I currently find myself in a spot of free time that inadvertently came along unplanned, which leaves me feeling a little unsettled since I always want to know what direction I’m moving in. But, for now, I am enjoying this break, and I’m trying to make time to pursue my interests, and it feels nice to have this pause to think back on the past year.

But to go back to what ‘Prospect and Refuge’ is in the first place, it is a theory coined by the geographer and academic Jay Appleton in 1975 relating to architecture and how we perceive our spaces by looking to fulfil two desires of prospect (opportunity) and refuge (safety). A simple idea is like how I like to hang out in cosy cafe corners yet have a view of the outdoors while I blog, right about now!

Under the giant awning at South Beach.

Thinking further on it, I just thought it was a perfect way to sum up the feeling of having big dreams and wanting to keep moving forward but also wanting to stay comfortable. Last June, it felt really difficult to move away from Hong Kong because it was letting go of an amazing experience that I didn’t feel ready to move on from, though it is necessary for practicalities to come first (sometimes).

Though, of course, moving back to Singapore isn’t a bad thing at all! I spent a lot of time at first wandering around this sparkling, beautiful city.

Made my first stop of my exploring at the Apple Store which opened last May in Knightsbridge Mall (what a fancy name). I’m so grateful for it now because I sent my very precious Macbook there for repair when it broke down last month and the service was so good!! Just sharing my appreciation. :D

I also caught art exhibitions – like the massive Yayoi Kusama exhibition at National Gallery Singapore that I completely forgot to share on any platform whatsoever – that I plan to share here later as a way of catching up with everything over the last year. Art museums here are mostly housed in old, grand, colonial buildings with a touch of contemporary glass and chrome elements which Singapore is so good at at adding to old buildings.

When the polka dot phenomenon took over Singapore last summer.

A good mix of old and new in the National Museum of Singapore.

But geez, that transition between graduation and full-on ‘adulting’ is a tricky one! Despite all the well-meaning ‘advice’ you hear, you don’t really know what to expect until you start the job application grind, and thankfully, land your first interview and then the job (!!) after months of seemingly unending waiting time. But that’s if you decide to enter the workforce – making the decision to continue in postgraduate studies or to go out to work was even tricker to me.

Oh, the dilemma.

Revisited this gem The Thinker by Rodin at OUE Bayfront except it’s now politely barricaded. And I’ve got a much better-working phone camera with me now compared to the last time I captured this in Sculptures on the Street which I worked on 3 years ago now and I’m still so proud of!

Also saw this crazy hyperrealistic figure of a security guard by Marc Sijan at OUE Bayfront. Almost thought ‘he’ was real but it’s on a podium so it’s a piece of art, see!

I always took my (tertiary) education seriously, so I wouldn’t want to pursue postgraduate studies only for the purpose of ‘escaping reality’, but really to expand my knowledge and pursue my academic interest in a specific field (art history, of course!). That’s all and well, but then also comes the deciding factors of where I wanted to enter, funding matters, and the unavoidable point of your age matched to your amount of work experience (hi, real job, what internship?).

Another new photo of an old favourite: Sky Mirror by Anish Kapoor outside Artscience Museum.

In my final year of undergraduate studies, I asked a few professors about choosing between work and studies and I realised that there wasn’t one answer that could solve it all for me. After choosing to work first, when talking to colleagues about postgraduate studies, everyone also has varying ideas about how many years you should work first before studying further.

So, to anyone who happens to be stuck in this dilemma, weighing the pros and cons, considering the weight of what you might be losing out on or gaining in return, all I can say is: funnily enough, the quite unpleasant application process would help clear up whether or not you are ready for it, so plan ahead and give it a shot if you really want to do it!

Open call-out to SMU: please add a didactic next to this! It’s Bright Idea by Sir Michael Craig-Martin, isn’t it? I think it fits this university campus setting much better than the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, doesn’t it?

With that said, going out to work was great in propelling me out of my ‘refuge’ zone and in seeing what my prospects are. Identifying those prospects also gave me goals to look toward, one such as the ideal yet probably not very reachable ‘work-life balance’ (hahaha, in Singapore/Hong Kong, the ultimate dream).

Stopped for a photo break while cycling from East Coast Park to the Marina Bay area on a sweltering hot day last June.

Half-joking aside, work gave me a literal case of expectations vs. reality. For many of us art history students, the career goal is always to become a curator. Same goes for me! We might get student curating projects, and some people might remind students that to become an curator at the point of actually curating exhibitions takes a long time.

Side note: it’s funny and ridiculous how everything is ‘curated’ these days. Let me give an example: Reader, you are currently on Wording Art, a blog of curated art posts! Okay, but enough of that – curating is way far more than putting objects together in an exhibition and writing about it. It was only after beginning work in the field that I realised how wide the job of being a curator really is, which I think is great for managing my expectations of the job and seeing how I would like to keep moving forward in work.

Loving these boards for a store that is coming soon at Wisma Atria… What is it?? A fantastically themed cafe or retail concept? I’m just dying to know!

I suppose I’m writing this to ground myself somehow in my current stage of in-between-ness. The very wise words by Lewis Carroll couldn’t be more fitting for what I’m thinking about right now. And right now, I’m also really glad to have this little digital space of my own here that in one way, I see as a record of all the art things I’d seen and where I was at, and in the same way, this post serves the same purpose too.

Looking down from the 8th floor of the Central Public Library, where I discovered their fantastic reference section of art history books!

With all that said, here’s to new opportunities and good things ahead! And to more posts overcrowded with pretty pictures, as per usual, hahaha!

The post Prospect and Refuge | In Architecture, Art and in Life appeared first on Wording Art.

Using sculptures as Singapore’s preferred form of public art is, to me, actually a great idea given Singapore’s wide spaces and greenery and its buildings’ shiny facades. The sculptures are mostly located in Singapore’s business and shopping areas, so they are planted perfectly along a tourist’s route! :D

| Cover picture: David Gerstein, Momentum, 2007, Raffles Quay |

So I decided to take a city tour, and see the sculptures on display. I started off my sculpture hunting with David Gerstein’s sculpture (above). I’d been driven past it so many times on numerous joyrides so it’s definitely familiar.

While looking for a spot to take a good shot, I discovered so many other sculptures at Raffles Place! I’d never found a reason to go into the business district, so the range of sculptures in the area were all completely new to me.

Yang Ying-Feng, Progress & Advancement, commissioned and presented by Lien Ying Chow on 8.8.1988

A sculpture tracking Singapore’s kampong past to the modern skyscaper views we have today.

Anish Kapoor, Ocean Financial Centre

Ocean Financial Centre

Jaume Plensa, Soul, 2011, painted stainless steel

An open sculpture of a seated figure with his knees brought to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. I’m not too keen on the sitting position, but I do love the Chinese characters, English and Malay letters and the Tamil words that make up the figure. It well represents Singapore’s linguistic diversity, and is very effective in catching your attention.

This is located at the back of Ocean Financial Centre, and you can see David Gerstein’s Momentum across the road from here.

Past the large green space at Raffles Place, there is Ocean Financial Centre. Beyond its sculptures around the building, it has a gorgeous triangle-paneled roof and also boasts a Guinness World Record for the world’s Largest Vertical Garden.

Golden Shoe

This is an exception, but this long colorful mural of people shopping and dining was too good not to share.

Salvador Dalí, Homage to Newton, 1985, bronze with dark patina, UOB Plaza

Seeing a work of Dalí on the street was an absolutely delightful surprise! He was an important player of the Surrealism movement that started in the 1920s. I’m not familiar with the period, but to summarize it simply, it played with ideas relating to the subconscious and the mind. To know more, do check out this essay on Surrealism at Met Museum.

Putting that aside, this sculpture pays homage to Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery of the law of gravity. The story goes that an apple fell on Newton’s head while he was sitting under an apple tree and then, Eureka! He discovered gravity. The falling apple is represented by the ball hanging from the right hand of the figure.

I like the detail of the ball in the figure’s chest though, because it looks like it represents the figure’s CG (center of gravity), HA!

One Raffles Place

Royal Group Building

Royal One Philip

Henry Moore, Large Reclining Figure, 1984, OCBC Centre

Fernando Botero, Bird, 1932, bronze, UOB Plaza

I don’t think I’m the only one who has walked along the streets of Clarke Quay and wondered what this large bird is doing smack dab beside the river. Turns out it’s part of UOB Plaza, and the bird is meant to signify peace and serenity. I find it funny how I never guessed it was Botero’s work either, as it’s in keeping with Botero’s voluptuous artworks. Bird has been around since 1990.

Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1902, OUE Bayfront

I’ve seen this for a while now and really, The Thinker is one of those artworks that is known everywhere. I was really excited this time to see it again because I’d just learned a bit about Rodin’s works in a class last semester, and also learned that The Thinker was made by Rodin himself. (I’d never heard of Rodin, but I knew of The Thinker, HAHAHA.)

Rodin was a sculptor of the Symbolism period that started in the 1880s. I don’t understand and/or like Symbolism and/or Symbolist artists in general, but Rodin is the exception for me. Rodin is brilliant at imbuing his sculpted figures with character and emotion, and showing the figures’ bodily tension using only the single material of bronze. This is something I always miss, but take a look again, and you’ll notice that The Thinker‘s right arm is bent on his left knee. His entire body also looks like it’s going in on itself, and he’s balancing on a small slab of stone, much too small to seat his large figure. In real life, it would be way uncomfortable.

Another thing is that Rodin liked to leave his sculptures looking unrefined. You can see how he worked the sculpture with his hands especially on the stone seat, and the figure definitely doesn’t look “perfect.” This could be said to be related to Symbolist themes, but I’m not good at talking about Symbolism, so do check out this essay on Symbolism at Met Museum.

Merlion Park

There’s a park called Merlion Park with a mini Merlion right behind the actual Merlion. This is so hilarious!

Roy Lichtenstein, Six Brushstrokes, 1997, aluminium, Roy Lichtenstein Sculpture Plaza, Millenia Walk

I’ve seen these sculptures so many times, but I never knew these were by Roy Lichtenstein of Pop Art fame! These last few works of Lichtenstein’s combine Chinese calligraphic techniques with Western artistic themes. I don’t really see it, to be honest; I always just thought they were colorful and fun.

ASEAN Sculpture Garden, Fort Canning Park

These sculptures are part of the ASEAN Sculpture Garden in Singapore’s iconic Fort Canning Park but I got scared away from exploring more because of mosquitoes. -.-

Green space opposite UE Square

Furama Riverfront Hotel

Ion Orchard

Kumari Nahappan, Nutmeg & Mace, 2009, bronze, Ion Orchard

Fun fact: Ion Orchard’s site used to be a nutmeg plantation!

Ion Orchard

Ion Orchard

Wei Chi Jing De, 1975, Hilton Hotel

Qiu Shu Bao, 1975, Hilton Hotel

These figures were generals of Emperor Tang Tai Zong in the Tang dynasty (618 CE) who were thought to possess special powers. They are seen as guardians of doorways in popular Chinese belief.

Anthony Poon, Sense Surround #4, 2006, painted aluminium, St. Regis Hotel

Li Chen, Dragon-Riding Bodhisattva, 2001, St. Regis Hotel

Dr. Ng Eng Teng, Mother & Child, beside Forum The Shopping Mall

Gramercy Park sales gallery, before Tomlinson Road

Gillman Barracks

Alocassia Apartments

Yayoi Kusama, Let’s Go to a Paradise of Glorious Tulips, 2009, mixed media, Orchard Central rooftop

I never thought I would see a piece by Yayoi Kusama, known for her polka-dotted works, for the first time in Singapore!

Victor Tan Wee Tar, The Stair, The Clouds and The Sky, 2009, stainless steel wires and rods, Orchard Central rooftop

Anish Kapoor, Sky Mirror, 2010, stainless steel, collection of Marina Bay Sands, lily pond outside of ArtScience Museum

UPDATE: Freshly viewed sculpture along the beautiful stretch outside the ArtScience Museum! Sky Mirror aptly reflects the sky, and a bit of the lotus design of ArtScience Museum.

There are so many sculptures on the streets of Singapore and I still have a few in mind that I haven’t got round to visiting yet. The biggest surprise for me was discovering artworks by renowned modern artists and popular contemporary artists that had long been sitting on the streets waiting to be discovered.

I will update this post when I do see more! In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this post and have fun hunting them down for yourself if you’re in Singapore! ;)

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