SINGAPORE: Many cities around the world have graffiti as street art, but Singapore has an older gentleman who fashions art from twigs. The artist in question is a man in his 70s who many call Uncle Thien. And when a netizen posted a sample of his twig art on r/Singapore on Friday (Jan 27), others were amazed.
“I’ve seen this uncle before!! His faces have a very peaceful zen look to them. Very cool!!,” wrote one.
“Could’ve been an expensive artwork in Europe,” observed another.
“This is better than having graffiti everywhere at least,” another chimed in.
The work of Uncle Thien, who hails from China, has been featured in mothership and AsiaOne over the past few years.
A tweet of a video showing the artist at work went viral in 2020, reaching over 20,000 views.
so my friend posted this on her ig story, this freaking cute uncle does this with BRANCHES everyday. omg it’s too precious 🥺 HE DESERVES MORE ATTENTION!!! 🥺🥺🥺 pic.twitter.com/zeakunH77v
— arethalzy (@arethalzy) July 5, 2020
His work was even noticed that same year by his MP, Mr Alvin Tan, who represents the Moulmein–Cairnhill division of Tanjong Pagar GRC.
Mr Tan’s July 4, 2020, Facebook post about his first encounter with the artist was shared over 1000 times.
A few days later the MP posted about Uncle Thien again.
“One day I passed by the carpark and saw some branches on the ground. I had the sudden inspiration to see what I could create from arranging them. In the past, I loved buying magazines and books to study their drawing techniques, so I decided to create some portraits,” he told Liane Wanbao in an interview that year.
/TISG