National Gallery Singapore

The art of 2021 began with National Gallery Singapore’s Light to Night festival, which is always pretty fun with their art installations! Just went to see some at 2022’s edition too.

Something New Must Turn Up: Six Singaporean Artists After 1965

I’ve seen Eng Tow’s Grains of Thought twice at Asian Civilisations Museum and now at its spot at Jewel Changi, and I found it fun to see these maquettes / models for the actual artwork in the exhibition Eng Tow – the sixth sense (part of Something New Must Turn Up), which were a lot smaller!

My favourite exhibition in Something New Must Turn Up was Jaafar Latiff: In the Time of Textile — really liked seeing these colourful, Futurist-looking, abstract pieces.

Antony Gormley – on view 6 August 2021 – 30 October 2022

My first encounter with Antony Gormley’s human figures was back in 2016, when ‘Event Horizon’ Hong Kong placed several of these standing men at the top of buildings and in the middle of the streets in Central — and I had fun posing with one of them! And this one has now fallen face-flat on the Gallery’s beautiful floors…

Kind of weird / funny to see this steel mass in the middle of such colonial architecture! A bit out of place or an interesting contrast?

Horizon Field Singapore on the rooftop of National Gallery Singapore looks fantastic (and different from so many angles), and it’s great to take photos with!

Nam June Paik: The Future is Now – 10 December 2021 – 27 March 2022

Nam June Paik is such a big name and an important artist, so I definitely had to check out this exhibition! It’s a travelling exhibition, and it’s making its last stop at National Gallery Singapore. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of his work, but it’s a good exhibition to see nonetheless.

Also be sure not to miss these three works located in the basement of the Gallery — Sistine Chapel is probably the most seminal work of Paik’s.

Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century

I’ve wandered through Siapa Nama Kamu? [What’s Your Name?] quite a number of times, and it’s always nice to see some refreshed works in this permanent exhibition. I just saw Wu Peng Seng’s photographs, and I really liked the ones with the ballerina: The Long Shadow and First Step.

Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century

Siapa Nama Kamu? is much smaller than Between Declarations and Dreams (3 galleries in the former and 14 galleries in the latter), and I only realised last year that I haven’t actually seen the whole of Between Declarations and Dreams properly before. So I took the afternoon to track down all the galleries and had a look at everything.

My favourites are still the works of Raden Saleh — Boschbrand is stunning, but I wish there was more explanation of the work. While we see these animals driven to the edge of the cliff due to a forest fire, I’m inclined to think that there is a deeper, or symbolic meaning to this image. In any case, here’s to a roaring Year of the Tiger…!

Gorgeous pieces giving me Turner-esque vibes.

National Museum of Singapore

Modern Colony: 1925–1935

I’m not sure how or why, but I can’t believe I’ve not seen these galleries in National Museum of Singapore on the second floor?! They trace the modern history of Singapore, and I really liked this one on the ‘Modern Colony’. It’s the Twenties vibes for me!

PSM50: Celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Singapore’s Preservation Journey

I stumbled across this exhibition presented by the Preservation of Sites and Monuments division of the National Heritage Board (to mark 50 years of preservation in Singapore), and there were these small artefacts and models of the 73 National Monuments of Singapore!

This cube was exhibited on a turning display, and the top has an image of a war memorial. Unfortunately, I forgot to record what this piece is about and what monument it’s displaying, but I took these photos of it as I was taken by what it says of the ‘Folly of War’.

Singapore History Gallery

This amazing portrait by John Singer Sargent is in the basement gallery of the National Museum of Singapore — the Singapore History Gallery — and I’m sure I’d seen it before years ago but didn’t know of Sargent at the time. I was part of a British Art class in the last semester, and my professor mentioned that there was a Sargent in the National Museum, so I had to track it down!! It’s huge, lush and the paintwork is gorgeous.

The Sargent painting is situated between two other portraits painted by John Edgar Williams (left) and William Orpen (right), but those are just not as impressive.

Kranji War Cemetery

As part of that aforementioned British Art class, we did a field trip to the Kranji War Cemetery, also known as the Kranji War Memorial. It’s part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) that maintains cemeteries across the world, remembering the “men and women of the Commonwealth Forces who died in the First and Second World Wars”.

It was my first time at the Kranji War Cemetery, and it might seem a bit surprising that it is so beautifully maintained. I posted about this on my IG earlier, and my mixed feelings still remain the same. Seeing these individuals’ names and their families’ messages for them is both sad and humbling in a way.

Out and About

A cute display at Funan Mall of Lego displays of Singaporean / hawker food that I spotted back in May!

Another random, gorgeous Lego display of the Fullerton Hotel located at One Fullerton opposite that I saw in November!

I always like to glimpse at the window displays of fashion houses as sometimes, there are some really well-done and interesting displays! Hermès at Liat Towers frequently has these fun, quirky or just aesthetic window displays.

Burberry’s Olympia bag installation

This was just fun and random! The Burberry’s Olympia bag installation made its third appearance in Singapore’s Ion Orchard after floating down London’s River Thames (stunning!) and appearing in Dubai too.

KAWS:HOLIDAY

KAWS is just so popular now, and no matter what you think of the art or of the character, I think it’s good time to embrace it! Was quite surprised to see the crowds lining up to see KAWS:HOLIDAY at the Floating Platform, and I still like to keep my social distancing, so I zoomed in on the KAWS balloon (?) installation from afar on the Helix Bridge!

A good reminder to look up — some of Singapore’s architecture have these stunning ceilings that you might not notice on the daily, but it’s nice to take a moment to look up every once in a while.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Speaking of ceilings, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel has this absolutely stunning Gormley installation scattered across the ceiling right at the front entrance of Tower 1. The picture does not do it justice! Fun fact: the work is suspended across levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of Hotel Tower 1.

Seeing Dale Chihuly‘s The Setting Sun and The Moon in the Gardens by the Bay from high up on Marina Bay Sands Hotel’s rooftop!

Panoramic view from the window of the MBS Hotel room we were staying in — so, so incredible.

Breakfast in style — this staycation at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel was The Highlight of 2021, and I felt very lucky and blessed to be a plus one to my sister of City Girl, City Stories who was invited to view the exhibition Orchestral Manoeuvres at ArtScience Museum, which was also amazing!

Basically the Marina Bay Sands Hotel is a work of art, and they also have a lot of artworks displayed across its premises, which I’ll love to post about at a later time! Till then, best wishes for 2022 / the Year of the Tiger and let’s go forth and embrace where life takes us!

The post Art of 2021 appeared first on Wording Art.

| Cover picture: Cao Fei, 浮槎 Fú Chá, 2020 |

Singapore Flyer – Whimsical Reality

2020 started with a trip to the Singapore Flyer to see the exhibition ‘Whimsical Reality’ featuring watercolour works by Ah Guo Illustration 阿果绘本. I’ve been following Ah Guo’s work for quite a long time, and I love his childlike, light-hearted illustrations of various Singapore scenes!

National Gallery Singapore – Chua Soo Bin: Truths & Legends

Spent a day out visiting National Gallery Singapore and went to see the understated exhibition of Chua Soo Bin’s portrait photography. I especially liked these photos of Wu Guanzhong sketching in the streets of London, Bangkok’s floating markets and at Singapore’s Bird Park (this should be Jurong Bird Park surely!) Click here to also see my review of the exhibition ‘Wu Guanzhong: Beauty Beyond Form’ at National Gallery Singapore from 2016.

National Gallery Singapore – Light to Night Festival: Invisible Cities

The Light to Night festival was also happening in January, and as always, it delivered a fun lineup of light installations and art skin projections. I also found it hilarious that one of Twardzik-Ching Chor Leng’s Five Stones was propped up above the bus stop outside Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall!

I’m not sure why this was here, but this setup of LINE’s Brown in a Merlion costume at Funan mall was so cute!!

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre – Huat Huat Land

A display of giant pineapples, mahjong tiles and murals on the rooftop of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre for Chinese New Year! Huat Ah!

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre – SINGAPO人

SINGAPO人 is a permanent exhibition at SCCC that looks to discover Chinese Singapore culture. I really enjoyed visiting this and playing with all the interactive sections. There’s this game of ‘Would You Rather’, for example have Coffee or Tea, Eat Out or Eat at Home (as seen above) and after making your choice, it shows the poll percentage for each option!

Peeking into a small hole in a display to see a camera staring back at me!

Had to capture this drip tile from the old Nanyang University’s Administrative Building — especially as I’m studying at Nanyang Technological University now!

CB Summer

And then we hit pause — circuit breaker began in early April, classes went online, and it took a lot of effort to continue to study / work from home.

Over these few months, I also started to tune into art online (here are some of my recommendations!). Although there were also sadly a slew of exhibition cancellations, like the i Light festival, the Picasso and Matisse exhibition at National Gallery Singapore and the ‘Angelica Kauffman’ exhibition in London’s Royal Academy of Arts…

I’m currently researching Kauffman’s self-portraits and so I’d made travel plans to visit London and to see this exhibition — all cancelled! Ah well, so I made do with buying the exhibition catalogue. Here’s an image of Kauffman’s Self-Portrait with Stylus from the catalogue (excuse the colouring!), which is my favourite of all of her self-portraits! It belongs in a private collection so I really hope to have a chance to see it in an exhibition in future…

Asian Civilisations Museum – Fashion and Textiles Gallery

Ventured back out to see exhibitions again in August, and it felt like a grand affair! Dressed up again to view the new Fashion and Textiles, as well as Jewellery, galleries at Asian Civilisations Museum. The galleries will have a rotating display, and the Fashion and Textiles gallery currently features Chinese dress from the Qing (imperial wear) and modern periods (cheongsams). I thought the Fashion and Textiles gallery was surprisingly small!

National Museum of Singapore – Music For Everyone: Variations on a Theme

This solo exhibition of Song-Ming Ang’s work was first presented in the Singapore Pavilion of 2019’s Venice Biennale and had a re-showing at National Museum of Singapore. The title Music for Everyone ‘references a series of concerts organised by the then Singapore’s Ministry of Culture from 1971 to 1985’, and the exhibition overall also looks at music education in Singapore, like all those recorder music classes (so not for me)…

I especially liked Ang’s Manifesto for Bad Music, as I got quite into twentieth-century art manifestoes in class last semester!

Singapore Art Museum – Time Passes

Since Singapore Art Museum is currently under renovation, their exhibition ‘Time Passes’ is currently held at National Gallery Singapore. I thought the highlight work was Ashley Yeo’s intricate work of paper, which she makes using 3D printing.

In the gallery next door, ‘An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season’ is also showing at National Gallery Singapore. Both exhibitions are part of ‘Proposals for Novel Ways of Being’, a series of exhibitions and programmes made in response to COVID-19. Both exhibitions run until 21 February 2021.

Esplanade Tunnel – Combing for Ice and Jade

This is a solo exhibition of Kurt Tong’s work as part of the 7th Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF). ‘Combing for Ice and Jade’ tells the life story of Tong’s nanny (or majie) who became a ‘Comb Sister’ — ‘a community of women in Southern China who took a vow of chastity’ and left their hometowns to work and be financially independent. I liked the quiet, understated way of showing her life through various photographs, but I especially liked the video at the beginning of exhibition in which Tong discusses this seven-year project.

‘Combing for Ice and Jade’ is ongoing till 10 Jan 2021.

National Gallery Singapore – Georgette Chen: At Home in the World

The long awaited Georgette Chen retrospective is here! I enjoyed visiting this exhibition, and I will post about it in more detail in a separate post. In the meantime, I wanted to highlight this photograph of Chen painting Lotus Symphony en plein air (outdoors) in her friend’s garden full of lotuses. It’s nice to see a glimpse of the process and the final result situated next to the other.

‘Georgette Chen: At Home in the World’ is running for a long time until 26 September 2021.

ArtScience Museum – Margins: drawing pictures of home 

‘Margins: drawing pictures of home’ is also included in SIPF this year, and it’s a small exhibition featuring works by 15 contemporary photographers centred around Singapore as home.

My sister reminded me that we first saw this work in Hong Kong’s PMQ as part of detour 2015! While there were 1600 photographs there, the 12 photographs included here depicting the daily food choices for those living at the poverty line in different Asian countries still remains as poignant.

I liked the light humour of Hu’s People Mountain People Sea, a literal translation of 人山人海, which means a huge crowd in Chinese. Hu juxtaposes scenes of Singapore with ‘cutouts’ of the Old Master Q comic character, and I thought it was pretty fun!

My favourite from ‘Margins’ is Soh’s photographs of the last SS24 train to depart from Tanjong Pagar Railway Station (see my photos of the station at this link) before the railway line was officially removed.

‘Margins: drawing pictures of home’ is showing until 28 February 2021.

Gardens by the Bay: Christmas Wonderland’s Walk of Lights

Ending off 2020 with some festive cheer! I wanted to do another re-visit of Christmas Wonderland since this year’s Walk of Lights featured some new light attractions that have not been shown before! Loved all the lights and as always, the luminarie light installations (made all the way from Italy) are so gorgeous and impressive! Here’s to a brilliant 2021!

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On that cover picture: I was finalising edits of my QE report at the very lovely Little House of Dreams café in Tiong Bahru post-circuit breaker, when I could finally work outside of home! That’s the title page on my laptop, and I’d definitely like to share more about my research soon!

So what is this Qualifying Examination? Different programmes might have another term for it, but the purpose of this exam is similar across the board. For MA (Research) / PhD programmes, the qualifying examination is held after the completion of courses. There’s a written component in the form of a report, and an oral component in the form of a presentation. It’s a means for determining your progress in your research, or just to determine if you are fit enough to keep going — like ‘passing probation’, if you will! At NTU, where I’m doing my MA (Research) programme in Art History at ADM, the Qualifying Examination is held a year in. That’s what was happening with me in early September.

I have to say — writing the report was hard. It appears straightforward: it includes a listing of your literature review, aims and objectives, methodologies, chapter outline, bibliography, etc. (to sum up the main sections). Sometimes I feel like I can envision my actual, final thesis — certain points I want to make; specific images and comparisons I want to look at. But suddenly, when I was forced to think about my methodology and chapter titles, I realised that I hadn’t given a thought to it at all! I suppose in research, you always feel the initial need to build up a big, wide topic to show that you have something important to study, then you begin working on it and have to break it down again to the specifics. I struggled with writing my literature review, methodology and outline of chapters — which pretty much makes up the whole report! After multiple drafts and lots of random googling (like what’s the difference between aims and objectives??), things somehow miraculously came together. I’m now glad I have a working structure of how the whole thesis is going to look like!

In a normal world, the presentation of the QE is always held in person. With this ‘new normal’ though, I had my exam over Microsoft Teams — which I was not expecting! Funny to think that I didn’t even know how to use Teams until May this year, and it’s now become somewhat familiar (I prefer it to Zoom).

I’ve seen so many articles and posts where people say that they hate having virtual meetings, and I’m definitely in that group of people who dislike meeting virtually, much less for an exam! While presenting, it felt like I was talking to myself (especially as everyone else had turned off their cameras), and I had to keep reminding myself that people were still watching and listening! It feels strange not to see people’s reactions as you’re presenting — your education has trained you to present in front of people, but when that’s taken away in a virtual space, it feels like a whole other ball game.

Though on the flip side, the advantage of presenting virtually is having more privacy — after all, everyone only sees your head and shoulders on screen, and I could have my notes scattered everywhere around me without anyone seeing it, haha! I could hang up on my Teams call after my presentation and immediately slump over and breathe a big sigh of relief.

In any case, I’m happy to say that I passed! Now, having had time to process what has happened, I’m glad to have had this experience. It’s a good opportunity to present my research, a clear way to see how my research has developed, and to hear the ideas, feedback, or perspectives that others (i.e. the examiners) bring to the table. It’s also a major milestone to clear, and completing it comes with a sense of accomplishment. These little moments are really much needed along the path of graduate school, especially when things get busy, difficult and overwhelming. Yet at the same time, I’m realising that I’m becoming more of a nerd, and I’m enjoying my research! All the work though — it’s time to get back to it…

The post I Passed My Qualifying Exam! | Master’s Updates appeared first on Wording Art.

2018 has been my full year back in Singapore since moving back, and at first, I thought there was less happenings in art here. After a while, things have picked up, but there have been many exhibitions and events that I didn’t choose to post in detail on this blog – lack of time is always a major reason for my lack of updates! So, I thought it would be nice to look back at all of the art exhibitions and events I went to this year!

Asian Civilisations Museum – Permanent Galleries

I started off 2018 with a visit to ACM to see their permanent galleries. I really loved seeing Tang Shipwreck with all of those painted bowls and those acorn-shaped game pieces (for gambling)!

ACM has just opened their new Christian and Islamic art galleries this month, so that’s something I’m definitely going to check out in 2019.

ArtScience Museum – Treasures of the Natural World

I went to see both ‘Treasures of the Natural World’ and ‘Art from the Streets’ at ArtScience Museum on the same day (double exhibition tickets are so worth it!). ArtScience Museum continues to be my favourite museum in Singapore as they have the best exhibitions.

I was surprised to find out that I really enjoyed seeing exhibits of preserved stuffed animals that look so life-like! All of the exhibits were on loan from Natural History Museum in London, which of course, I’m now planning to visit when I get myself to London!

National Museum of Singapore – The More We Get Together: Singapore’s Playgrounds 1930 – 2030

Peranakan Museum – Amek Gambar: Peranakans and Photography

There was then ‘The More We Get Together: Singapore’s Playgrounds 1930 – 2030’ at National Museum of Singapore, a simple exhibition talking about styles and models of playgrounds in Singapore. Basically, Singapore wins at urban planning, I have to say!

I also revisited Peranakan Museum for the first time in probably 10 years to see ‘Amek Gambar: Peranakans and Photography’. Sticking to the museum’s specialised theme of Peranakan culture, the Amek Gambar – meaning to take pictures – exhibition shows a range of black and white photographs of Peranakans and old cameras. The exhibition is on till February 3rd, 2019.

National Gallery Singapore – Rirkrit Tiravanija

I always visit National Gallery Singapore for exhibitions or events or just to bum at their Gallery & Co cafe. My first visit of the year was to see the new site-specific commissioned work of Rirkrit Tiravanija at NGS’ rooftop. It’s a large-scale bamboo structure with a pathway that you can walk through from one end to the other, and there’s also a Japanese teahouse in the centre, though it was too hot that day for me to join in in the tea ceremony events they were holding at the time.

Singapore Philatelic Museum – The Little Prince: Behind the Story

I like to visit Singapore Philatelic Museum (or the “Stamp Museum”) every once in a while to see their exhibitions that somehow always manage to incorporate stamps! It was nice to re-see Arnaud Nazare-Aga’s Little Prince sculptures at the ‘The Little Prince: Behind the Story’ exhibition. I had first seen them in Hong Kong in 2015 during the Christmas and New Year season – see the post here!

National Gallery Singapore – Children’s Festival

It’s always so fun at Children’s Festival at National Gallery Singapore seeing everyone, kids and adults, having fun playing with the artworks! The first one pictured is all kitchen sponges and for the second artwork, you could throw those triangle-shaped pieces and they would stick on the patterned wall.

I’m also very proud to say that I managed to speed-walk across Justiniani’s bridge in one piece this time round, HAHAHA! For last year’s edition, I was so scared of the never-ending depths of the illusionistic effect of the bridge that I actually paused while walking across it. I’m still kinda terrified of this kind of things, but clearly it’s only me, since all of the other kids were happily examining the details in the bridge.

National Library Singapore (Central) – Selling Dreams: Early Advertising in Singapore

‘Selling Dreams: Early Advertising in Singapore’ is a very well-researched and very big exhibition on advertisements in Singapore from the 1830s to the 1960s. I really recommend reading all of the details in the didactics for the exhibits, as they are all so interesting! This was probably the longest time I spent at an exhibition though, about 2 hours? The exhibition is on till 24th February 2019.

National Gallery Singapore – (Re)collect

I shared a mini review of ‘(Re)collect’ at National Gallery Singapore on my Instastories, now saved in my highlights, to try out a new format of sharing about exhibitions! That was really fun, but I also wanted to share Lee Lim’s composite photographs on a bigger screen, so that it would be clearer to see. His photographs appear like Chinese ink paintings, especially with their Chinese inscriptions and his seal on the sides of the paintings. It’s fascinating to see how photographs can also look like paintings in a way.

The Cathay – Whatshisname x Mighty Jaxx

The first time I saw these dogs, I was walking towards The Cathay from YMCA. From afar, I thought could this possibly be Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog I’m about to see?? Well, turns out these weren’t Koons’ sculptures, but Whatshisname’s pooping dogs are humorous in their own way, yes? A total of 4 dogs were commissioned for The Cathay, and they are still on show!

Singapore Night Festival 2018

For this year’s Singapore Night Festival, I was excited to see FierS à Cheval by Compagnie des Quidams after seeing photos of their performance at the opening of Tai Kwun in Hong Kong (which I must visit!). Horses are my favourite animals, and the performers really captured the elegant movements of horses. Funnily enough, this performance was made for the Year of the Horse in 2014, but it’s been so popular that the company has continued to perform this show until now!

I also went to see the dress exhibits from World of WearableArt (WOW), which holds an annual award competition for fashion designers from all over the world to present their avant-garde designs. These two dresses were my favourite!

STPI – Handmade Readymades

These two prints by Lichtenstein were shown at STPI’s exhibition ‘Handmade Readymades’. The exhibition featured the prints of four 20th century American artists, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Roy Lichtenstein, but I only took a liking to Lichtenstein’s prints. The first time I visited STPI in 2015, I think, I also remember seeing and liking Lichtenstein’s prints. That aside, STPI always has top-notch exhibitions so I always like to visit. I’m looking forward to their Cheong Soo Pieng exhibition opening in January 2019!

Gardens by the Bay – Mid-autumn Celebrations

Gardens by the Bay had such a lovely display for the Mid-Autumn celebrations! The giant lanterns also gave me Story of Yanxi Palace vibes, which was everyone’s favourite drama of the year, right?? YASSS.

National Museum of Singapore – In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology

‘In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology’, a travelling exhibition that has made its stop at the National Museum of Singapore, was not what I was expecting at all!

The beginning of the exhibition charts out the history of the Polaroid, starting from its invention by Edwin Land, who was inspired by his daughter when she questioned on a holiday trip, why can’t we have our photographs printed out instantaneously, instead of going through the long process of developing film.

Most of the exhibition features artistic Polaroids following a few themes, but my favourites are these more contemporary shots captured on Polaroids. I didn’t realise that so many prominent artists and photographers had worked with Polaroid! The exhibition is on till 31st March 2019.

Affordable Art Fair Singapore 2018

I went for a quick walk through Affordable Art Fair in November, and all of my photos can be seen in my Instastories highlights! It was my first time attending it in Singapore and I found it much livelier that my experience at AAF in Hong Kong in 2015.

I found the paintings of those curly haired little, hmm, midgets by a Japanese artist (in the first two photos) really cute! There were also many South Korean galleries at the fair, and I really liked the style of these works by Korean artists (latter two photos).

ArtScience Museum – Future World (Revamped!)

This year was really the year of teamLab for me, seeing their works across ArtScience Museum, National Gallery Singapore and Marina Bay Sands. See my posts on teamLab – Part I and Part II!

I’d shared about ‘Future World’ at ArtScience Museum before it closed for revamp, and I was debating if I should visit the revamped exhibition… Guess what, I did! I bought a bundle ticket to see the new Future World and the Minimalism exhibition across ArtScience Museum and National Gallery Singapore, and I’m glad I did because I like the revamped exhibition even more! Also, I’m definitely going to do up posts on the ‘Minimalism: Space. Light. Object.’ exhibition(s) because I have so much opinions on it, so I would leave my comments for those upcoming posts.

Christmas!

We have reached Christmastime, the best time of the year!! This year’s theme of Disney Magical Moments for the Orchard Road Christmas decorations were so fun! I grew up on Disney, so this is definitely a special year!

Ion Art Gallery – Virtually Versailles

My last exhibition of the year was ‘Virtually Versailles’ at the Ion Art Gallery and Ion Sky, all the way up on the 55th floor of Ion Orchard. I already know that Versailles is on my travel wishlist, and this exhibition gave a taste of the Palace of Versailles’s architecture, decor and extensive art collection.

It’s mostly made up of a lot of videos, so I didn’t really capture many good photos of it. There are many interactive elements though, like biking around different parts of the palace (actual biking, virtual tour of palace), and having your face superimposed on royal portraits, which was really fun!! This free exhibition is on till 6th January 2019.

The last photo was a candid shot of me taken by my sister looking at the collection in the Palace, and it just seems like such a nice reminder to keep looking at all the art around us! Here’s to 2019!

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If you’re wondering, HDBs are painted according to various colour schemes and designs, and they are maintained and re-painted every several years. The Teck Whye residential estate, located at the north-western side of Singapore close to Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang, consist of older residential blocks, and their makeover is definitely in the most special design I have seen. Residents were asked to choose between two design options, and ultimately this Mondrian design won!

I just appreciate all the detail that went into the painting – from the exterior building facades to the sheltered walkways and the void deck columns!

Would you choose to move here just to be able to say you live in a Mondrian-inspired HDB? In any case, I’m sure our expectations of what kind of designs we want in our HDBs have been upped…

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I didn’t realise how popular teamLab’s works were until I returned to Singapore and noticed how much teamLab I was encountering in exhibitions or by accident on the street (see: MBS below!) Beyond the whole ‘Instagrammable’ factor, I think there’s something about their immersive ‘room art’ as I call it – should this be a new category of art? ;) – that appeals to our generation today. Another example of  popular ‘room art’ would be Yayoi Kusama’s, am I right?

| Cover Picture: A Story of the Time When Gods were Everywhere |

Future World

To start off, there is the long-running exhibition ‘Future World’ at ArtScience Museum. The exhibition has been going on for few years now, I think, but I only decided to check it out last September.

If you’re thinking about checking it out now, ‘Future World’ is now undergoing a ‘rehang’ (perhaps rescreen would be more appropriate for teamLab?) of its exhibits and it’s closed from 13th – 17th August with part of the exhibition re-opening from August 18th. The revamped/rescreened exhibition will fully open on 1st September 2018 and some of its previous exhibits will continue to be shown, pending updates.

‘Future World’ is split into three sections: Nature, Town and Park.

Nature

My absolute favourite exhibit was Crows are Chased and the Chasing Crows are destined to be Chased as well, Transcending Space, an audiovisual installation piece that opens the exhibition. I didn’t get any photos/videos of it, but it would have been near impossible since the paths of the flying crows know no boundaries, criss-crossing across all four walls of the room, ceiling and floor, till I felt both like I was flying and about to fall over.

Black Waves

This might be a cliché reference, but doesn’t Black Waves remind you of Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, put into motion?

Town

Sketch Town

This interactive sketching area is so fun! After completing your sketch, you can scan your sketches into the system and your image of buildings, vehicles, etc. would be added into the town. The buses, cars and planes even move! I also like the detail of ArtScience Museum and Marina Bay Sands drawn right in the middle.

Park

Universe of Water Particles – so dramatic!

Light Ball Orchestra

There were so many kids playing at Light Ball Orchestra! The interactive sections of the exhibition make it very kid-friendly overall, and on the day I visited, there were so many children having fun!

Crystal Universe

Crystal Universe closes the exhibition, and I think by now, it’s beyond popular, to the point that a proposal (or a few?) was staged here.

I’m now debating if I should visit ‘Future World’ again come September. I remember the admission ticket for this exhibition was pretty steep, which was also another reason why I put off visiting this exhibition initially. For the month of August though, ArtScience Museum is offering tickets at a lower price than usual!

Digital Light Canvas

Digital Light Canvas

I found this work at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands so pretty, even before I found out it was by teamLab! Digital Light Canvas rotates between three designs: ‘Nature’s Rhythm’, ‘Strokes of Life’ and ‘Festive Celebration’. I think I captured it at ‘Nature’s Rhythm’.

Story of the Forest

Last up is the long-running exhibition-cum-massive-installation Story of the Forest at the National Museum of Singapore. This has also been going on for what I think is a few years now, and there are no signs of it stopping anytime soon!

Story of the Forest

Story of the Forest is taken from 69 drawings of the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings at the National Museum of Singapore and enhanced to form this animated ‘room artwork’. You first enter a room showing trees and moving flowers scattered across the walls and ceiling, before moving on to walk down a spiral structure surrounded by another animated piece of forest plants and animals.

And that’s all of teamLab in Singapore! Really, there are plenty of options to see when it comes to teamLab here – but I would love to see Forest of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke some day, somewhere in Singapore perhaps… Shout-out to any museum/art space here to bring it in please! :D

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The great thing about this exhibition is that you can see works from a range of street artists all in one place, saving the trouble of trekking across sloping streets to hunt down street art (yes, I’m referring to HKwalls at Tai Ping Shan!) But beyond arguments of the ‘institutionalisation’ of street art by showing them as museum exhibits, or losing the site-specificity of these works, I think that there is something about the dynamic nature of these works that belong solely to the streets, which is lost when placed within a museum setting.

| Cover picture: Futura, Spray paint on concert background, 1982, spray paint on canvas |

Futura, Electric Orange, 1984, spray paint on canvas

Still, that’s not going to stop me from appreciating these works of art as they are! Right from the beginning of the exhibition, I was particularly attracted to Futura’s Futuristic “abstract graffiti style”.

Is this possibly inspired from Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that started in Italy? Futurists, as supporters of the movement called themselves, celebrated modern life and the city. Aesthetically, their artworks showcased vivid colours and abstract forms that highlighted speed and dynamism. On a darker note, their violent rejection of old forms of culture also formed an aspect of the movement. Personally, I find this bit of art history quite fascinating, and it is really interesting to see this allusion to the movement in street art today too.

Crash, Silver, 1981, spray paint on canvas

I love how spray paint can create this blurry effect, particularly clear in Crash’s Silver. Futura’s two works above also look a little unfocused along the edges as you pan out from the centre.

Stéphane Bisseuil, Graffiti, New York, 1991, digital wallpaper print

There are a few works in the exhibition that were captured in a large wall print so you can see the artwork in the context of its street, which I thought was very nicely done!

Invader, Pong, 2001, ceramic on wood panel

Ah, Invader in Singapore… though not in his usual secret “invasion” mode! In Hong Kong however, he has already invaded the city three times, with his last visit around October last year.

In Pong, notice the lone silver mosaic tile – it’s actually a reflective mirror-like piece!

Zhang Dali, Demolition: Forbidden City, Beijing, 1998, photograph

This is another favourite of mine! Zhang Dali is really one of relatively few Chinese artists who also work on street art. From 1995 to 1998, he spray painted an impressive 2,000 images of his head onto walls of to-be-demolished structures as an act of protest against the rampant demolition of traditional buildings in China, especially common in Beijing. In some cases, like this work here, he punched through the wall while keeping the shape of his head in side profile.

Banksy, Rat & Heart, 2015, spray paint and emulsion on canvas

Of course, Banksy has to be included in this exhibition of street art! But it’s perhaps due to the popularity of his works that I feel like I’ve seen this image of Rat & Heart many times elsewhere.

There’s actually one more Banksy work in the form of a wallpaper print located at the entrance/exit of the exhibition, which made it inconvenient to take a picture! I wished it was placed inside the exhibition galleries instead!

Jef Aérosol, Sitting Kid and Butterflies, 2016, stencil on cardboard; Sitting Kid, 2015, stencil

I like Sitting Kid in stencil more than its companion Sitting Kid and Butterflies, but here they are shown side by side.

Rero, One More Picture On My Phone, 2017, digital wallpaper print

Wow, I haven’t had an artwork speak to me as much as One More Picture On My Phone does, HAHAHAHAHA! I can just imagine this on a pristine white wall in Tiong Bahru, where so many people take OOTDs…

Remi Rough, Concise, 2018, created on-site at Artscience Museum

Felipe Pantone, Chromadynamica, 2018, created on-site at Artscience Museum

There were a couple of works created on-site at ArtScience Museum, which I thought was really cool! Two of them are pictured here, by Remi Rough and Felipe Pantone (also seen in my HKwalls post).

Vhils, Fondations [Foundations], 2017, advertising posters recovered from the street, hand cut and carved

I got so caught up looking at these faces that I didn’t realise that they were actually cut out from street posters!

Os Gemeos by Stéphane Bisseuil, Houston x Bowery street mural, New York City, 2009, photograph

Such a fun and colourful pop of colour on the street.

I don’t often participate in interactive activities in museum exhibitions, though I really should especially when Singapore museums always seem to have fun activities! For Art on the Streets, you could fill in these old-school Hello my name is stickers and paste them onto an in-house graffiti wall!

Check out this exhibition before it closes next Sunday, 3rd June 2018. There’s a 1-for-1 offer for this exhibition now!

I’m pretty shameless to say that I always go to ArtScience Museum when they have 1-for-1 offers, and I went to see Art from the Streets along with Treasures of the Natural World when the latter exhibition was in its last week! Treasures of the Natural World was just fantastic, more on that exhibition soon.

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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!

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The annual light festival has apparently been here for six years already, but it’s only my first time catching it! I think such a light festival is perfect for a place like Singapore, where digital installations and light shows always seem to be very popular. I also really liked that it made me go on a nighttime walking tour of the Marina Bay area, which I would always want to do but not actually not do it because of excuses like humidity, heat, so on… ;)

The entire walk took me about one and a half hours, starting from Esplanade Park, crossing the Helix Bridge to the Marina Bay walkway and completing the circuit near One Fullerton, with a total of 22 light installations situated along the way. I will be highlighting 10 installations in this post!

Studio ALEX, Flawless

I’m starting with the last installation listed on i Light’s map because Flawless was the first one I saw while walking along Esplanade Park on one afternoon – without realizing that this was a part of i Light! I really like how it gives a fluttery leaf effect.

Yuree Hong and Siyong Kim, Dancing Grass

Perfectly placed on the large grassy patch at Esplanade Park.

Luzinterruptus, Transistable Plastic

I was a little, er, alarmed by the immense use of plastic in Transistable Plastic, but of course, it’s meant to raise awareness of the amount of waste we generate, and all of these plastic was ‘waste’ contributed by the community and corporate partners.

It’s a huge installation of hanging bags of plastic which you could walk through and be enveloped in – but I always have a few misgivings about these kinds of work that raise awareness of certain issues or products by performing or making use of such issues or products, like in this installation. I just think, are there perhaps better ways of raising awareness and getting to the heart of these issues?

Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media, Starlight

Starlight was one of a couple of interactive pieces. The suspended balls start off unlit, and you could bang one ball at the end against the next, and the rest will light up in sequence. That’s me lighting up the upper row! :)

Serge Maheu, Passage

I didn’t walk through the Passage, but I found it really cute to see so many people walking through it, and it’s fun to see it changing colours as well!

Nanyang Polytechnic, School of Interactive Design and Media, Kloud

I think the various structures of Kloud were supposed to change colour when you touched them but I couldn’t seem to get it right…

Christopher Simpson, Isabella Bain, Khanh Nguyen, James Rotanson, Anthony Zeater and Steven Bai, Mailbox

So many people were crowded around Mailbox with their phones out, which made me very curious to see what it was all about! Turns out you could tweet emoijis/messages to it and your message would appear on the giant digital mailbox.

Franck Pelletier, With Love…

Ended my tour and i Light adventure With Love… which is my favourite of all. The large heart (that kinda looks like an apple from some angles) was pulsing along to the sound of a heartbeat and the red colour was going on and off to the beat.

I really enjoyed the added liveliness and colour that i Light brought to the area at night, and it’s fun to see tourists and locals alike taking in the extra sights as well, haha! The entire i Light circuit felt a little unexpectedly big, but it seems like there are plans to go even bigger for next year’s edition in conjunction with Singapore’s Bicentennial, marking the 200th anniversary of Sir Stamford Raffles’ founding of Singapore. Let’s see what comes up next year!

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I got to see the Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies at National Gallery Singapore and Journey to Infinity: Escher’s World of Wonder at ArtScience Museum, and they are both great exhibitions to see! So excited to see how Singapore is growing its arts and culture scene. I’m going to have miss the January lineup in Singapore, but I’m back in Hong Kong to view other exhibitions!

SINGAPORE

Singapore’s busiest art month would be January, with two art fairs Art Stage Singapore 2017 (12 – 15 Jan) and Singapore Contemporary (19 – 22 Jan) and a slew of events, talks, and exhibitions making up Singapore Art Week (11 – 22 Jan).

The ongoing Journey to Infinity: Escher’s World of Wonder at ArtScience Museum (which I’ll be sharing about later) and Singapore Biennale 2016: An Atlas of Mirrors at Singapore Art Museum are also included in Singapore Art Week. I very highly recommend Journey to Infinity – a very comprehensive show of Escher’s works. I was waffling over whether or not to go to Singapore Biennale but I decided to pass on it this time.

A few more events part of Singapore Art Week that I wanted to highlight:

• Welcome to Birdhead World Again – Singapore 2016

Birdhead (鸟头) is a Chinese photographer duo and I’ve found their works to be pretty interesting. They are involved in ShanghART’s Southeast Asia residency program and traveled across various countries in SEA and are now exhibiting their photographs taken during their travels in Singapore.

9 December 2016 – 26 February 2017, ShanghART Singapore, 9 Lock Road, #02-22 Gillman Barracks, more info here.

• Public Art at Parkview Square

More public art in Singapore! This exhibition of public art includes a Botero sculpture as well as selected works from the exhibition On Sharks and Humanity organized by Parkview Arts Action which is dedicated to building environmental awareness through art (interesting!). On Sharks and Humanity is said to be forthcoming in Parkview Group’s upcoming private museum in Singapore.

Also, I did not know that Parkview Square was designed in the style of Art Deco! Honestly, I have never stopped by long enough to even look at it properly. I have a thing for Art Deco, so I should probably stop by and take a good look at the building next time.

11 – 31 January 2017, Parkview Square, 600 North Bridge Rd, Singapore, more info here.

• Glass Rotunda: Story of the Forest and Singapore, Very Old Tree

A digital art installation and photography installation that explores Singapore’s history at National Museum of Singapore, Singapore’s history museum. My sister visited the museum and said Story of the Forest was really impressive!

10 December 2016 – 22 January 2017, National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road, more info here.

HONG KONG

• The World of Tim Burton

I was so so excited to hear that this exhibition was coming to Hong Kong, but my excitement totally deflated when I realized that tickets were going at HKD$180 (student tickets: $144)!!! That is way too much for me, especially when I’m used to going to most exhibitions in Hong Kong for free. For hardcore Tim Burton fans, this would be an amazing exhibition to see.

Note: Photography and video taking are not allowed in this exhibition (why…!!).

5 November 2016 – 23 January 2017, ArtisTree, 1/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, 979 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, more info here.

• Ceremony and Celebration – The Grand Weddings of the Qing Emperors

I’m really interested to see this one! It would be fun to immerse in some Chinese traditional culture by looking at this collection of Qing wedding artifacts. Interestingly, in the long history of the Qing dynasty, only four emperors married an empress during their reign and had wedding ceremonies held in the Forbidden Palace. Also, this exhibition has a much more reasonable admission price.

30 November 2016 – 27 February 2017, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1/F Thematic Galleries 1, 2, 5 & Function Place, 1 Man Lam Rd, Sha Tin, more info here.

• Lost Treasures of the Shiqu Baoji in Hong Kong

A fitting accompanying exhibition to Ceremony and Celebration featuring Chinese paintings and calligraphy works of the Shiqu Baoji (石渠寶笈), an imperial collection of Chinese artworks during the Qianlong period. The exhibits belong to the Xubaizhai collection of Hong Kong Museum of Art, which is now closed for renovation until 2018. I finally get to see a bit of Hong Kong Museum of Art’s Chinese art collection!

30 November 2016 – 20 March 2017, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1/F Chao Shao-an Gallery, 1 Man Lam Rd, Sha Tin, more info here.

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