This week, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is set to open its biggest exhibition dedicated to a Singapore contemporary fashion designer to date: Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World, which features over 100 works from the iconoclastic designer. More details below.
In recent years, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) has expanded its portfolio: for example, its #SGFASHIONNOW series explores Singapore’s contemporary fashion (a topic previously not covered by the institution), and its latest exhibition continues in that vein. Titled Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World, the retrospective traces the career of one of Singapore’s most high-profile and prolific designers on the global stage – Gn’s creations have been worn by real-life and on-screen royalty such as Emma Stone, Fan Bing Bing, Maggie Cheung, Kareena Kapoor, Kit Chan, Lady Gaga, Queen Rania of Jordan, Yang Mi, and many others.
The retrospective is ACM’s largest exhibition celebrating a contemporary Singapore fashion designer – the show is divided into five sections, with over 100 works installed that delve into Gn’s Asian background, as well as how he meshed that with Western art in his work.
“While my label House of Andrew Gn flourished in France, it is Asia where my story began and where my roots lie. The exhibition presents a 28-year voyage, featuring cherished archival pieces that hold great significance to my story and work as a designer,” says Gn. “I hope this gift of my archive to Singapore and the ACM collection inspires more people to embrace their roots and enrich audiences with contemporary fashion presentations celebrating the rich, diverse cultures and histories of Asia and beyond.”
More information on the exhibition here.
May 27-Sep 13, 10am-7pm (10am- 9pm on Fridays) at Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Place
The Singapore International Festival of Arts has been the premier event in the local performing arts scene since it debuted in 1977 and more than ever, the emphasis on cross-disciplinary works is heavily palpable. The current edition is titled The Anatomy of Performance – Some People, with theatre practitioner Natalie Hennedige returning as festival director for a second year.
This year’s edition was designed to delve into the spectrum of the human experience with works that encompass those who “grieve, transform, remember, dominate, disappear, feel, prevail, linger, shimmer, observe, reclaim, endure, dare, and transcend”.
With the festival determined to be a cutting-edge catalyst for creative intersections between international and local artists, the line-up is wide-ranging and spans many disciplines, including a burlesque-meets-rope performance titled Love Divine that’s staged at, of all places, Ce La Vi, featuring artists SUKKI (formerly Sukki Singapora) and Daniel Kok & Luke George, as well as a series of animated digital works by artist Mojoko (pictured) that relate to privacy in the digital sphere – extremely relevant to most people today.
For more information on the full extensive line-up, head here.
On now till June 4 at various locations
Far-flung locations like South American forests and the Arctic waters may seem like they only belong in documentaries but this new exhibition promises to recreate them (right down to each landscape’s unique scents) in the comfort of a gallery at ArtScience Museum.
Titled Sensory Odyssey: Into the Heart of Our Living World, the exhibition spans some of the natural world’s most extraordinary settings, from the African savannah to the glacier-ridden waters of Greenland, with each habitat featuring ultra-high-definition original footage shot on location around the world by filmmakers. The exhibition was developed by a cross-disciplinary team of 350 artists, designers, biologists, engineers, developers, neuroscientists, with each scene accompanied by a 360-degree ambient soundscape, including works by Oscar-winning composer Nicolas Becker.
Get your tickets here.
May 27-Oct 29, 10am-7pm daily at ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue
The Esplanade’s Flipside festival has traditionally been the fun, family-friendly counterpoint to the Singapore International Festival of Arts. It has evolved over the years to offer plenty of free acts at the DBS Foundation Outdoor Theatre, and this year, circus and aerial acts are back in full force. Besides the giant seagulls of Snuff Puppets, watch out for home-grown Bornfire Circus’ Forget Me Not and Aerial Open Stage with 13 aerialists. Audiences of all ages will definitely get a kick out of Bakeke (Bucket), where a lone performer interacts with a lot of buckets. There are treats, too, for adult fans of puppetry with two theatre offerings. Chimpanzee (pictured) is a puppet play telling the moving story of an ape raised like a human child in a family, while The Old Trout Puppet Workshop offers a much sillier show with Famous Puppet Death Scenes.
More details here.
May 26-June 4, various times, at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, 1 Esplanade Drive
Parts of this article first appeared in The Straits Times