Over The Rainbow

Videos By Some Of Singapore’s Most Daring And Stylish Young Imagemakers Including Filmmaker Joy Song And Photographer Zalindrome. A Site-specific Installation By The Pop Culture-obsessed Mixed Media Artist Eduardo Enrique. An Immersive Audiovisual Experience Featuring Psychedelic Motion Graphics By Reza Hasni (See Right) And A Soundtrack By Electronic Musician Kin Leonn And More. Without Doubt, One Of The Buzziest Shows At Singapore Art Week This Month Will Be Happy House Curated By Tulika Ahuja And Eileen Chan. The Former Is The Independent Art Consultant On Everyone’s Lips For Her Playful And Thoughtprovoking Interactive Shows. The Other Is The Beloved Dj Who Revolutionised Our Nightlife Scene With Her Underground Techno Parties And Laid The Foundation For The Project After Leaving What Was Formerly Her Happy House. Here, The Latter Talks To Noelle Loh About The Death Of Clubs, Locals’ Troubling Relationship With Happiness, And How She Reclaimed The Joy She Found On The Dance Floor Through Art.

It all started with a random message accompanied by a smiley face-scrawled poster sent over Whatsapp early last month: “I hope this message finds you well. I’m working on a new project, Happy House, which is an ongoing study into the state of happiness in Singapore and want to understand why we have such a complicated relationship with happiness… We are doing an open call now to buy your happy memories for $1 each. Whether it’s a snapshot from a happier time or a compilation of many memories that have brought you joy, we want them!”

The sender indicated on screen: Eileen Chan aka DJ Cats On Crack.

Pre-pandemic, Chan was the poster girl of underground nightlife here. Besides her infectious house and techno sets, she had co-founded The Council – operator of three cult clubs (Headquarters, Tuff Club and Somewhere) where bonds and beats matter more than the dress code or decor, as well as organiser of even grittier warehouse raves of legendary proportions. Nearly two years on and… she’s sending scam-like texts to people she had not seen since the onset of Covid?

“We are presenting the first chapter of Happy House as part of Singapore Art Week (SAW) in January,” she explains after a convivial exchange of emoji greetings. A click on the link in her message takes one to the Instagram account @happyhouse.sg that’s part meme punctuated bulletin board, part social experiment with contributions from those who have shared photos or videos of fond times past for a buck. (One post reports that according to an index by the website Expensivity, the price of happiness in Singapore is around $5,150 monthly – “moderate” by regional standards.)