One of the places we managed to check out during the June holidays was the Art Garden at the Singapore Art Museum. This is usually the best event for Children's Season and I think this year was no exception. We had hoped to make it a playmate with friends but plans fell through and we went on our own. But the kids had fun, so I'm glad we made it.
Hello Walter!
After a stint at the main museum building last year, Art Garden has shifted back to 8Q this year. We didn't realize that, so spent some time walking back and forth.
The first exhibit on the ground floor is Echoes-Infinity-The Forest by Shiji Ohmaki. A 'forest' created with special pigments on the ground, you are invited to walk over the artwork, which will cause the patterns to fade. The idea is to reflect the transient nature of life. Since it'd been some weeks since the exhibit first opened, the prints had practically all faded away by the time we visited. We walked around for a bit, but the kids didn't see the point of this so we were out pretty quickly.
Wandering around on the faded prints. I was quite tickled by how cute the little cloth shoe covers looked on Nomi's little feet.
Checking out the prints on the wall up-close.
There was a video outside which showed the artwork being put together, as well as the completed piece. It was was quite lovely and would have been a sight to behold.
We made our way to the second floor, and on the way, passed the 4-storey long mural on the walls of the stairwell - Kakhé by Speak Cryptic. Ka-khé apparently means ‘stubborn’ or ‘naughty’ in the Baweanese language. I thought this was rather weird, and parts of it looked a bit freaky. Typical example of art I just don't understand at all!
Noey liked these 'swimming jellyfish' (as he referred to them).
Our first stop on the second floor was Everyday Wonders by Loh Sau Kuen. The whole exhibit was a display of clay flowers decorated with imprints from everyday objects. This is something I loved to do as a child myself actually. I liked creating patterns with random objects on plastercine, styrofoam, and erm, my on legs and arms. No surprises that I liked this one.
A number of mums I know have commented that it was pity the kids were not allowed to touch the flowers, and I agree with them. The tactile element would have engaged them more fully. I was able to catch Noey's attention by pointing out and explaining to him the tools used to create certain patterns and how they were made. I also made him hunt for and identify patterns, picking out those where it was obvious how the patterns were created. It kept him interested in the pieces. Of course, it helped that the artist used dinosaur toys to make some of the prints as well!
Patterns made with the humble binder clip.
Stegosaurus prints!
Each ticket entitles you to redeem a clay flower on which you can create your own prints. Noey sat down and tried his hand at making a few.
Pressing out patterns.
In the meantime, Nomi was running riot in the colouring activity room next door.
So many pretty pictures!
Noey sat down for some colouring, but really enjoyed the stamps that they had available for, well, stamping all over the page. He put a whole bunch of them on his page then happily put it in my bag to bring home.
Stamp-stamp-stamping
We took a peek in the Moving Image Gallery, but I decided we should move on to see the other exhibits before sitting down to catch any films. However, in the end, after having to rush to lunch with hungry kids on my hands and looming nap times, we missed the films altogether. Which was a pity because I really did want to catch Lost & Found by Philip Hunt, which is based on Lost & Found by Oliver Jeffers, a really cute book about a boy helping a penguin find its way home, which I really like. I hope to make a trip back and catch this!
Our next stop was the Reactive Wall by Mojoko and Shang Liang. This was far and away Noey's favourite exhibit. He got to shout into a microphone which made the images and icons enlarge and cover the wall. Simple but a lot of fun for him. I felt a headache coming on from all that shouting!
AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!
I personally liked the other exhibit in the room better - Let's Dance by Emilie Fouilloux. This was another simple but fun idea. You enter into a little booth on the right where you are given a selection of music to dance to. We ended up with the Macarena(!). The music starts playing and they start recording you while you dance/do silly moves. When you're done, you can come out and watch your video being projected on the wall in a grid, dancing along with other participants. Perfect for the exhibitionist in all of us!
Checking out the dancing up close.
That's me and Nomi in the 2nd row from the bottom, 2nd box from the right.
Noey wasn't that fond of this, sadly. Dancing in an enclosed space makes him nervous. So he went back to shouting away while Nomi and I danced away.
On to the next room, and here we found the more sedate The Art of Imagination by Justin Lee. Noey got down to adding his mark to the cardboard boxes, drawing over the artwork of others...
Drawing most randomly over drawings already scribbled on by others
…while baby girl enjoyed messing with the boxes. She merrily toppled over a fortress some other kids were building, but fortunately they and their mummy were nice enough to indulge her.
Are all these boxes for me? Good golly!
Noey also had a good time looking at some of the drawings made by other people on the boxes on display. Some of them were pretty good! I would have enjoyed having some letters on boxes to play around and make words with.
Next door we found another work by the same artist - Dress Me Up by Justin Lee. This is a repeat from last year's run. The kids are able to dress up live-sized dolls in various outfits, and also decorate the big cake in the middle of the room. I was glad that this time round, Noey didn't freak out but was more taken with the display and spent some time dressing up the figures. That's the difference a year makes I guess!
Nomi trying to make a break for it with pieces of the cake. You You can see the dress up dolls and outfits behind her. I wish they didn't place everything so high! It was a stretch even for me at times!
The huge cake with velcro-on decorations. Nomi was quite taken with this, even as she tried to take the decorations home with her.
Noey could just about to reach the lower displays, but I had to help him with the heads.
We took a break for lunch after finishing this room, then came back to check out the 4th floor. There we met 5QU1D by Ryf, a squid shaped structure that glows white in it's resting state, but turn multicolored when you trigger the motion sensor by waving at it. Not much to do here, I guess, but I appreciated the staff member who spoke to the kids and tried to get them to interact with the "squid". He also pointed out to them that the "Do not cross the line" warning was placed facing the squid and was meant to warn it not to cross the line. I think Noey didn't know whether to believe him or not. Haha.
Why, hello there, Mr 5QU1D!
The other exhibit on the floor was the glow-in-the-dark garden: Grow a Garden in the Dark by Tay Bee Aye. I thought this was rather pretty, and it was a nice idea for visitors to contribute by folding origami flowers and adding to the garden. This way, the garden would grow, day by day. My kids have no patience for origami - they are both a bit young to do it properly - and I wasn't keen to sit around folding flowers for both of them, so I gratefully took the ready-made pieces on offer, and the kids merrily stuck them on around the room. Then we sat down for a bit to enjoy the cool surreal environment.
Mary, mary quite contrary, how does your garden glow?
We all trooped downstairs back to the Reactive Wall for Noey to have a few more (gleeful) shouts into the microphone before we decided to call it a day.
On the way out, we tried our hand at the ping-pong table (Ping Pong Go Round by Lee Wen) but the kids weren't really tall or proficient enough for us to really have a go at it. We also stopped by to admire the Dancing Solar Flowers by Alexandre Dang which were on the outside of the building facing the road. This is another repeat from last year's edition, but this year they were placed behind glass. Hah. I spent some time very briefly explaining the solar panels and the uses of solar energy to the kids. I wish there was some way to demonstrate how the flowers would move faster with more sunlight and more slower without. Maybe they should have provided torches or put some flowers behind darkened panels or something. Maybe next year?
Two tired children, posing for the last shot before being spared to go home.
I think overall, I enjoyed this year's edition much better than last year's. There was more to see and do for the little ones, which I think is great. Not just because it helps me, the mummy keep them entertained, but because I think it's important to cultivate a love for art, culture and history from a young age. Making museums fun is a good start.
Art Garden at the Singapore Art Museum is on-going and will run till 12 August 2012.
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