Film Screening | Sinbad, Shipwreck, and Singapore, 30 November 2011, 7pm, NUS MUSEUM

                                          Photo by Nurul Huda

Sinbad, Shipwreck, and Singapore

Film Screening

30 November 2011

7pm – 8pm

As part of a collaboration between the University Scholars Program (USP) and the NUS Museum, Sinbad, Shipwreck, and Singapore is a module-based project revolving around the exploration of varying interpretations and cultural issues related to the Belitung Shipwreck (sometimes known as the Batu Hitam wreck). Through the use of contemporary, fictional, and historical materials, students studied the shipwreck and its historical context in the first half of the semester. This was followed by meetings with contemporary Singaporean artists, Noor Effendy and Victric Thng, who introduced and discussed issues concerning the articulation of information and ideas through methods of filming and scriptwriting. The final product is a set of creative and through-provoking short films, produced, directed, and edited by the students, as they share their tales of the sea.

This segment will feature a short introduction by Professor John Miksic, followed by the students’ presentations of their short films.


Click here to view e-flyer

Friday Evening @ NUS MUSEUM | Street scenes: Drawing and Watercolor Workshop for Beginners

10 Sessions: 16 Dec 2011 - 3 Mar 2012
Time: 6.30 pm - 9.30 pm *
Venue: NUS MUSEUM and
various outdoor locations
(in & around NUS Baba House, 157 Neil Road)

Fees: $ 400 (excluding materials)

Limited to 10pax only
To register email:museum@nus.edu.sg
or call 6516 8429

Upon receiving a confirmation email, please make the course fee payment by Friday, 9 December 2011

* Timing varies for outdoor sessions

Calendars (2020-2096)

click the above image to view gallery impressions

Calendars (2020-2096)

Date: 2 December 2011 - 12 Febuary 2012

Venue: NUS Museum

Calendars (2020-2096) comprises of 1,001 images of deserted public interiors in Singapore photographed over a span of 7 years (2004-2010). It signals specific concerns of Heman Chong's practice, one that can be located in the intersection between time, space and situation.

The 'archive' of images, set within the premise of how one marks time, generates an imaginary meandering within the interiors of Singapore, a city that is constantly being remade, often appropriating signs and styles from a wide spectrum of influences. Based on a series of revisitations to the public spaces that Chong has a prior relationship to - shopping centers, museums, MRT stations, schools - the artist carefully frames the spaces without attempting to add any new meaning to the space.

No permission was requested for any of the photographs captured, nor any prior arrangement was made to have it devoid of people. Thus, the photographs veer less towards the staged, but rather can be seen as ready-mades. Yet this appropriation very quickly transmutes into another creature: one of fiction and narrative. The project can be viewed in its entirety as a novel about interior spaces, as well as, a historical (also a kind of imaginary fiction) document of interior spaces.

Filipiniana: Collecting Culture in the Philippines by Patrick D. Flores, 2 December 2011, 6.30pm, NUS MUSEUM

 The collector Jorge Vargas and family in their living room in Manila, surrounded by paintings of Juan Luna

Date: Friday, 2 December 2011

Time: 6.30pm

Venue: NUS MUSEUM

Admission is free

RSVP: museum@nus.edu.sg
or (65) 6516 8817 / 8429

This presentation traces how a collection of things considered “cultural” is formed in the various phases in the project of the nation and its consolidation in the Philippines.  It focuses on three collecting agents (Jorge Vargas, Fernando Zobel, and Arturo Luz) and their practice to reflect on different historical periods from the mid-twentieth century through the Pacific War and on to the seventies, surveying the political tendencies attending imperialism, war, and post-independence nation-building.  The government of Ferdinand Marcos, largely through the efforts of First Lady Imelda Marcos, oversaw the most extensive cultural development program in this history, an analysis of which brings this paper to complete the loop of its reflection: the aspiration to render a post-colonial exhibitionary aesthetic for a living culture that has survived successive colonialisms. This takes us to the Cultural Center of the Philippines, main edifice of the Marcos cultural policy, after the uprising in 1986, when a Museum of Philippine Culture was opened under the curatorial direction of Marian Pastor Roces. It is perhaps only Roces among her peers in the Philippines who has had the opportunity to revisit the vexed modernity of collecting culture in the Center, organize an alternative to it, and live to tell the tale of its failure. Her candid and cogent thoughts on this process finally lead us to reconsider earlier models of the universal exposition, the local museum, and the transnational art center.

Talk & Film Screening | BEYOND BENGAL & “BRING ‘EM BACK ALIVE”, 17 November 2011

Date: Thursday, 17 November 2011
6:30pm - 7:00pm - Talk by Dr Sandra Khor Manickam & A/P Timothy P. Barnard
7:00pm - 8:00pm - Beyond Bengal
8:00pm - 8:15pm - Brief interval
8:15pm - 9:00pm - “BRING ‘EM BACK ALIVE”

Admission is free. Please register at museum@nus.edu.sg or call 6516 8429 / 6516 8817

The movie “Beyond Bengal” was written and directed by Harry Schenck and released in the USA in 1934. Shot in Perak, British Malaya, with the cooperation of the Sultan of Perak and the assistance of colonial officers, the film is part of the genre of exploitation films, exposing the deep, dark recesses of the jungles of faraway places. The film features a mix of National Geographic-like footage of Perak in the 1930s, elements of exotic exploitation in the love story between two natives, and it injects a good measure of horror in the scenes of crocodiles eating humans. Bewildering, entertaining and truly a movie of its time and culture, “Beyond Bengal” will be shown in tandem with an episode of 1980s American television series “Bring ‘Em Back Alive!”, which focused on the life of animal collector Frank Buck in Singapore and Malaya, to show the fascination American movie-makers had about Malaya, and their attempts at representing Malaya through film.

Sandra Khor Manickam has recently been awarded her PhD from the Australian National University, School of Cultures, History and Languages. Her dissertation focused on the construction of aboriginal races in the history of anthropology of British Malaya. Dr Manickam has a long-standing interest in issues surrounding nation, race and knowledge formation in Malaya. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Department of History, National University of Singapore.

Timothy P. Barnard is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. His main area of research is on the cultural and environmental history of Southeast Asia, with particular attention to the Malay world. He has published a number of articles and book chapters on Malay film in Singapore.

 Click here to read e-flyer

Date: 4 December 2011, Sunday
Venue: NUS Museum
Time: 10am-5pm


Limited to 20 participants (ages 9-12)

Course Fee: $10 (inclusive of 1 adult admission)

To register, email museum@nus.edu.sg. For enquiries, call 6516 8817 / 8428
Upon receiving a confirmation email, please make the course fee payment by 20 November


Photography for Children is a workshop designed for children and their parents to learn about the basics of digital photography within the environments of a museum to nurture a new museum-going audience. The workshop will also include a field shoot to the nearby Haw Par Villa for a participants to try out their new skills! (Participants are required to bring their own digital point & shoot cameras for this workshop.)

About the Instructor
Chia Yan Wei is a photographer, designer and educator teaching design and photography courses at Objectifs: Centre for Photography and Filmmaking. She is also actively involved in arts education programmes with the Lindy Hop Ensemble (Singapore) in various schools in Singapore. As a photographer, Yan Wei has been featured as emerging young talent in Asian Photography magazine and has also exhibited her design work in the Milan Fair and the Shanghai World Expo.

Click here to view e-flyer

Batik Painting for the Family, 3 December 2011

Date: 3 December 2011, Saturday
Venue: NUS Museum
Time: Session 1: 10am -12pm
         Session 2: 2pm - 4pm

Limited to 10 pairs of parent and child per session
To register, email museum@nus.edu.sg. For enquiries, call 6516 8817 / 8428
Upon receiving a confirmation email, please make the course fee payment by 20 November

To encourage bonding within the family, NUS Museum has designed a fun and interactive batik painting workshop for families to take part in. Parent and child will pair up to learn the history, art and techniques of this traditional Asian art. Families can also look forward to working together to wax and colour their very own batik creation!

About the InstructorsKamal’s Artshop has been providing art education services to Singapore schools since 2006. Their artist-teachers specialise in art forms such batik paintings, cartoon caricatures, watercolours and graffiti art. All programmes are endorsed by the National Arts Council of Singapore. Kamal’s Artshop was started by Mohammed Kamal Bin Dollah, a Singaporean artist, art educator and professional caricaturist.

Click here to view e-flyer

NUS MUSEUM Programmes in Conjunction with Explore Singapore

Art Writing 101, 3 December 2011, 10 am to 5pm, NUS MUSEUM

                                [ABOVE] NUS Museum collections, Camping and Tramping, Throught the Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya
                                           [LEFT] Marcel Duchamp "Coat Hanger", Centre Pompidou, Paris. Photograph by Jill Chuang


You've always wanted to write about art, and didn't know where to start: For new arts managers, students
considering working in the arts, museum and gallery folks, art aficionados, corporate art program persons.

Date  : 3 December 2011 (Saturday)
Venue : NUS MUSEUM
Time  : 10 am to 5pm
Fees  : $ 100 for Gallery/  arts organisation
                     personnel/ NUS staffs/ students/ alumini
  : $130 for public
  : $70 NUS Students
  : $30 registration fee (non-­‐refundable)


Programme Outline
1. Visual Arts: Critical Appreciation
2. Assigning Meanings
3. Writing Short Descriptions about Art & Objects
3 sessions x 2 hours, total 6 hours.


 To register email theo.bookme@gmail.com


Course Leader
Seah Tzi-Yan directed an art gallery for 17 years, was co-founder of the Art Galleries Association, Singapore (1996) & ARTSingapore (2000). She has much experience in developing exhibition programs. She has lectured extensively on arts management practice at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts where she adjunct lectures on the diploma and degree programs. She ran the Education Program for ARTSingapore 2010. Recently, she led a team of conservation trained dressers for “Valentino Retrospective” at Resorts World Sentosa under Les Arts Decoratifs, Paris.

click here to read e-flyer
click here to download the registeration form

Talk & Film Screening | Singapura Dilanggar Todak, 10 Nov'11

                                             Film Stills by Shaw Organisation Pte Ltd

Date: Thursday, 10 November 2011
6.30pm:  Talk by A/P Timothy P. Barnard
6.45pm:  Screening of Singapura Dilanggar Todak  (In Malay with English language subtitles)

Admission is free. Please register at museum@nus.edu.sg or call 6516 8429 / 6516 8817

Drawing on a 14th century myth in the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), the film Singapura Dilanggar Todak tells of the folly of Paduka Sri Maharaja, the ruler of Singapura. In the tale, a young boy saves the inhabitants of Singapura from deadly swordfish attacks only to fall prey to court intrigues. The Sejarah Melayu goes on to state that the guilt of the boy’s tragic end was laid on Singapura. Using the film as a point of reference, A/P Timothy P. Barnard will discuss how the 14th century myth has undergone numerous ‘retellings’ and how each retelling is inextricably linked to the rewriting of history.

Singapura Dilanggar Todak was produced in 1962 by Omar Rojik, an established Malay director with Shaw Brothers. The film is in Malay and for this screening it will be shown for the first time with English language subtitles.

Timothy P. Barnard is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. His main area of research is on the cultural and environmental history of Southeast Asia, with particular attention to the Malay world. He has published a number of articles and book chapters on Malay film in Singapore, and is currently working on a book on the history of the Komodo Dragon.

Event supported by

Shaw Organisation Pte Ltd

click here to view e-flyer

Framing the Familiar: Photographing the Family

As part of The Photography Series held at the museum on 20 October, our two speakers, Dr. Oh Soon-Hwa and photographer Sean Lee, covered interesting aspects of what it means to photograph the family.

Dr. Oh Soon-Hwa introduced the works of several photographers and their different perspectives and interpretations of what make up the 'family portrait'; non-conventional captures that sometimes force the eyes to look away, momentarily. Through these works, we are introduced to different manifestations of the family, ethnographic slices into different spaces and livelihoods, and how they exist (or rather, are portrayed). These captures are evidently different from what would we otherwise recognize as 'normal' family portraits and thus, challenge our ideas of how the family can be presented and discussed.

Below is a list of the photographers introduced during the talk, along with their works. 

Sally Mann | Nan Goldin | Larry Sultan | Elinor Carucci | Philip Lorca diCorcia | Chris Verene
Click on name for link to photographer's work

Photographer Sean Lee shared his series "Homework", which involves not merely the documentation of the relationship between his family members, but also in creating personalities within carnivalesque set-ups that yield elements of the theatrical. His photographs do not just present us with the role each family member plays - mother, father, sister, brother - but also introduces us to the characters each family member adopts. He morphs their bodies into beings; masks their superficial; exposes the hurt. Sean also shared that in photographing his family, albeit through these unconventional captures, he is creating a family album as the family gets together for these shots, and in the process, develop shared experiences and memories of their time together.

Below is a short film featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Sean and his "Homework" shoot.



shot by Invisible Photographer Asia