Let's make something bigger than ourselves

Many bloggers have blogged about the Singapore Art Museum's Imaginarium, so I'm not going to go into much details about the exhibits, except to say that if you've yet to bring your kids there, do! We've gone there twice thus far, and the kids enjoyed themselves throughly. 

What I think they really liked was being able to touch the exhibits, move things around, and basically interact with the installations, something that isn't usually the case with most visits to the art museum where they are usually told to "Hush!" and "Don't touch!". They were really busy in Chiang Yu Xiang's "We Built this Estate!", where the older kids worked together to stack and make buildings with all the blocks. Baby J just climbed up and down, and went around collecting some of the cushions that could be stuck on the wall.

The kids particularly liked Lee JeeYoung's Dream House. After all, it contained things in every child's dream: trees full of sweets, a gingerbread house, giant lollipops. They spent the most time here, just running in and out of the little house collecting sweets to hang on the trees. (Spot the overladen branch full of purple sweets, courtesy of Lil J!)

Junior J was fascinated with the drawings by the Band of Doodlers, and we spent some time looking at them and spotting familiar animals or objects.

They also spent a fair bit of time exploring Kumkum Fernando's "Kiko's Secrets", and were kept busy trying to fit the shapes back into the scales of a giant fish.

I loved the creations made from various materials. It was a reminder how a collection of ordinary, everyday materials could be transformed into something different, and strangely beautiful.

The kids also liked making pom poms over at Izziyana Suhaimi's "Let's Make! Studio", which explores the creation of small objects using textiles through techniques such as weaving and sewing.

All in all, both visits served to remind me that art is incorporated in our everyday, and our everyday can incorporate the making of art. I loved how each exhibit served to point us to the transformation of the simple into something bigger: from the building of towers, to the collection of screws, nuts and bolts to decorate the wings of an imaginary insect, from the winding and weaving of yarn into pompoms and mats, to the collection of these textiles into a wall of colour. 

So… I'll say it again, if you've yet to bring your kids, do! (But avoid the weekends when it can get crowded!)

PS: For more information on Imaginarium, download their exhibition brochure here. There are also educational activity sheets for Preschool, Primary and Secondary Schools (but personally, I prefer to just let the kids explore and have discussions with them!)