LEARN. EXPLORE . GROW
(FIELD TRIP)
TOKYO☆Neo Duo Exhibition
~Tradition and Innovation~
An Exhibition by HIROYUKI MATSUURA ・ SHIGEKI HAYASHI and
other upcoming Japanese Contemporary Artists
This was an exhibition by HIROYUKI MATSUURA and SHIGEKI HAYASHI and
other upcoming Japanese Contemporary Artists. The exhibition was really interesting to learn about Japan creative art and culture. I was very interested to see how each artwork had a balance of tradition and innovation in their own way. The artworks really spoke for themselves and you can see each work has an essence of the artist that did it. Most of the artwork took inspiration from Japanese animation, manga and science fiction which is currently really popular around the world. The techniques used for the art work was really interesting to learn, they were not simply influenced by manga and illustration but they reconstruct in the present the decorativeness and flatness that are the characteristics of Japanese ukiyo-e and nihonga, depicting satirically various problems in the society. There were also traditional art mediums such as porcelain works and Japanese ceramic art which was exciting to see how they still preserve culture and tradition in this modern contemporary world. I really enjoyed walking through this exhibition and having the opportunity to learn about each artwork and the artists and how they were able to express their social commentary and contemporaneous characteristics of contemporary art.
The Doraemon Exhibition Singapore 2023 @ National
Museum of Singapore
This was one exhibition that I was really excited to visit because felt like walking down memory lane and childhood. It was so interesting to see characters of Doraemon come to life and was even more iconic to see all the original manga comics on display. It felt like walking through really precious archival pieces. As one might say it was “kawaii”. It was a walk down memory lane for sure to actually see the original manga drawings from the 80s that were super nostalgic. We were lucky to even see an original print by the artist himself. It was also a mind blowing collection of creativity to see different artists coming together to create sculptures of their own interpretations of Doraemon. The exhibition includes some amazing, out-of-this-world reimaginations of Doraemon by artists from the Land of the Rising Sun, such as a 2.6m-tall pink sculpture by Sebastian Masuda made with small toys he obtained from around the world. My favorite exhibition was the Bell and the sun by Ryota Kuwabuko which uses light and shadow to recreate the world of Doraemon using a model train track. It was very interesting to see how the artists used common household tool to recreate the character it felt like watching an episode of Doraemon but the clever touch of using shadows and light was really inspiring. I also enjoyed the giant stand out of Doraemon that was in the center of the exhibition room, it was gigantic artwork made up of wood, cloth, plastic and yarn inspired by Nobita Dorabian Nights, it represents a real world mixed up with fairy tales. I was really happy to have visited this exhibition with my batch mates and enjoyed the tour guide explaining the artists inspiration and how they came out with the art work themselves.
SINGAPO人: Discovering Chinese Singaporean Culture
This was an interactive exhibition space at Singapore Chinese cultural center. Through this exhibition, I really a lot about the Chinese culture and also the influence of this traditional cultures in Singapore. Culture is our everyday life it is how we see the world and how we act. Through this exhibition, I was able to learn on the influences it has on our everyday life in terms of our beliefs, arts, morals, customs and habits. Something interesting I learnt is that culture is complex and ever changing, as we grow up traditions changes but ultimately culture is something we create together. It changes as we change. I really enjoyed this interactive space where through every section there were some questions and polls to be answered and we had to use our wristband to tap on to the correct answer. At the end of the exhibition, we received a report card on the type of person you are, for me I got EXPLORER! I really enjoyed learning about the Singapore local Chinese culture and all the archival pieces from the past that were displayed during the exhibition. I really liked Zone 4 the most, its named ‘Made in Singapore’, I thought it was very authentic of Singapore Chinese culture and how it also influenced other races and religions in terms of food, art and popular culture.
