Sensorium 360°

The awesome curatorial team behind the show.
With Guest of Honor Mr T.K Sabapathy,
Adjunct Associate Professor and lecturer in History of Art, National University of Singapore.

Popped in for the Opening evening of Singapore Art Museum's 'Sensorium 360° - Contemporary Art and the Sensed World'. Friends, fun, love, art, thoughts. "Spanning the fields of art, phenomenology, philosophy and cognitive psychology, Sensorium 360° is a visual art exhibition that moves beyond vision to 'see' the world through the other senses, and to experience it in-the-round." Nine senses and 11 artists and their works comprise this exhibition. I enjoyed the curation and the presentations of the works, many of which are interactive.

The exhibition runs from now to 22 October 2014 with loads of upcoming public programmes both free and paid. There's a one-hour Curator Tour with Joyce Toh next Wednesday 6 August at 7.30pm. She's awesomely animated and will introduce the inspiration and thoughts behind the art installations in an easy-to-digest format.

Bui Cong Khanh was present to bring his work to life- 'Chicken Rice in the Border'.

Excitedly took a walk through the installations. They all stirred the different senses of each individual experiencing the artists' works. Giggled as I spied Bui Cong Khanh's 'Chicken Rice in the Border'. What is up with chicken rice recently?! Anyway, Bui Cong Khanh's works involved drawings, handmade ceramic plates, photographs and a video of...cooking chicken rice Hoi An style, its ingredients, sauces and all. Hoi An is the province with the largest Chinese community in Vietnam. The artist's hometown of Hoi An is near the border, where for him, it's "a place where multiple tensions and expressions co-exist and mingle, and generate new meanings". He explores how migration causes food to develop differently and engages our cultural and historical memories. The artist wouldn't be at the gallery to cook you chicken rice, but a rendition of Hoi An Chicken Rice will be on the menu at Food for Thought at 8Q SAM for the duration of this exhibition.

Lingered really long at Melati Suryodarmo's 'Alé Lino'. While every installation is interactive and unique, to have an artist present in the works was quite something. Melati herself was perched on the podium, leaning against a four-metre long pole pressed against her solar plexus. My gawwwd. The pain. She performed "an attempt to move beyond materiality and this middle world with a long pole that simultaneously connects her to the earth even as it rests against her solar plexus - considered by many to be the seat of an etheric field and hence, of the transcendent body or self." Didn't think the artist would be present daily after the Opening evening. A notice indicated that performance document would be screened after tonight.

The title of Melati Suryodarmo's 'Alé Lino' is taken from the Bugis language, referring to
"the 'middle world inhabited by humans, in between the 'upper world' of the heavens
and the 'lower world' that lies beneath the surface of the earth."