This blog post is part of the Random Sampling Singapore project. The Project aims to sample 100 places on the island of Singapore over a one year period in order to gain an unbiased and holistic view of the city state.

On 16th of July I went to Sengkang to meet a friend. He is a Singaporean Designer and we walked along the Sungei Serangoon Park Connector along the river to the Buangkok Bridge. Right in the middle of the bridge we stopped to explore coordinate #5.

During our walk we talked mainly about beads, craft and art. He is currently working on a very time intensive and sophisticated beading project. It’s about traditional glass beaded shoes, a craft which was very prestigious in Singapore once. Now only a few people are able to make this kind of shoes.

Sampling

The sidewalk on the bridge was swept clean. Hardly something to find. On a water drainage between the walking path and the street moss was growing around the holes.

About 2 meters from the drainage we found a bone. One single defleshed spinal bone.

At home I looked at the backbone and the moss. The moss appears under the microscope as a lush green forest. With UV light the green turns into blood red. The bone shows the fibrous structure in direction of growth and dotted at a fracture. The surface is soiled with black and brown growth.

The top view of the bone shows a distinctive and symmetrical picture. Three oval foramina, a spinous crown – how lost this piece of its spine?

Artwork

A dissolved view on the geometrical form of a spine bone.

In German the word for spine has multiple meanings.