{"id":919127,"date":"2026-10-07T07:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T07:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919127\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T07:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T07:08:14","slug":"art-elevates-artefact-in-national-museums-singapore-history-gallery-opening-oct-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919127\/","title":{"rendered":"Art elevates artefact in National Museum\u2019s Singapore History Gallery, opening Oct 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE \u2013 In the 1970s, when the lift was still a newfangled invention in Singapore\u2019s high-rise estates, riding it was as exhilarating and uncertain as going to the moon. Take it from writer Ng Yew Kiat\u2019s 1976 Chinese poem The Lift: \u201cIt takes ages to arrive at one planet \/ where some astronauts alight\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some may scoff at Ng\u2019s hyperbole, but his poem captures the awe that many kampung-dwelling Singaporeans must have felt when they first stepped into these metal vestibules to reach their homes in the sky. Were they not also early astronauts, since the first human went to space only in 1961?<\/p>\n

Come Oct 10, visitors to the revamped Singapore History Gallery at the National Museum of Singapore (NMS)<\/a> will be able to step into a restored, windowless 1970s lift from Ang Mo Kio, listen to Ng\u2019s poem overhead and relive the technological past in its musty blue tint. Step back outside the lift and one is greeted by a nostalgic whirlwind of mosaic tiles and metal letterboxes.<\/p>\n

\"National<\/p>\n

National Museum of Singapore director Chung May Khuen (right) and Singapore History Gallery\u2019s principal curator Daniel Tham in a restored 1970s Ang Mo Kio lift.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to realise that history is also very multidisciplinary. It\u2019s not just a fixed way of telling the story or focusing on the objects, but also \u2018How do we bring that object \u2013 which is a static display \u2013 alive?\u2019\u201d says NMS director Chung May Khuen<\/a>, 52, who was part of the curatorial team when the gallery first opened in 2006 and again when it underwent a partial revamp in 2015.<\/p>\n

Part of the answer in this first full revamp of the 2,230 sq m gallery, which took about 11 months, is the incorporation of more art and artists\u2019 voices.<\/p>\n

In a void deck set-up, visitors can read the evocative Singlish of Cultural Medallion recipient Arthur Yap<\/a>\u2019s poem 2 mothers in a hdb playground (1980). Amid culinary objects is realist master Chua Mia Tee<\/a>\u2019s mouth-watering painting of friends eating a meal served on banana leaves. You cannot touch National Anthem composer Zubir Said\u2019s piano<\/a> in the gallery, but can listen to the tunes he composed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The late composer Zubir Said\u2019s century-old Strohmenger grand piano, which he used to compose Singapore\u2019s national anthem Majulah Singapura.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO<\/p>\n

It is part of the museum\u2019s multimedia storytelling approach to deepening visitors\u2019 engagement with particular episodes in history and connection with the artefacts at hand. With sleeker and more contemporary exhibition design than the previous iteration, the revamped gallery also uses the visual language of the space to ease visitors through the massive seven-section show.<\/p>\n

Visitors can also look forward to digital interfaces, bringing hallowed museum objects closer to lived experience. Try your hand at being a rickshaw puller with a weighted interactive display. Otherwise, take a crack at deciphering the enigmatic inscriptions of the 10th- to 14th-century Singapore Stone by zooming into the 3D renderings on a panel behind the stone.<\/p>\n

\"Try<\/p>\n

Try your hand at being a rickshaw puller with a weighted interactive display at the revamped Singapore History Gallery at the National Museum of Singapore.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO<\/p>\n

Principal curator Daniel Tham, 45, who is supported by eight other curators, says there is also a need to make history relevant to contemporary audiences.<\/p>\n

In the opening section on pre-colonial Singapore, interviews with eight members of the Orang Laut community and photographs of the Orang Seletar<\/a> by Jefree Salim, a photographer and member of the Orang Seletar community, provide a contemporary counterpoint to a hall of boats, fish traps and shards of maritime culture that might otherwise be misunderstood as belonging purely to a bygone past.<\/p>\n

Singapore has been wrestling more with its pre-colonial past since commemorating in 2019 the bicentennial of its founding by Sir Stamford Raffles. Tham, who incorporated interviews with members of the community discussing how the waters still constitute a big part of their identity, says: \u201cThe intention was really to connect their historical presence in Singapore\u2019s pre-colonial history to who they are today in terms of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The revamped Singapore History Gallery features interviews with eight members of the Orang Laut community in its opening section on pre-colonial Singapore\u2019s fluid beginnings.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO<\/p>\n

This revamp of the Singapore History Gallery comes a year after the first major revamp of the National Gallery Singapore\u2019s (NGS\u2019) permanent art history exhibition Singapore Stories: Pathways And Detours In Art<\/a>. In a similar spirit of multidisciplinarity, NGS\u2019 exhibition also expands beyond the remit of fine art, and incorporates vernacular design and popular culture into its story of Singapore art.<\/p>\n

The Singapore History Gallery is divided into seven main sections: Fluid Beginnings, covering Singapore\u2019s maritime past (1300s to 1800s); Colonial City, as a British free port (1800s to 1930s); Fall Of The Fortress, covering the Japanese Occupation (late 1930s to 1940s); Towards A New Identity, on the post-war struggle for self-determination (1950s to 1960s); Becoming Singapore, examining the early years of independence (1960s to 1980s); Being Singaporean, exploring the cultural expressions in the 1980s and 1990s; and Looking Global, which stretches from the 2000s to the present.<\/p>\n

There are multiple stations in the exhibition where visitors can add their reflections in the form of audio recordings. These will be woven into an ever-transforming image of Singapore\u2019s landscape in the final room.<\/p>\n

From Oct 10 to 18, NMS is marking 139 years of the museum in a celebration series titled Stories Of Everyday. The opening of the Singapore History Gallery is also a prelude to the full reopening of the Level 2 Life In Singapore Galleries slated for early 2027, which Tham says will dive deeper into particular periods and aspects of Singapore\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Stoney mascot, inspired by the Singapore Stone, at the National Museum of Singapore on Sept 29.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO<\/p>\n

The central question the Singapore History Gallery poses is a deceptively simple one: Who are we? Tham\u2019s answer is to gesture to the Republic\u2019s rich and diverse histories, its openness and interconnectedness, and the waves of migration to the island across the centuries.<\/p>\n

But another answer is perhaps found in the museum\u2019s new mascot Stoney \u2013 a perpetually frowning anthropomorphisation of the Singapore Stone that sits as an inflatable in the field in front of NMS. Like it or not, its blase expression is strikingly contemporary for a centuries-old enigma and the stuff of ugly-cute virality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt points to how much we don\u2019t know \u2013 how much is still out there for us to discover. Stoney\u2019s disposition, I would say, reflects that search for an identity,\u201d says Tham. \u201cWho am I? Why am I like this? Where do I come from? I suppose that contributes to that grumpiness \u2013 which, to me at least, I find quite cute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Book It\/Singapore History Gallery<\/p>\n

Where: National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road
When: Opens Oct 10, 10am to 7pm daily
Admission: Free for Singapore citizens and permanent residents; $18 and $13 (concession) for tourists and foreign residents
Info: str.sg\/D6wD<\/a><\/p>\n

Visiting on Oct 10? The Straits Times picks eight new objects not to miss at the Singapore Heritage Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 In the 1970s, when the lift was still a newfangled invention in Singapore\u2019s high-rise estates, riding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-919127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}