Think & Tink

02/08/2026

Tracing Stories, Mapping Places: Folklore, History and the Making of the Region

On 2 August 2026, Think & Tink welcomed Lai Chee Kien for a lecture exploring the intertwined layers of folklore, colonial histories, surveying practices, ritual traditions, and civic development in Singapore and the wider region.

Moving between stories of deities, spirits, and legendary tiger narratives from Chinese and regional communities, the talk revealed how myths and memories continue to shape our understanding of place. These narratives were placed alongside accounts of colonial encounters, early surveying expeditions, and the evolving processes through which cities were measured, mapped, named, and transformed.

Through historical figures such as James Coleman and early surveyors, the lecture examined how mapping was not only a technical practice, but also a cultural act — one connected to the shaping of landscapes, public infrastructure, reclaimed territories, gardens, temples, airports, civic events, and the emergence of modern citizenship.

From place names such as Ang Mo Kio to broader questions of identity and belonging, the session highlighted how local histories are formed through the constant interaction between oral traditions, archival research, multilingual storytelling, and lived experiences.

At Think & Tink, we believe that places are not only built through materials and structures, but also through the stories, memories, and relationships that accumulate over time.

Thank you to Lai Chee Kien for sharing this rich journey of research and reflection, and to everyone who joined us in exploring the many layers that continue to shape our region.

22/07/2026

Join Us for a sharing by Dr Chee Kien on his new graphic novel, Tigers in the Lion City!

🗓 Session Date & Time

Sunday, Aug 2 – 2:00 p.m.

🎙 Biography

Chee Kien is a registered architect in Singapore, researching histories of art, architecture, settlements, urbanism and landscapes in Southeast Asia. His publications include Building Merdeka: Independence Architecture in Kuala Lumpur (2007), Building Memories: People, Architecture, Independence (2016) [awarded Book of the Year (2017)], The Merdeka Interviews (2018), and Cords to Histories: Architecture and Life in Southeast Asia (2021, in Chinese as 《歷史的臍帶：東南亞建築與生活》) [One of Asia Magazine’s Best Ten Non-Fiction Books (2021)].

Come be part of the conversation, everyone is welcome!

05/07/2026

One of the most meaningful parts of our recent journey through Germany was spending time with the team at BASIS Frankfurt.
With the support of the Goethe-Institut, Think & tink is excited to begin a residency exchange with BASIS, an artist-led organisation that has spent the past two decades supporting emerging artistic practices through affordable studios, international residencies, exhibitions and long-term professional development.

Walking through their studios, it became clear that what BASIS offers is far more than physical space. It is an ecosystem built around something increasingly rare: time.
Time for artists to experiment.
Time to make mistakes.
Time to meet others across cultures.

Our conversations were refreshingly honest. We spoke about the difficult decisions artists make when accepting residencies, sometimes leaving stable employment for several months without knowing what comes afterwards. We also discussed the realities faced by art organisation like Basis that continue supporting more than 150 artists while navigating limited staffing, ageing buildings, funding uncertainties and the everyday work of keeping a creative community alive.
What moved us most was that these challenges did not diminish the ambition of the people we met. Instead, they revealed the care and commitment required to sustain an artistic ecosystem.

The residency space

We are deeply grateful to the BASIS team for their generosity, openness and willingness to share both their successes and their challenges. We look forward to seeing this exchange grow between Frankfurt and Kuching, and to the conversations and collaborations that will emerge in the years ahead.

We also had the opportunity to visit several artists’ studios. Their practices explored memory, material transformation, discipline, migration, ecology and identity through sculpture, sound, movement, food, living systems and time. Each conversation reminded us that artistic practice can become a way of questioning how we live with one another and with the places that shape us.

01/07/2026

01/05/2026

As part of our ongoing collaboration with Goethe-Institut and basis e.V., we are opening up Think & Tink to residency applicants who are curious about working through presence, process, and reciprocity.

Think & Tink is not a neutral container for production. It is a lived space, layered with exhibition-making, daily rhythms, food practices, and long-term relationships. Situated above a four-generation kopitiam, the space constantly negotiates between public and intimate, structured and informal, planned and emergent.

Developed by Borneo Laboratory, the space brings together a gallery, kitchen, library, workshop hall, material archive, and live-work residency rooms. These are not separate functions, but interconnected conditions that shape how work unfolds over time. Here, exhibitions can be assembled and dismantled within hours; meals can become sites of inquiry; conversations extend into shared making.

Our residency does not begin with a fixed outcome. Instead, it invites you to situate your practice within an ecology of people, materials, and contexts, where attention, care, and responsibility are as important as production.

Through this collaboration, we are interested in practitioners who are willing to engage across disciplines, cultures, and ways of knowing, those who can hold space for uncertainty while contributing meaningfully to a shared environment.

The following images offer a glimpse into the spaces you may inhabit, activate, and reshape during your time with us.

15/04/2026

01/04/2026

It’s been almost a month since we settled into our new space on Jalan Ang Cheng Ho. Slowly settling in, day by day.

We feel quietly held here, by the rhythms of the neighbourhood, and by the kopitiam downstairs that has lived through four generations.

Today, we have these warm people came by Iain, Fabian and Sarah who came and say hi, and the beautiful photos were taken by the talented them.

If you’re nearby, come by and say hi.
The staircase exhibition is still open, and the space is finding its way.

24/02/2026

The 'Alfred Russel Wallace As A Medium' exhibition in Kuching previews Chang Yoong Chia's upcoming graphic novel

06/02/2026

The exhibition Alfred Russel Wallace as a Medium opened last Saturday at Think & Tink, Kuching. Presented as a work-in-progress, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the evolving process of an upcoming graphic novel by artist Chang Yoong Chia and writer Teoh Ming Wah.

Situated on the second floor of Think & Tink, the exhibition space becomes a site of encounter between past and present—inviting visitors to slow down, observe, and take part in an ongoing conversation shaped by research, drawing, and narrative-making. The exhibition unfolds not as a finished statement, but as an open process, welcoming local communities into its becoming.

Exhibition Title: Alfred Russel Wallace as a Medium
Dates: 1 February – 1 March 2026
Venue: Think & Tink, 2nd Floor, 227 Jalan Ang Cheng Ho, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak
(Upstairs of Meng Joo Kee Café)

Opening Hours:
Tuesday – Friday, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Closed on Mondays and the first three days of Chinese New Year

Admission is free. Visitors in Kuching are warmly invited to spend time with the work and the space.

06/02/2026