Singapore - from a foreigner’s perspective

A friend whom I’d met on JET is in town, and it has been great having a familiar face visit. Since he arrived on Thursday afternoon, he has been telling me time and again how peaceful, civilised and quiet Singapore seems to be.

I’m pretty sure that’s because he has been in China for too long. Prior to this, he’d spent 6 weeks in Shanghai, and had come to Singapore straight from a few days in Hong Kong.

When walking around, he kept noting how Singapore is less dense than Hong Kong and that the buildings are built further apart. He finds Singapore quieter, as people don’t talk at the top of their voices and there’s the absence of horns blaring. He thought that Singapore’s drivers are civilised, as cars don’t cut lanes and scooters don’t try to drive past you on the pavements with just a hair’s breath between. He also feels that Singapore lacks the frenzied, fast-paced, stressful feel of Hong Kong and China, as it gets noticeably quieter at night, there aren’t people rushing around this way and that, and no one tries to cut between the two inches between us as we walk around. Oh – apparently Singapore isn’t as hot as Hong Kong either.

haha.

It’s crazy that he’s saying all these, as I’m sure he’ll be singing the opposite tune if he’d come straight from the US, for example. China and Hong Kong are quite hard to beat in terms of population and land density. I suppose, however, that Singapore does have really nice places like the Singapore River and the Marina Bay waterfront that are rather relaxing with their wide, open spaces.

We went to see the Merlion, and walking there had a glimpse of the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and the Art Science Museum:

As well as the Esplanade Theatres and the Singapore Flyer:

We then reached the Merlion – the boy had missed out on the Merlion as it coincided with the construction of the Merlion Hotel as part of the Singapore Biennale, so I took some pictures on my phone to send to him too.

I like the small Merlion better than its larger cousin, while my friend felt that the Merlion is a strange creature, although he doesn’t dislike it – I’m not surprised:

I think the Art Science Museum looks very striking next to MBS – I think like it or hate it, there’s no denying that they both rather iconic structures:

We went walking along the Marina Bay waterfront. It was my first time doing so since it was developed, and was surprised to discover that the Fullerton Bay Hotel exists – and is way more posh than the Fullerton Hotel. There were also other nice buildings, and people shooting a commercial for Double A paper:

Customs House, which was indeed as its name suggests:

There’s also the Marina Bay City Gallery – set up to showcase and explain to visitors the new developments in the area. It’s actually very informative and rather slick – my friend found the miniature model of the area’s buildings as well as the displays and videos rather cool.

It was very nice walking beneath the Sail and seeing the buildings at Raffles Place all lit up. I feel like I need to go back, take more photos and enjoy the view – hopefully with a better camera next time:

The Silk Road + Genghis Khan @ Art Science Museum

Some snapshots of the exhibits that have recently ended their runs at the Art Science Museum – the exhibits are really attractive and well curated, so it’s worth your money to go see if there’re special exhibitions on that you’re interested in.

Silk Road

I liked the lights which told us our ‘location’ along the Silk Road (left); check out the embroidery along the perimeter of the display of silk work cocoons (right)

An ancient weaving loom (above); it was quite fun playing with the settings on my camera to capture the lights (below)

    

Attractive and life-like displays of food always catch my eye (above); there were interactive elements like embossed stamps visitors could collect as they ‘travelled’ along the Silk Road (below)

A scene from Baghdad below – love the cloth!

 

Genghis Khan

 

The simple but attractive entrance area

 

 

Above left: I’ve never seen an imperial passport in the flesh!

Below: What a wonderfully efficient weapon to disembowel one’s enemies!

Beautiful and intricate etchings on a Mongolian sword (above);

words embroidered using gold thread (below)

The two artefacts above seem very Korean to me; below is a child’s yurt – we entered it and the furniture creaked when we sat down :S

The following are some things that have originated from the Mongolians which you’d never have known

Some items from the gift shop above :)

Art Science Museum @ Marina Bay Sands

The special exhibition on the Silk Road at the Art Science Museum was ending its run, so I decided to visit it yesterday, before only the Genghi Khan and Shipwrecked Treasures exhibitions were left.

The verdict? Do not, absolutely do NOT visit the Art Science Museum unless the $30 (incl. booking fee) admission fee is worth the special exhibitions you’re intending to see.

The special exhibitions were good, but the permanent exhibits at the museum are virtually non-existent. Excerpts from the the website’s description include:

“The permanent exhibition..takes visitors on a journey inside the creative process across three unique spaces: Curiosity, Inspiration and Expression.

Curiosity is an arrival gallery that encourages guests to ponder the very nature of how we define art and science, what it means to us, and how it influences our world.

Inspiration is an interactive gallery that celebrates the flashpoint of ingenuity powering the worlds of both art and science.

Expression is a dynamic multi media gallery providing an emotional, impassioned demonstration of the power of human beings to harness inspiration to make the world a better place.

• 3 galleries spanning two levels with nearly 800 square meters of exhibition space
• Your journey begins along a meditative path of Floating Stairs which invites you to question the relationships between art and science”

What all this really means is this: the Curiosity Gallery is just the lift landing. Inspiration is essentially a large room with several computer terminals with touch screens for visitors to ‘play’ with. It will occupy visitors for maybe 15 minutes at best. Expression is where visitors watch a video featuring famous scientists who were also artists and vice versa, such as Leonardo da Vinci. One of the two levels is the staircase – and nothing but a staircase, save for a few pictures of past inventors whom few would recognise anyway.

The uninspiring ‘Inspiration’ gallery.

Whatever examples the museum listed to illustrate the relationship between Art and Science were poor, with da Vinci being one of few relevant examples. For example, how are the Kung Ming lanterns considered art? Furthermore, the museum fails to put forth a convincing argument for how art and science are related –the interactive media simply tell visitors of the scientific aspects of the examples given without linking the science back to the art. Probably mainly because the art-science relationship in those examples were non-existent and highly tenuous at best.

And they used American-English. Tsk.

Frankly, I was impressed by the museum until I reached the permanent exhibit levels, as I’d started with the special exhibits. Even the museum shop didn’t belie the true quality of the museum as it had some interesting things on sale:

Warhol-esque mint boxes and astronaut pens. One is clearly representative of art and the other of science. So that they’re in the same shop is representative of art-science?

It’s a pity the museum content is such a disappointment, as it’s an architecturally interesting building which I’d be quite happy to pitch to visitors and locals alike.

The interesting thing about the falling water was that one could get wet sitting outside, depending on the wind direction.

The surroundings of the Art Science Museum are great too. It started out a bit hazy. 

But cleared up as the day progressed.

Note the waves on the water’s surface

Check out the reflection of Fullerton Hotel and the surrounding buildings

I love the way the stairs look