Night Festival 2012 @ Singapore Museums

I had marked my calendar for the annual Night Festival. I was looking forward to this year's as I had captured some nice shots previous two years. As frens indicated that they were keen to join me this round, I created a FB event for the first time, with a well-planned itinerary... but alas, it's a waste of my efforts as they did not even bother to read the details & asked me stuff which I had indicated clearly! Anyway, I had tot that in the event that people were late, I will proceed by myself!
 

 

 

The festival runs for two consecutive weekends & I did my 1st round on the 25th Aug. Ruby & i met up early at Kopitiam for dinner, while CK was late for a gd 1hr! She came with 2 other frens. We started out at Singapore Arts Museum & toured the 2nd level galleries... After 45mins, i realised there's nothing much to shoot inside but CK & her frens were still stuck in one of the galleries! Hence, i had no choice but to break off from them & proceeded wif Ruby. We moved on to SAM's ground floor & facade to shoot the light displays beamed on the main building.

 

 

Next, we strolled over to SAM at 8Q & I saw a big group of photography buffs shooting. For the first time, I had to setup my tripod at the pavement to capture the [Night Watch] display. 30 giant pairs of quirkly animal eyes peer out from the corridors of SAM at 8Q, modelled after the eyes of birds, fishes & reptiles. We also had fun doing self-shot but exposure was quite hard to grasp!

 

 

 

Cute motifs & quotes on cardboard boxes

 

 

I always find SAM at 8Q is more interesting as their artwork are usually kids-focus, hence easier to understand & appreciate! I much prefer the lively ambience here! As it was a saturday, the place was extremely crowded! We spent quite a long time exploring the various themes here & missed the National Museum's circus show...

 

 

 

At 10pm, after 3hours of continuous walking & shooting, we were tired & chilled out at Coffee Bean... while Leonard popped by for a chat with us. Thereafter, I continued to shoot across the road, to capture the reflections of SAM lit-up facade. We ended the night at 11.30pm!

 

PART II:

 

I felt that my shoot was incomplete & decided to return the following friday...Thankfully, my terrible flu recovered by then! I was clear that I only wanted to cover 3 areas for tonight & my parents decided to tag along!
 

 

We were caught in an unexpected traffic jam & instead of a direct bus ride, we had to change to the MRT & walked to Armenian Street! The La Argentina show outside the Peranakan Museum was supposed to commence at 8.30pm....we ended up waited for 40mins before it start at 9pm! I had setup my tripod, however once the crane ferrying the dancer suspended in mid-air moved into the crowd spilling on the narrow lane, there was no way for me to put a tripod! It was almost impossible for me to capture the shots clearly too! The dancer was spinning 360 degrees at one point! Luckily, I got dad to use the Fuji cam to capture some video! As the dancer performed, confetti rained onto the audience, nothing exciting :(
 

 

After the 15mins show, we moved to the National Museum & again shot some lighting designs splashed on the museum's facade. This was not so nice. We popped into the musuem to take a look at the 3-D artwork [Scaling the Dome], created by street artist, Joe Hill. It's nice but there's a long Q waiting for a shot with the artwork! I simply steal a shot from the side.

 

Lastly, we trooped over to the School of the Arts to view [Children's Dreams], where fairytales characters lit up with the synchronised music, created by french artist. It's cute :) Juz these 2hours plus was enough to warrant a supper stop at MacDonald's, haha! Overall, this year's Night Festival was not up to my expectations.

HeritageFest 2010 @ Peranakan Museum

I had been wanting to visit our veri own Peranakan Museum for some time, especially after my Malacca trip in May. Cos i saw someone commented online that Singapore's Peranakan Museum is wat u would really call a museum, versus the Baba Nonya Museum I visited in Malacca. During the previous Museum Night Festival, I only managed to cover the Art Museums... Since there's an open house today for the HeritageFestival, time to get my butt out of my armchair & do some photography!

Less than 15mins bus ride & prior google the location (situated at Armenian Street), it's a short walk from SMU's Accountancy Faculty... It's next to The Substation, occupying a historic Tao Nan Sch building (why i noe? cos i read the history wrote up in the 1st gallery!) haha! I'm not a history person & hated to be bogged down by memorising the dates of historical events... There r a total of 10 Galleries in this 3 storey museum... When i stepped into the 1st gallery on the ground floor, I took some time to read the billboard listing down the significant historical events tracing the roots of the Peranakan... I learnt that there r basically 2 types, there's the Chinese-Malay & the Indian-Malay... wif the mixed parentage & fusing of two cultures, lead to the Baba & Nonya.

Proceeding to Level 2, this is the most intriguing section, wif 4 galleries depicting the elaborate 12-days wedding rituals...I like how the museum has interactive stuff scattered around the galleries, from touch-screen kiosks wif headphones, to small corners wif displays encouraging visitors to 'touch & feel' the items, plus embossing tools for kids to emboss Peranakan motifs on paper.  Of course, the description at the respective displays were veri informative. Best of all, No-Flash photography is allowed! haha! (thou it's free today, but the norm fee of $6 is pretty reasonable too!) 

This is used to bear jewelleries during the wedding. Thou such metal ones are veri rare.

A typical main hall in a peranakan house.

Warning: the 2 portraits r animated every hour or so!

 (I was unaware of this till my dad told me he got a shock, when suddenly hear voices, haha!)

I came across one display which really intrigued me & made me ponder for a second... According to their traditional customs, the married couple have to consume their marriage within 12 days. On the 11th nite, a white handkerchief would be placed on the marital bed to test if the woman is a virgin bride! Next morn, a woman (forget the special term) would collect the handkerchief & carefully fold it (hiding the bloodstain) & place it onto a tray. Then, the most senior woman in e family would be invited to inspect it, sometime is the mother-in-law (but usually would decline to inspect)...upon confirming the virgin status, then the bride is officially accepted, else can be 'rejected'!  I couldn't help to wonder if such ritual is practised in current day, how many gals would pass the test, haahaa! (no pun intended)

Chinese New Year clothes for little gal

As I wander to the gallery depicting religion, the area was a bit creepy ... why leh? cos some chanting & wailing noise were being played over the audio system & a signage warned that the scene would be disturbing... Remember now is Seventh Month? No other living souls around the gallery except me! After abit of hesitation, i stepped in & saw a coffin there! WAH! it's gd there's a warning sign earlier! (my dad also commented he had same creepy experience when he visited the next day!)

Subsequently, I enjoy the gallery on level 3, displaying the kitchenware...cos i like the exquisite Kam Cheng's designs & bright colours. Mind u, these r very expensive containers for food or water etc... In a nutshell, I find that i learnt something today & I'm impressed wif the standard of our museum...kudos to the National Heritage Board! I tink shld i have overseas visitors, i would be able to explain abit more on this!

I was lucky to spot the perfomers when i exited

It's extremely cloudy these days, rare to see such nice clouds against the blue skies!

Nice lamps outside Substation..edited wif cross-processing effects ^_^