20 YEARS OF HERITAGE WITH YOU (1993- 2013)
Overview As the custodian of Singapore’s heritage, National Heritage Board (NHB) is responsible for telling the Singapore story, sharing the Singaporean experience and imparting our Singapore spirit. NHB manages the national museums and heritage institutions, and sets policies relating to heritage sites, monuments and the national collection. Through the national collection, NHB curates heritage programmes and presents exhibitions to connect the past, present and future generations of Singaporeans. NHB is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
The Board operates the following museums, heritage interpretative centres, institutions and precincts.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE
WHY NSM?
S
ome people may think of visiting a museum as dull, boring or uninteresting‌ you get the idea, but that is certainly not the case for the National Museum of Singapore. The historic museum lies beside Stamford Road, a magnificent building with a conspicuous dome on top of it. It is astonishing to discover what the 123 year-old building has to offer to its visitors.
A permanent gallery is dedicated to the multicultural history of Singapore, promising to provide visitors with refreshing insights on Singapore’s rich heritage and culture. The exhibitions are divided into different halls which feature different aspects of Singaporean culture, ranging from film & wayang, cuisine, fashion to other lifestyle artifacts.
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History Explore Singapore’s history from the 14th century to the modern period in this gallery which takes a story-telling approach, unveiling different perspectives as you travel through tales of the past on your preferred path. The Events path traces major events and characters that were part of Singapore’s history, white the Personal path tell stories through the eyes of the man on the street. Voyage through the drama of national events as well as the intimate stories of individuals, and appreciate the struggles of the early settlers. The Singapore History Gallery showcases various pictures and artefacts from the past. One will be allowed to travel through the “Events” and “Personal” paths while listening to the companion which makes it an interactive one. I found the use of technology rather innovative and fun as I got to listen while looking at the objects rather than reading the descriptions out on my own. The two different paths were similar yet different in showcasing Singapore’s history which allowed me to gain a better understanding from two different classifications.
03 | Permanent Exhibitions
Film & Wayang The “Film & Wayang” section offers visitors a visual treat as it houses two gigantic screens presenting a montage of clips from Singapore’s Malay films of the 1950s and 1960s. Other significant artifacts such as equipments related to film-making in Singapore in the 19th century are also on display, bringing visitors through the development and growth of mass entertainment in Singapore at that time. The development of Chinese opera and puppetry as a specific form of popular entertainment is traced through a rich collection of artifacts which include puppets, costumes and stage props. One of the highlights of the gallery is the spectacular puppet stage belonging to Xin Sai Le, a Fujian troupe that came from South China to Singapore in the 1930s. As i entered via the heavy red curtain at the entrance, i could feel that nostalgic feeling of being brought back to the old cinema days. One screen was screening a Malay horror movie that was most likely to be Sumpah Orang Minyak (The Curse of the Oily Man) while the other was showing a classic Chinese love Film shot in Singapore. the plot is really good as I was stuck in that area for very long!
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Photography Peer into 100 years of family life in Singapore through family portraits, albums and collections of old photographs. Photography, popularized from the late 19th century onwards, operates at the juncture of personal memory and social history and the Photography Gallery portrays local life through rare photographic images and precious local life through rare photographic images and precious artifacts. On display in the second room of the gallery is a selection of original black-and-white prints taken by the staff photographers of the National Geographic Society, providing a unique perspective of life in Singapore and Malaya from the 1930s to the 1950s. Here, one screen per portrait focusses on a social aspect of Singapore’s social history. For instance, there is a lovely account of the challenges of an early interracial relationship between an Australian woman and a Singaporean man.
11 | Permanent Exhibitions: Singapore Living Galleries
Food Curious about the origins of widely-popular Singaporean street food like nasi-lemak and roti-prata? The brightly-lit cuisine section is definitely a place to immerse in the wide array of food-related artifacts on display. Various palatable dishes unique to each ethic race of Singapore are introduced. The respective items on display are even accompanied by sound installations on the preparation process of the food, which enhance the viewers’ sensual experience. In addition, the cooking utensils and equipment on display will draw you further into the world of Singaporean dining. The interactive display that allows visitors to smell different herbs will excite every visitor’s taste buds. No one will be able resist the allure of the Singaporean food. The food gallery is an attractive one, containing information and artefacts on the street food and the utensils used, thus reflecting the ethnic diversity in Singapore. In the food hall, I spent most of my time smelling the colourful bottles of spices that give Singapore’s local dishes their own touch. Just by watching the videos of traditional food in the making, was enough to make my stomach grumble.
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Fashion The Fashion Gallery reveals the fabric of Singapore society through popular music and displays of apparels, accessories and beauty products used by women from the 1950s to 1970s. The gallery explores the shifting identities of Singaporean women and helps visitors gain valuable insight into socio-economic and political roles of women – from youths to homemakers and career women – in those decades of much change and progress. A special section of the gallery provides visitors with an idea of what goes on in a tailor’s workshop, giving an in-depth understanding of the process and techniques of how various traditional garments, such as the cheongsam, are made. I particularly liked the fashion gallery. Seeing meters of beautiful fabrics hung from the walls and how ladies got around incorporating “current world fashion” with traditional fabrics, prints and styles. The Fashion Gallery led us through the changing identities of Singaporean women from the 1950s to 1970s. Cheongsams and other apparel are displayed, along with cosmetics and beauty products from that era. It was also nice to be able to feel the different fabrics on display.
19 | Permanent Exhibitions: Singapore Living Galleries
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS To celebrate the jubilee of television broadcasting in Singapore, Mediacorp and the National Museum of Singaspore proudly bring you 50 years of TV: Experience the Magic. This month-long festival is an experiential showcase of how television has been an integral part of our daily life and a broadcasting platform which has showcased Singapore’s development through the years. Interactive exhibits and star-studded weekend extravaganzas will take you down memory lane and pull back the curtains to allow glimpses of what goes behind the camera.
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SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM
WHY SAM?
S
ingapore Art Museum (SAM) is a museum that should not be overlooked when visiting Singapore. SAM is a beautifully preserved Colonial building that has been transformed into an art gallery that provides an intimate setting for its exhibits. SAM focuses on the creation and presentation of contemporary art practices in Singapore, Southeast Asia and Asia, situating them within the global context of art making today. The place reflects the modern open minded culture of
Singapore & the soul of the country with its art collection. The collections are ambitious, bold, & all young at heart, just like the majority of the population of Singapore – pushing the boundaries with every new collection you would come across. They have contemporary stuff, stunning paintings, abstract art pieces and it is also contemplative & fun. SAM is a perfect destination for learning about Southeastern Asian art and experiencing it all and it is definitely worth the visit.
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Xu Bing The Living Word A reflection on language and the nature of writing has been at the core of Xu Bing’s art since the beginning of his career in China during the mid-1980s. It is therefore particularly fitting that the Morgan, a library as well as a museum, should present his spectacular installation, The Living Word, a poetic evocation of the relationship between the written word and its meaning. “In The Living Word,” Xu Bing explained, “the dictionary definition of niao (bird) is written on the gallery floor in the simplified text created by Mao.The niao characters then break away from the confines of the literal definition and take flight through the installation space. As they rise into the air, the characters gradually change from the simplified text to standardized Chinese text and finally to the ancient Chinese pictograph for ‘bird.’The characters are rainbow colored to create a magical, fairy-tale quality.”
03 | THE COLLECTORS SHOW: Weight of History
Gonkar Gyasto Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, which takes its name from the lyrics of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze song, shows a Buddha figure as a modern-day devotional figure, adorned with thousands of stickers that signify contemporary popular culture and society’s desires. In the room, the blank walls are taken over by a mass of smaller works. These works feature a central image collaged from found material added to with pencil drawing and black, block text that runs around the inside frame. Each constitutes a critique of some element of the overlapping structures of popular culture and Western capitalism. One features a newspaper picture of bling-covered Jay Z with hundred dollar notes and hand drawn dollar symbols. The text reads “IN NEED OF NEW ROLE MODELS?”. In the center of the room a traditional statue of a sitting Buddha has been entirely covered with tiny images – magazine pictures, newspaper clippings, stickers, snack wrappers, soft drink labels.
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Shilpa Gupta 24:00:01 24:00:01 takes the form of a mechanical flapboard, similar to the manner in which airport arrival and departure signboards make announcements through interchanging alphabets. The work reflects Shilpa’s deliberation on civilisations long gone, the fragility of rising and falling nations, the politics of migration, location and dislocation, the conundrums of terrorism and religious violence in the name of self-identification as well as the toxic and cyclical nature of vengeance, ultimately meaningless. Shilpa deliberately fills her prose with misspellings, disturbs words with elisions and wreaks havoc on the kerning. Arbitrary numbers precede nonsensical phrases, until a few moments it flips to reveal the final answer to the riddle. The artist explores the relationship between time and language, and how a passing glimpse of words or letters provides the viewer with information. It is like crossing through the living room and passing by the television, only to catch some fragments of data from the ticker line moving quickly through the bottom of the screen.
07 | THE COLLECTORS SHOW: Weight of History
Jason Wee No More Tears Mr Lee The winner of the Voter’s Prize award at the Singapore Art Show 2009, Self-Portrait (No More Tears Mr. Lee) is made out of 8,000 plastic shampoo bottle caps placed individually on an angled pedestal. Using a combination of opened and closed bottle caps placed in a fixed formation on a grid format, the portrait of a person is created when the bottle caps are lit and seen from a certain angle. It’s No More Tears title harks back to the 1965 moment when he cried on TV while announcing Singapore’s separation from Malaysia. It suggests that decades after independence and the island’s sterling economic success, Mr Lee need cry no more. The choice of material used to create this installation is a cheeky reference to a well-known shampoo tagline. (No More Tears is a brand of Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo that doesn’t sting the eyes.) Jason Wee reinvents the genre of portraiture here by deconstructing the subject into its individual parts, making each bottle cap function as a pixel forming a larger image.
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Yee Sookyung Translated Vase In Korea ‘Bibimbap’ is the name of a dish, it means ‘mixed meal’. In art, Korean American video artist Nam June Paik gave the same name to his process of making: to mix to create new.Yeesookyung puts together the pieces of vases deemed failures by perfectionist ceramic master Park Young-Sook in a series called Translated Vases. In mending the wounds of smashed ceramics,Yeesookyung does not disguise the cracks but highlights them in shimmering gild. The reformed ceramic works represent a beauty acquired through overcoming suffering.Yeesookyung acknowledges a beauty that comes only with maturing. “I am really interested in things that are broken, and have failed. Because I believe that it is the turning point of art to reborn. A broken ceramic piece finds another piece and they rely on each other.The crack, which symbolizes the wound, is emphasized with the gild.This work is a metaphor of a struggle for life that makes people become more mature and beautiful as they overcome sufferings,“ Yee explained.
11 | THE COLLECTORS SHOW: Weight of History
Refuge Grace Tan The installation is created from 1.5 million polypropylene loop pins connected together to make it resemble like a cloud. Suspended from the ceiling over the staircase connecting two galleries in the museum, this large piece comprises several ominous white cloud-like forms. They make one pause at the transformation of a material this ordinary. Refuge was created with the objective of finding beauty in the mundane and uncertainty. Having achieved the objective without a predefined visual is pretty impressive. “I saw the polypropylene loop pin in a stationery store and its design caught my attention. Somehow, it reminded me of the stamen of flowers. It looked organic to me. It also works as a single unit that could be linked to form a structure. I bought some and started playing with it and in no time, I found a language to connect them. It resembles a knitted structure and with the multiplicity of loops, it creates a beautiful and organic 3D form when hung,� Grace said.
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Vertical Submarine Sun Tzu’s Art of War This work is part of a series of works called Armchair Philosophy, which takes the literal armchair - a place of rest and thinking – as a site to critique the notion of the “armchair philosopher”, or one who claims to be knowledgeable without having direct experience. The work references Sun Tzu’s Art of War, a historical Chinese military treatise regarded as the most definitive work on military strategies, since its compilation during the early Warring States period. It has been said to inspire political leaders based on the principle of strategic tactics of warfare without having to actually battle. Sun Tzu’s Art of War consists of an armchair, the back of which had been shot with 64 arrows, a homage to the epic battle scene in Zhang Yimou’s film Hero, symbolising the different strategies one could deploy against an enemy. This work can be seen as the artists’ note to viewers to consider the ways in which knowledge as power can be a formidable tool not only to aid but also to sabotage oneself, and that the best laid plans are not always fool proof.
15 | THE COLLECTORS SHOW: Weight of History
Walter Dawn Ng This artwork features a curious colossal bunny named Walter that pops up across Singapore’s standard landscape of flats and heartland enclaves. By placing Walter at various spots in Singapore and photographing these interesting scenarios in which the giant rabbit contrasts greatly with his environment, Dawn Ng encourages people to re-examine overlooked places, local sites and sights which we have come to take for granted by invoking a sense of surprise and wonder in them, so that we can discover the extraordinary in our everyday environments. The Walter series is Dawn Ng’s response to her home – the city of Singapore – which has had several changes to its landscape over the years. Walter is an attempt to draw people’s attention to recognize what is truly unique in Singapore’s landscape. Here, Dawn Ng celebrates the ordinary by making people look at the city of Singapore from the perspective of a child again. Walter’s incongruent presence makes people examine these overlooked places by creating scenarios filled with surprise and wonder. The project is a wakeup call to recognize what is truly unique about our landscape—not the super structures that make us “world-class,” but the tapestry of flats, zi char eateries, mama shops and MRT line. Inserting a surreal object like Walter within the “invisible normal” enables others to discover the extraordinary in their everyday.
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Special Exhibitions Not against interpretation: Untitled The exhibition Not Against Interpretation: Untitled is currently taking place at the Singapore Art Museum. The exhibition presents untitled artworks by local artists. One of the main purposes of the curator Michelle Ho is to motivate the audience to title the artworks that are on display in the gallery space. The arrow structure that is beside the artworks holds the different titles that the audience gives to the exhibited untitled artworks. This arrow structure also relates to the poster UNTITLED UNTIL TITLED designed for this exhibition. Blank labels are to be torn off from the poster’s line-shaft of the arrow, in order to be inserted in the arrow’s broad head structure beside the artworks in the gallery.
19 | NOT AGAINST INTERPRETATION: UNTITLED
SINGAPORE PHILATELIC MUSEUM
WHY SPM? If you’re an avid stamp collector, Singapore Philatelic Museum provides in-depth sight of postal history and its stamps from all over the world. The first philatelic museum in Southeast Asia appreciates Singapore’s history and heritage through philately. The 2 storey building itself is a national heritage, formerly part of the Anglo Chinese School until it was restored to become the present museum. Even though the museum is pretty small, it has extensive
collections to suffice your savoury of stamp. In addition, the museum’s souvenir store located near the entrance sells all sort of item related to stamps which include stamp folios, postcards, replica post boxes, book publications and many more. Even if the exhibits aren’t quite your cup of tea, it’s worth dropping by the souvenir store to choose a postcard or two from the impressive range on sale there.
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03 | Permanent Exhibitions: Orange Room
The first room was the Orange Room, in this room, you will get to discover why stamps are windows to the world and why the hobby has remained popular for 160 years. Almost everything in here is in pop up style, like a pop up puzzle book. Open the window and the display will provide information about the stamps around the world. You will be provided with information once you open the window again. Every time you open the window, a different information about the country and their stamps will be shown on the display. There are also a few interactive items where you can see how people tried to cheat the system by changing the value of a stamp. In addition, there are also plenty of interactive exhibits that allow us to discover the stories behind it. There are windows to be open, drawers to be pulled amongst the many hidden treasures. Permanent Exhibitions: Orange Room | 04
05 | Permanent Exhibitions: Purple Room
The next room is the Purple room. In this room, you would see all the different stages that went into the making of a new series of stamps and also be introduced to some of the artists behind our stamps. Find out the process of how stamps are birthed from their theme selection, design conceptualisation, printing methods and their circulation through the mail. Highlights include archival production material, such as stamp printer sheets and stamp printing plates. In addition, you would also be able to learn the secret language behind specially folded letters and also find out why stamp designers are passionate about their craft and the allure of correspondence and network art.
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This pillar box was donated by Hong Kong Post after the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The pilalr box, from the 1952 period, features the QEIIR (Queen Elizabeth II) royal cipher. The collection plate is in English and Chinese. The red pillar box at the front of the Singapore Philatelic Museum would have featured royal cipher similar to this one. But the ciphers on all the posting boxes were removed by the postal department when Singapore gained independence in 1965. Each pillar box is made out of cast iron and weighs about 400kgs. This is a small section of the Royal Mail Chute that was installed at the American International Building at Robinson Road by the authority of the Postmaster-General of Malaya in 1958. The Mail Chute was manufactured by Cutler Mail Chute Co. (Rochester, New York, USA), which was established in 1883. The full chute ran from the 12th floor to the 2nd floor and enabled letters from the upper floors to be dropped into the collection box at the base. The postman would pick up letters from the collection boxes instead of having to go to each floor. This chute was dismantled in 1986 to make way for the installation of telephone lines. A similar mail chute can still be seen in Asia Insurance Building at 2 Finlayson Green. Colonial Postman Uniform Circa 1950 This is how postmen were dressed before World War II to 1970s. The khaki-coloured uniform is made of cotton, which required the use of starch to stiffen before ironing. It also features metal buttons that are removeable. The design of postal uniforms has been through several changes over the years to maintain a fresh, contemporary and practical look. The uniform on display was worn by formal postman Mr Cheong Yoke Kee. 07 | Permanent Exhibitions: Room of Rarities
The first room on the second level was the Room of Rarities. This room showed the old items that were used by the postage service from the mail box to their mail sorting shelf. The gems of Singapore philately are displayed at the Room of Rarities. These include stamps and archival philatelic material from 1800s till today, and artefacts relating to Singapore’s postal history. Star pieces include the only known cover in the world, to bear a full set of 1854 Indian stamps that were used in the Straits Settlements. In addition, you can get an up-close-and-personal view of philatelic rarities from our 18th century collection and trace the growth of Singapore through philately and postal artifacts.
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09 | Permanent Exhibitions: Heritage Room
In the Heritage Room, you are able to trace the story of different migrant races who came to Singapore in the 19th century. Find out about early traditional trades, different cultural festivals, traditional costumes and musical instruments and also gain an insight into the lifestyles of Singapore in the past. In the Heritage Room, you are also allowed to touch everything and anything that is display there. So why not play the drums and try on the clogs?
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11 | Current Exhibitions: Spice is Nice
“Spice is Nice� exhibition traces the voyages of discovery, spice trade, colonisation, migration pattern, life in early Singapore, traditional cures and flavours of regional cuisine. The exhibition, targeted at families with children, features many hands-on activities and multimedia programmes for visitors to explore and discover the development of Singapore from the 19th century, and the uses and properties of spices.
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ADDRESS National Museum of Singapore 93 Stamford Road Singapore 178897
ADDRESS Singapore Art Museum 71 Bras Basah Road, Singapore 189555
NSM ONLINE www.nationalmuseum.sg www.facebook.com/National.Museum. of.Singapore www.twitter.com/natlmuseum_sg
SAM at 8Q 8 Queen Street, Singapore 188535
ENQUIRIES 6332 3659 / 6332 5642
SAM ONLINE www.singaporeartmuseum.sg www.facebook.com/singaporeartmuseum www.twitter.com/singaporeart ENQUIRIES 6332 3222 / 6332 3200
ADDRESS Singapore Philatelic Museum 23-B Coleman Street Singapore 179807 SPM ONLINE www.spm.org.sg www.facebook.com/SingaporePhilatelicMuseum www.twitter.com/ilovespm ENQUIRIES 6337 3888 / 6337 8958