Diary of an NUS Museum Intern: Luqman Hakim

Note: Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Working alongside their mentors, our interns have waded through tons of historical research, assisted in curatorial work, pitched in during exhibition installations and organised outreach events! If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information! 

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Luqman Hakim is a third year English Literature student at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. During his time here as our Exhibitions intern, Luqman assisted in both the research and exhibition making process for “… you have to lose your way to find yourself in the right place” | Selected Works by Gilles Massot

The value of the Museum Exhibition/Internship

There seems to be a belief that artworks within a museum are somehow more “valuable”, in a certain way, beyond artworks that are kept up in storage or decaying away in the privacy of a collector’s possession. The question that naturally comes up with such a belief is where exactly does this value come from? What was the difference between say, the art pieces in a museum and that which hung in a person’s home or ones which were stowed away? What gave these pieces of artwork that value and meaning in being arranged in a certain way or in a certain manner? All these questions, and possibly even more, were at the back of my mind as I ventured into the NUS museum internship in May of this year. Admittedly I went into the internship with the simple, and basic, thought of wanting to have my time be occupied over the summer being the main desire. There was no higher or noble desire out of mine. 

 Lifeblood of society

I was assigned to help one of the curators, Foo Su Ling, with an upcoming exhibition (which is open as of the time of writing so do visit it) which dealt with the work of a Singapore-based French photographer who has lived in Singapore longer than I have been alive. It was, by far, both the most interesting aspect of my internship as well as the one that required the most work from myself. While I did enter this process around halfway through the erection of the exhibition, it is in this entrance to the background process of an exhibition that I really discovered and found where exactly the sort of value that I was thinking about at the start of this blogpost came from, the labour of all who contributed to the exhibition beyond simply the artist. While it is of no doubt that the artist is an important part of any museum exhibition given that the material on display comes from these artists, it can also be said that the exhibition would not be the same without the efforts and labour of every single person setting up the exhibition.

The labourer is alienated from his work

And it was in this labour that I found to have been the most enriching aspect of my internship. Being involved directly with the process of an exhibition has given me a far greater understanding of the museum and its processes. From the labour the curator puts in through the selection of the artworks and its placement, and much much more, to the labour the art handlers put in through pure physical labour with the measuring to the placement of artworks on the walls, all of this culminates together and creates the value that makes a museum exhibition that much more wonderful beyond a simple piece of art at home. Take for example the four “statues” located at the center of the exhibition. Originally part of the old Tanjong Pagar train station, the four “statues” instead gain both new meaning and new value within the exhibition as a sort of metaphor for arrival in an exhibition dealing with notions of travel and transnationalism. This in turn would not have been possible without the labour of the curator and the art handlers in ensuring that such an artwork manages to shine in all its glory.

and the exhibition comes alive

The labour involved in my internship as well was not limited to merely within the exhibition. The sort of shared camaraderie the interns had certainly made the experience of a “job” that much more enriching as we enjoyed each other’s company, even going so far as to engage in bouts of singing during times of rest and boredom. Even the actual process of the project (which admittedly we weren’t exactly looking forward to) was made bearable/a bit enjoyable thanks to the efforts of my groupmates in ensuring a quick and easy resolution. While an internship isn’t exactly the place to be making friends, the NUS museum and how it is structured certainly allowed for the opportunity, and reasoning, to make friends.

A mix of poor undergrads, people who have graduated, and people who have careers

Even in the academic side, I’ve learnt a lot from my time in NUS museum. My involvement in the exhibition allowed me to gain a glimpse of what work was needed in order to ensure a smooth enough opening. Beyond simple errands like buying equipment for the exhibition and the framing of certain pieces, I was also involved in a bit of research in order to ensure that everything that was going to be put up was both accurate and easily accessible for anyone who was curious. This act of research, both during the preparations for the exhibition as well as after in my bit of research for the archaeology library, gave me a better understanding of the sort of work I needed to do if I intended to continue on in an academic field. 

All in all, the NUS museum internship has given me far more than just an additional feature on my CV, it has given me a better outlook into the processes behind what makes an exhibition that much more valuable. It has given me a glimpse into the sort of future I may have going into an academic field. It has allowed me to meet a wonderful bunch of people, both permanent staff and fellow interns. And most of all, it has allowed me to really appreciate all the labour that is involved in any action that we, as people, perform alongside the value it generates.

It’s a good world