As what this blog post title suggests, I’ve been to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience twice! While I was in London last year, I knew I had to check this out, but little did I know it would also come to Singapore in 2023! I couldn’t resist the temptation to go once more — in my home city! I really enjoyed the experience as a whole, and below I share photos and my review of Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience at both locations.
Happy new year! It’s yet another new year and that comes with all the feels – surreal, crazily fast, exciting?! I may be getting ready to dive into the new year and all that it’ll bring (PhD completion, please), but first up, here is my roundup of art exhibitions and museum-going in 2022! I didn’t share reviews of exhibitions that showed in Singapore in the past year, because I didn’t feel ‘wow-ed’ enough by them, but I realise now that I still saw so much art!
| Cover picture: Hiromi Tango, Dr Emma Burrows and Dr Tilman Dingler, Wheel, 2021, at ArtScience Museum’s MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing |
Ah hahaha, a PhD in a pandemic, you say? Crazily enough, my current reality — and I almost laugh about this in incredulity or in bitterness at different points in time. So, so much has happened since the last time I properly updated about my academic studies here on Wording Art since October 2020, and I feel like now is the right time to sit down, a cup of tea on the side, music playing in the background, and reflect on everything. I just went through my old Academia posts beginning from 2018 (see this category here), and it’s amazing how my sentiments then still remain true — making decisions and planning for the future with Prospect and Refuge in mind, and drawing from the wise and amusing words of Lewis Carroll time and again.
Perhaps the one-line summary is this: Doing a PhD is always going to be difficult, and doing anything in a pandemic makes everything more difficult still — but I recognise how incredibly blessed I’ve been with all the people, opportunities and support I’ve been surrounded with, and I truly value all of these.
I decided to start my London series with The National Gallery, London because it was where I saw my absolute favourite, most beautiful artwork Of All Time. If you can guess, it was a work by Raphael…
Going to London in May 2022 was such perfect timing as there were so many special exhibitions (and some still ongoing) that I was particularly interested to see! At The National Gallery, there’s the phenomenal Raphael exhibition — running until 31 July 2022. There was also the historic, once-in-a-century exhibition of Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy which ended on May 15th and I managed to see it in its final week!
| Cover image: Detail of John Constable’s The Hay Wain (1821) |
London! Ah, what a whirlwind it’s been! I’ve just returned to Singapore after a 3-week trip to London in May, which I feel like I’d been planning for the last 2 years? The main reason for it was to go to the archives for my PhD research — but when in London, how could I miss out on visiting over 10 museums and bookstores and seeing ALL the art…