Diary of an NUS Museum Intern: Anthony Nusrihan
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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Anthony Nusrihan is a final year Fine Art student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. As our Collections Management Assistant Intern, Anthony has assisted our collections team with various projects and exhibitions which also includes the handling and cataloging of artefacts from our Archaeology Library.
Looking at art has always been fascinating for me. To view and feel the world in a manner other than one’s own perspective, to broaden one’s intellect and let fly one’s spirit. These traits of art have always been centre-stage to me, a Fine Art student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. I major in Painting, so the collections of the NUS Museum have really been a rich seam for me to mine, visually, intellectually. From paintings of distant landscapes shrouded in mists to expressionistic depictions of the pulse of life in Singapore in the 50s and 60s. Gazing at Chinese ceramics, one then encounters ancient Hindu and Buddhist sculpture. At the same time, contemporary artworks are weaved into these spaces, thus a mosaic of sorts arises for the visitor to make use of however they will.
But for me personally, it was like stepping onto another shore. Art students are focused predominantly on art production, on making, on creation. So to step into a museum space and for the first time as someone on the inside, it was like realising where all the art made goes to. We send out messages in a bottle, and some make their way to a museum’s collection.
I served as Collections Management Intern for 5 months, so the scope I was given was large. Most of the time I spent assisting the Collection team, and this meant physically handling many artefacts during the Asset Verification Exercise, a.k.a Stock Take. The one I was involved with surveyed all 10,000 artefacts and happens every three years, so I was very fortunate to intern when I did. I handled and observed ancient Chinese ceramics and sculpture, pots, dishes, urns, ink pots etc. Paintings and sketchbooks by Ng Eng Teng, batik artworks, numerous textiles, Baba House ornaments; in short an intimate glance at many of the museum’s collection. To this I am ever grateful.
Cataloguing was also a major part of my experience. When Jimmy Ong was preparing for an exhibition at the museum, I was responsible for collating all of his miscellaneous photos, sketches, documents and compiling them into a readable document. This was to form a Loan Agreement he would then sign with the museum. Much of Collections Management entails looking after the artworks in the collection, so these agreements constitute first of all responsibility to the party in whose care the artworks reside.
A large part of the internship also included cataloguing hundreds of sherds from across time and geography. 700 year old ceramics from Singapore’s ancient maritime roots in the 14th century, a Ming/Yuan Compass bowl and numerous finds from Trowulan. This included meticulous work photographing the sherds, handling their often brittle forms and setting up my workplace at different spaces around the museum.
A Collections team would also assist Curators in the assembling of exhibitions. I helped with the Coordinates Project, an exhibition in coordination with the Singapore Biennale 2019, with Hu Yun, who put together sculptures and photographs made by the late artists Shui Tit Sing which were then contrasted with dioramas of milestones of Singaporean history. These dioramas were made by Filipino craftsman and were found in Elias Park Primary School. In the assembling of the exhibition, I assisted with the placement of the sculptures, securing them to pedestals, preparing the texts, painting the pedestals. Through this project, I also managed to get a sense of how different artworks weave into one another within a space, and the ensuing dialogue. It is fascinating actually, how works, if placed in the right way, can really open new doors of perception for the viewer, and this may help in one forming their own unique ways of looking at history, time, place, the role of the arts in human civilisation and etc.
Further on in the internship, I assisted the Outreach team with the French film screenings, Derivee/Arivee and visited the Baba House numerous times to help out with cleaning, stock take, locating artefacts etc.
The last segment involved responding to the proposed Museum definition by ICOM, an international network of museums around the world.
Proposed definition: Museums are democratising, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artefacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people.
Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing.
Existing definition: A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.
My response is simply that the proposed definition has good intentions, but lacks the specificity of the existing definition. The existing definition lays out in clear terms what a museum is, its function and its role. The proposed definition on the other hand seems to posit political positions that may seem off-putting to various other political persuasions as it tries to uphold only one. The lack of the educational function is also in need of reworking. However, my personal opinion is that the proposed definition sets out good and timely intentions for this century, but could try to rise above and beyond politics to appeal to humanity itself, rather than current political persuasions.
If museums responded and presented what makes us all collectively human, and defended those virtues while being above political doctrines, I feel that would be a good direction to head into.
On a last note, my internship at the NUS Museum has deepened my appreciation in art-making and art-viewing, as well as broadened my views on history, discourse and making up my own mind as to what is what. The museum has a strong spot for getting its audiences to find intellectual independence, and that is something immensely valuable. The whole close-knit team at the museum, Michelle who let me in and guided me throughout in many ways, Aini, Devi and Lynn who were an incredible Collections team, Sid who showed me the ropes of Curating, Sabapathy who proves time and again an illuminating presence, Greg who also let me in, Su Ling who showed me sherds, the Baba House and how Prof. Miksic conducts his research, the Curatorial and Outreach teams, Ahmad who runs the place with a strong intellectual compass, the museum wardens and cleaners and everyone else who made my time at the NUS Museum such a rich and rewarding one, both professionally and personally.
The museum is like a ship, with captain, first-mate, oarsmen, cooks, engineers, chroniclers, navigators, etc, and everyone has their role to play on board. At one port the ship let me in, and I was a crew member for a while, seeing the beauty of the seas and oceans, the calm spells and the occasional waves of action, and always navigating the waters of art and history, memory and resistance, dedication and light. Light in the collections that give one a better sense of where one stands, and perhaps how to proceed. Now the time has come for me to alight at the next port, and continue my journey, while the ship, the museum, continues its journey on the high seas. We part at the shore as colleagues and as friends.
Acknowledgements
http://archives.icom.museum/definition.html
https://icom.museum/en/news/icom-announces-the-alternative-museum-definition-that-will-be-subject-to-a-vote/
Looking at art has always been fascinating for me. To view and feel the world in a manner other than one’s own perspective, to broaden one’s intellect and let fly one’s spirit. These traits of art have always been centre-stage to me, a Fine Art student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. I major in Painting, so the collections of the NUS Museum have really been a rich seam for me to mine, visually, intellectually. From paintings of distant landscapes shrouded in mists to expressionistic depictions of the pulse of life in Singapore in the 50s and 60s. Gazing at Chinese ceramics, one then encounters ancient Hindu and Buddhist sculpture. At the same time, contemporary artworks are weaved into these spaces, thus a mosaic of sorts arises for the visitor to make use of however they will.
But for me personally, it was like stepping onto another shore. Art students are focused predominantly on art production, on making, on creation. So to step into a museum space and for the first time as someone on the inside, it was like realising where all the art made goes to. We send out messages in a bottle, and some make their way to a museum’s collection.
I served as Collections Management Intern for 5 months, so the scope I was given was large. Most of the time I spent assisting the Collection team, and this meant physically handling many artefacts during the Asset Verification Exercise, a.k.a Stock Take. The one I was involved with surveyed all 10,000 artefacts and happens every three years, so I was very fortunate to intern when I did. I handled and observed ancient Chinese ceramics and sculpture, pots, dishes, urns, ink pots etc. Paintings and sketchbooks by Ng Eng Teng, batik artworks, numerous textiles, Baba House ornaments; in short an intimate glance at many of the museum’s collection. To this I am ever grateful.
Cataloguing was also a major part of my experience. When Jimmy Ong was preparing for an exhibition at the museum, I was responsible for collating all of his miscellaneous photos, sketches, documents and compiling them into a readable document. This was to form a Loan Agreement he would then sign with the museum. Much of Collections Management entails looking after the artworks in the collection, so these agreements constitute first of all responsibility to the party in whose care the artworks reside.
A large part of the internship also included cataloguing hundreds of sherds from across time and geography. 700 year old ceramics from Singapore’s ancient maritime roots in the 14th century, a Ming/Yuan Compass bowl and numerous finds from Trowulan. This included meticulous work photographing the sherds, handling their often brittle forms and setting up my workplace at different spaces around the museum.
A Collections team would also assist Curators in the assembling of exhibitions. I helped with the Coordinates Project, an exhibition in coordination with the Singapore Biennale 2019, with Hu Yun, who put together sculptures and photographs made by the late artists Shui Tit Sing which were then contrasted with dioramas of milestones of Singaporean history. These dioramas were made by Filipino craftsman and were found in Elias Park Primary School. In the assembling of the exhibition, I assisted with the placement of the sculptures, securing them to pedestals, preparing the texts, painting the pedestals. Through this project, I also managed to get a sense of how different artworks weave into one another within a space, and the ensuing dialogue. It is fascinating actually, how works, if placed in the right way, can really open new doors of perception for the viewer, and this may help in one forming their own unique ways of looking at history, time, place, the role of the arts in human civilisation and etc.
Further on in the internship, I assisted the Outreach team with the French film screenings, Derivee/Arivee and visited the Baba House numerous times to help out with cleaning, stock take, locating artefacts etc.
The last segment involved responding to the proposed Museum definition by ICOM, an international network of museums around the world.
Proposed definition: Museums are democratising, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artefacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people.
Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing.
Existing definition: A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.
My response is simply that the proposed definition has good intentions, but lacks the specificity of the existing definition. The existing definition lays out in clear terms what a museum is, its function and its role. The proposed definition on the other hand seems to posit political positions that may seem off-putting to various other political persuasions as it tries to uphold only one. The lack of the educational function is also in need of reworking. However, my personal opinion is that the proposed definition sets out good and timely intentions for this century, but could try to rise above and beyond politics to appeal to humanity itself, rather than current political persuasions.
If museums responded and presented what makes us all collectively human, and defended those virtues while being above political doctrines, I feel that would be a good direction to head into.
On a last note, my internship at the NUS Museum has deepened my appreciation in art-making and art-viewing, as well as broadened my views on history, discourse and making up my own mind as to what is what. The museum has a strong spot for getting its audiences to find intellectual independence, and that is something immensely valuable. The whole close-knit team at the museum, Michelle who let me in and guided me throughout in many ways, Aini, Devi and Lynn who were an incredible Collections team, Sid who showed me the ropes of Curating, Sabapathy who proves time and again an illuminating presence, Greg who also let me in, Su Ling who showed me sherds, the Baba House and how Prof. Miksic conducts his research, the Curatorial and Outreach teams, Ahmad who runs the place with a strong intellectual compass, the museum wardens and cleaners and everyone else who made my time at the NUS Museum such a rich and rewarding one, both professionally and personally.
The museum is like a ship, with captain, first-mate, oarsmen, cooks, engineers, chroniclers, navigators, etc, and everyone has their role to play on board. At one port the ship let me in, and I was a crew member for a while, seeing the beauty of the seas and oceans, the calm spells and the occasional waves of action, and always navigating the waters of art and history, memory and resistance, dedication and light. Light in the collections that give one a better sense of where one stands, and perhaps how to proceed. Now the time has come for me to alight at the next port, and continue my journey, while the ship, the museum, continues its journey on the high seas. We part at the shore as colleagues and as friends.
Acknowledgements
http://archives.icom.museum/definition.html
https://icom.museum/en/news/icom-announces-the-alternative-museum-definition-that-will-be-subject-to-a-vote/
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