Art Garden 2013

I was racking my brains to think of where to bring the children over the looong weekend (where the hari raya and national day public holidays ran consecutively). My mum suggested the Bird Park, but I didn’t think it was worth the effort and money bringing Calista there at such a young age since she is unlikely to remember anything and since I can get free corporate tickets to the Zoo/Night or River Safari/Bird Park, next quarter.

I was reading some mummy’s blog for ideas when I noticed that the Art Garden exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum was still running, till 1 Sep. Off we went!

It was a great idea cos I brought the grandparents and maid along and not a single one of us had to pay admission :) I think it was probably my dad’s 2nd or 3rd time in a museum, but he seemed to enjoy it.

There were a few exhibits which reminded me of our visit in 2012, but I didn’t quite mind cos we enjoyed those.. such as the “The Incredibly Expanding Room”, where we had to shout into a microphone to effect change in the visuals on the wall.. and the “Moving Image Gallery”, where there was lots of short 4 minute films for children.

The children ran around in the “Enchanted Garden City”, where fairytales were given an Asian twist (think the Little Red Nonya with the Big Bad Wolf)

Christian doodled something within a “magic mirror” which was pre-printed on a piece of paper, and his doodle was projected onto this huge wall. He was so excited to see the fruit of his labour (as well as his name) up on the wall. It must have been magical for him.

 

The next room we went to, was called “Around the World in Eighty Days”. I wasn’t quite sure how the activities in the room were tied to the theme, although there was a hot air balloon postcard for Christian to colour..he dedicated that to Daddy.. :)

We had fun sitting on silly chairs, trying to throw hoops onto the targets, and even my parents and helper got in the act by searching for the 6 spiders hidden all over the kaleidoscopic wallpaper.

The exhibit that really awed me was the “Stellar Cave II” which was inspired by the prehistoric paintings in France's Lascaux Caves. Made entirely of thread and screws, it inspired wonder and we were all silent after the initial “Waaaah”.

 

The last was a rather spooky room full of ghoul-like forms. The only fun factor was the bed which was designed for visitors to sit on. It was attached to a wall that could be swivelled, transporting the visitors to another room. Christian was so thrilled he wanted to go on it again, but it was getting close to Calista’s nap time and I could tell the adults were getting restless so I distracted him.  

I had thought about how I could spend more time with Christian, given Calista’s need for nap at about 1.30pm everyday. It struck me while I was lying on the facial salon bed the other day that I should just get my father to go along (an excuse to drag him out of the house) and my parents and helper could head home after lunch while I went back to the museum with Christian for some mother-son time. So that was what we did. Lunch was at Yet Con at Seah Street..which made my dad happy cos it’s been a while since he ate there. We had helpings after helpings of rice thanks to the delicious chicken and pork chops..

Christian and I went back to SAM for more of the short films which we didn’t manage to catch earlier, and I finally managed to convince him to go for face-painting, which was a special National Day activity for the day. I was so glad he finally said yes, after I told him I’d do it too. I remember the last time we tried to persuade him to get his face painted like a tiger (in Perth, April 2011), he cried..! =7 He was very pleased with the blue car on his arm and red/white merlion on his face after the artist was done.

The last activity we did at the museum was a National Day hat.. using stencils, we traced the outlines onto our cardboard and coloured it. He was in charge of colouring whilst I was in charge of cutting and making the “springs”. The volunteer laughed as he saw Christian taking a photo of me and the front and back of my hat :)

We were tired by the end of all that..and walked to City Hall station to take the train home. That silly boy was so delighted when he heard we were going to take a train and bus home, it being such a novelty to him. We looked at the station names, I made him guess where we were going to alight, and we were fortunate to get the very front seat at the top of the double decker bus. I pretended to nap and asked him to look out for our stop :) He was so proud and happy to be given the task of getting us home.

It was such a great day and I think everybody was happy..I guess one doesn’t have to travel overseas to create happy memories..there are still lots for us to do in Singapore!