A Trip To The Singapore Art Museum (SAM)

Ever since my school brought the children to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) for an excursion, I have wanted to go back there again, since during the excursion, I did not manage to participate in all the activities over there. Daddy and Mummy also heard that the SAM is worth going, especially for kids.

So on Sunday, we decided to make that our weekend activity. Went for breakfast and grocery shopping till 10 am, and we made our way there. Fortunately, when we reached SAM, there was still one free parking lot, so we could avoid parking elsewhere and have to walk

Went to Gallery 1 (Mummy Dearest). Idea is that it was Mummy's day off in this fantasy candy-coloured world of giant dolls, complete with a wardrobe of clothes, shoes and an enormous three-tiered cake. Boys and girls can help dress up the dolls and decorate a cake for Mummy in this playroom inspired by old-fashioned cut-out paper dolls., where children were free to decorate, either the birthday cake or boys / gals !!!



And this was my masterpiece


Then we moved on to the next gallery, Fruits. Step into this colourful fruit market and create your favourite paper fruit+! Choose from six fruits common in Southeast Asia and learn the name of the fruit in different languages. Once I have completed my fruit, I can keep it as a souvenir or exchange it for a real fruit. And I chose to make my favourite fruits : an apple and a banana.


Of course with the help of Daddy (making the banana) and Mummy (making the apple), they looked like the real thing !!!


Next stop was : Superhigh. Visitors were to play with colours and shapes in this toddlers' playroom installation, inspired by the magical and mystical qualities of the rainbow that reflect hope and happiness. Using all my strength to push the huge wooden blocks to the right positions





What were all these coloured wooden circular chips doing in various baskets ???


This is the activity by the name of "GO". Intent is to climb onto this giant installation and work together with others to form a huge picture using large coloured discs. It is inspired by the ancient Chinese game of Go or weiqi, and the idea of motion and activity conveyed by the word 'go'.

So see Daddy and Mummy in action, trying to form my picture (a template that I have made earlier on, on a piece of paper)









The final product. Can you see a tree with black trunk (they did not have brown chips) on the left side ? On the right was a red house, with black window and door. The big yellow sun at the top right, while blue clouds.


Clearing the installation for the next kid


We went for a late lunch at about 1245 pm at the nearby Kopitiam, so that we can come back for the afternoon activity. And I ate really fast during lunch, partly because I was hungry and partly I wanted to go back to SAM ASAP.

We walked to second level to take a look at the exhibit. And it was really abstract art .... haha, cannot appreciate


Saw this art piece. Guess what was this ???


The answer .... and I think I can also do that art piece (on a piece of paper)


The mascot for SAM - Walter, a curious colossal bunny that pops up in various places in Singapore, so that he can bring surprise and delight to the people he meets.


And here came Walter's friend ???


Since the second level was a little too cheem for me, Mummy brought me back to Level 1, while Daddy explored the rest of the galleries on Level 2.

Back on Level 1, we went to the Tree Of Love. A gallery filled with papier-mâché animal dolls, created by children and participants from non-profit organisations with the artist. They decorated the Tree of Love to inspire social harmony. Visitors were also invited to add on to the work by penning their hopes, thoughts and feelings on the trees.

So here I did ....


Writing my name there ... haha


Next stop was the Paramodelic Graffiti. Idea was to explore the intricate urban geography and topography of this dream-like universe - built entirely of modular toy train tracks that create spontaneous, whimsical colour patterns covering the gallery space.


See what I meant ....


We waited for the 230 pm workshop so that we can create a network of railway for the trains to move on










And time to get the train moving on the tracks !!!


We left the Paramodelic Graffiti gallery for the Art Garden Craft workshop, that we signed up for the 3 pm slot.


While waiting for the workshop to start, I took some photos with Daddy and Mummy


We were first introduced to this artwork : Dancing Solar Flowers. This lively installation of solar-powered mechanical flowers nod, or rock gently, in response to indoor lighting conditions in the gallery environment. The artist wanted to convey the message that there is abundance of solar energy to power objects, instead of using coal / oil to generate electricity. This can help to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce pollution


And consistent with minimizing pollution, the elephants brought the message of saving the Asian elephants, which were close to extinction !!!


With that, we went to the main highlight of the workshop .... hands-on activity !!! We went to the basement of the SAM, which was normally out of bounds to all visitors. The reason we went there was to do some artwork in the dark ... ie, rely on the sense of touch and smell. The idea was to let us eperience a heavily polluted Earth that has no light at all, and all the people had to do their activities in total darkness.

Before the lights were switched off, we were told to feel the materials to be used for the art work later on : a strip of paper, some cotton buds, and some coloured papers.


Once the lights were switched off (really total darkness), we were to listen to instructions (step by step) to create our artwork .... eg. draw a circle on the left of the paper, then write the number "3" beside the circle. Then draw an oval below the circle, with rectangles below the oval .... then paste cotton buds at the top etc ....

And tada, my final product


Daddy also joined in the fun, and this was what he came up with


The artwork was supposed to be a close-to-extinct elephant, standing on green grass, with white clouds in the sky ....


And finally, we went to Glass Gallery, where there was kiddy activities to do : drawing, colouring, watching movies and doing giant jig-saw puzzle. So that was what I did : doing the puzzle with Daddy and Mummy

The last piece and the puzzle would be complete

Proudly showing Daddy ...

Since we spent about 4.5 hrs in SAM, with no afternoon nap, I was a little tired. So we left the place. Had to take a photo with Walter at the entrance


SAM would be having different kiddy activities very regularly (about once every month), so I would definitely be back in future. Daddy and Mummy would have to pay for the admission tickets, but I go FOC !!!


I slept for 45 mins in the car, before we went for early dinner !!!