Junk to jungle giants

Published: Oct 21, 2026, 05:00 AM

An orang utan mother and her child have taken the place of a Sumatran tiger at Gardens by the Bay’s Bayfront Pavilion.

Titled New Life, the new 7m-tall sculptural artwork marks Portuguese artist Artur Bordalo’s return to Singapore, four years after he built the tiger from discarded items including portable toilets and road dividers.

Better known as Bordalo II, the 38-year-old turns rubbish into giant animal sculptures, with more than 200 of them installed in cities worldwide.

His tiger stood outside the pavilion’s SG50 lattice for four years, drawing visitors who posed for photographs. It has since been removed, making way for his even larger tribute to the endangered orang utan.

Portuguese street artist Artur Bordalo, better known as Bordalo II, with his sculpture of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger at Gardens by the Bay on July 28, 2022. ST FILE PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN

Portuguese street artist Artur Bordalo, better known as Bordalo II, with his sculpture of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger at Gardens by the Bay on July 28, 2022.

ST FILE PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN

“We are honoured to be invited back here. For this second piece, I wanted to present something distinct in both scale and message,” says Bordalo.

Depicting an endangered mother orang utan and her baby was a deliberate choice.

“It adds another layer of symbolism – representing care and the generational bond,” he says.

The Gardens itself holds special meaning for him. “I love the backdrop because it captures the city so well – the balance of lush greenery and imposing architecture.”

Piece by piece, Fabio Teixeira (partially hidden) and Mateus Roque of Bordalo’s team install the face of the mother orang utan’s sculpture from a boom lift on Oct 16.

“My art is ephemeral, unlike the materials I use,” Bordalo adds.

“Plastics are practically eternal. They break down into tiny pieces, but they endure.

“There’s a bitter irony in building art from the very materials destroying the habitats of these animals.”

Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu will unveil the finished artwork on Oct 22.

The ceremony will also launch insurer Singlife’s sustainability initiative, which shares the artwork’s name.

Finding the right rubbish

Old playground parts from an HDB estate in Bukit Batok West are getting a second life as art at the Gardens.

Collecting them on the morning of Oct 8 is circularity solutions provider Cora Environment.

Discarded playground components at Bukit Batok West Avenue 5.

A Cora Environment employee moving a discarded playground component for use in the orang utan artwork.

Playground equipment manufacturer Kompan Asia has dismantled the structure for a renovation project and set the pieces aside.

While the plastic is usually bound for disposal, it is heading to the Gardens instead.

Finding the right rubbish for New Life has been the biggest challenge, says Colt Seow, managing director of Ad Planet Group, the creative communications agency overseeing the project. “Not all discarded items suit the artwork.”

Playground parts being collected to be upcycled as art by staff from Cora Environment and Ad Planet Group in Bukit Batok West on Oct 8.

Cora Environment, ComfortDelGro Engineering and construction company Kaszon donated decommissioned bins, road barricades, playground equipment and car parts.

Decommissioned bins being transported to Gardens by the Bay.

Partners, friends and family chipped in with old luggage, toys, storage boxes and kitchenware. Singlife staff held their own collection drive in September.

“Most of the trash is common to all the places I’ve been to – and I have artworks all around the world. So many things are universal – traffic barriers, trash bins, car bumpers. What usually differs are the colours,” says Bordalo.

A spoilt standing box fan.

Discarded ComfortDelGro taxi body panels.

“We try to keep objects in their original colours as much as possible, which can sometimes be a challenge for our production team.”

Near the Bayfront Plaza carpark, Bordalo’s five-person team of Portuguese artists sorts the haul by colour and size: black taxi bumpers, green rubbish bins, cracked recycling bins, old suitcases.

Every piece could become part of the orang utans.

“Usually, we try to salvage as much plastic as possible so that we have more flexibility,” says art assistant Mateus Roque, 30, who has worked with Bordalo for four years.

Art assistant Roque using a jigsaw to cut roadside barricades into smaller parts.

Filipe Correia, a member of Bordalo’s team, using a jigsaw to cut up the playground components.

Bordalo’s five-person team working through the heat at Gardens by the Bay on Oct 8, sorting discarded materials by colour to cut them into smaller pieces for the sculptures.

“We can also use small pieces for curves and creases.”

Precision is key as Andre Costa of Bordalo’s team aligns a piece of discarded plastic against the framework for the mother orang utan sculpture before securing it in place on Oct 12.

Roque has spent four years building Bordalo’s sculptures in cities around the world. This is his first project in Singapore and one of the largest he has worked on.

“We have two characters – a mother and child – so I think it will look very nice,” he says.

That pairing was chosen deliberately, says Pearlyn Phau, group chief executive officer of Singlife, the home-grown financial services company presenting New Life.

“The baby orang utan represents tomorrow, the generation that will inherit the choices we make today,” she adds.

Planning diagrams for the sculptural artwork.

Bordalo’s team designed and planned the base structure in Portugal.

Phau sees the project as an extension of what an insurer does: helping people protect their future.

A legacy is about more than money, she says. It also means handing over a healthy planet to the next generation.

Singlife has committed to sponsoring New Life for four years. “Meaningful change takes time, and we intend to see it through,” she says.

Workers from construction firm Kaszon assembling the framework of the 7m-tall artwork at Bayfront Pavilion at Gardens by the Bay on Oct 8, welding the beams on-site after building the base at its Jurong factory.

A skeleton of metal beams has gone up. Kaszon built the base at its factory in Jurong; workers weld the beams on-site, gradually defining the orang utan’s form.

Welding works in progress at the Bayfront Pavilion.

Kaszon’s Wang Xiao Qing working on the framework on Oct 16.

(From left) Kaszon’s Yang Pi Hui, Wang and Gao Hua Rong working on the metal structure of the artwork.

Kaszon’s Wang cutting a metal section of the structural framework for the New Life artwork on Oct 13.

Still to be added are the beam for the branch, and the baby orang utan that will hang from it.

The structural framework of the baby orang utan.

Ahead of Bordalo’s arrival on Oct 14, the team cuts up plastic, then drills the larger pieces onto the frame.

Teixeira sorting out the pieces that will be drilled onto the frame.

Drills whir, saws grind and metal clangs, as Bordalo gets to work.

He has mapped out the broad features of the mother orang utan’s face. The details will depend on the materials on hand.

“It is all done on-site. We have a 3D project and an engineering structure that are fundamental for stability and safety, but (it is) only when my team and I start working on it (that) you can see it transform from a construction into an artwork.

“The colours, the patterns, the details we choose – those are the most important aspects of the installation process,” he says.

Bordalo (left) joins his team in cutting up pieces required for the artwork on site.

“Now, is freestyle.”

Working on the orang utan’s face, Bordalo scans the pieces of scrap around him and picks out a rubber tyre for an eyelid. The thick rubber resists the drill.

Bordalo working on the “face” of the mother orang utan on Oct 16.

Next, he reaches for a blue plastic wheel from the playground equipment that Cora Environment collected in Bukit Batok West.

He breaks it apart and combines the pieces with yellow plastic scrap to form the mother orang utan’s nose.

For an artist who has built giant sculptures around the world, the hardest part of this project is not working with the materials but the heat, as he is outdoors all day.

Bordalo and Correia working on the face of the mother orang utan on Oct 16.

Sweat dripping from Bordalo’s face as he works in the outdoors.

“It has been hard to work under these conditions, but it’s nothing compared with the horrors that people living in the affected areas must endure.

“I’ve seen images of burnt animals and people struggling to breathe – it’s horrifying,” Bordalo says.

“So, yes, there’s discomfort, but we try to keep our heads clear and channel our energy into bringing these sculptures to life.”

For Gardens by the Bay, which has welcomed more than 115 million visitors since it opened in 2012, art offers another way to get people thinking about the environment, says Lim Chee Hwee, senior director of its sustainability office.

“Bordalo’s animal sculptures bring the vulnerability of wildlife into a garden devoted to plants, and remind us how closely biodiversity is tied to the way we live and consume,” he says.

Loh Chun Huang of Kaszon’s structural design operations team using a crane to lift an orang utan “hand” from a lorry on Oct 16.

The artwork’s prominent location near Bayfront MRT station will help give the orang utans a wider audience.

Workers welding parts of the orang utan’s “hand” as the team puts the finishing touches to the sculptures at Bayfront Pavilion on Oct 20.

As with the tiger before them, the hope is that the orang utans will make visitors pause, take a photo and read the message behind the sculptures.

Bordalo speaking with passers-by (from left) Mark Heng, E.K. Ong, Lim Hwee Ee and Dennis Lim about the artwork at Gardens by the Bay on Oct 20.

“We hope New Life will move people in the same way,” says Lim.

Bordalo says: “If my art sparks conversations about better ways to manage trash and preserve nature, then it has served its purpose.

“That’s what I intend to achieve here, and what I hope people take away from these sculptures.”

Produced by: Gin Tay, Jessica Novia, Joanna Lim, Neo Xiaobin and Riana Zakir

Main photographs by : Gin Tay

Main videos by: Ad Planet Group

发布时间：2026年10月21日 上午5:00

在滨海湾花园的海滨亭，一只猩猩妈妈和她的幼崽取代了苏门答腊虎的位置。

这座名为《新生》的全新7米高雕塑作品标志着葡萄牙艺术家阿图尔·博尔达洛时隔四年重返新加坡。四年前，他用包括便携式厕所和道路隔离带在内的废弃物品建造了老虎雕塑。

这位38岁的艺术家更为人熟知的名字是博尔达洛二世，他将垃圾变成巨型动物雕塑，其中200多件作品已在全球各大城市安装。

他的老虎雕塑在SG50展馆的格栅外矗立了四年，吸引着游客前来拍照。之后，这尊老虎雕塑被移除，为他为濒危猩猩创作的规模更大的雕塑腾出了空间。

2022年7月28日，葡萄牙街头艺术家阿图尔·博尔达洛（Artur Bordalo，又名博尔达洛二世）在滨海湾花园展示他创作的极度濒危苏门答腊虎雕塑。（海峡时报档案照片：王伟进）

2022 年 7 月 28 日，葡萄牙街头艺术家 Artur Bordalo（又名 Bordalo II）在滨海湾花园展出了他创作的极度濒危的苏门答腊虎雕塑。

《海峡时报》档案照片：王伟进

“我们很荣幸能再次受邀来到这里。对于这第二件作品，我希望在规模和主题上都呈现出不同的面貌，”博尔达洛说道。

刻意选择描绘濒危的猩猩妈妈和她的宝宝。

“它增添了另一层象征意义——代表着关爱和代际纽带，”他说。

花园本身对他来说意义非凡。“我喜欢这里的景色，因为它完美地展现了这座城市的风貌——郁郁葱葱的绿植与雄伟的建筑相得益彰。”

10 月 16 日，法比奥·特谢拉（部分被遮挡）和博尔达洛团队的马特乌斯·罗克从高空作业车上一点一点地安装了猩猩妈妈雕塑的面部。

“我的艺术作品是短暂的，不像我使用的材料那样转瞬即逝，”博尔达洛补充道。

“塑料几乎是永恒的。它们会分解成微小的碎片，但它们却能长久存在。”

“用破坏这些动物栖息地的材料来建造艺术品，这本身就是一种莫大的讽刺。”

永续及环境部长傅海燕将于10月22日揭幕这件完成的艺术作品。

此次仪式还将启动保险公司 Singlife 的可持续发展计划，该计划与这件艺术品同名。

找到合适的垃圾

来自武吉巴督西区组屋区的旧游乐场部件，在花园中以艺术品的形式获得了新生。

10月8日上午，循环经济解决方案提供商Cora Environment负责收集这些材料。

武吉巴督西5道废弃的游乐场设施。

Cora Environment 的一名员工正在搬运一个废弃的游乐场组件，以便用于猩猩艺术作品中。

游乐场设备制造商 Kompan Asia 已将该设施拆除，以便进行翻新工程，并将部件放在一旁。

这些塑料通常最终会被丢弃，但现在它们将被送到植物园。

负责该项目的创意传播机构Ad Planet Group的董事总经理Colt Seow表示，为“新生”项目找到合适的废弃物是最大的挑战。“并非所有废弃物都适合这件艺术作品。”

10 月 8 日，Cora Environment 和 Ad Planet Group 的工作人员在武吉巴督西收集游乐场部件，准备将其升级改造为艺术品。

Cora Environment、ComfortDelGro Engineering 和建筑公司 Kaszon 捐赠了废弃的垃圾箱、路障、游乐场设备和汽车零件。

已停用的垃圾箱正在运往滨海湾花园。

合作伙伴、朋友和家人纷纷捐赠了旧行李箱、玩具、储物盒和厨具。Singlife 的员工也在九月份组织了自己的捐赠活动。

“我去过的所有地方，大部分垃圾都差不多——而我的作品遍布世界各地。很多东西都是共通的——交通路障、垃圾桶、汽车保险杠。通常不同的地方只是颜色，”博尔达洛说道。

一台被宠坏的立式箱式风扇。

废弃的康福德高出租车车身面板。

“我们尽量保持物品的原始颜色，但这有时对我们的生产团队来说是一个挑战。”

在海湾广场停车场附近，博尔达洛的五人葡萄牙艺术家团队按颜色和大小对收集到的物品进行分类：黑色出租车保险杠、绿色垃圾桶、破裂的回收箱、旧行李箱。

每一块碎片都可能成为猩猩的一部分。

“通常，我们会尽可能多地回收利用塑料，这样我们就能有更大的灵活性，”30岁的艺术助理马特乌斯·罗克说道，他已经和博尔达洛一起工作了四年。

艺术助理罗克用曲线锯将路边的路障切割成更小的部分。

博尔达洛团队成员菲利佩·科雷亚正在用曲线锯切割游乐场组件。

10 月 8 日，博尔达洛的五人团队在滨海湾花园顶着烈日工作，按颜色对废弃材料进行分类，并将它们切割成更小的碎片，用于雕塑创作。

“我们还可以使用小块材料来制作曲线和折痕。”

10 月 12 日，博尔达洛团队的安德烈·科斯塔将一块废弃塑料对准猩猩妈妈雕塑的框架，然后将其固定到位，精准至关重要。

罗克花了四年时间在世界各地的城市搭建博尔达洛的雕塑作品。这是他在新加坡的第一个项目，也是他参与过的规模最大的项目之一。

“我们有两个角色——一位母亲和一个孩子——所以我认为画面会非常漂亮，”他说。

新生活 (New Life) 的推出方——本土金融服务公司 Singlife 的集团首席执行官 Pearlyn Phau 表示，这样的组合是经过深思熟虑的。

她补充说：“这只小猩猩代表着明天，代表着将继承我们今天所做选择的一代人。”

雕塑作品的规划图。

博尔达洛的团队设计并规划了葡萄牙的基地结构。

Phau 认为该项目是保险公司业务的延伸：帮助人们保护他们的未来。

她说，传承不仅仅关乎金钱，更意味着将一个健康的地球留给下一代。

Singlife承诺赞助New Life四年。“有意义的改变需要时间，我们打算坚持到底，”她说。

10 月 8 日，建筑公司 Kaszon 的工人们在滨海湾花园的海湾亭组装 7 米高的艺术作品框架，他们在裕廊工厂建造好底座后，在现场焊接横梁。

金属梁骨架已经搭建完成。卡松公司在裕廊的工厂里建造了底座；工人们在现场焊接梁柱，逐步勾勒出猩猩的形态。

海湾凉亭正在进行焊接工程。

Kaszon 的王晓青于 10 月 16 日开始研究框架。

（从左至右）Kaszon 的杨丕慧、王和高华荣正在制作艺术品的金属结构。

10 月 13 日，Kaszon 的 Wang 正在切割“新生”艺术作品的结构框架的金属部分。

还有一根横梁需要安装，还有一只小猩猩将挂在树枝上。

小猩猩的体格结构。

在 Bordalo 于 10 月 14 日抵达之前，团队将塑料切割成块，然后将较大的塑料块钻孔安装到框架上。

特谢拉正在整理要钻孔安装到框架上的零件。

钻头嗡嗡作响，锯子嘎吱作响，金属碰撞作响，博尔达洛开始工作了。

他已经勾勒出了母猩猩面部的大致特征。细节部分将取决于手头的材料。

“所有工作都是在现场完成的。我们有一个3D模型和一个工程结构，这对稳定性和安全性至关重要，但只有当我和我的团队开始着手工作时，你才能看到它从一个建筑变成一件艺术品。”

“我们选择的颜色、图案和细节——这些都是安装过程中最重要的方面，”他说。

博尔达洛（左）与他的团队一起在现场切割艺术品所需的部件。

“现在是自由式。”

博尔达洛正在给猩猩的脸做修复，他扫视着周围的废料，挑出一个橡胶轮胎做眼睑。厚厚的橡胶让钻头难以穿透。

10月16日，博尔达洛正在为母猩猩的“脸”进行修复。

接下来，他伸手去拿一个蓝色的塑料轮子，这个轮子来自 Cora Environment 在武吉巴督西区收集的游乐场设备。

他把它拆开，把碎片和黄色塑料碎片组合起来，做成母猩猩的鼻子。

对于一位曾在世界各地建造巨型雕塑的艺术家来说，这个项目最难的部分不是材料的使用，而是炎热的天气，因为他整天都在户外。

10月16日，Bordalo和Correia正在为母猩猩的脸部进行修复。

博尔达洛在户外工作时，汗水从他的脸上滴落。

“在这样的条件下工作很困难，但这与受灾地区人民所遭受的苦难相比，根本不算什么。”

“我看到了被烧伤的动物和呼吸困难的人的照片——太可怕了，”博尔达洛说。

“所以，是的，会有不适感，但我们努力保持头脑清醒，并将精力集中在赋予这些雕塑生命上。”

滨海湾花园自 2012 年开放以来已接待了超过 1.15 亿游客，其可持续发展办公室高级主管林志辉表示，艺术为人们提供了另一种思考环境的方式。

“博尔达洛的动物雕塑将野生动物的脆弱带入一个以植物为主的花园，并提醒我们生物多样性与我们的生活和消费方式有着多么密切的联系，”他说。

10 月 16 日，Kaszon 结构设计运营团队的 Loh Chun Huang 使用起重机从卡车上吊起一只猩猩“手”。

这件艺术品位于海湾舫地铁站附近显眼位置，将有助于让更多人看到猩猩的身影。

10 月 20 日，在海湾前亭，工人们正在焊接猩猩“手”的各个部件，为雕塑做最后的润色。

就像之前的老虎雕塑一样，人们希望这些猩猩雕塑能够让游客驻足拍照，并阅读雕塑背后的寓意。

10 月 20 日，Bordalo 与路人（从左至右）Mark Heng、EK Ong、Lim Hwee Ee 和 Dennis Lim 谈论滨海湾花园的艺术作品。

林说：“我们希望新生活也能以同样的方式感动人心。”

博尔达洛说：“如果我的艺术作品能够引发关于如何更好地管理垃圾和保护自然的讨论，那么它就达到了目的。”

“这就是我想要达到的效果，也是我希望人们能从这些雕塑中获得的感悟。”

制作人：Gin Tay、Jessica Novia、Joanna Lim、Neo Xiaobin 和 Riana Zakir

主要照片由金泰拍摄

主要视频制作方：Ad Planet Group