Haw Par Villa is one of those uniquely Singaporean attractions that continue to draw visitors even decades after it was built in 1937. Nestled on a hill in Pasir Panjang, the country’s strangest theme park, famous for its gruesome displays of the 10 Courts of Hell, features more than 1,000 surreal sculptures and massive dioramas depicting Chinese mythologies and folklore in its sprawling space.
But perhaps not as well known is Teo Veoh Seng, the 83-year-old master painter who has maintained the park’s statues for the past 70 years. Hailed as the “last artisan” working on the sculptures, Teo started work there at the age of 13, and subsequently outlived the other six painters.
After years of restoring the artworks and keeping them from deteriorating, it was only last year that Teo finally retired, following a long and arduous search for his successor. The apprentice, a young painter from China, has since taken over the reins at the park, doing his best to keep up with his mentor’s exacting standards.
All this has been captured in a 70-minute feature documentary called The Last Artisan, which chronicles the past and the present of Haw Par Villa, and the workers who bring the sculptures to life. Directed by American filmmaker Craig McTurk, who’s made Singapore his home for the past 16 years, the project is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
With support from the National Heritage Board Heritage Grant, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and Latent Image Productions, the film’s rough cut was completed in December last year, with the funds used to cover filming costs and preliminary editing. So if you’re keen on finding out more about Teo’s story, you can support the project with donations for its post-production process.
