It’s been a busy month on the island. All across the land, citizens, media and PR companies have put everything on hold to focus their appetites and Google calendars on one thing: tart. 

A frenzy of local and international tart, tart galleries, tart parties and fringe tart events has been unleashed, thanks to the near concurrent occurrence of annual festivals and events like Singapore Tart Week, Tart Apart 5th Edition, Tart Stage Singapore, Tart in Motion, Aliwal Urban Tart Festival and Tart After Dark at Gillman Barracks. Phew! 

Perhaps no one has been busier and more invested than the National Tart Council. “This annual effort reinforces Singapore’s place firmly as a leading global tarts destination,” said one spokesperson reading an official statement. 

Not everyone is thrilled, of course. The President of Curmudgeons Anonymous, who shall remain nameless, said in a Facebook message, “Tart in Singapore has been taken out of context and has become hijacked by economic posturing and fetishistic consumption.”

For Lara Liew, editor of a local tart magazine, the issue was with the quality of tart being celebrated. “Singapore’s tart scene is a disaster,” she said. “Sugary and gimmicky, most tart shows are clearly aimed at the […] lowest common denominator. Nobody aims for sublime transcendence anymore—whatever […] happened to high tart?!” 

Word on the street was mixed as well, depending on who you asked. “You can’t leave the house without getting hit in the face with tart,” said one taxi uncle when we got on at the Singapore Tart Museum and asked him to drive us to Tartistry. 

The response at the café was completely the opposite, as you might expect. “Oh my God, I love tart. I’m like sooo obsessed!” said one young woman clutching her very nice handbag. “I think tart is like super “important” and totally awesome.” 

We tend to agree. Much as we will suffer from overconsumption of tart, and much as we will roll our eyes at poseur tartists, it’s hard to deny this simple fact: tart makes life worth living.

Btw, this image is from the upcoming show Mad Love, opening this week at the MAD Museum of Art & Design.