Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Art museum · City Terminals
39 Keppel Rd, #01-02, Singapore 089065
Highlights
Art gallery with immersive installations using light, fog, lasers
Art gallery with immersive installations using light, fog, lasers
"This is a museum in name only. The warehouse-like space looks and feels more like an art gallery, typically putting on one show at a time. It is affiliated with Singapore’s Linda Gallery and most of the works are for sale. MoCA's website was last updated in 2015, so it’s a gamble as to what you’ll see when you go (Facebook isn’t much help either). This is a bummer if you’re not into the artist they’re showing at the time, as you will have gone measurably out of your way to visit. Past exhibitions have featured solo shows from Zhang Linhai and Zhang Xin Quan and a retrospective on Chen Wen Hsi." - Ashlea Halpern
"I appreciated the Singapore Art Museum for housing the world's largest collection of modern Southeast Asian art, enjoying guided tours in English, and saving money by visiting on Friday evenings when admission is free (regular admission is 10 SGD); note that the museum's heritage buildings are under renovation while the Tanjong Pagar location is open." - Matthew Kepnes
"Titled “Your curious journey,” this first major solo show in Southeast Asia (on view until 22 September 2024) gathers 17 immersive, playful installations that invite child-like wonder and multiple perspectives. The exhibition treats the act of moving through the works as part of the art itself, using light, fog, mist, lasers and simple materials to transform perception: Symbiotic seeing (2020) combines precisely tuned lasers and fog to produce an underwater-sunset-like ceiling of ripples; Beauty (1993) conjures a rainbow from a fine mist and a spotlight that appears only from certain viewer angles; Yellow corridor (1997) bathes visitors in monofrequency light so strongly that the exit reads like “light at the end of a tunnel”; The cubic structural evolution project (2004) is a large table of white Lego bricks that the audience continually reshapes into evolving cityscapes; and The last seven days of glacial ice (2024) renders the meltwater from a scanned Icelandic glacier chunk to make the vast, slow-moving problem of sea-level rise more tangible. Many pieces are deliberately site-specific—framing local views such as the Keppel harbour—and the works are presented to encourage reflection on social, political and environmental contexts as much as sensory delight." - Gwen Pew
"An institutional catalyst for public art in the area, SAM organized the “Port/traits of Tanjong Pagar” public-art trail and is located at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, a hub that also houses contemporary galleries and helps knit together the neighbourhood’s art scene." - Gwen Pew
"An institution extending its reach beyond gallery walls with two new public art trails—one around its new home in Tanjong Pagar Distripark and another along the Rail Corridor—featuring site-specific works such as a 27-minute video-installation piece located at a Kampong Bahru bus terminal." - Dinesh Ajith, Olivia Ho, Michelle Lim, Gwen Pew, Mrigaa Sethi and Ee Ming Toh
