Van Gogh Alive!

Taken from: Art Science Museum's website.

Thanks to the invitation of the Art Science Museum, I have the pleasure to attend both the media preview and the exclusive preview to "Van Gogh Alive - the exhibition" on 14 Apr 2011 (Thu). This exhibition will be held in Singapore from 16 Apr to 6 Nov 2011 at the Art Science Museum, Singapore. It has been made available by Grande Exhibitions of Australia (www.grandeexhibitions.com) and VisionCom of France.

I was moved and fascinated by the exhibition which I likened to a special production that fuses art and audio-visual technology. I very much like the music that accompanied the visual treats and images of Van Gogh's art works, personal letters and photographs.

Please watch this blog for my review of this exhibition. Stay tuned.

Surprises and learnings at the Heritage Conservation Centre

"Liu Kang's works! Georgette Chen's works!" These were my exclamations from the pleasant surprises that I had sighted during a very special visit to the Heritage Conservation Centre. What on earth is the Heritage Conservation Centre?

In brief, the Heritage Conservation Centre is the custodian of the collections that are under the care of the National Heritage Board. It manages and preserves the museum collection of the National Heritage Board. As such, it serves two key functions: 1) collection management and 2) conservation.

It was my very first visit to the Heritage Conservation Centre on 6 Apr 2011. Thanks to the wonderful team at I Love Museums and the Heritage Conservation Centre, I was able to gain privileged access to visit the Heritage Conservation Centre. Together with at least ten other participants, we were given a special tour about the Heritage Conservation Centre by its Assistant Director, Mr Robin Liu.

To care for and to protect the collection, visitors and staff who visit the non-public spaces of the Heritage Conservation Centre would have to observe the following:
1) No food and drink.
2) No personal belonging (lockers will be provided at the public areas).
3) No camera (for confidentiality).
4) Be careful. No touching of the artefacts.

Interestingly, I was told that some of the staff members of the Heritage Conservation Centre would change into a different pair of shoes before they enter the non-public spaces to do their work. This is their thoughtful way not to introduce soil and living organisms into the non-public spaces as these can potentially hasten the deterioration of the collection.

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During this visit, I realise the vulnerability that all artefacts would be subjected to. While preserving an artefact for eternity would be an ideal, it is more realistic to think of one of the goals of conservation as slowing down the effects of deterioration on an artefact.

What are the various factors of deterioration?

Photo Credit: Heritage Conservation Centre

Many thanks to Azyure D. Hikari from Urban Explorers of Singapore for the help to scan the photos.

We learnt at the visit that the factors of deterioration can be broadly categorised as such:
1) light
2) relative humidity
3) temperature
4) pests
5) pollution
6) and physical damage caused by accidents or mishandling.

Our guide for the day, Mr Robin Liu, enlightened us with interesting strategies that are used by the Heritage Conservation Centre to minimise the devastating effects of the various factors of deterioration. One of the interesting things I have learnt is that the Heritage Conservation Centre use a 3-tier air purification system so as that the air that enters the centre is free from pollution. Polluted air can corrode an artefact over time.

In addition, there is no window at the storage and repository areas of the centre. This is to prevent the contact of UV rays from sunlight with the collection. Even when there are windows at the work-area so as to aid the staff members in their tasks of accurate colour matching under natural light, special windows that block out UV rays are used.

The pest eradication procedures that are used came across to me as interesting. Two of the commonly used methods to eliminate pests are 1) freezing, and 2) Controlled Atmosphere Treatment. In the latter, nitrogen is carefully passed through water and introduced into an artefact that is stored in airtight bags. Oxygen is gradually removed. I learnt that the Controlled Atmosphere Treatment takes a considerable length of time (approximately 30 days of treatment).

We also learnt that conservation can be broadly divided into two categories: 1) Preventive Conservation and 2) Interventive Conservation. The former deals with protecting and caring for the artefact largely through minimising the effects of factors of deterioration. The latter deals with taking interventions to repair and restore damaged artefacts.

My favourite part of the visit was the tour about the workspaces where Interventive Conservation takes place. At the Heritage Conservation Centre, a damaged artefact would be classified under one of these four material classifications and be conserved accordingly. These four classifications are: 1) object, 2) painting, 3) textile, and 4) paper.

I was most thrilled to be able to see a few of Liu Kang's works even before they are displayed in an upcoming public exhibition of Liu Kang's artworks scheduled to be held this July! (please view source here) One of the staff members even demonstrated how he remove an adhesive tape from one of Liu Kang's pastel works.The tape was probably a result of previous mounting but it is not part of the original artwork.

For your information, Liu Kang (1911 - 2004) is one of Singapore's pioneer artists. He is closely affiliated with the development of the Nanyang art syle in Singapore, together with other pioneer artists.

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Throughout the entire visit at the Heritage Conservation Centre, I learnt that one of the key code of ethics of conservation is that of reversibility. That means that whatever the conservator does to any piece of artefact should technically be reversible.

The tour also covered the storage and repository areas of the Heritage Conservation Centre. I became excited when I caught sight of artworks by Georgette Chen and Anthony Poon. Many of the artefacts in the storage areas looked familiar to me albeit I could not instantly recall where I had seen them.

Overall, I am deeply impressed by the tremendous amount of care and thoughtfulness that the team at the Heritage Conservation Centre takes to protect and to care for the collection. Many thanks to the Heritage Conservation Centre, the National Heritage Board, and I Love Museums for organising this visit. I did not realise that time had passed so tremendously fast during the visit precisely because I have enjoyed every bit of it.

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Photo Credit: Belinda Tan.

 
That was not the end of the hype. To conclude the visit, I Love Museums hosted a lunch affair at the Standing Sushi Bar at SAM@8Q for the fans who were chosen for this visit to the Heritage Conservation Centre. During the lunch, I had the pleasure to interact with a few of the heritage enthuasiasts and the wonderful team from the National Heritage Board.

Wonderful company, a fantastic and thoughtfully arranged visit to the Heritage Conservation Centre and a delicious lunch. I have a lot to be thankful for. All these were possible because "I like" the I Love Museums page and took some part in a few of its contests. So if you like this post and have yet to be a fan of I Love Museums page, please click on "I like" now!

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Heritage Conservation Centre
32 Jurong Port Road
Singapore 619104

Visits are strictly by appointment only.

Please contact:
Tel: +65 6267 2618
Fax: +65 6267-2628
Email: nhb_hcc@nhb.gov.sg

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References:
http://www.hcc.sg

Clip art source:
http://www.iclipart.com

Rare treasures from the maritime silk route

(source: http://www.youtube.com/embed/3askVFwNsPg)

Most of us would have heard of the Silk Route that involved travelling across the lands. How many of us have heard of the maritime silk route?

Did you know that by the ninth century, there was a flourishing maritime trade between the then Tang dynasty and the Arab world? This maritime trade has probably inspired the story of Sinbad the Sailor from the One Thousand and One Nights.

In this significant exhibition, Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, that is taking place in Singapore, visitors will see Tang dynasty artefacts recovered from a ninth-century Arab dhow. The discovery of this Arab dhow which was shipwrecked off the coast of Belitung, a small island in the Java Sea, provided the first physical proof of a maritime trade route between West Asia and China.

It was a humbling experience for myself to visit Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds. There were a lot to learn and to understand. Here are snippets from my recent visit to the exhibition:

There were maps at the exhibition that suggested the possible routes that the shipwrecked Arab dhow had taken. I learnt that in the ninth century, a maritime voyage had to be correctly timed according to the directions of the monsoon winds. Otherwise, a ship could be blown off its course.

From the maps, visitors could see that the Srivijaya Empire played an important part in this maritime silk route between West Asia and China.

During my visit to the ArtScience Museum on 20 Mar 2011, the Abbasid Empire kept coming up at the various exhibitions. I felt I have much to learn about the Abbasid Empire. Could anyone share more about the Abbasid Empire with me please?

One of the sections of the exhibition showed a model of the Arab dhow that was shipwrecked at Belitung.

At the exhibition, I was impressed by the strategy that the people of the ninth century used to pack ceramics. The method of packing was so ingenius that most of the ceramics onboard the shipwrecked dhow have remained intact after more than ten centuries!

Above: I am awed by this photo taken by Belinda Tan.

I was told that the Changsha wares that were found from the shipwrecked dhow were mass-produced from Chinese kilns of Changsha, in Hunan province. Interestingly, although almost all of these Changsha wares carry one of the few set patterns, the set patterns were hand-copied by different people onto the wares. That would mean mass production yet with each ware being sligthly different from the rest.

The shipwrecked ship consisting Chinese ceramics and the cargo of an ancient shipwreck was discovered in 1998 by fishermen diving for sea cucumbers off the coast of Belitung. The above image showed how the ceramics would have looked like when they were first discovered.

If you are visiting this exhibition, you may not wish to miss taking a look at the magnificent Green-Splashed Ewer. As seen in the image right above, this ewer stands over a metre tall. Made of white ceramic decorated with splashes of bright green, the green-splashed ewer was clearly modelled on metalwork. A fine piece of art!

There were some rare treasures in this collection. The gold cup, I was told, is the most important Tang gold object ever found outside China. According to research, it was deduced that the gold cup was most likely made in Yangzhou. The gold cup looked brilliant in real-life.

Due to the relative short duration of my visit to this exhibition, I felt that I have yet to adequately appreciate the value of the collection that was presented in this exhibition. I hope to visit the exhibition yet again before it ends by 31 Jul 2011. Most likely, I will do so since the upcoming exhibition at the ArtScience Museum, "Van Gogh Alive - the exhibition", is on Van Gogh, one of my favourite artists. That gives me enough reasons to pay $30 to visit the ArtScience Museum once more, though I do find the admission charges a little too expensive to visit the museum on a regular basis. I hope that the ArtScience Museum could offer concessionary rates to all Singapore Citizens and residents.

Jade Isabella has done a well-written post with excellent photographs on this exhibition. Here's a link to her post: Sponsored Event: Trip to ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands on Sunday, 20 March 2011.

For the academically inclined, there is a discusion about the Belitung cargo here: Editorial: Tang Treasures, Monsoon Winds and a Storm in a Teacup.

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A special note of thanks to the ArtScience Museum, the National Heritage Board and Mr Shaun Wong for the invitation to a complimentary visit to and a guided tour of the ArtScience Museum on 20 Mar 2011.

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Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds (19 Feb - 31 Jul 2011)
Art Science Museum, Singapore
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956
Tel: 6688 8868

Operating hours: 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. with the last admission at 9 p.m.


Also see:
http://www.shipwreckedtangtreasures.com
The Silk, Sunken and Spears - Chapter Two by Urban Explorer
A day at the ArtScience Museum by Nur Shakylla Nadhra.

Genghis Khan: The enlightened leader and the brave warlord

I stepped into one of the upper galleries of the ArtScience Museum and found myself greeting an imposing statue of Genghis Khan sitting on his throne. My gut feel told me that I would be walking through an exhibition that will get me closer up with this great leader, Genghis Khan.

An excerpt from the introduction on the brochure of Genghis Khan - The Exhibition reads:

With the largest collection of Genghis Khan artifacts ever assembled from the conqueror's reign, it tells the story of the man whose innovation, technological mastery and cultural creativity gave him the reputation of one of the world's greatest yet most misunderstood leaders.

This excerpt suggested that the exhibition will help me better understand Genghis Khan, one of the world's greatest leaders of the massive Mongol Empire. According to wikipedia, the Mongol Empire "is commonly referred to as the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world. At its greatest extent it spanned 6,000 mi (9,700 km), covered an area of 34,000,000 km2 (13,127,000 sq mi), 22% of the Earth's total land area, and held sway over a population of 100 million." The Mongol Empire is huge!

What were the secrets to Genghis Khan's successes as one of the world's greatest leaders?

The Genghis Khan - The Exhibition, held at the ArtScience Museums, explores this question and many more through some of the following sections of the exhibitions:

Genghis Khan's Roots
In this section, visitors learn about Genghis Khan's birthplace and the nomadic lifestyle.

I learnt that Genghis Khan's birthname was "Borjigin Temüjin". He was born of a noble background and is therefore considered to have a high social standing in his community. He had a difficult childhood and that might have strengthened him to be a tenacious leader.

Speaking about his name, I learnt that Genghis Khan's name is spelled and said in more than one way. The Mongolians and Russians call him "Chinggis", whereas people in the West commonly use "Genghis".

At this section, my attention was briefly diverted to reading about his mother, Hoelun, who came across to me as a woman with resilence and wisdom. She raised her children almost single-handedly under harsh living conditions.

Rise of the Mongols
In this section, visitors could find out how Genghis Khan had built up and organised such a strong army. Apparently, the skills and the weapons employed by the Mongol warrior did matter a great deal.

My attention was drawn to the Mongol warriors' flexible recurved composite bow. One such bow can take as long as a year to make. The raw materials used were wood, iron, animal horn and bamboo. When a Mongol warrior's bow is pulled back with great strength, the bow can shot further than bows used by the Mongol warrior's opponents. The firing range is as far as 350 yards. Furthermore, Mongol warriors in Genghis Khan's armies have brilliant archery skills to make effective use of these wonderful bows.

One piece of information on the Mongol warriors and their bows surprised me. I learnt that in efforts to prevent the bows from getting stiff in the cold weather, the Mongol warriors would often sleep with their bows. These bows must have been very prized objects.

Building An Empire
If winning battles is about brutal strength and might, then building one of the largest empire in the history of the world was an achievement that could only be made with ingenious strategy and military tactics. I was pretty fascinated by some of the strategies used by Genghis Khan. However, I shall ask that if you are interested, please find these strategies out on your own at the exhibition.

Genghis Statesman
No one knows what had caused the death of Genghis Khan and the location of his grave. In this section which I could not quite comprehend, there is a mummy and tomb content of an aristocratic Mongolian woman. I was told that the mummy could shed some light of the type of burial that Genghis Khan might have had.

After Genghis Khan
This section discusses about the continuation of the Mongol Empire after Genghis Khan's death. The city of Karakorum left an impression on me. The reason was that it was my very first time hearing about this city.

This city was built by Ogodei Khan, the third son of Genghis Khan. It was used as an international centre of trade and diplomacy. Even though this city was quite a fair distance away from the Silk Road, many traders would still travel the extra miles to trade in the city of Karakorum. There was a map at the exhibition showing the approximate location of Karakorum and finding it appeared require some treasure-hunting skills.

Nearby this section, there is a performing space for visitors to be treated to performances by the Khan Bogd Ensemble. The Khan Bogd Ensemble will be performing daily from 12 Mar through 10 Apr 2011 (except on Tuesdays) at 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. I was very delighted by their Mongolian Throat singing techniques and musical performances. I was also intrigued by musical instruments such as the Morin Khuur (horse-head fiddle).

Please click on the photo right above to be linked to a YouTube video of

a performance by Khan Bogd Ensemble.

Following the musical performances by Khan Bogd Ensemble, the audience were treated to a dance performance. I vaguely remember that it was a ritual dance. The musical performance and the dance were wonderful. I think the entire set of performances would have been perfect if a staff from the ArtScience Museum who could converse well enough in English could play a good host to be their emcee throughout the performance.

There were a few other sections in this exhibition but I was not as interested in them. Perhaps I was overwhelmed by the many treats that the ArtScience Museum had to offer?

Despite being rather overwhelmed by the many exhibits, a piece of white cotton cloth had somehow caught my eyes. Guess what it is?

If you have guessed that it is genealogy of Genghis Khan, you are right. The Mongolians are very serious about tracing their ancestry. "Recent genetic studies have indicated that at least 16 million men living today are descendants of a Mongolian male who had lived 1000 years ago!"

Yet we are aware that the plain-looking piece of cloth would not entice the attention of the young visitors. To meet the interests of the young visitors, there is a colourful yurt at the exhibition. I wonder how many young visitors ended up playing hide-and-seek in this colourful yurt?

The best reward about visiting a museum is that of learning something new. I learnt that it was Genghi Khan who had introduced the following everyday-life features to the West. These features were: chopped meat, paper money, fork, passport, eye-glass, pants and National Parks.

Concluding, what exactly are the secrets to Genghis Khan's successes as one of the world's greatest leaders? Rather than being issued answers directly, visitors to "Genghis Khan - The exhibition" are invited to participate in a discussion and exploration of Genghis Khan as a leader.

In my humble opinion, Genghis Khan's successes as one of the world's greatest leaders were contributed by the following factors:

1) Family background - His noble background makes it easier for him to garner the support of his fellow Mongolians from the various tribes.
2) Personality traits - His tenacious and resilient personality.
3) Good strategies - He was good in employing battle tactics and brilliant war strategies.
4) Skills - He was a brave and skilled warrior himself.
5) Leadership qualities - He had pretty effective people management skills to facilitate the people in his army to be disciplined, skilled and loyal.
6) Resources - He made sure that the warriors in his army has proper resources and tools to increase their chances of successes in conquering new lands.

I suppose there were more factors that had contributed to his success and I shall leave things open for your further discussion. Please feel free to comment and discuss.

This exhibition is held at the ArtScience Museum, Singapore from 19 Feb - 10 Apr 2011. That means that there is only two weeks left to catch this in Singapore!

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A special note of thanks to the ArtScience Museum, the National Heritage Board and Mr Shaun Wong for the invitation to a complimentary visit to and a guided tour of the ArtScience Museum on 20 Mar 2011.

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Related posts by other authors:
The Silk, Sunken and Spears - Chapter One by Urban Explorers of Singapore.
Sponsored Event: Trip to ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands on Sunday, 20 March 2011 by Jade Isabelle.
A day at the ArtScience Museum by Nur Shakylla Nadhra.

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Genghis Khan - The Exhibition
19 Feb - 10 Apr 2011

Art Science Museum, Singapore
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956
Tel: 6688 8868

Operating hours: 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. with the last admission at 9 p.m.

Admission Charges
(Includes GST and SISTIC booking fee)
Adult - $30.00
Senior (65 years +) - $27.00
Child (2 - 12 years) - $17.00
School Group - $10.00
Group Sales* - $24.50
* Minimum purchase of 25 tickets