For one of our afternoon outings I decided to bring Asher to check out the Singapore Art Museum's children's exhibition. I had asked Asher if he wanted to go to the park (Botanical Gardens) or go see a big white rabbit. He chose the rabbit, so off we went!
It took much longer than expected to get there, and as it turns out, it was the day that the tree fell in front of the Istana, forcing the Orchard road traffic to squeeze into 1 or 2 lanes. But we got there eventually, and it was well worth it.
The place was empty cos it was a weekday afternoon, so we had most of the place to ourselves :) First up, Walter's Garden. It's filled with lots of green tetrahedron cushions, and Asher had a good time arranging and placing them exactly as he liked. He was quite particular, this cushion had to sit just so, that cushion had to be at that angle. This green here, that green there; big one here, small one there. Touch any of them and he would protest. Watching him made me think of an installation artist at work haha. Maybe, maybe? Next time? Who knows!
Carefully transporting the cushions to fit into his piece of installation art. He had arranged all the cushions in the picture below.
Further refinements. An artist's work is never done ;)
Yes, he had so much fun I literally had to draaagg him away from the place lest we end up only seeing that bit of the exhibition. Next, the Floribots! These were very intriguing. The room was filled with these paper flowers on retractable stems that grew/un-grew (if there's such a thing) in front of your eyes. Asher was entralled, and stood still watching the flowers in action. Didn't quite realise that the movements in the room affect how the flowers grew, but apparently there are motion detectors that calibrate the pattern of growth of the Floribots.
There was a little corner with some origami paper for children to fold their own paper flowers, so we had a go at it. I folded the paper over, and Asher helped to press down the fold to make the crease. Here he is with his orange flower, which he clung onto for the rest of the visit :) This boy really likes flowers.
Actually folding the flower also brought back childhood memories of how we used to fold the 'chatterbox', but anyway.
We then headed to see the Enchanted Forest. Half the room was illustrated with colourful pictures of a forest filled with characters from all sorts of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, including an appearance by the Merlion. My favourite bit? The dish and the spoon! Here they were having a picnic, there they were going for a walk in the forest, it was adorable :)
Doing some colouring before we explored the forest
There's my dish and spoon!
Asher then displayed more installation art inclinations. This is actually one of the things he always enjoys doing when we're at houses with stools - arranging them into some pattern or other :) Here he goes with the IKEA stools. The caretakers were quite amused, as was I :) How fitting to be doing such things in an art museum heh.
Getting ready to jump 'into' the pond :)
But the best exhibits had to be the Funky Forest and Daisies. I think I can safely say that those were Asher's favourite parts of the visit, and mine too. There were two interactive media displays that respond to the movements of visitors. The Funky Forest was the one where if you stood along the edge of the wall, a tree would start to grow in front of the spot you were standing at. It was fun growing trees, but that wasn't all. You had to keep them alive! There was an image of a waterfall flowing down one side of a wall, then becoming a river on the ground. You had to divert water to the trees to water them so that they would thrive. How to do that? It was, for lack of a better word, just so cool! If you kick the 'river' in the direction of your tree, some water would flow there. You could permanently divert the river using a 'log' (a cushion) to keep your tree constantly watered.
How cool is that? An image of a river that responds to your actions! If you jumped on the river, there would be a splash and water would 'splash' outwards. You could kick the water about to create some serious virtual water chaos. And the most intriguing bit, I really couldn't figure out how it was done. There didnt appear to be visible sensors around. The ground and wall were just regular concrete. How did they do it??
Growing trees
See another tree just starting to sprout from where Asher's standing? And see how the water was diverted to the fully grown tree! Amazing!
SPLASH!!
At the other end of the room was Daisies. It was a bed of white flowers on the ground, but when you ran over them, they disappeared, and after a short while would start to grow back again. It was fun running all around with Asher trying to make all the flowers disappear, but it was impossible cos the flowers grew back too quickly. I can't remember whether I heard it or read it there, but apparently the piece was supposed to illustrate how fragile nature is and how easily it is destroyed. But actually, the sense I got was more of the enduring resiliance of nature. No matter how much you trample over it, it will grow back again. It felt hopeful.
But anyway, it was great that it was so empty cos Asher could run from Funky Forest to the Daisies over and over to his hearts content, and I didn't have to follow him so closely.
We said our goodbyes to Walter who was visible from every floor, and headed home for a much needed dinner :)
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