Singapore Arts, Beauty and Inspirations Male Blogger

It has been some time since I last blog on this little space of mine. Just an update which has bugged me to finally post on my latest trip to Japan. The one pit stop from my itinerary was to visit Matsumoto City Museum Of Art despite the winter.

As you can see, Matsumoto is Yayoi Kusama's hometown and the building is speckled with her signature polka dots. Even the shuttle bus which I took that made their rounds was covered in polka dots.

''The Place For My Soul'' was the exhibition held within Matsumoto City Museum Of Art. It showcased various Yayoi Kusama's works from when she started her art journey and so on. Sadly no photography was allowed and I had to respect that. 

There was even lockers to store your belongings, a library, a cafe as well as a retail store which I ended up buying 2 of Yayoi Kusama's merchandise. I also took some time wandering around the museum, admiring its architecture and taking photos of it.

I sure was glad that I have visited a famous artist's hometown!

Marvel Studios: Ten Years of Heroes Exhibition was held from the 9th June to 30 Sept 2018 at Marina Bay Sands' Art Science Museum. I visited with a group of friends who were also keen to find out more about the exhibition.

Basically, there were many panels of introduction of each characters throughout the exhibit which I would skip like most people do. The main focus would probably be the life size figures of Marvel characters since it they were photo worthy and instagramable.

I love how they tried to incorporate digital technology into the exhibition. The part where different iron man suits were flashed onto a plain "mannequin", groots' movement detection, Dr Strange's portal & reality warping as well as digital ants & wasps.  

Overall it was considered a fun tour around with plenty of photo taking going on. Thankfully people do queue and wait for each other to finish taking individual photos with their favourite hero (except Thanos), at least on that day I was there. Too bad my favourite Scarlet Witch was no where to be found. There was even a retail space selling Marvel merchandise at the exit. 

#MARVEL10ASM

I thought it was mandatory to visit Kuching Cat Museum the following day after a fulfilling time at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2018. Since the locals fondly called their city 'Cat City' due to the fact that 'Kuching' means 'cat' in Malay, why not visit their cat museum and check out their collection?

My friend and I cabbed over to Kuching Cat Museum, located at Bukit Siol. We were greeted by a cat head arch at the entrance which prompted me to start snapping pictures. Admission is FREE, however, a very small fee is needed for photography in the museum itself.

I was definitely awed by the huge collection of cat related artifacts in its gallery, all neatly categorised. Browsing through the collection, there were paintings, cross stitch, jewellery, sculptures, miniatures, toys of anything 'cat' I could imagine. Even iconic cats such as the Hello Kitty and Garfield were not left out of its collection. 

I admit I wasn't exactly a feline lover and I had a quick browse through. At least I had pictures for references unlike Kuching's Natural History Museum and Textile Museum which doesn't allow photography.

Do not miss the souvenir booth if you know friends who love anything to do with cats!

Early this June, I was privileged to have attended a media preview of Tatinis Art Show - A Love Affair with Art. The art exhibit was held at the F1 Pit Building, quite a walking distance away from the nearest MRT station which as Promenade.

The exhibition showcases both local as well as international artists, featuring over 400+ art pieces at seriously affordable price. The place was open to public for art collectors, art lovers or even an art newbie like me to browse around and appreciate art. There was performances going on such as belly dancing (I supposed) and more which I probably missed.

The crowd that day was a huge mix or local and internationals as well, with many either browsing around like me while some were chatting with the artists whom were standing around their individual booth with an array of their art works. I really loved some of their works and the exhibition was indeed an eye opener for me.

The beach, sand and scotching hot sun were never friends of mine but for the sake of capturing artistically crafted sand sculptures, I tagged along with my friend to Sentosa. I brought my whines along as we made our way to the tentages specially set up to house 2,400 square metres of exhibition space on Siloso Beach.    

Not much of a traffic issue despite being a Saturday, probably thanks to the heat and sun as we walked through the firmly erected sand structures admiring and capturing photos of our favourites. These sands sculptures definitely reminded me of my trip to Huabin in China, popular for their ice/snow sculptures that reached storeys tall. The only difference was the temperature and I did not miss the -30 degrees celsius and wearing multiple layers of clothes.

There were many ushers stationed around and the exhibition was divided into 3 different zones.

Zone 1 - Our Sandsational Singapore (Singapore, Ho Say!) 

This zone features 15 sand sculptures inspired by the local culture, quirks and colloquial slangs. Examples would be "Blur like Sotong, Gabra like Zebra", "Jiak Zua" (To eat Snake) and "Kan Cheong Spider". Their images attached below.

Zone 2 - Sentosa International Sand Sculpting Championship

The 14 international sand master's masterpieces demonstrate their creative expressions of ‘Imagination’ through sand work. Examples would be "Tropical Splendor" and "Broken Heart".

Zone 3 - Shifting Sand 2

A showcase of interactive sand art pieces by JOOheng, which pays homage to his exhibition held at Sentosa’s Palawan Beach in 2010, when he became the first sand sculptor in Singapore to hold his own sand sculpture exhibition.  

Note that I only select and feature personal favourites to post below. Also do check out the fine detailings of some of these sand art that kept me staring for quite some time.