Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Yesterday Kevin and I visited the Greek Masterpieces from the Lourve exhibition at the National Museum. I hadn't been to the museum since it was renovated, so it was quite an experience. The last time I went to the museum, or any museum for that matter, was when I was in lower secondary. I vaguely remember the place being rather dark and dingy and the exhibits totally drab (remember those tiny plasticky figurines jerked into various poses of 'historicity' in the Singapore history diorama, trotting out the SS textbook version of national history to unsuspecting students and tourists?). I also remember instinctively rushing to the door of the gallery displaying Farquhar's animal/plant doodlings in a moment of horror upon suddenly seeing my Sec 2 form teacher's face in the mirror. The security guard thought I had seen a ghost but I think I found my teacher more revolting than any wandering spectre.
But the National Museum is now bright, airy and quite a successful hybrid of tradition and (post)modernity. Nothing spooky about it anymore. I particularly liked the mechanical oscillating red chandeliers hung high up on the glass ceiling of the new extension. They seem to 'update' the traditional colonial heritage of the museum (and of Singapore) with a modern fascination with the speed and movement of machines, without going the way of the Italian Futurists.
The exhibition was pretty informative, but my primary interest was in the artefacts as works of art (in one sense to the ancient Greeks and in another sense to 'moderns' like us) and as 'real' objects the ancient Greeks have sculpted and painted and eaten and drunk with and been buried with. It's actually quite difficult to imagine that the amphora standing serenely in a glass case in front of you was actually used as a practical utensil by individuals 2000 years ago. I would have liked to have been able to touch the artefacts and literally feel their historicity, but that would have gotten me hauled out of the musuem by the guards.
The most breath-taking exhibit was definitely the 2m-tall Venus statue (I forget the exact name). When I first laid my eyes on it, I was like, wow. It was flawless, not a chip on the body, not an imperfection on the surface. Everything was so carefully carved, down to the flowing folds of Venus' robes. And then you realize that this isn't the original statue by a Greek sculptor - it's actually a Roman copy. But by adding the magical words "in Antiquity", the imitation becomes just as valuable as if it was the original. It's fascinating how a simulacrum can attain its own "aura" after a suitably long period of time has passed.
After we finished walking around the exhibition, Kevin and I headed down to The Picturehouse to catch the latest anime film showing in Singapore, Vexille. The CG animation and action scenes get two thumbs up, and the premise of the story is intriguing (already I sense a potential paper on anime and Japan's reflection on its past brewing at the back of my mind), but the film's concerns with technology felt a bit rehashed and simplistic after the phenomenon of Ghost in the Shell. Characterization was also pretty shallow. The mad scientist/dictator character was a bit of a cliche. But it's still a pretty good film and very good animation. Singapore's attempts at animation (just watch the trailers of Zodiac and Legend of the Sea) look like a baby's scratchings in comparison =____=;
kaoru said at 6:19 PM
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