The beauty of the museums in Singapore at night can be accentuated with the creative play of lights. I guess that's one of the most attractive part of Night Lights 2011 - the showcase by the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) as part of Night Festival 2011
Night Lights 2011 feature seven light installations and they will all be available this coming weekend (2 and 3 Sep). I was invited by SAM to preview all seven of them and here are my thoughts:
Lyrical Perspective (Perspective Lyrique) by 1024 architecture
7.30pm – 2am
Singapore Art Museum Front Lawn
A visual and sound-based interactive mapping projection that invites you to make the SAM façade come alive with the sound of your voice. This show has been done for other buildings in France and Switzerland - in other words, SAM is the first Asian building to be "transformed" into a stage for this performance. Using light and sound, the building looks like it's evolving all the time and has a life of its own. When interviewed, the artist said that said that you'd be able to see tribal and mythology influences in the images that are presented. Spectators at the Night Festival can also participate in singing into the microphone to influence the look of the building.
Girl About Town says: This was my favourite installation at Night Lights 2011 because it's just fascinating to see the illusion of the building growing, "melting" and dancing to the music. It kinds of reminds us how imagination can be fascinating and that there's really more to meets the eye to everything - it's all about perspectives!
Lampounettes by TILT
7.30pm – 2am
Singapore Management University Walkway along Bras Basah Road (School of Economics and School of Information Systems)
See a row of gigantic table lamps that will greet and light your way as you make your way along SMU to or from SOTA. These lamps changed colours too!
Girl About Town says: The artist said that he might be inspired by the lamp on his table to come up with this design. I like how the idea is simple - an enlarged table lamp that works as a street lamp. Now, if only all our daily public items have cool designs and thoughts put into them!
Green Invaders by Yves Caizergues
7.30pm – 2am
Singapore Management University Campus Green
This is bound to get some of you
Girl About Town says: This may be another simple installation, but take some time to watch it and see how many interesting things you can pick out. Hint: The faces aren't all the same!
Parking Mad (Le Parking en folie) by Benedetto Buffalino
9.30pm – 2am
National Museum of Singapore Front Lawn
Cars lovers alert. These Volvo cars look inconspicuous in the day, but when night falls, these parked cars go wild, flashing lights from their windows, as if they were in conversation. The artist, Benedetto Buffalino, likes to give inanimate street objects a life of their own with lights, turning familiar neighbourhood sights into a surreal environment. I suspect he takes joy in surprising people. For those of you who have seen the installation at SAM last week, this week the cars are moved to the National Museum of Singapore and have more colours than before.
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| The artist, Benedetto Buffalino. |
The Fish Tree by BIBI
7.30pm – 2am
School of the Arts Facade
Made from everyday plastic objects, a school of magical fish come alive at night and light up SOTA’s façade. The artist, Bibi, gamely turned up at the media event with a giant plastic fish costume. "Just for you!" he said.
Girl About Town says: Bibi told us that the fish that are in a row (those that are seen behind him) are the suited men that we can see at Marina Bay. He shared that he spent a lot of time in water, thus his design is the fish. He's been making them since the 1990s and the first fish he had is also showcased in this installation. I thought it's most interesting that he said different audience around the world brought home different emotions when they looked at the installation - although he never tailored it to convey specific messages. I guess that's what art is all about - an expression that means different things to different people. That's what makes art so beautiful.
Curiosités by Alain Benini
7.30pm – 2am
Singapore Art Museum Courtyard
Don't be surprised to see the SAM courtyard converted into a beautiful underwater sight. These luminous jellyfishes don't just look like the real deal, they also somewhat behave like real jellyfishes. As the wind blows towards them, watch them do a funny ballet with their tentacles - this can keep the young and old occupied and amused for quite some time.
Girl About Town says: I've shown a few pictures from the last media event. Here are a few more taken from different angles. I think there is something "magical" about these jellyfish - don't you think?
The Cloud (Le Nuage) by SUPERBIEN
7.30pm – 2am
Singapore Art Museum Queen Street Wing
You might just miss this work if you weren't told about it. A projection of colourful electrical cloud, this grows bigger and bigger and the huge umbrellas that the projected cloud is hovering over lend a lot of context to the simple story it's trying to tell.
Girl About Town says: I think the idea of putting a rain cloud above the umbrellas is kind of cheeky. It must have been thought up by someone who has a sense of humour.
Besides installation, other highlights include:
Art Party
9pm - 2am
Glass Hall, SAMThe event hall of the museum will be transformed into a chic Parisian club featuring DJs from the Pain O Chokolat collective and beatboxer Tez from the famed Le Pompon club in Paris, as well as DJ Has.
Reactive Wall
7.30pm - 2am
Level 2, SAM
Artist Mojoko and computer programmer Shang Liang worked together to present the Reactive Wall, which showcases over 200 images of popular graphic icons (eg. Doraemon!). By making sounds through loudspeakers, you can make the icons pop up and cover the wall. This is so interactive and fun, I'm sure that adults will love it and children can't get enough of it.
Girl About Town says: It's quite fascinating, really! Watching icons get "lured" out from within the "crowds" of icons and get larger and larger. It's also interesting to see which icon gets "attracted" to you voice :)
Night Lights 2011 is part of the Night Festival 2011 programme. Find out more at http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg
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