It's the annual Night Festival at our Singapore's museums again! I had browsed thru' the online catalogue to check out the programmes listing. This round, I've Denise to attend with me... yeah! We met up at SMU for a Subway dinner before we start our trail from the National Museum across the street.
We were glad that the paid admission exhibit for the "Princely Treasures from the House of Liechtenstein" were FREE for today! We spent quite some time inside to look at the antique paintings. After we exit the National Museum, we also stayed on to watch some acrobatic acts on the façade of the museum. However, after a while we were quite bored and the slow temp made us wana sleep! haha!
We went over to check out the Singapore Arts Museum (SAM) & 8Q. There was nothing much exciting & I was surprised that 8Q didn't participate this year in the late opening hours! What a pity! Usually, I enjoy the children arts better! After hours of walking, we were exhausted, especially I was lugging my tripod around! We ended the night after my shot of the night lights outside SAM.
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.
When Ruby told me about the museum's Night Festival, we were quite skeptical what this whole event entails... but too bad, juz a day before our agreed photography session, ruby was sick... hence, i decided to go solo wif my gears! Upon alighting at Bras Basah, outside SMU... i strolled past the Singapore Art Museum (SAM)... the area was getting set up & buzzing wif activity. The event's helpers interspersed at that stretch were handling out the programme brochure, while I checked out the schedule on a standee. Since the lighting condition happened to be the Golden Hour now, i took a couple of shots of the SAM's facade.
My original idea of dining at the nearby Kopitiam flopped as it was congested... end up, juz for a simple dinner... i found myself walking all the way to Plaza Singapura!!! Omg! That took like half an hour, juz to get a Subway meal... By the time i finished my delectable Cold Cut Subway & strolled back to the Art Museum, it's 8pm liao!
World's Slowest SMS Billboard
The facade of the Art Museum had some curious onlookers staring at the World's Slowest SMS Billboard. The crowd spilled to across the road too... This is a tongue-in-cheek interactive artwork where messages received r manually assembled by a team of ppl on the giant billboard for all to read. Each msg would stay for 5mins. After a couple of takes here, I went to explore the insides of SAM. Coincidentally, the Art Museum & the Bras Basah MRT area r on my photography locations check-list... This Night Festival provided me a good reason to be here! Inside, there was this fenced-up area where i could see it being termed the 'Abusement Park', idea is albeit like some black humour (i overhead a conversation on this). But if wan to access, one would need to exit & join the long Q outside... so i simply took the shots thru' the gaps of the fence! haha!
I went up to check out the art galleries too...but but, i dun really know how to appreciate lah! wahaha! I saw some people seems so serious staring & snapping pics of the artwork... wonder if they really understand these abstract art! Then, i chanced upon this art-piece, wif a Rabbit Head attached to an infant's body... the artist seems to imply the world is not so pure for the kids these days, wat an irony rite?
Next, i saw a photo in the museum's programme brochure which enticed me to visit the SAM at 8Q, which was 88 steps away (according to Wiki's write-up)... It explained that this SAM was an extension of the mother Art Museum, meant for contemporary art, wif a focus on children. Currently, the theme is Art Garden: Children's Season... I was captivated by this huge inflatable rabbit at the facade! I read before in the papers, the artist brought this rabbit named Walter to various locations around Sg & observed ppl's reactions when they spot such a huge rabbit! The grounds of SAM at 8Q was turned into a bustling flea mkt too... At level one, there's a play area for children to run around freely... Since i couldn't be like the kids to enter the play-area, I ventured to 2nd level... had to removed our shoes & stepped in to view arts & crafts inspired by nature done by children... tables & chairs were set up for children to do some arts too. I tot that's all abt it... when i decided no harm to explore the last level since still early.
Upon stepping into the 'classroom' at level 3, i was awed wif this exhibit named ''The Enchanted Forest''! About 1/3 of the classroom was converted into this forest, filled wif alot of colourful wildlife & peppered wif lotsa imagination. The artist ~ Sandra Lee did not had a fixed idea but painted & created the characters along the way... the whole process was humongous, where she sketched & did water-colour painting on paper, bef sent to the printer to be scanned. Then each was printed as a draft for her to preview, before enlarging to print into wallpaper. Some 'creatures' & stuff were so minute on the drafts that a magnifying glass was needed! The concept of this Little Girl in Red Shorts who love adventure, venturing the mystical forest & met different creatures along the way is really a brilliant idea, where both kids & adults could relate & allow our imagination to run wild inside this little space! The Little Girl was created not juz for children but for adults who r child @ heart too!
When i stepped in, i discovered the challenge to photograph as much of the forest as possible. As i was figuring out, the visitors increased... hence, i observed how the other visitors 'interacted' inside this enchanted forest & managed to capture some actions of theirs! Kids were imagining that they could 'swim' in the 'pond' & grow-ups like to strike some 'animal styles' or jolly well act cute lah! My eyes were transfixed on the Flying Turtles, hanging from the ceiling cos there's this particular one which had a cute expression... I also love the Giant Panda, which was almost as high as the ceiling! I even requested the exhibit's staff to help me snap a pic wif the cute panda! Haha! When i read the characters' explanation, i love wat Sandra created for the Flying Turtle... When the Little Girl was at a cross-road & asked the turtle for directions, the turtle replied "If u duno where u r going... any road will take u there.'' These turtles lived among the stars & would appear whenever the Little Girl needed them. The Flying Turtles represent spirit guides that could appear bef us in diff forms.
After my fulfilling forest adventure wif the Little Girl, i crossed the road to SMU Campus Green, where a few activities were on-going... The Muay Thai (thai boxing) attracted quite a huge crowd & there's graffiti artists at work + some cambodian skit too. When it's slightly past 10pm, i made my way to the National Museum to find a gd photography spot. Not too sure wat to expect thou i noe there would be this 'Paraboles 2.0', where 6 giant satellite dishes stood at the museum's facade... stroboscopic light flashes quietly, signalling activity & under each statellite, there would be abstract sounds of stars, solar winds & radio waves all mixed tog.
I set up my tripod next to an uncle who had set up his gear earlier... guess wat? when the crowd grew juz bef the show commenced, some guys blocked his view & the uncle asked the guys in front to pls move aside! sei! I can't do that manz.. cos i'm not that 'old' enuf for ppl to 'show face', haha! As it was pretty dark there, for safely reason, i even turned my tripod into a monopod at times, in case some blur ppl tripped over! Well, managed to capture some interesting shots... the colourful eyeballs on the statellites were creepy But cool! As the half hour perf started fr soft sounds to fast-beat & soft sounds again... the sudden finale bang of fireworks jolted the audience! Sei, really got a shock! haha!
It was overall a rewarding nite out as a high % of my shots were within my own acceptable standards... cos usually i'm a perfectionist when shortlisting my takes, keke! ^o^
The rest of this album can be viewed on my Photo Gallery located on your right side, click arrows to view full screen.
Remember last dec, when i saw the detailed write-up in the chinese papers abt the National Museum going to have an exhibit focusing on 230 Egyptian artefacts spanning from 4000 BC to 950 CE, i was thrilled... I told denise abt it but we felt that the $15 admission seems pricey. So denise suggested that we wait to see if there's any free admission days. 1 week ago, Denise emailed me abt the open house today. Supposedly we wanted to visit tog, but our timings couldn't fit, so i went on my own schedule.
My parents & I arrived 10mins past the opening time (10am). We tot that it's not that crowded as not many visitors were seen at the main entrance. Upon picking up the brochures at the counter, we proceeded to the basement & were surprised to see a Q forming! I guessed there were at least 50 pax queuing in front of us... the Q moved veri slow & dad grumbled that the security should allow more visitors in. Lady luck smiled upon us as the Q started to build up veri fast & the museum's mgt decided to allow more visitors inside. The crowd was controlled & batch by batch moved in accordingly.
After half an hour, it's our turn to step into the mysterious world of ancient egypt. The theme for this exhibit is ''Quest for Immortality - The World of Ancient Egypt''. The 2 adjoining exhibition galleries were darkened & spotlights shone on the exhibits. As no flash photography was allowed, i had a slight problem initially to snap the pics. There were also many small items in glass showcases wif visitors flocking around to catch a glimpse. I had bought along my SLR + Fuji cam but Dad was not keen to use it. Hence, i utilised my point-n-shoot to snap the descriptions & some fast shots. I guess i'm probably the only soul who was busily inter-changing between 2 cams, haha!
As the museum's crowd grew, i speed up my photo-taking such that i can get better views & not be blocked by so many people! I'm really impressed wif the skills & intelligence of the ancient egyptians, who knew how to preserve the bodies for thousands of years! The Mummy of Nes-Khons in cartonnage was unique as X-rays & CT scans revealed two other bodies contained within the covering & placed between her legs. These were two infants who died juz bef or after birth & may have been twins. While queuing earlier, i read 'beMUSE' - the latest editon of magazine by the museum which explained the background info in details. It's interesting to know that the aim of mummification was Not to preserve a person's body as it had been in life, but to create a new body that could last for eternity. During the process, the lungs, liver, stomach & intestines had special treatment thru' drying & application of sweet-smelling ointments, bef wrapped in linen & stored in special vessels called Canopic jars. The heart remained as it would be important in the judgement of the dead bef the gods.
Besides the mummies, there were many accessories & tools discovered in the egyptian tombs. I saw ''The Book of Dead'', which is a collection of spells, passwords & images to be used by the dead in the underworld. These were commonly written on a papyrus scroll in cursive hieroglyphic script & placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased.
When i exited the galleries, i was shocked to see the Q had formed all the way from basement to the main entrance! So glad i managed to come early, else duno have to Q till wat time! News reported that there were over 2,000 visitors today! I muz be lucky to be the first 100 visitors. After touring the egyptian exhibits, we also popped by the 'THE BAG' gallery which displayed the retro carrier bags used in Singapore from the 1950s to the 1980s...
In a nutshell, this was indeed an eye-opening trip & it warrants a gd reason for me to visit our national musuem which i had not visited since school days! Still remember the old museum bef its renovation & it had this rumoured haunted spiral staircase inside? I wonder if that staircase is still there? hehe! For those of you who had missed the open house, the egyptian exhibit is still on till 4th of Apr this year. For more info, pls visit the National Museum Website. It's FOC for students & senior citizens.
Dreamer's Photography Tips: In low light places where flash is not allowed (e.g museum or you wanted a natural light scene), increasing your ISO to compensate gives u better shots.
A typical Gemini with dual personality...Can be quiet at times, that's probably when indulge in watching my dramas & seriously @ work. While other times, I can be chatty & enjoy sharing a good meal with close friends. Someone who gets bored easliy & curious about how's the other side of the world looks like. Loves travelling & want to trotter around the globe as long as I can.
