ABSOLUT ELYX Craft of Perfection Exhibition

If you are in Singapore this long Easter weekend, why not check out the ABSOLUT ELYX Craft of Perfection exhibition that is housed at a conservation shophouse on 47 Tessensohn Road. This unique exhibition is open to the public from 29th March to 5th April 2013, 11am to 8pm daily. 

Free admission to all, but the first 150 visitors daily (aged 18 years old and above) will also get to enjoy a complimentary ABSOLUT ELYX Tropics cocktail created specially to celebrate this exhibition. This is also the first time that ABSOLUT ELYX has a pop-up bar in Singapore.

ABSOLUT ELYX Tropics

ABSOLUT ELYX is a ultra premium vodka of real substance that honours the roots of Swedish spirit‐making tradition. Manually distilled in a copper column still from 1929, and made from a single harvest of Swedish winter wheat, ABSOLUT ELYX is the result of century‐old expertise, passed down through generations of Swedish vodka makers.

In line with its philosophy, ABSOLUT ELYX will be celebrating and honouring the art of traditional craftsmanship in Singapore. The exhibition aims to capture and revitalise the importance and significance of craftsmanship, exemplified in certain artisanal trade and professions in Singapore that may have fallen through the cracks of time.

ABSOLUT ELYX Craft of Perfection exhibition aims to bring to life low‐profile craftsmen, sharing with the public how these craftsmen learnt and honed their craft over the decades, and their experience and character that define their craftsmanship.

 

The debut features traditional keysmith, Mr Chow Ho Weng, who runs a little key‐making store called Handy Service in the heart of Chinatown. Mr Chow, aged 66, has been working with locks and keys for almost 50 years. He first learned his craft from his father in the early 1960s, when he was still a teenager. It may be easy to overlook Mr Chow as an ordinary keysmith who only makes and duplicates keys for homes and offices, a profession that one may not associate readily with the idea of craftsmanship. 

However, behind the seemingly nondescript occupation, Mr Chow was once the keysmith of choice for Chubb Vault Systems back in the heydays for Singapore and Malaysia, and Kumahira vaults of Japan, where he headed and put together a team that built vault doors for minting vaults for Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank of Malaysia. Unbeknown to many, Mr Chow is also a certified master locksmith and is a member of the Associated Locksmith of America (ALOA).

I was at the site inspection earlier and took some photos and this is truly an exclusive sneak preview of what to expect at the exhibition. Not only will you learn the history of keys and locks, you will also get to see some really cool artefacts and antiques related to key making. 

 

For more information and to stand a chance to win an invitation to the ABSOLUT Secret Party happening on 5th April, please visit:

www.absolutelyx.sg
www.facebook.com/ABSOLUTSingapore

A short documentary video of Mr Chow and his craft of keysmithing is available on YouTube at the following link: http://youtu.be/MPBDzHJtT-Y