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    PhD in a Pandemic

    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.

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    London Art | The National Gallery: Raphael, Gainsborough and British Art

    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) |

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    London Spring 2022 | Art, Museums and Bookstores

    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…

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    Art of 2021

    This post indeed comes a little later than I’d like – especially as we are celebrating the first day of the Chinese New Year already! 2021 was such a strange year as if I couldn’t really put a handle on it, but when I try to sum up some of the art I saw in the whole year, it was actually quite an interesting mix. I’ve posted about some great exhibitions, like the ones on Georgette Chen, Dale Chihuly and Life in Edo, but I also re-discovered some of the permanent galleries in the museums here, and spotted art and other fun stuff along the way too!

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    Orchestral Manoeuvres | Sound and Art at ArtScience Museum

    We are barrelling towards the end of 2021! What a feeling~ To wrap up 2021 (before I finally put my Art of 2021 post together), I’d like to do this exhibition review of Orchestral Manoeuvres: See Sound. Feel Sound. Be Sound at ArtScience Museum! This was definitely one of my exhibition highlights of the year because I was a plus-one to my sister’s invited press trip to Marina Bay Sands (with staycation to boot!!), and we got to see a preview of the Orchestral Manoeuvres exhibition before it opened in late August.

    I like to say that in my ‘previous life’, i.e. before I discovered art history, I used to play music, picking up varying instruments at different times in life with the piano, saxophone (school band days) and guitar. I don’t think I ever did get accustomed to the discipline that regular musical practice requires, or learned how to play music ‘for fun’ or for myself — but I would say that music and songs are still very present in my everyday!

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