documenting love

till death us do part (結)
image by J - from the fashion themed gallery

J and I went to take a look inside the newly re-opened National Museum this evening - and we loved it. Well, to be precise, these were what we loved:

(1) the restoration, extension and renovation works to the building by W Architects (Mok Wei Wei) with CPG Consultants. It created a sense of space we did not think was possible in Singapore - not the space that came with having miles of shopping floor, nor the empty granite hollows of our train stations. Instead, the unobtrusive glass and stone created new public spaces from or with the plastered surfaces of the 19th century building that were, consequently, at times grand, intimate or expansive. These spaces felt both storied and yet to be written.

the national museum
image by Y & J

(2)the large LED wall installation by artist Matthew Ngui titled The building remembers/Remembering the building. The wall of LED lights captured and "reflected" images of the visitors standing before it, both in real time but sometimes in also recorded time. As such, there were stretches when instead of seeing your own immediate LED image, all you saw were random images instead of people who had stood before the wall seconds or minutes ago - creating these abstract patterns of bodies past and passing. When unlit, you would not guess that it was an LED light wall. All you saw was a stone-like surface of black that appeared as if it was a slice of the Fort Canning Hill behind the museum.

the building remembers...(記)
Y looks better in LED - image by J

ampulets reckon this wall would be a hit with the school kids.

(3) the things people wrote as a document of their lives, loves and their island's life. It may be my bias for words, but what struck me as I walked through the fascinating "Singapore Story" galleries that attempted to trace this island's history from the 13th century was the centrality and importance of writing as a record - perhaps even greater than image, taste or sound. Because the written word endures, not only physically or literally, but also as an evocation and an invocation of the past, the present and truth.

write
on the left is the Temasek Stone, supposedly the earliest stone text found on the island; and on the right are manuscripts of the Malay Annals which I want now, more than ever, to read - image by Y

movietix
the back of a pair of movie tickets from the 60s, on which a man/woman has written down his love - from the "film" gallery. Click for flickr view & J's translation of the text - image by J

(4) the possibility of return visits because there's really that much more to see. I especially recommend the "Singapore Story" galleries, or rather, the galleries that begin from the new rotunda extension. Go with the audio aid, which is easy to navigate and makes the entire visit so much more meaningful. The themed galleries on the second floor (on "food", "fashion", "film" etc) are disappointingly superficial, despite the profusion of fancy "experiential" displays. They pander to nostalgia, but fail mostly to scratch beyond that cosy wooly surface.

The "film" gallery is the themed gallery I enjoyed and would revisit. Maybe it is because, unlike food, film is an aspect of our modern history young islanders know the least of. Or maybe it is because films are themselves documents - unlike food or fashion, which have been presented only as objects of consumption - and have been curated as documents.

teaWenglish
Y having tea with the colonial tai-tais - darling, that's just so yawn-making, you should go to the national museum instead

Well, the weekend's coming up - so you know now how to spend it!

=======
The museum's opening festival runs 2-31 December. There're film screenings, performances, and - hey, there's the history itself.

Comments

Tym said…
Thanks for this. Glad you liked the stories --- we put a lot of work into those!

But eh, it's the Singapore History Galleries, not the "Singapore Story" lah! We tried our darnedest to avoid becoming propaganda, okay ...
ampulets said…
haha, yah, I spoke to a Museum staff at the opening and was chastised also for using the term "Singapore Story"! but you know, perhaps one day we will be comfortable with saying "Singapore Story" and know that what we are referring to is not "propaganda", but a story the citizens have come to love. And all the more because historians, of course, have had major quarrels with it, and they did not feel the need to be silent.
idealistic monday daydreaming amps :>
Anonymous said…
hi i'm glad you love the film section at the lifestyle galleries. it has been a work of love and to document films of that era which in some ways are relevant till now for the museum was wonderful experience. a filmmaker myself, i dedicate the work to the "golden" artistes and their followers.

love.reeljuice
ampulets said…
reeljuice - i've always heard and read about the early film industry here, but seeing the actual footage in the museum made it all the more real. i can only imagine how that must be even more encouraging and meaningful to someone like you who continues to make films on our small island today!

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