The first exhibit that we encountered was purely by chance but I'm SO GLAD we did. If I were to describe it in one word it'll be life-changing. The Story of the Forest exhibit is presented in the Glass Rotunda (Level 2, National Museum of Singapore). We entered the museum pretty early like right after it opened, so everywhere was really quiet and we weren't sure which exhibits our pass permitted us to enter (it was actually an all-access pass). The staff at the entrance of the Rotunda were actually really nice people, but we mistakenly thought that they were kinda menacing until they welcomingly ushered us into the exhibit with so much enthusiasm. That's actually one thing I've learnt on this trip - all the staff members at the museums are extremely friendly people and they genuinely want you to enjoy the art so if you get the chance to, talk to them, be polite and they'll gladly share what they know with you.
I don't think I could accurately capture the wonder that the space evoked and the pictures below definitely do not do the exhibit any justice. The atmosphere was really magical and moving and you just have to be there to experience it for yourself. The moment you step in, you kind of just are transported to another realm where it's falling flowers everywhere accompanied by an AMAZING soundtrack. I can't stop gushing over this because it was so life-changing and I want to go back 😩
The next exhibit that we visited was the Signature Art Prize showcase, which showcases contemporary art from the Asia Pacific rim to the region of Central Asia. I've always thought of myself as someone who prefers performing arts over visual arts because I was unsure of how to approach it but this place made me realise that there is no one way to appreciate art. When you find a piece that resonates, you can connect with it however you like. Everyone has a different way of connecting with art and there isn't a right way to do it.
Here are some of the works that stood out to me the most:
Abstract Verb - Can you remember? (Bae Young-whan)
Tropical Siesta (Phan Thao Nguyen)
AK-47 vs. M16 (The Propeller Group)
Milky Bay (Yuichiro Tamura)
Mud man (Chikako Yamashiro)
Afterwards, we went in search of food and decided to pop by SOTA to check out the flea market since it was on the way. But it wasn't fully opened yet and the stalls that were operating sold really expensive stuff so we didn't get anything. Lunch was Just Acia because of the free flow ice cream!!!!!! We got too many sides by mistake thinking that the portions weren't going to be large. WRONG.
Didn't have plans after lunch so we googled for the nearest museum to visit and SAM/National Gallery came up. We didn't go to SAM because it had started drizzling and that was decidedly too much of a hassle to navigate. Took the train down to add to my museum entrance pass sticker collection hehe
Walking into the Gallery was pretty anticlimactic. The information/registration/ticketing counter was on the basement level so the wow factor as compared to the National Museum was lacking. After getting our free tickets, we decided to just pop into the nearest exhibit, which turned out to be Flowers and People - Dark , co-located with Walk, Walk, Walk: Search, Deviate, Reunite. There were walking bunnies, frogs and humans that you could follow around the labyrinth. I adopted this bunny which I named "m'dude" and Jingwen kept trying to steal him from me :<
The rest of the gallery had many exhibits detailing the history of the building, which used to be the Supreme Court and City Hall. They weren't the most interesting of exhibits since we both weren't really excited over architecture, but the information was still good to know. Here are some highlights:
From here on the different exhibits sort of blurred together so I can't really pinpoint which paintings/artworks are from which exhibits, but I'll try my best since the ones I photographed were the ones that stood out to me. SO... the first gallery that we visited was (Re)Collect: The Making of Our Art Collection, a rotating exhibit that ends 19 August. The pieces featured were mostly Singaporean/SEA works (to the best of my knowledge).
This was where we met a nice uncle who was one of the museum staff members. He told us that this piece really resonated with him since it was about old people being seen as obsolete and forgotten by society. He was really sweet and I love that he's now working in a place that lets him tell his stories!
We spied this children's exhibit while heading into the one above, so we backtracked and found ourselves in a mini playground?? The whole vibe was super cheery and the pieces made for great photo opps hahaha this was part of A Waking Dream: Sun-Boy and Yellow Man btw!
More pieces that I liked but couldn't remember where they belonged in the gallery!!!!! The transition between galleries was pretty seamless even though there were separate rooms and that was great for the whole overall experience.
On our way out, we found this little alcove/room that had large tablets for presumably kids to draw on. Jingwen, being the kid between us, went to dabble in the virtual arts and craft, which led us to find that you could 'send' the character you've created onto the projection screen. Hence, may I present "m'dude no. 2", named in honour of the bunny friend I had to leave.
That's all I've got to share about my museum hopping experience, though I wouldn't really call it true 'hopping' as we've only gone to two out of the many in Singapore. Below are some vanity photos of myself since Jingwen will probably kill me if I post hers on here 🙂
