National Gallery Singapore
Th is visual arts institution is one of those places where the architecture is as striking as the exhibits. Housing the largest public collection of modern art in Singapore and Southeast Asia, the Gallery is a creative amalgamation of the City Hall and former Supreme Court. Besides the art exhibitions, music performances, guided tours and top-notch restaurants are just some of the attractions of the vast National Gallery, with a combined floor area of 64,000 square metres. There are some quirky elements too like the ‘Firewalk: A Bridge of Embers’, a glass-floored 12-metre bridge by Filipino artist Mark Justiniani that claims to give visitors a peep into the Supreme Court’s excavations with the help of optical illusions. Try not to faint as you reach the last panel! Past the time capsule buried in the Court foyer that is to be opened in the year 3000, you can see some of the finest examples of art from Southeast Asia in the UOB galleries. One among these, past the crowd-puller 1849 oil painting Boschbrand (Forest Fire) by Raden Saleh, is the Shocking Pink Collection by Thai artist Manit Sriwanichpoom. In this not-so-subtle comment on consumerism and the financial crunch of 1997, Sriwanichpoom poses in a variety of bright pink outfits in light-box portraits that stand out in the sunlight-dappled rooftop gallery.
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Exotica lovers will have a field day at the Asian Civilisations Museum, where a permanent exhibition of over 60,000 ceramic utensils and exquisite luxury objects made of gold and silver salvaged from the Tang Shipwreck is on permanent display at the Khoo Teck Puat Gallery of the museum on the banks of the Singapore River.
Discovered in 1998, off Belitung Island in the Java Sea, the shipwreck’s treasures date back to 9th century China, when the Tang dynasty was in power. The distinctive bowls from Changsha, Hunan province, (approximately with a diameter of 16 cm), have been arranged on stands in an undulating pattern that evokes the movement of sea waves. It is believed that the precious cargo was bound for Iran and Iraq. If visitors can tear their eyes away from the display of incense burners, platters, and finely carved furniture at the gallery, they could also find out more about Islamic art and ancient religions in dedicated galleries of their own.
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Among the rare items at Ilm – Science and Imagination in the Islamic World is the Folio from De Materia Medica (The Medicinal Properties of Plants), a 1st century text translated into Persian by Greek physician, Dioscorides.
In the Ancient Religions gallery, a vast array of icons related to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism show the development of devotional imagery down the years.
Peranakan Museum
Set in a former school building, the Peranakan Museum showcases the culture and heritage of the descendants of immigrants who came to the Malay archipelago. Peranakan is an Malay-Indonesian word that means ‘born of’, and is often further qualified with ethnic markers like ‘Tionghoa/Cina’ (Chinese), Jawi (Arab), Peranakan Belanda (Dutch) and ‘Chitty’ (Indian Hindu) and so on.
During the British colonial period, the Peranakans were typically a bridge between native and assimilated cultures, and also known to be multilingual, and therefore more socially mobile. Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was a Peranakan.
The institution (affiliated to the Asian Civilisations Museum) has 9 galleries with artefacts related to Peranakan origins, wedding rituals, cuisine, public life, language and fashion, and religion. Four galleries are devoted to weddings alone (which were held typically over 12 days), with detailed displays of furniture, presents, jewellery and fine bone china.
Among the eye-catching objects of art is a 20th century beadwork tablecloth from Penang with more than a million glass beads depicting a variety of European, South American and Asian birds. Being skilled in embroidery was an essential prerequisite for marriageable Peranakan women.
(The writer was in Singapore on invitation from Singapore Tourism Board)