Shrub Is The Indie Retail Haven You Need To Discover At Golden Mile Tower
Just eight months old, this cosy and welcoming outpost of art, zines and creativity is all about curiosity and discovery. Its founder, Fern, lets us in.
Inside Golden Mile Tower, tucked behind an assortment of travel agencies, eateries, matchmaking companies and pubs, is a little haven of zines and artsy tchotchkes. Were it not for the vibrant posters and array of printed matter presented out front, it might be easy to take the ‘Teo Locksmith’ signboard at face value and zip on by.
But this is no locksmith – not any more, at least. Started in Oct last year, and slowly but surely finding its feet, Shrub is a store and multi-use space that deals in works by independent artists. If it sounds like a nebulous, hard-to-define description, it’s because the place dabbles by nature in various disciplines and forms. Fern Teo, the store’s 26-year-old founder, has a background in design. But after a bit of time plying that trade, they quickly learned that a life of being in an office was not for them.
Shrub opened in Oct 2022 as a store stocking wares and creations by independent artists such as zine makers and T-shirt designers.
Instead, they started to learn how to screen print T-shirts from a friend at design outfit Hahahause. “I started printing shirts almost as a joke, and I started being able to sell them,” says Teo
. That soon grew into Ripe, a T-shirt brand. “When Ripe had the opportunity to do pop-ups, the tables were so big. I started asking Hause and other friends to hop on and share the space,” they recall.
That sort of collectivity snowballed into something of a precursor to Shrub: an assembly of like-minded creative people who make things, albeit without a physical space to actually put these passions to practise yet. That changed when Teo’s grandparents – they're the folks behind Teo Locksmith – retired, and an opportunity came up to use the space. “I moved this idea of a shared space to Shrub,” explains Teo.
Among the items stocked at Shrub is this short-sleeved T-shirt by Ripe, a personal project that Teo shared with their friend Cam Tu. "Ripe is an active project going on about six years now, and it serves as a comfortable platform for us to create and experiment with our practices," they say.
Eight months into its existence, Shrub has become one of a number of cool underground art spots. It stocks a range of prints, zines, posters, clothing, pins, and other assorted wares from local, regional and international artists. The space is, by Teo's admission, cluttered and dirty – the exact opposite of pristine curation. That look comes from the vestiges of the space’s past as a locksmith shop: old door knobs, key blanks, padlocks, and cutting machines remain, juxtaposed against the bright, vibrant artist works. It would be a genius move of grungy visual merchandising and store design, but it’s all entirely, genuinely serendipitous.
Perhaps the only thing that looks spotlessly new and clean is a risograph printer, which according to Teo is pretty much the biggest investment made for the space. But beyond that, Shrub has a lived-in charm that’s inviting to both regulars and curious first-time visitors – a priority for them.
Fern Teo shares that this A3 art print by local artist Haq (@painenthusiast on Instagram) as one of their favourite items in the store.
There’s a small library in the corner of their own books and a couch donated by former Golden Mile Complex tenants Sunny Day Gift Shop. And in addition to the printed matter, there are curios (gone-like-hot-cakes Po Chai Pill necklaces by artist J Z Ang; endearingly odd-shaped resin toys and candles; little pottery creations; incense sticks; etc) that make for easy shopping – a little something for everyone. The friends and regulars of Shrub are a given, but according to them, a surprising number of tourists also manage to find their way into this corner of Singapore. It makes for an interesting crowd.
When I’m there to interview Teo, they tell me about a ‘travelling coffee man’ who’s stopping by later to visit. I’m puzzled at first, imagining a ronin of beans, but leave the question mostly alone. An hour later, after we wrap up our conversation, I see a man dragging a small luggage – coffee machine presumably inside. “Yeah, that’s him,” they say, plain and simple, as he settles into the couch. (Kopistan, if you’re intrigued.) It’s not a big space by any means, but at Shrub it feels like there’s room for everybody.
What is Shrub?
“Shrub (above) is a space, but first and foremost a store. We stock products from independent artists. Mostly local, regional, and also a small selection of international artists. As a space, we share it with the community. So you have people taking over doing art shows, interactive events, magazine launches, and sometimes parties where people come and spin open DJ decks. In the future, I plan to have maybe some music shows, and also non-transactional events like pizza night, or bring a zine, show and tell kind of nights.”
Before Shrub existed, it was about you and your friends making things. Can you tell us about that spirit?
“I think we make whatever we’re curious about. For me, I've done T-shirts, I've done prints, I've messed around with a bit of laser cutting and sewing. All of it was pretty much self-taught or taught by my peers. I think we have this way of asking each other for resources. Like if we know this person is able to do this, to say, ‘Hey, I'm interested to learn. Can you tell me a little bit about how it's done?’ There are no limitations.”
A bit like how you picked up screen printing from a friend?
“Yeah. We don't believe in going to classes or having diplomas for anything. The works that we stock here – some of these artists might not have an art background at all. At Shrub we kind of stock things that people made because they were curious.”
You’ve mentioned curiosity a few times now. Why is curiosity so important?
“I think that curiosity is innate in all humans. And not even just curiosity, but like, using your hands to make and build things. I think it's in the spirit of all humans. Sometimes I even think that Googling things is the modern-day foraging. It's something that is being lost, the ability and confidence to just be curious and to go and explore things freely without fear or impostor syndrome. That's something I encourage with Shrub as a space.”
What’s going on with the look of Shrub?
“I grew up and was here a lot when I was around six and lived with my grandparents at Rochor Centre. The locks (above) are from their locksmithing business, and now they’re retired and I’ve taken over the space. It’s a good reminder for me of where I come from. Without these locks, I think it might feel distant. If I had opened Shrub, you know, in a random white box room, the way I run everything might be different. It’s a good reminder of my childhood and my roots.”
Any highlights in the eight months since you started Shrub?
“It’s always seeing people that don't know each other when they enter the space leave knowing each other. When they talk and they're like, ‘Hey, so you do this? Maybe we should do something together’.”
What’s your curation process like?
“It’s fully based on intuition, which is something I learned through experience. It was hard to navigate because I felt this need to justify myself in case people asked ‘Why did you stock this? Why did you not stock this?’ I learned to just accept that I will stock it if I want to and if it feels right to me. I get second opinions for sure, but the consequences of bringing in things that end up not fitting or even creating controversy always fall on me. So I learned to just trust myself.”
You’ve travelled a bit to see other book and zine fairs in Asia and Europe. Do you have any takeaways from those experiences?
"I think my international friends have less fear and doubt. They don't really stop themselves from exploring and pursuing something, and they’re very supportive of each other. I think a lot of people here have a lot of anxiety with making and exploring things and really grabbing hold of opportunities to just do what you want."
Meaning we could all do with a little less anxiety around what-ifs and failures?
“I mean, that’s what making things is. Even when you’re making a print alone, you're collaborating with your printer, your supplier, or I don't know. Nothing is ever going to turn out to be 100 per cent perfect. But I think people also love imperfect things sometimes.”
As Shrub evolves, do you have any big dreams for it?
“Obviously the personal goal is that I can actually live off this. It's okay if it's not, I'll figure it out. But the goal for Shrub is that one day it can be run by a cycle of people. Because I’m surrounded by zines, prints and DIY projects, I preserve a healthy headspace very easily. That’s my privilege of being able to sit here every day. The people who come here are interested in that, or they’re doing that – and I think there’s a lot of people who hate their jobs and would really enjoy this.”