Mind and Body Exhibition at Asian Civilazation Museum

 " This is my first time visiting the ACM. " it was my turn to introduce myself to the museum tour group for the Mind and Body exhibition. My remark caused some giggling of amusement among the tourists. 

I have decided to join a tour to see how the tour

•  structure the sequence of viewing 
•  plan the walking route of the exhibition space
  
•  highlight particular key artifacts
  
•  add background historical context 
  

for the visitor to understand and thus appreciate the artifact. 

I told myself  then that I will reflect and evaluate if the speaker narrative was necessary or the accompanying text below the title was already sufficient. Back then that was my initial motivation to observe the tour. 

Unfortunately,  I got distracted from other things in life that only today I remembered that I have forgotten to do so.  Kicking myself for not jotting down notes...

 

One photograph of the Christian-Buddhist cross artifact triggered my first memory of the tour.  

The tour guide explained that the artifact was designed during a time where Christianity was banned in Japan , where the Japanese with Christian faith dupe the authorities by showing the Buddha on the cross.

The Italian who joined the museum tour , remarked that they have a similar artifact in Italy but used for the opposite intention where the Italians with Buddhist faith hid the Buddha behind the cross to dupe authorities they were Roman Catholic in faith. 

The second memory of the tour was the Jains where the picture of the Man and Woman cosmic illustration were not place side by side each other, was that intentional ? implying celibacy ? The Cosmic Man was place in the dark hall while the Cosmic Woman was placed in the brighter hall.

  

The tour ended and I continue exploring the exhibition on my own. The most interesting artifact that I have found was the Rangda ritualistic masks and costumes. I do like the video presentation and the additional information provided.

" There are many forms of dance and theater in Asia that are not perceived as purely artistic pursues where only aesthetic pleasures is derived. Instead these performance serves a deeper ritual purpose...... the physical experience of going through trials and tribulations is meant to be spiritually transformative."

 

Lastly there was a 360 interactive large touchscreen virtual tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre building. It felt like a game and had a straightforward user interface (UI).

 

 

 

Seelan Palay Solo Exhibition : Battle for the Year 3000 Maven Gallery Singapore

 

If one google search on spiritual painting, one would see religious type images of Buddha or Christ , Hindu gods and goddess or the New Age Tarot Card type imagery. 

It is refreshing to see Seelan Palay concept of the spiritual idealism being materialized into the medium of painting, differing from the norm. They stand out in white,blue and gold.

Even without the futuristic back story Battle for the year 3000 , there is still plenty of room for the viewer to appreciate the painting's diverse spiritual symbolism.  

I do like this particular piece, an upside down blind-eyed cobra, with a floating third spiritual eye appearing in between its coiled body. Curvy lines slice the body and negative spaces, into parts with golden numbers in some of them. My personal interpretation is that what we know of the parts by slicing the cobra into its tail , body , head , eyes and fangs. When all these physical parts are assembled together one see the whole cobra. However the spiritual eye might see division of parts and whole differently it may include the negative spaces outside the cobra that is its aura. 

  

 

Burden ( Kavadi ) Dance Exhibition Asian Civilization Museum Singapore

 Lexicon : Thaipusum is an Indian annual procession where devotes wear the Kavadi (burdens) to implore Murugan, the Hindu God of War for assistance or to repay a spiritual debt. 

In the exhibition the viewer sees the Kavadi assembly as well as the individual component parts displayed in an organized manner. There is a video playing the Thaipusum procession. 

I can imagine the exponential pain caused by the spikes and hooks piercing through my skin and carrying the weight of the Kavadi on my shoulders. 

I read about and see the Kavadi in the exhibition somehow I have not understood what it really means as I have not grasp the meaning through my own unique practical experience. 

I must be an Indian.
I must be a Hindu devote
I must seek spiritual favor from Murugan
Perhaps satisfying these conditions  , I can know the word Kavadi and Thaipusum.

The word will forever elude me, a Chinese man watching from a distance admiring the Indian man inflicting pain upon himself in a public spectacle. I do not have the devote courage who derives spiritual benefits from the experience, transforming the bodily pain into spiritual pleasure ...  

 

National Gallery Singapore : Liu Kuo Sung Experimentation as Method

Liu Kuo Sung has extended the subject of Chinese painting way beyond the mountainous landscape of Earth, into outer space and onto the moon..... 

I have tried to combine Chinese calligraphy flowing brush strokes with western abstract painting and was delighted to know that artist Liu Kuo Sung has been doing it for his whole artistic career. I came to Liu Kuo Sung Experimentation as Method to witness how he did it. To do it exclusively in Chinese mediums , Chinese paper, Chinese ink is itself an implicit assertion that this artwork is a Chinese Ink Painting. However after adding foreign materials one can transform it into the Mixed Media  typical of the Abstract Painting category.  

I would imagine it would be an uphill battle for Liu Kuo Sung to convince the  traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy masters to view his artworks as Chinese Ink Painting. Liu Kuo Sung commented in the talk that Chinese Ink Painting still have a lot of room to grow.

 

 

The speaker who spoke of Liu Kuo Sung, divided his artistic life into 9 Acts. Each act is the period where the artist develop one painting style. The image above shows 9 painting styles for 9 Acts.

 Act 1 in the artist life starts with abstract painting that has a concept of covering and uncovering probably the artist was conflicted in what to say and not to say, and could be feeling and exercising self censorship that has been translated into the technique of painting over to cover up underlying paint.

Canvas/s Creating Instagram AR Filter Tampines Regional Library

The Instagram AR Filter workshop by visual artist Almostasthma was held on the 6th floor classroom while a small AR exhibition of the artist works was presented on the 2nd floor of Tampines Regional Library.

In Tea Party AR, the rabbit host in the center of the 11 surrounding Chinese Zodiac animals, played like an animated GIF. The vibrant, Kawaii cute animals gives the viewer a sense of community in a cosmopolitan culture.

The rest of the artworks were recorded video presentation examples of AR face mask, the virtual objects mapped to the person's face responding to the live facial movements. Another example showed the AR being applied to a public space , Bedok park. This reminded me that I have yet to experience an outdoor AR, and would like the opportunity to experience it first hand. 

I am convinced that Social AR in Instagram is here to stay. However it require two physical objects to trigger the AR experience that is the QR code and the image. Imagine once the exhibition is over, the exhibition panels dismantled, the AR experience will be over as well.  A YouTube video experience on the other hand can be recycled by repeated viewing.