Folding Dreams shares the story of how humble beginnings can create a business legacy, inspired by the history of Mustafa Centre. At an early age in the 1960s, founder Mustaq Ahmad helped out at his family's pushcart business selling food and drinks. Soon, the budding entrepreneur started selling handkerchiefs which he bought using his pocket money. From then, the family business took off. The artwork depicts a makeshift stall where the handkerchiefs are folded into massive cranes.

Through Folding Dreams, the artist hopes that despite difficult times, we are reminded of such stories and be inspired to follow our dreams. As one humble handkerchief business could one day become a place where everyone can go to 24/7, she hopes this artwork can inspire people to give simple ideas a go and see how it comes into fruition.

Mithra focuses on the Indian oil lamp in her landscape. The lighting of an oil lamp symbolises prosperity and celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. The artist creates a landscape inspired by the colours used in Kolam making and the Enney Vilakku with the hope of bringing colour back to life during these dreary times.

Warp & Weft is made up of artworks from the community. Each element in the mural represents an expression or reflection of the culture, history and people that make up Little India. It is a celebration of the diversity and the rich heritage that makes Little India a special place for many.

“Dancing in Unison” is a result of many months of virtual collaboration between Indian artist Bhajju Shyam and Singaporean artist Sam Lo, made possible through the curation of ST+art India Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in India that works on public art projects. One of the tallest in Singapore standing at seven storeys tall on the façade of Broadway Hotel in Little India, the mural embodies the idea that respect for nature and the environment at large is what will guarantee our co-existence. Every feature in the work extends on this idea of the necessary dance between our urban living and nature.

The tree - an iconic element from Gond art designed by Bhajju – engulfs the urban environment of human dwelling (personified by the windows of the building) becomes a metaphor for the universe where everything is interconnected from the land to the air. Its branches host vibrantly coloured sparrows, an element which reoccurs in Sam’s work, as a symbol of freedom, being one of the most common birds in India and Singapore.

Sam's deer, a revered animal in India serves as a tribute to Gond art which in this gentle appropriation manifests our contemporary interconnection where elements from different cultures are seen blending together in our globalised and accessible world. Sam further reinforces this idea by designing a red ribbon, another common element in their work, as a reminder of an omnipresent energy that connects us all, and one which connects Sam’s beliefs with those of Gond Art.

This extraordinary effort by the two artists resonates with the theme of ARTWALK 2021 – “In Spite Of” - where artists overcome limitations and geographical boundaries to come together to realise their creations, made possible by their passions and hopes for harmony for the future.

In the time of the pandemic, families must maintain social distancing while taking photos. In this standalone metal installation, visitors are invited to take photos with family and friends, while engaging with the socially distanced frames.

Navras In Peril is a collaborative project that depicts through the medium of Indian classical dance the reimagining of the navrasa and its interpretation given our current reality of the pandemic, movement control and domestic entrapment. It is a dual channel moving image performance which seeks to explore the triangulated relationship of dancer, audience and site. Conceptualized by artist Dipali Gupta, this collaborative project is an attempt to foster connectivity and engagement despite the limitations of a confined environment.

The representation of this site based dance is durational, relational and contextual. It depicts a dynamic intersection that blurs the boundaries of representation and experience resulting into an evolution of relationships with space, audience and the dancer’s body. ‘Home’ – a domestic space is an unconventional dance site which serves as a landscape of immersive and focused encounters, a terrain for lived experience. While the home is long appreciated as a safe haven, a place of comfort and belonging, today, it almost feels constricting, limiting and hampering of freedom and mobility. Through diverse occurrences, the dancer navigates her physical and emotional feelings that ultimately allow her to co-exist with the reality of the pandemic and its precarious repercussions.