially prominent due to it being added to the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The hawker trade in Singapore has an impressive history, with street vendors plying their wares from the 1800s. An island-wide registration exercise of hawkers was carried out in the 1960s. The government also embarked on a programme to construct markets and hawker centres between 1971 and 1986.

There has been much support from netizens after Mr Cheah posted his artwork on Reddit and Facebook. Many are in awe of his ability to capture the nuances of the wet market Singaporeans are familiar with — the dirty floors and the goods on display, and even the accuracy of the brand names.

Mr Cheah has received more than 2,000 upvotes on Reddit, as well as 160 comments and 280 shares on Facebook. The big-hearted individual has been diligently responding to the comments on both social media platforms. He has made so many replies that his Facebook account has been temporarily suspended for over-commenting!