Usually, Saturday is our family time since Kpo Kia Papa always need to OT during weekdays and we need to visit both parents house during Sunday. So I managed to apply for a day off, Haha, to have a short gathering with my ex-colleagues turn friends, and watched “Their Remaining Journey” by John Clang with sis at the National Gallery Singapore.
Their Remaining Journey
Their Remaining Journey (灰彩虹) is part of Painting with Light: Festival of International Films on Art, the National Gallery Singapore’s annual film festival which examines the significance of art in society by looking at how people live and work with art around the world. This film by acclaimed Singaporean visual artist, John Clang (my idol since attended his public lecture in 2013!), and had garnered a nomination for the Bright Future Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2018).
The film weaves together three different stories:
- a theatre actress meets an untimely death and awaits reincarnation while her soul is trapped with an unknown family in Singapore;
- a pilates instructor travels to New York, unable to escape from the memory of a dead-end relationship; and
- a Singapore immigrant in Taiwan desperately tries to muster the courage to tell his wife of his illness and remorse.
Connected through their loneliness, the protagonists attempt to negotiate personal loss and displacement.
To be frank, I had a bit of difficulty when I try to relate the 3 stories together, and even doubt if it’s due to my lack of artistic flair that makes me having difficulty understanding them. It’s only after the Q&A session where I finally understand the concept behind the different stories and I have to laugh at myself for foolishly assuming that the different stories must have some relationship. Guess I need to watch the film at least another time to fully appreciate it.
Minimalism Exhibition by National Gallery Singapore and ArtScience Museum
National Gallery Singapore and ArtScience Museum are collaborating for the first time to present the region’s first exhibition focusing on Minimalism in coming November. The exhbition will set across these two sites, and over 150 works will explore the history and legacy of this groundbreaking art movement, which continues to influence a wide range of art forms and practitioners across the world today.
Through the use of simple, geometric forms and non-traditional materials, Minimalism shifted the way that we experience art: it made the physical encounter with the art work, and the space it occupies, increasingly important. This movement has had a profound influence not only on the visual arts, but also on music, performance, fashion, architecture and design.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, special programmes at both venues will feature music, film, dance and interactive installation, showing the close engagement of other art forms with Minimalism.
