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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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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This post features their works that I saw at National Gallery Singapore this year and the last, but there are also more of their digital art on display around town, which I’ll be sharing in another post.

teamLab, Flowers and People – Dark, 2015

First up is Flowers and People – Dark, a pretty and colourful assortment of flowers that spans across a few screen panels. The people / interactive component is in the way the flowers bloom and wilt depending on how close you are standing to the screens, so it’s a constant blooming and wilting of flowers as you move across the screens.

While I was trying to determine how to “control” the flower life cycle, I also liked just watching the flowers fluidly moving around.

teamLab, Walk, Walk, Walk: Search, Deviate, Reunite, 2018

Walk, Walk, Walk: Search, Deviate, Reunite is a large-scale digital installation contained in a dark room that begins with a cast of characters – a mix of what I will describe as village people and half-animal half-human creatures like a frogman – walking through flowers to a tune that to me, sounds like it’s inspired by traditional music. I also found it fun that when you tap on their faces hard enough, they would turn their faces towards you!

The group of characters eventually disappear into a bamboo forest, and the music also stops. Walking through the images of the bamboo forest myself, it felt a little scary (scaredy-cat me!) and really atmospheric at the same time. Walk, Walk, Walk: Search, Deviate, Reunite as a whole felt mysterious, a little strange, yet peaceful in another way.

Flowers and People – Dark and Walk, Walk, Walk: Search, Deviate, Reunite are currently part of the Gallery’s Children’s Festival: Small Big Dreamers and will be on show till 9th September 2018.

teamLab, Homogenizing and Transforming World, 2013 (and hello, that’s me capturing the moment!)

Throwback to last year when Homogenizing and Transforming World was exhibited at National Gallery Singapore! Ah, this was so fun as all of the balls start to change colour whenever anyone tapped them (there are sensors located at the top of each ball which when sensing one’s touch, would cause the change of colour). And with so many people in the room, the balls were lighting up in a myriad of colours!

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