Building history: Brick artist transforms Singapore's landmarks into masterpieces

Brick artist Jeffrey with his sculptures.

As 9 August draws closer, the nation comes together to honour and commemorate Singapore’s history and how far we have come. Beyond these festivities, however, the question of “What does it mean to be Singaporean?” may not be one that we think about as we go about our day-to-day activities.

This is not the case for brick artist Jeffrey Kong.

Often recreating heritage items and iconic local landmarks, Jeffrey – better known as @artisanbricks on social media – offers a unique look into our past through his meticulously crafted miniature brick models. We take a closer look at how he expresses the Singaporean identity through this familiar medium.

The start of Artisan Bricks

Like many children, Jeffrey played with toy bricks growing up. While most put them down for good, he picked it up again in his thirties. What started as a fun hobby morphed into a side hustle and a want to share “the joys of the brick”; eventually, it became his full-time job.

When asked “Why bricks?”, Jeffrey laughed and replied: “Think of me as a baker – I just like to use this type of ‘flour’!”

He goes on to explain the beauty of brick making as a foundation of his artistic practice. To him, bricks bring a sense of playfulness, reminding many of their childhood - especially the tactile experience of connecting various pieces together to create something out of one’s own imagination.
“It’s popular, it works, and it's fun. The most important part is that it makes me happy.”

Embracing dual passions

A brick sculpture that Jeffrey built, replicating one of Singapore’s iconic Bishan HDB.

In his work, Jeffrey often draws from Singapore’s culture, history, and architecture. Our city has seen many changes over the years.

“I was born and raised here. I am a Singaporean. But the places and surrounding areas I grew up in are already gone. So, what I like to do with my work is to create a memory of that. For example, the Toa Payoh Public Library from my childhood used to have a massive round fountain. It's no longer around but because I created a work based on it, we can still have a conversation about the history of the place and its stories.”

Recognising how identity is tied to physical spaces, Jeffrey’s miniatures serve as a physical record of what was. His art becomes a way of ensuring we retain our identity and prevent it from being eroded.

“History is all around you. Ultimately, it’s important to conserve the heritage we have and to let people understand what our future will be. Through understanding our past, we can better relate to our elders and know where we come from.”

Fostering community through brick art

Aside from building brick art, Jeffrey also conducts workshops. During these classes, he teaches participants to build models and shares more about the history and facts about what they’re building.

Photo credit: Jeffrey Kong.

Jeffrey conducting a brick workshop.

For example, he has worked with the Asian Civilisations Museum to build a miniature of the Sri Mariamman Temple. As they got crafty, participants were fed interesting nuggets of information about the iconic landmark – the iconic gateway at the Hindu temple is refurbished every 12 years; there are five tiers of deities and mythological figures featured on the gateway, and so on.

“It's nice to have people come together to create something small and cute and share some stories about what they’re building. At the end of the workshop, I always encourage the workshop participants to bring what they created back home, take the pieces apart, and remake them better to tell their own stories.”

One of Jeffrey’s favourite works was a series of workshops at Queenstown where the public can come to build pieces, big or small. As the oldest HDB estate in Singapore, many icons are no longer around, like the former Forfar house. Some residents would point out to Jeffrey that the structure he made was somewhere they used to stay.

“There are so many stories you can tell of Singapore. It means a lot to me when people come up to me to share what the work means to them.”

Committed to building with passion

Brick by brick, Jeffrey recreates iconic landmarks.

Currently, Jeffrey has a workshop lined up with the National Museum of Singapore in late August and September, where he will be creating models based on the iconic dragon and watermelon HDB playgrounds.

“Some have the misconception that brick building is only for kids. But if you can put two bricks together, you can have fun! Brick building is for everyone and is an accessible medium for people of all ages. My oldest participant is in their 80s now, and he had no issues working on the art.

I’m very optimistic about my work and brick building. In the last 12 years, I think I have made quite a lot of people happy. As long as people continue to derive the same joy from my designs, I think I'll be doing it for a long time.”