ABSTRACT
On 3 June 2012, a young female installation-cum-street-artist, Samantha Lo, was arrested in Singapore for allegedly pasting black circular stickers on traffic lights, and stencilling roads and walls of buildings with politically and grammatically incorrect Singlish phrases like ‘My Grandfather Road’, ‘Anyhow Press Police Catch’ and several other humorous lines. As has typically been the case in the geographically small city state, she was arrested shortly after the news became public and investigated by the police for vandalism, a crime that carries a sentence of up to three years, a fine and strokes of the cane (Grant, 2012). Popularly referred to as the ‘Sticker Lady’, Lo was expressing social discontentment about the perceived encroachment of the government into everyday life with a strong sense of colloquial humour via her art. Her disfigurement of public spaces split public opinions, with the conservative Singaporean majority considering her a public nuisance, whilst the more progressive minority defended her right to free speech and artistic expression.
