A platform for views, insights, research and behind-the-scenes work at the Gallery
Media Type
Search Results
The Gallery’s Poet-in-Residence, Koh Buck Song, has crafted a poem in response to the artwork Fragments of a Shoreline, which was installed on the Padang for the Gallery's Light to Night Festival 2022. 3 minute read.
“The seemingly uncomfortable and uninviting colonial interiors of the Gallery actually held the comforting, familiar artworks of Myanmar.” Hear from some of the participants of the Burmese edition of Art For Us, and how the programme created a welcoming space at the Gallery for its participants to connect with others and to destress. 6 minute read.
José Maceda’s Cassettes 100 was re-staged as part of the exhibition Suddenly Turning Visible: Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia (1969–1989). It was first presented at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1971, and engaged 100 participants from diverse groups in the local community. The Singapore premiere of this 30-minute sound happening was held at the Gallery on 23 November 2019.
1 minute read, 30 minute watch.
Artist Song-Ming Ang discusses the exploration of sonic culture through Chance Operations, his work for the Gallery Children's Biennale, with Vanini Belarmino (Assistant Director, Programmes).
In the first of this commemorative series, Maria Khoo Joseph (Manager, Programmes) walks us through City Hall: If Walls Could Talk, a two-year exhibition held within the historic City Hall Chamber, part of the Singapore Bicentennial Commemoration.
Visitors to the Gallery Childrens' Biennale 2019 may have heard beastly whoops and cries drifting through the Padang Atrium. While there was no wildlife, the performance Embracing Animal Pop let loose the animal in its participants. Daryl Yam (Assistant Manager, Programmes) guides us through the thicket for insight into the programme.
Explore our special exhibition Ever Present–even after it has closed–with our audio tour. 1 minute read, 28 minute listen.
While the Gallery spaces are temporarily closed, Perspectives Magazine continues to bring art to you and your family. 1 minute read.
A happy New Year to readers of Perspectives Magazine.
2 minute read.
2 minute read.
In this in-Gallery talk, curator Shabbir Hussain Mustafa explores Latiff Mohidin's contributions to modernism by positioning the Malaysia artist within Berlin art circles of the 1960s, as well as the cultural, political and art historical milieus of Southeast Asia. 1 minute read, 62 minute watch.
Part of the exhibition Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s, the music collective INTER–MISSION staged two Happenings centred on Lee Kang-So's Disappearance, Bar in the Gallery.
In conjunction with Minimalism. Space. Light. Object., leading experimental music figure Margaret Leng Tan presented a concert marathon of Minimalist music titled MINIMALISM REDUX in January 2019. Here she shares the inspiration behind the full-length concert.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. The pandemic has amplified gaps in systems meant to provide aid to the most vulnerable. In the face of bureaucratic barriers to access and the lack of sufficient institutional aid, mutual aid networks have been formed to provide care for the individuals affected by these structural fissures. Diana Rahim reflects on her experience participating in mutual aid efforts in Singapore. 4 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. How does the ongoing crisis frame artistic labour and shape the way history is produced? Ho Rui An postulates that if art were to show us a way out, it would first have to exit from its own bubble of contemporaneity. 12 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. In her second contribution to the series, Lin Hsin Hsin takes a closer look at bluetooth technology in her poem race & trace. 3 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. In the shadow of the onslaught of monumental events that have occurred in the space of a year, AWKNDAFFR investigates how we might move forward from the contemporary condition of exhaustion in this email to a friend. How should we recall joy, care, and pleasure in the multitude of jobs and titles and identities that we hold, amidst this crisis-laden, exhaustive condition of the present? 10 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. From his room, bani haykal elaborates on the spaces we now find ourselves in, and the resonances they hold. 12 minute read.
Since 2017, Chu Hao Pei has been involved in different forms of food rescue in Singapore—from rescuing leftovers from buffets, to collecting edible food from dumpsters. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, he has witnessed problems of food distribution intensify and the issue of food waste worsen. In the thirteenth contribution to out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19, Hao Pei details the problem of food waste in Singapore and responses to it, both in practice and imagined. 8 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. Debbie Ding searches for the answers to optimise work-life balance whilst juggling her latest project—a child. 8 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. #workfromhome and #stayathome have disproportionately impacted marginalised communities around the world. In this open letter, curator and researcher Grace Samboh shares her conversation with artist Tamarra about the pandemic’s impact on transgender communities in Indonesia. 10 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. In 2015, Jimmy Ong began developing a body of work examining the figure of Thomas Stamford Raffles across Singaporean and Javanese histories. Accompanied by an essay by Johann Yamin, Ong continues to unearth these materials and Raffles as an icon in his video documenting the sewing performance, Uncursing Cotton, in the eighth piece for out of isolation. 9 minute read, 9 minute watch.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. In this article, ila and Samantha share correspondence that reveal how they have attempted to navigate these fraught times and often intimate issues, testifying to the importance of the written word and its power to bring insight and comfort. 20 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. Collaborative project soft/WALL/studs constructed a weed garden for their programme Beyond Repair, part of the initiative Proposals for Novel Ways of Being. In tending to these plants, artist Marcus Yee unearthed a cascade of issues that affect us all. 8 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. Simon Soon reflects on how the lockdown in Malaysia gave him the opportunity to be reacquainted with a project that he started almost a decade ago, and the city he now lives in. 6 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. Based in Singapore, Lin Hsin Hsin reflects on the passage of time in her poem time passes by, slow. 4 minute read.
out of isolation: artists respond to covid-19 is a special series of creative, critical and personal responses by artists on the significance of the coronavirus to their respective contexts, written as the crisis plays out before us. During the lockdown, filmic footage of coconut palms flashed across the windows of Susie Wong's HDB flat, attracting the attention of neighbours and curious onlookers. Find out more about her work. 4 minute read, 2 minute watch.
"The dilemmas and the lived experiences which I have encountered continue to process and shape my work." In this article, artist Phaptawan Suwannakudt shares vignettes from her life that continue to shape her artistic practice, which has its foundations in traditional Thai temple mural painting. 15 minute read.
"Aswang" is a term used in the Philippines to refer to lower mythological figures; in contemporary media, it often takes the shape of a woman. In this article, artist Eisa Jocson shares insights into her ongoing research on fear, monstrosity, and the shape-shifting Filipino body, interrogating how the figure of the Aswang can be used as a tool of decolonisation. 6 minute read. TW // sexual violence.
This new season of Out of isolation invites writers, poets and members of the art ecology to reflect on our current context through perennial issues such as gender, ecology and climate change. In the first post of this series, Dương Mạnh Hùng shares how the first botanical compendium of Vietnam, which they found on an internet archive, encouraged them to reimagine the stories of botanical art in Southeast Asia through the female-queer gaze. 9 minute read.
Painted Shadows: A Queer Haunting of the National Gallery seemed like a conventional museum tour at the Gallery. But instead of guiding the audience through the prevailing narrative of the Gallery’s artworks, the 2016 mobile lecture-performance by Ng Yi-Sheng illuminated their lesser-known queer histories instead. Varsha Sivaram and Mina Choo share their highlights from Yi-Sheng's talk on the lecture-performance, held in a closed-door session for members of Kolektif. 6 minute read.
The 2016 exhibition Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond explored new ways of looking at the history of modernism in art, through an encounter between the collections of the Centre Pompidou, National Gallery Singapore and other Southeast Asian collections. In this essay, reproduced from the accompanying publication, curator Lisa Horikawa examines the life and works of a pioneer in the modern art of Indonesia, Emiria Sunassa. 4 minute read.
In these challenging times, Perspectives Magazine's Editorial team hopes our readers find some respite. 1 minute read.
Explore our exhibitions–even after they have closed–with our audio and virtual tours. 1 minute read, 54 minute listen.
Wishing readers of Perspectives Magazine a happy new year. 2 minute read.
In this post, Vanini Belarmino (Assistant Director, Programmes) shares about her trip to the studio of Aung Ko and Nge Lay, the husband and wife artist duo featured in Gallery Children’s Biennale 2019, where she learned about the inspirations behind their installation The Other Wall, and the careful process of transforming their treasured childhood memories and traditions of Myanmar into a beautiful work of art.
Who were the women in architectural history? Where were they working? What architectural activities were they engaged in? Why did they do the work they did? How was their work—writing, drawing, designing, managing, planning, reviewing, or building construction—perceived and valued? Asking these questions necessitates understanding the discourses, rhetoric, and circumstances—the systemic hierarchical imbalances and exclusions, constraints, and opportunities—that enframed women.
When Sok Kiang first found out about National Gallery Singapore in 2015, she was residing overseas with her husband Jeff. The couple moved back to Singapore in 2016 and immediately signed up to volunteer at the Gallery with her sister, Sok Oon. Yang Yilin (Senior Executive, Community & Access) shares their Volunteer Voices.
In this run of Volunteer Voices, Ivan Lin (Intern, Community & Access) caught up with Eugene Macalinga, Ma Swanhoo and Queenie Chow, Gallery volunteers who have been generously supporting and engaging with the wider community during this pandemic. 6 minute read.
In this run of Volunteer Voices, Sim Jia Ning (Intern, Community & Access) caught up with Gallery volunteers Esther Tan, Chua Wan Yi and Fayanne Tan to find out how they bonded during their training to become bilingual docents. 6 minute read.
Youth is no object to volunteering at the Gallery. Four young volunteers—Tay Yu Qing, Jamie Ng, Samantha Rin, Samuel Sim—share their experiences with Ho Shu En (Intern, Community & Access), herself a youth with a passion for art. 7 minute read.
In this article, Choy Myn reviews Wishful Images: When Microhistories Take Form, an exhibition presented by NUS Museum. As a history student, Choy Myn has seen how Cold War history often focuses on the great men and the big players like the United States, Soviet Union and their leaders—this review delves into why she finds the highly personal, grassroots approach of this exhibition extremely refreshing. This piece was written for “Time Traveller: the Curatorial in Southeast Asia” module, offered as part of the Minor in Art History at NUS. 8 minute read.
Tropical Fruits (1969) is the largest known still life by Georgette Chen. With fruits in baskets, laid out on the table, and hanging from the ceiling, the work is an experiment in compositional techniques. Get a closer look at Chen’s works and find out how her artistic practice evolved over her decades-long career with our exhibition catalogue and our new video series, "At the Conservator’s Bench". 4 minute read.
On 24 September 2023, the sample capsule from OSIRIS-REx returned to Earth carrying NASA's first asteroid sample, taken from the surface of Bennu. The remainder of the spacecraft will continue its investigations into our solar system, carrying with it on board a chip etched with artworks, three of which are by Singapore artist Lin Hsin Hsin. Hear from the artist about how she selected these works, and how her practice is founded on science, mathematics and technology. 6 minute read.
In this dialogue with selected directors of the 2020 edition of Painting with Light: Festival of International Films on Art, Kulikar Sotho, Anysay Keola, Sai Naw Kham and Phạm Ngọc Lân discuss the genesis of the Mekong 2030 project, its relation to their artistic practices and the thinking behind their individual films. 14 minute read.
In the last of three conversations over the month of October with selected directors of the 2020 edition of Painting with Light: Festival of International Films on Art, Ismail Basbeth discusses his film Woo Woo (Or Those Silence That Kills You and Me) capturing the manifestation of social isolation, with Kolektif members Julaila Latiff and Mina Choo. 8 minute read, 6 minute watch.
In the first of three conversations over the month of October with selected directors of the 2020 edition of Painting with Light: Festival of International Films on Art, Leon Cheo discusses his film SIN-SFO. He speaks to Kolektif members Tay Yu Qing and Tang Zi Xuan film about the film’s complex dilemmas and attendant anxieties of emigration. 7 minute read, 1 minute watch.
In the second of three conversations over the month of October with selected directors of the 2020 edition of Painting with Light: Festival of International Films on Art, Taiki Sakpisit talks about his film The Mental Traveller, a mediation on the passing of time, habitual thought patterns and sensorial realities of five men who call a psychiatric ward home, with Kolektif members Ines Toa and Joanne Ho. 6 minute read, 1 minute watch.
According to traditional beliefs, depictions of the evil eye could ward away a malevolent gaze. Curator Cheng Jia Yun explains how Philippine artist Pacita Abad’s artwork is more than meets the eye. 2 minute read.
Where did the Gallery's Rotunda Library & Archive collection come from? What does the Rotunda Library & Archive do? All these questions and more answered with a peek into the collection, history and uses of the newly renovated Rotunda Library & Archive.
Art education is an important aspect of the growth and learning of pre-school children. Linda Song (Manager, Education) shares an art educator's perspective. 1 minute read.
The "archipelagic" is not just a geographic condition of existing among islands. In this article, art historican, critic and curator Carlos Quijon Jr. expands on his idea of "Archipelagic Futurism." As a procedure, "Archipelagic Futurisms" can be used to acknowledge Southeast Asia's complex histories of imperialism, violence and displacement, as well as provide a platform for various imaginations of the future that are based on archives, methods and practices shaped by the condition of being archipelagic. 8 minute read.
Ivy Lam (Manager, National Heritage Board) talks about how an artwork by Anurendra Jegadeva about the female migrant inspired her to rethink how Nanyang paintings are understood and studied, leading to a podcast episode that saw two curators from the Indian Heritage Centre and National Gallery Singapore discussing the evolving responsibilities of their profession. 3 minute read.
National Gallery Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum recently teamed up to develop The Care Collection: Caring through the Arts, a selection of artworks from both museums that can be used for art therapy. For World Mental Health Day on 10 October, the Collection's curators Lim Shujuan, Goh Sze Ying and Clarissa Chikiamco speak to art therapist Dian Handayani to learn about art therapy and how The Care Collection has been received. 10 minute read.
What does a conservator do every day? How do you assess the condition of a painting? Questions on conservation are some of the most frequently asked at the Gallery. Mar Cusso, one of the Gallery’s Paintings Conservators, answers them. 6 minute read.
Throughout the exhibition Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore, visitors have been posing questions on the show through our social media and front-of-house staff. In this post, the shows’ curators—Lim Qinyi, Teo Hui Min and Goh Sze Ying—respond to a few of these questions.
Throughout the exhibition Minimalism: Space. Light. Object., visitors posed their questions on the show through our social media and front-of-house staff. The shows’ curators respond to a few of your queries in this post.
Every year, curators refresh our two long-term exhibitions, Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century and Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century, with new artworks. In this post, three of its eight exhibition curators, Clarissa Chikiamco, Lim Qinyi and Cheng Jia Yun answer questions posed to them by docents and front-of-house staff about the ever-changing UOB Southeast Asia Gallery.
We’ve been receiving a flurry of questions about this unique installation at the Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Gallery. For the perennially curious (or just kaypoh*!), exhibition curator Adele Tan responds to a few of these queries.
In our video series "Ask Anything Art", Gallery educators and curators answer questions from students. In this episode, Ye Shufang and Teo Hui Min talk about Singaporean artist Chen Cheng Mei. 2 minute read, 7 minute watch,
Simone Forti’s radical Dance Constructions redefined the relationship between bodies and objects when first presented in New York in 1961. Based on everyday actions, chance, and improvisation, and the use of simple materials such as plywood and rope, the pieces break with the idea that dance can only be performed by formally trained bodies. Sarah Swenson has been the principal teacher of Dance Constructions since 2012. In this article, she reflects on the intricacies of teaching, learning and performing works predicated on human effort and interaction. 10 minute read.
Go behind the scenes of opening the Rotunda Library & Archive, from the challenge of re-purposing a heritage space, moving the collections, and establishing the new Collections Search Portal.
What can Southeast Asia be, beyond geography? Can it play the role in the collaborative building of a world culture? "Bumi-Antara: Southeast Asian Futurism Beyond the Map" is a special takeover of Perspectives Magazine challenges readers to see Southeast Asia not just as a geographic region, but also as a conceptual space. A collaboration with Artistic Director Rachael Rakes and Associate Curator Sofia Durron of the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale "THIS TOO, IS A MAP" this takeover introduces the idea that art and culture can be used to question systems and structures of knowledge around us, and be used as the basis create a new world culture. This editorial foreword unpacks the term “Bumi-Antara” and the value of thinking beyond rationalism. 5 minute read.
Kathleen Ditzig rounds up this Bumi-Antara takeover of Perspectives, demonstrating how the discursive threads and engagements underlying curatorial work go beyond the institution of the museum. With the increasing prevalence of AI technology in our everyday lives, she also discusses how research into Southeast Asian Futurism can help us grapple with the new patterns and "maps" that computational logic is now generating. 4 minute read.
A happy New Year to readers of Perspectives Magazine. 2 minute read.
The Oort Cloud and the Blue Mountain was created by Hazel Lim-Schlegel and Andreas Schlegel for Gallery Children’s Biennale 2019. Buttons at the bottom of the work activate movement, lights and sounds above. Inspired by science-fiction environs, nature and Vasily Kandinsky’s Blue Mountain, the couple’s interactive installation has been embraced by children and adults alike.
The Gallery worked with artist-researcher Dr Dawn-joy Leong to develop the Gallery Calm Room, a space for visitors that allows for and encourages self-initiated sensory rest and healing. In this article, Dr Leong shares about how her research on "Clement Space," as well as her lived-experience of disability, has informed the collaboration. 6 minute read.
Shaun Soh reflects on the artistic responses NAFA students created after experiencing Kim Lim's minimalist sculptures, which combine stillness and movement, at the Gallery. 4 minute read.
Sadiah Boonstra reflects on three dance responses to Danh Vo’s sculptural installation on the Gallery’s rooftop. It was the first public programme for the inaugural Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission series.
Observant visitors would have noticed that our historic Supreme Court Foyer has been reinstated to its original form recently. The Artwork & Exhibition Management team gives you a sneak peek at what happens during a large-scale artwork deinstallation
Editors Qinyi Lim and Teo Hui Min share more about what readers can expect from Perspectives Magazine in the coming months.
Tags:
Editorial
Paper was a common feature of the 1971 and 2017 iterations of Cassettes 100, both held in the Cultural Centre of the Philippines. Daryl Yam (Assistant Manager, Programmes) writes about how the Programmes team developed this pivotal element of the performance for its re-staging at the Gallery. 3 minute read.
Artist Teo Eng Seng gives a captivating account of the context and significance of the United World College Festival of the Arts (1972–84) in this hour-long conversation with Gallery curator Joleen Loh. This festival was one of the earliest sites in Singapore for the display of contemporary art.
This essay by curator Clarissa Chikiamco explores the distinction between non-objective and abstract art through the practice of Philippine artist Fernando Zóbel.
In conjunction with Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore, three poets responded to Lim’s 1962 painting Singapore River. Transforming the visual into the literary, these poets reflect and expand on themes and feelings evoked by Lim’s watercolour piece.
In 1973, Lee Kang-So's Disappearance, Bar in the Gallery was one of the first "happenings" he presented in Korea. As the work was reactivated in June 2019 for the National Gallery Singapore as part of Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s, programme co-curator Sue Kim reflects on its resonance with artists and audiences today.
Wishing our readers a very happy new year!
Singapore artist Liu Kang depicted many bustling scenes of daily life outdoors. As curator Lim Shujuan dives into his paintings, share in the joy of friends picnicking, artists painting in the open or simply savouring in-season durians. 3 minute read.
History students from Nan Chiau High School and River Valley High School had their curiosities piqued by Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s. After a tour of the exhibition, students had a chat with curators Charmaine Toh and Seng Yu Jin over the messaging platform Telegram to answer their burning questions about the exhibition.
Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s drew interest from history students as well as their teachers, three of whom sat with curators Adele Tan, Charmaine Toh and Seng Yu Jin to talk about the exhibition. Their dialogue has been condensed and edited for readers of Perspectives.
Find out how we tag and track artworks in the Gallery using our RFID-enabled artwork management system, and how it helps accountability to the collection and our stakeholders.
Koh Buck Song, the National Gallery Singapore’s Poet-in-Residence 2021-22, shares how the Rotunda Library & Archive has now become even more special to him. 6 minute read.
Paintings are frequently taken from one place to another – from an artists’ studio to a gallery, from a storage facility to a museum, or even from an art fair to your home. Learn how to pack paintings to ensure their safety in transport.
Kolektif is a group of 24 individuals brought together by a shared vision—to design and execute some dope digital programmes for the 2021 edition of Light to Night Festival. For three days in June 2020, these 24 Gen Zs and young millennials got together for their first meeting. Dana Rizal and Kuwabara Tsusha introduce the programme, dubbed Kolektif 101. 5 minute read.
Zainudin Samsuri is one of the artists featured at Keppel Centre for Art Education for 2019. His work Dayung Sampan – be your own captain on deck is displayed at the Project Gallery. In this post, Ye Shufang (Deputy Director, Education) interviews Zainudin to find out more about his creative process and thoughts as an artist and art educator.
Rachael Rakes and Sofía Dourron of the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale interview Singapore artist Fyerool Darma on his polyphonic practice. Fyerools' works resist the singular progression of history, and rebelliously insist on the illegible and on speaking collectively at the same time. 10 minute read.
In her series Self-Portraits & The Tropical Gothic (2019), Wawi Navarroza allows digital-processing manipulations of the images to be visible for the first time. In the following email interview with Roger Nelson, she speaks about the work. 7 minute read.
In this conversation with Samsung Newsroom, Jason Ong (Director, Partnership Development, National Gallery Singapore) shares more about the Gallery's partnership with the Samsung Art Store, and its commitment to making the museum's collection more accessible. 5 minute read.
Philippine artist Constancio Bernardo left for Yale University a figurative painter and returned to Manila three years later with a practice centering around geometric abstraction. Curator Clarissa Chikiamco takes a closer look at Bernardo's work Bernadian Synthesis No. 1, a triptych from an exhibition that marked this new stage in his practice. 4 minute read.
Indonesian social realist artist Itji Tarmizi and his contemporaries are known as a “missing link” in Indonesia’s modern art history as little is known about their work. Gerald Sim (Intern, Curatorial and Research) digs deeper into Menyongsong Fajar (Watching the Sunrise), Itji’s monumental work of social realism, to unearth more about the artist and the time in which he lived and worked. 4 minute read.
Johnny Chen (Registrar) documents the arduous process of shifting Ng Eng Teng's Mother and Child from its original location at Tampines Central Park to its new home by the steps of the Gallery’s City Hall building. 5 minute read.
What exactly goes on behind closed doors in our DBS Singapore and UOB Southeast Asia Galleries? Go behind the scenes of a recent artwork rotation exercise to find out!
Tags:
Behind the Scenes,
Deinstallation,
DBS Singapore Gallery,
UOB Southeast Asia Gallery,
Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century,
Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century,
Artwork Rotation,
U Kin Maung,
Burmese Musicians,
National Collection,
Artwork and Exhibition Management,
Johnny Chen
Chua Soo Bin is not only a renowned photographer, gallerist, art dealer and art patron, but also an avid collector of culture and history. Over a casual chat with his favourite cheesecake and freshly brewed coffee, Chua shared some of his favourite items from his personal collection, as well as his life and collecting philosophies. 7 minute read.
Artist Lim Tzay Chuen has stated that an artist's need to create should not be influenced by a desire to present something concrete, be it an exhibition or publication. In this article, Dana Chan introduces the idea of a non-artist to explore Lim's practice. 6 minute read.
The "Virgen de Cerro Rico" is an anonymous painting from the 1600s commemorating the Spanish Crown's discovery of this silver-rich mountain in 1545. This discovery not only established a new form of mining, but also made human and non-human exploitation the organising principle of the new world. Sofia Dourron (Associate Curator, 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale) interrogates how this work, and other contemporary ones featured in the Biennale, can help us go beyond the "extractive view" of territoriality. 13 minute read.
This in-gallery talk by Syed Muhammad Hafiz (Assistant Curator, National Gallery Singapore) takes a closer look at one of the paintings in the Gallery’s UOB Southeast Asia Gallery, Kami Present, Ibu Pertiwi (Stand Guard for our Motherland) by Indonesian artist S. Sudjojono.
On first appearances, Village Scene is a lively and cheerful depiction of rural life. Yet, this harmonious-looking work is also a poignant reminder of a tumultuous time in Southeast Asia that ultimately led to a period of unimaginable tragedy in Cambodia. Roger Nelson looks into the painting's subject matter, style, and exhibition and publishing history to explore how it intersects with the Cold War and related conflicts. 17 minute read.
Now in UOB Southeast Asia Gallery 7, Industrial Century is one of artist Tan Lip Seng’s earliest photographs. Charmaine Toh shares more about this work featuring the Iron and Steel Mill in Jurong, a favourite subject of photographers in Singapore.
Curator Charmaine Toh explores the aesthetic qualities of pioneer photographer Wu Peng Seng’s images, offering fresh insight into his practice. 5 minute read.
Take a walk with us through 7 highlights in the exhibition Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore to discover Lim's journey and deep relationship with the changing landscpae of Singapore.
Join this tour of 7 highlights in the exhibition Suddenly Turning Visible: Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia (1969–1989), a selection that traces the new approaches toward art and architecture that emerged in Bangkok, Manila and Singapore during a period of rapid modernization.
1 minute read, 14 minute listen.
1 minute read, 14 minute listen.
Dementia is one of the most debilitating health conditions faced by Singapore's rapidly ageing population. Faith Lee speaks to two frontline museum workers to find out more about the Dementia Awareness Workshop they attended, conducted by the Alzheimer's Disease Association, to understand dementia better. 7 minute read.
While the Minimalism exhibition has closed, continue to learn about the works in the show with two audio tours now available on our newly-launched Soundcloud––including an alternative version featuring musings by 7 local creatives.
On 25 May 2019, Professor Edwin Thumboo explored the rich relationship between art and poetry in a roundtable with National Gallery Singapore staff Elaine Ee (Deputy Director, Content Publishing) and Daryl Yam (Assistant Manager, Programmes). Although the conversation ranged from Singapore’s history to the purpose of art, much discussion centred around two poems in this volume, “Ayatana” and “Dancing Mutants,” which were analysed at length. Extracts of their conversation are presented here.
Don’t Give Money to the Arts—the remains of Tang Da Wu’s seminal performance interventions in 1995—hangs in the DBS Singapore Gallery. Goh Wei Hao (Intern, Curatorial and Research) explores the historical and cultural contexts of these performances. 5 minute read.
Susanne wanted to get to know her Nai Nai (grandmother) better. Find out how she did so with a trip to the Gallery. 6 minute read.
As a conceptual extension of his Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission SEA STATE 9: proclamation garden, Singapore artist Charles Lim Yi Yong creates a series of podcasts to present alternative viewpoints, stories and soundscapes in the history of land reclamation in Singapore.
Sadiah Boonstra shares the inspirations behind poet Pooja Nansi's response to the exhibition Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore, revealing the common threads between Nansi and Lim's lives as artists despite living in different times.
Creating opportunities for connection is at the heart of the Gallery’s public programmes. However with social distancing measures in place, the Programmes team has had to rethink the ways in which such encounters can be fostered. Vanini Belarmino (Assistant Director, Programmes) and Maria Khoo Joseph (Manager, Programmes) introduce Art + Live, the Gallery’s programmes online. 4 minute read.
In early May, the Gallery piloted its Art + Live series of programmes, shifting offline experiences online. Nurdiana Rahmat, Daryl Yam and Lim Sin Hui from the Programmes team share their experience producing Art + Live’s trio of programmes, technical glitches and all. 5 minute read.
Three participants from 2023's External Assessment Summer School share about how the programmes, which took place across the Indonesian cities of Bali, Majalengka and Bandung, showcased how art and design can bring communities together to imagine, embody and create sustainable futures. 5 minute read.
In A Somatic Series by Vincent Yong, participants were encouraged to move freely to reconnect with their bodies and themselves. Daryl Yam (Assistant Manager, Programmes) reflects on his joyful encounter with somatic movement.
4 minute read.
4 minute read.
One of the most innovative practitioners working in the medium of ink today, Tan Oe Pang joins Assistant Curator Teo Hui Min to discuss the artistic concepts expressed through his work, the essential qualities of art and the dialogue between Western and Eastern aesthetics. 1 minute read, 63 minute watch.
Lee Wen was a key figure in the development of performance art in Singapore. For the Gallery Children's Festival 2018, he worked closely with Vanini Belarmino (Assistant Director, Programmes) and her team to bring seminal performance works and early illustrations to a wider audience. On the anniversary of his passing, she recollects their collaborative process. 5 minute read, 7 minute watch.
Zai Tang was the Resident Artist for Resonates With from July to September 2023. During his residency, Tang presented a series of performances created in response to "See Me See You: Early Video Installation of Southeast Asia," focusing a on different piece of music technology for each artist. In this article, he shares the inspiration for each of his performances, illuminating how they came to be. 12 minute read.
Although little known today, Sam Yoeun was one of the most prominent artists in Cambodia during the 1960s. A recent acquisition of his artworks now on display in the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery sheds new light on this fascinating figure.
Measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have prompted institutions worldwide to explore new ways of providing access to their collections. The Gallery's Information Management and Library & Archives teams explain how the Gallery’s Collections Search Portal functions as a window into our vast artwork, library, and archival databases.
9 minute read.
9 minute read.
Hsieh Fu Hua, Chairman of National Gallery Singapore and the National University of Singapore (NUS), reflects on the nature of truth and discusses avenues for its exploration with Latiff Mohidin on the occasion of the artist’s recent exhibition at the Gallery. This essay was co-written by Yeo Wei Wei, and first featured in NUS’ editorial series Across The Board and The Straits Times. 5 minute read.
Nurdiana Rahmat (Manager, Programmes) reflects on her experience working with Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho on an artwork for the Gallery Children’s Biennale 2019 that introduces complex ideas such as identity and democracy to kids with the help of some colourful fireflies.
Curator Seng Yu Jin shares more about Siti Adiyati’s Eceng Gondok Berbunga Emas (Water Hyacinth with Golden Roses), a work on display in the Awakenings exhibition that transforms the appearance of natural and man-made objects to question our notion of reality and what constitutes art.
Is it possible to stare at an artwork for an entire hour? In this article, Mark Chia introduces the Gallery's Slow Art programme, where are appreciation meets slow looking and mindfulness. He shares about how participating in and planning the series helped him to navigate uncertainty, dread, and hopelessness. 5 minute read.
In 1973, the Indonesian polymath and intellectual Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (STA) presented his paper “The Place of Art in the Psychological, Social and Cultural Reconstruction of the Future. Calling for “a new avant-garde,” he positioned the artist as playing a critical part in building a post-Cold War future. He believed that the aesthetic experience was foundational to societies and culture was a representation of a value system, and that artmaking and appreciation created a a feedback loop between the individual and society. This article features select artworks from Singapore's National Collection that capture the cultural and regional zeitgeist from which STA’s ideas emerged, spotlighting other important artists and futurists. 10 minute read.
Artist Mark Justiniani talks about the metaphorical meaning and literary parallel of his work Stardust: Soaring Through the Sky’s Embrace in this interview with Vanini Belarmino (Assistant Director, Programmes).
Although schools are closed and the Gallery’s doors are temporarily shut, art education continues to be a priority for the Gallery. Shaun Soh (Manager, Education) and Joyce Choong (Senior Executive, Content Publishing) unpack the pros and cons of taking art education online. 4 minute read.
Art in 90 Seconds is the Gallery's new video series by the Gallery. It brings you personal stories about the works in the Gallery’s collection, told by humans of the Gallery. Martin Choo, previously an intern with the Community & Access team, shares behind-the-scenes experiences and reflections from working on this video series. 4 minute read.
Art in 90 Seconds is a short-form video series that presents personal and heartfelt stories about the Gallery's artworks. In 2022, a special mini-series featuring Gallery staff was released. In this article, Heng Yeng speaks to Javier from the Gallery's Audio-Visual and Lighting Team to find out how he overcame his hesitance and trepidation to star in a episode of Art in 90 seconds. 5 minute read.
Do you know that this self-portrait was the first artwork to be accessioned into our art collection? Find out more about the National Collection and how it started. 4 minute read.
Hear from the Gallery’s Community Hosts! These volunteers conduct special tours for underserved community groups. By paying special attention to their access needs and interests and facilitating conversations, our Community Hosts ensure that the Gallery is a welcoming space for all. Wuai Mun, Sok Oon, Moe Yin and Chan Pong tells us just what it takes. 5 minute read.
Have you heard of the #hotgirltotebag? In our first ever Gallery Youth Social, participants got to make their very own! Kolektfi alumni Aida and Siobahn share more about the programme. 10 minute read.
Tags:
Kolektif,
Volunteers
In this essay, Yeo Mang Thong questions the overarching frameworks of the “Malayan school” and “Nanyang school” that have been used as broad descriptors of art produced in Singapore during the 1950s and 1960s. 19 minute read.
With photographs, sketches and writings, archival materials contain valuable first-hand information on artists’ professional practices. Michelle Tay introduces us to the Gallery's Georgette Chen Archive, which includes her beloved Hermes Baby typewriter as well as hand-drawn menu cards, providing us with a rare and intimate look into Chen's thoughts, observations and life. 17 minute read.
Career Day saw nearly 200 tertiary and pre-tertiary students attend introductory sessions by different departments working together in the National Gallery Singapore. The very first event of its kind was organized by Shaun Soh (Manager, Education) who wrote about the experience.
For many artists in the 19th and 20th centuries, Paris was a place of pilgrimage. In this curatorial insight, trace the journeys of and connections between Southeast Asian artists who made a stop in city, through curators Lisa Horikawa and Phoebe Scott's methodological report. 15 minute read.
Tags:
Southeast Asian art,
Vietnam,
Thailand,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Malaysia,
Cambodia,
Myanmar,
Indonesia,
Paris,
Bibliotèque Nationale de France,
Kandinsky Library of the Centre Pompidou,
Centre for Documentation at the Musée des Années 30,
Rotunda Library & Archive,
Rotunda Library & Archive Collection,
Collections Search Portal,
Digitisation
Sopheap Pich’s Cargo is one of the largest artworks in the National Collection. How does a work the size of two 20-foot shipping containers make its way from the artist’s studio in Cambodia to its new home at National Gallery Singapore? Farisya Farid (Senior Executive, Collections Development) details the journey. 5 minute read.
Written to accompany the 2017 exhibition Radiant Material: A Dialogue in Vietnamese Lacquer Painting, this essay discusses conceptual shifts in Vietnamese lacquer painting, as seen in the work of Nguyễn Gia Trí and Phi Phi Oanh, the two artists featured in the exhibition.
For our 2022 special exhibition "Wu Guanzhong: Travelling with the Master, the Gallery invited four of our docents to co-create the show. In this article, Sim Mei-Ann speaks to the docents Tina Nixon, Gertrude Tan, Queenie Chow and Stella Rong to find out more about their experience of developing an exhibition—from choosing the artworks, uncovering a documentary about Wu's 1990 trip to Singapore, and finally leading tours for the show that they put together! 7 minute read.
How can we bring art to our audiences, wherever they may be? Community & Access intern Katelyn Wong speaks to Gallery volunteers Pooi San and Gopal about the training programme for the Gallery’s new initiative: livestreamed tours. 5 minute read.
In this article, we chat with our docents Constance Ong, Mae Chong, Jacqueline Lim, and Eric Liu, about how they have grown with the Best Friends of the Gallery (BFG) programme. Through volunteering at the Gallery, they have picked up new skills which they have gone on to apply beyond the Gallery, as well as discovered new areas of interest.
This essay shares life with an art book, installation, and a series of workshops, all part of a larger project realised during my time as the inaugural artist for the National Gallery Singapore’s Calm Room Creative Residency.
Gain insights into the early beginnings of Singapore’s museum scene in the 1970s, in this conversation with artist Choy Weng Yang, who was the curator of the National Museum Art Gallery, inaugurated in 1976.
Andrea, a member of the Gallery's experimental programme Kolektif, reflects on how and artists can contribute to discussions on race, inclusion and diversity. 6 minute read.
In collaboration with the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), the Gallery launched Sister Guides, a special tour programme for the domestic worker community in Singapore. Jo Ann A. Dumlao (Sister Guide) expands on her experience in the programme. Scroll through for translations of her article in Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Burmese. 5 minute read.
In today's fast-paced world, it is increasingly important to care for our mental health by finding moments of peace and tranquility. The disruptions and challenges arising from the global COVID-19 pandemic have made such actions all the more necessary. In support of this, National Gallery Singapore offers a series of Slow Art programmes that encourage visitors to slow down and interact with art in ways that actively enhance mental health.
There are exciting and remarkably varied examples of art made by women in 19th century Southeast Asia, but research has largely overlooked these artists in favour of their male counterparts. Curator Roger Nelson spotlights some of the paintings, photographs, textiles and other media created by female artists of the time, offering an introduction into this significant area of art history. 12 minute read.
This essay, written to accompany the 2017 retrospective exhibition YAYOI KUSAMA: LIFE IS THE HEART OF A RAINBOW, considers the meaning of Kusama's art in today's world, as an artist who resists easy categorisation, balancing positions of self-obliteration and self-promotion.
Learn more about London’s art scene in the 1960s and what it takes for a Singaporean artist to make it in a foreign metropolis, in this dialogue between artist Mak Kum Siew and Gallery curator Jennifer Lam.
In this article, Rachael Rakes (Artistic Director, 12th Seoulmedia City Biennale) explores maps and the different ideas of mapping. More specifically, the article presents different visual forms that perhaps serve as necessary parallels to maps, rather than serving as direct refusals or alterations. In doing so, Rakes outlines how maps capture the incongruence between indigenous (or non-Western) and Western perspectives on territory and the meaning of space. 10 minute read.
In the spirit of the Gallery's vision and our desire for collaboration and authenticity, Perspectives Magazine respects and encourages the expression of diverse views, thoughts and opinions from all our contributors.
