Last Thursday, I asked Bryan if we could do "
something silly" this weekend, instead of just catching up on readings. He asked "
what silly thing," and I said "
I don't know, maybe go to a museum or something?"
It was really random; I just felt like getting away from the dreariness of schoolwork, but it turned out that my wish coincided with the occurrence of
Singapore Night Festival 2013! Don't judge me, I honestly didn't know it was going on though it had already started the previous weekend. I'm sure the publicity efforts were far-reaching but I just actively avoid reading the news and... I'm a hermit I guess!! :x
In any case, I'm glad it was happening!
Very badly taken shot of Bryan with Thom - I haven't used Thom in really long so...... I've lost much of my skills *-* And it was at night so pardon my bad skills, alright!
We were at
The Substation first! The entire event spanned a huge area - all over Dhoby Ghaut and Raffles City, even up to Fort Canning.
We were about to walk further down when I heard the lead singer go "
This song is about Cats." Which of course made me stop in my tracks! Sadly, we couldn't hear the lyrics really clearly because the music was really loud. But I liked the guy's voice a lot, and the band played well together! They're
Nicholas & The Middle of Nowhere if you want to check them out (:
This is the
Visual Arts: Everyday Inspirations exhibition by Karen Mitchell at the alley between The Substation and Peranakan Museum.
Here's the description of the exhibition as grabbed off The Substation's website:
"
One-word definitions of ‘Aspiration’ were collected, representing the “Everyday Aspirations” of ordinary people. 365 of these were selected and the texts were laser-cut onto wood panels. Light shines through to cast shadows of these Aspirations – literally having the Aspirations projected, and occurring, positively. The audience may project selected text shadows against the walls and ceiling using their own light sources. The occurance of the different sized shadows at different heights will appear as a shared aspiration. These reflections should not just stop at being a shadow, but act as imprints in a person’s memory, capturing their experience of seeing them in the dark."
I thought it was pretty cool how the boards were hung but I couldn't really see the shadows of the words on the wall because as you can tell, there were so many people crowding around them. Also, I was eavesdropping and overheard some people exclaiming about how many of the pieces were stolen by people - it's an astonishing 114 pieces! ): That's really terrible. Hope people return them soon.
We then walked over to the
Charlie Lim Photography exhibition. He uses a digital camera and a flashlight but the resultant product looks like an oil painting! It's really cool, hop on to his site to check his stuff out. He painted Bryan and I but I looked really terrible in it 'cos my smile was stiff from holding it for 25s LOL.
Decided to head off to another area and we came across this painted wall at the back of The Substation:
Demin bralet, Topshop // Floral pouffy skirt, Forever21 // Brown ankle boots, Pull&Bear
Bryan attempted a jumpshot and this was one of the failed ones haha:
Success!
Walked over to the
National Museum of Singapore.
The planes in the tree! I can't remember what exhibition it's from. The clouds were look particularly pretty yesterday night, against the night sky. (:
We inched our way in with the rest of the crowd into the museum, and was greeted with this:
Overheard: "Aiya what is this. Doesn't even rhyme"
Lolol! I think it's heartening to see so many Singaporeans from different social groups at such a cultural event. I'm totally one of those non artsy fartsy kinds so I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people!
Unfortunately, those people made it really difficult to walk around within the museum, so following the Tiger Beer man's advice, we left the museum and decided to go back at 1am.
And if you noted that, yes I got Tiger Beer - I only caught the sign "ICED COLD DRAFT BEER - $5" and placed my order without knowing it was Tiger Beer. I couldn't bear it! ): Gave my cup to Bryan in the end.
Traipsed down to The Cathay to enjoy some air con, and to locate an ATM.
B and I!
We could not help but notice the hugeass One Direction.. thing going on at the entrance. It was just...... O_O the number of people there. It was cute though, 'cos little kids were singing their songs hahahahahahaha.
I started feeling peckish so we popped into Mexican Grill for some quesadillas!
Lamb ones. It was good! With the Monterey Jack cheese. I really liked their guacamole as well. It was a little bit on the expensive side though, meh. Thanks B for the treat though!
B with his mango margarita !
Headed over to the
Singapore Art Museum then!
Really cool show going on outside.
As grabbed off the SAM website:
"
THE MAGIC MELODY
by Tigrelab
SAM Façade
Audiovisual and interactive video mapping
During the 2013 Singapore Lights Festival the Singapore Art Museum will be transformed into an immersive futuristic instrument. A video mapping prologue will introduce the essence of the instrument, showing how visuals and sounds combine with each other to establish a dialogue between architecture and people. Be awed-inspired as an ingenious interactive video-mapping project magically translates sounds generated by your mobile devices into gigantic visual creations onto SAM's façade, right before your very eyes.
"The Magic Melody" is a collaboration between creative studio Tigrelab and the interactive art practice Welovecode."
I've a video up on my Instagram if you want to have a look!
Instagram: Greekhoney
Visited the
Not Against Interpretation: Untitled exhibition (visit
SAM Exhibition page for more info) first!
I was really intrigued with this exhibition as the link between the artwork and the art title was highlighted - sometimes the description of the artwork, or even just the art title gives the viewer a much better appreciation of the artwork, sometimes one can't even understand the artwork without the names of the artwork. Well it really depends on the purpose the artist is trying to achieve, but this emphasised the importance of language hence I was interested heh.
Furthermore, because visitors were allowed to give these untitled artworks their own names, there was a level of interaction between the viewer and the artist. And on another level, for other visitors to see what names others had come up with, there was some form of cultural and societal knowledge sharing as well.
For instance, I found this particularly funny:
"Death by Justin Bieber" HAHAAHAHAHA
After reading this out, I went "
I can't believe I just repeated that." Pfft.
Funnier to university students, perhaps? :D
I was really surprised that the following one was a painting and not a 3D installment because the hangers really looked like they were protruding out!
Walked over to another exhibition...
Bryan and I watched this Love montage and I was very amused and also a little sad at the portrayals of love in Hollywood films. Very specific depictions of both genders were shown, and it's kinda alarming when you think of the extent of influence Hollywood has on the world.
Do check out more of
Tracey Moffatt's work if you're interested!
SOME THINGS SO SINGAPOREAN, only a member of Singaporean culture would understand.
"My boyfriend is in NS"
"Our house is coming in 2 more years!"
Such sociological insights haha.
Left SAM, and I was exhausted by then (plus my boots were hurting me............... Never wear new shoes out for an entire day, Pamela Ng), so we decided to forgo the National Museum and walked towards Raffles City instead!
Came across the Water Light Graffiti exhibition!
FACULTY PRIDE!! (sorry B for the bad photo I didn't check it properly hahahaha)
My smiley face and I! It is evident that neither of us have artistic qualities hahahahahahahahahaahah. Nor photography skills, for that matter. Hehe.
I shall bring Thom out more often!
I really enjoyed myself at the event, walking around Singapore, soaking in the atmosphere, squeezing along with the crowds trying to catch glimpses of performances, trying to interpret the artwork, working my creative juices (not), and just having a good Saturday night out. Personally, I only visit museums and go for events when I'm overseas. I'm not one of those people who complain that there's a lack of activities to do in Singapore, but I don't actively go for a wide range of activities as well. I do think that after yesterday, I'm more open to trying more activities out! (:
Hope you enjoyed reading this entry, and that you had a fun time at the SG Night Fest '13 if you'd gone as well! If you hadn't, well, there's always next year. (:
Lots of love,
Pamela Labels: a little different, art, Arts, Culture, exhibitions, littlereddot, Outfits, Saturdays, SG events, SG Night Fest '13, traipsing around
