Until 13 December 2026, anyone who walks into Jurong Library can touch, colour and take home a piece of a flower that the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) says has disappeared from Singapore. Proposal for HOYA: 5 Lungs Temple, a free installation by artist Yussef Agbo-Ola, opened there on 28 October and moves through seven public libraries until 3 October 2027.
The work comes from SAM working with the National Library Board (NLB), which runs Singapore’s public libraries. That means the art sits in places plenty of us already pass through on the way to a study table or a stack of manga, rather than inside a ticketed gallery.
The Flower Singapore Lost
The flower at the centre of it all is Hoya wallichii. The museum’s event listing says the star-shaped bloom was thought to be extinct here since 1894. In the same material, SAM curator Fang-Tze Hsu describes it as critically endangered. The listing also notes that Hoya flowers symbolise fertility, love and harmony, which makes losing one feel a little more personal.
The materials are the part that’ll make you look twice. Agbo-Ola’s sculptures enlarge the flower’s microscopic structure so visitors can see details that normally stay hidden from the naked eye.
That pairing is the smartest move in the whole show. Plastic pulled from the deep sea gets rebuilt into the cells of a plant this island lost well over a century ago, by SAM’s account. Two kinds of environmental damage end up woven into one object, and you can put your hand on it.
Colour a Cell, Keep a Coaster
The participation is where this goes beyond a nice thing to photograph. The colouring sheets show the flower’s stem cells, and the idea is to imagine how HOYA might be brought back to life.
Hand in your finished sheet and you can take home a coaster printed with facts about the flower. SAM’s event listing pitches the on-site activities at audiences of all ages, so this works whether you’re dragging along a younger cousin or going solo after class.
The artist frames that exchange as the heart of the work. “We hope the work will continue to grow with each encounter, as every colour becomes a contribution and every thread a connection. As participants leave their marks on the work, their hands become part of the flower, and their imaginations part of its becoming.”
Who Is Yussef Agbo-Ola?
Agbo-Ola calls himself a medicinal architect, and his studio, Olaniyi Studio, makes what SAM describes as architectural temples alongside sound design, performance and writing. He was born in rural Virginia into a household of Nigerian, African American and Cherokee descent, and he now lives between London, Lagos and the Amazon Forest.
That heritage shapes the knitting. SAM bills the installation as the first exhibition of its kind in Southeast Asia and its first presentation in Singapore.
Hsu, who is Curator and Head of Interpretation & Publishing at SAM, says the museum wants to keep “transforming public libraries into sites of discovery and reflection.” It fits what SAM calls being a “disappearing” museum, which in practice means taking art out of its own buildings and dropping it into public and civic spaces where people already go.
Pick Your Stop
Seven stops across almost a year gives you room to choose, so here’s the honest take. If you live or study in the west, head to Jurong Library before 13 December, since it’s the first stop and there’s no reason to wait ten months for one closer to home.
The Central Library run, from 16 December 2026 to 31 January 2027, is the one to plan a proper day around. It overlaps with SAM’s upcoming exhibition Lost & Found: How We Remember, which runs at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark from 27 November 2026 to 18 April 2027. SAM says that show looks at how artists give form to lesser-known or unseen stories, and it links the theme directly to HOYA’s invitation to remember something that has vanished from Singapore. Seeing both in the same stretch makes each one hit harder. If you’re already planning a Tanjong Pagar trip, SAM’s shape-shifting collection show is there too, which we covered.
One practical warning: Jurong Library and Jurong West Library are two separate stops. The first runs now until 13 December 2026, while the second hosts the final leg from 18 August to 3 October 2027, so check which one you’re heading to before you tap in at the gantry.
🗓️ Date: 28 October 2026 to 3 October 2027
📍 Location: Jurong Library, 28 October to 13 December 2026
🗺️ Next stops: Central Library (16 December 2026 to 31 January 2027), Bedok Library (3 February to 21 March 2027), Bishan Library (24 March to 9 May 2027), Woodlands Library (12 May to 27 June 2027), Tampines Library (30 June to 15 August 2027), Jurong West Library (18 August to 3 October 2027)
🎟️ Admission: Free for all
🎨 Activity: Colour a sheet of Hoya stem cells, hand it in and take home a fact coaster
A flower that left Singapore generations ago is back in a form you can touch, knitted from rubbish dredged out of the ocean and parked in a library down the road. It costs nothing, and it asks for about as much effort as colouring in a page, so go add your cells to the archive and walk out with a coaster that tells the flower’s story. Check the latest details on SAM’s Proposal for HOYA: 5 Lungs Temple page before you go, and catch it at Jurong Library while it’s there!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.
Read us first on Google: add DANAMIC as a preferred source and our stories show up more in your Top Stories and AI results.
