Ikan Besar Skali is one of those free Esplanade stops that rewards a slower walk through the building. Hu Qiren’s visual-arts work is installed at Esplanade Concourse until 5 July 2026.
The centrepiece is a whale-skeleton sculpture, but the point is not just scale. The work uses the whale as a way into Singapore’s maritime memory, environmental anxieties and inherited ways of reading the sea.
Dates And Admission
- Dates: now to 5 July 2026.
- Venue: Esplanade Concourse.
- Admission: free.
- Artist: Hu Qiren, Singapore.
- Artwork listing: Ikan Besar Skali at Esplanade.
What The Work Is About
Esplanade frames the installation around heritage, climate and decolonial questions. That makes it more layered than a quick photo stop, especially if you read the whale as both a natural creature and a symbol shaped by trade, myth and extraction.
The Concourse location keeps the visit casual. You can see it before a show, after dinner, or as part of a free arts route around the Civic District and Marina Bay.
Planning Notes
The artwork is indoors and free, so it is a useful rainy-day stop. Families with older children can use it as a short conversation starter about oceans, climate and how public art turns large ideas into something physical.
If you are already at Esplanade, check the broader visual-arts trail because several free works are often placed around the building rather than behind ticket barriers.
