Asian Civilisation Museum (ACM) opens three new exhibitions and they will run through 28 February 2021. They are:
- Faith Beauty Love Hope – Our Stories, Your ACM, a special exhibition of stories from the heart and imagination of staff and supporters of the museum, inspired by the best of ACM’s collection;
- Perfect Stranger by Singaporean artist Dawn Ng, revealing the wonder of human connection; and
- thINK: Chinese Calligraphy, Connoisseurship, and Collection (read “think ink”), an exhibition presenting the intimate relationship between collector, collection, and the making of a legacy. thINK will run for a longer period till 25 April 2021.
Together, the three exhibitions spotlight the community of people behind ACM, revealing the lesser-known human side of the museum through stories and perspectives of staff, tenants, partners, artists, and collectors.
Faith Beauty Love Hope – Our Stories, Your ACM presents more than 60 treasures from ACM’s extensive collection, with some masterpieces preented for the first time, or first in many years. Displayed at the Special Exhibition Gallery on Level 2, the exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to experience these objects up-close, both physically and emotionally, as they read anecdotes and musings from the ACM community. These include contributions from a conservator, a security supervisor, student volunteers, and museum director Kennie Ting, among many others.
At a time when we may be separated from who or what we love due to geographical and physical distancing measures, technology has allowed us to stay connected through memories and renewed conversations. A digital presentation will accompany the exhibition other spectacular pieces handpicked by ACM’s staff and stakeholders.
This broken procelain bowl is one of may found in waste piles at kiln sites in Dehua, Fujian province, China. These white porcelain vessels were exported to Southeast Asia from the Song dynasty (960-1279) and later to Europe from the 17th century. Collectors in Europe loved this pristine, white procelain where it became known as blanc de Chine (“white from China”). Its popularity at home and abroad continues, and the kilns at Dehua remain active to this day.
To ACM Project Coordinator Sofie Roshide, this bowl represents us as individuals; vessels that hold may things and we break when struggling with stress and anxiety. But the “broken” part is what changes us and each of them is a chance to change our way of thinking and to re-build ourselves. The object is on display for the first time at ACM – virtually, on the exhibition’s digital screen.
Celebrating what we have gained as we leave behind this year of challenges, visitors are invited to submit their own stories via a digital repository at the end of the exhibition, and online from January 2021.
Experience an Ephemeral Friendship with a Stranger
Located at the Level 2 Foyer. local artist, Dawn Ng’s Perfect Stranger cotemporary installation greets visitors with a vast sea of paper washed in a gradient of words and color. Acting as a narrative time capsule, the installations stems from Dawn’s daily Q&A project in 2016, where she exchanged thoughts with stranger – Israeli psychologist, Zehavit Efrati (who was based in Singapore at the time) – every day over the course of a year.
First shown in 2018, this iteration at ACM presnets the work in its entirety for the first time, staged in the artist’s originally conceived format. Visitors are invited to choose their own adventure in this meditative experience, where they are free to weave between the artworks into Dawn’s world and reflect on their own sense of time, sense, and self this 2020.
Contemplate our Relationships with the Past and Present through the Art of Collection
In thINK: Chinese Calligraphy, Connoisseurships, and Collecting, ACM marries history with the comtemporary through the collection of long-time lender to ACM Dr Yuan Shao Liang, who has supported the musuem since it’s first opening in 1997. 23 objects were selected from Dr Yuan’s extensive collections of literati objects as well as books and letters from important personalities from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The exhibitions aims to evoke personal responses towards the act of remembering and collecting, as visitors are introduced to human-to-human relationships, political sentiments, military affairs, and antiquity trading via the Chinese and ink and literati pieces.
Faith Beauty Love Hope – Our Stories, Your ACM and Perfect Stranger wil run through 28 February 2021. thINK: Chinese Calligraphy, Connoisseurship, and Collection will run until 25 April 2021.
