Wednesday 22 June 2011

Journey to ArtScience Museum

My journey to ArtScience Museum is the premier museum destination in S'pore for major international touring exhibitions from the most renowned collections in the world, designed as a symbolic gesture to welcome guests and visitors across the globe.
Here how I managed to get a 'Free' pair of tickets that costs S$30/pax. A pair of 'Free' tickets that won from the contest in the quiz put under my hubby's name that was done by me. Marina Bay Sands sent an email to my hubby and he forwarded to me as he was surprised and had no ideas of my participating in the contest. Hahaha. So I replied to Marina Bay Sands stated in their email which they would to like to know the details of his contact that will send original letter to us. A few days later, this original letter was received and addressed to my hubby from Marina Bay Sands, and this letter stated one month for redemption of receiving it. I am authorised under my hubby to get a pair of tickets chose any dates & times of the our visits So I went to the Marina Bay Sands at ArtScience museum's counter on 14 Jun 2011 about 1.15pm to get a secure ticket without any hassles and chose the available date and slot ticket shown 'Time Entry' is 10.30am on 19 Jun 2011, that is 5 days later. This ticket indicated the time entry is 10.30am and we are allowed to come at any time after 10.30am but followed the same day that shown on ticket.
Tickets with no value
On the actual day on 19 Jun 2011, after I had toured Order Out of Chaos conducted by NHB's staff and volunteer guide in the morning till 11.30am which you may have read earlier in my blog which was on the same day but later in the afternoon at ArtScience Museum. The last destination tour was Subordinate Courts which is near People Park Centre. So I took a bus no.190 from People Park Centre to Dhoby Ghaut Mrt and transferred to bus no. 106 (cross the road) to Marina Bay Sands and reached there appropriate 1.30pm and waited for my hubby after his work half day. We had a lunch first at Bay Sands foodcourt that I had the Bay Sands's link card which can be used for discounts on F&B, before proceed to ArtScience Museum about 2.15pm, the ticket had shown the time entry started at 10.30am but this ticket can be used at any time of entry.

Short Description of ArtScience Museum: The ArtScience Museum is really three buildings in one. Large exhibition galleries are housed under a giant lily pond that lets in flitered light from above. The lobby atrium is a glass and steel structure located at grade that appears to float over the pond. And the giant cantilevering upper galleries are supported by an extraordinary system of "mega columns" and a stabililizing steel form called a "diagrid." The diagrid and mega-columns unite at the foundations of the building to efficiently overcome the massive push-pull of the larger building forces. There are 3 galleries spanning two levels with nearly 800 sq meters of exhibition space and a meditative path of Floating Stairs. And on the ground floor basement there is also a large evolving media canvas that celebrates the creativity of the ArtScience community. It is one of the attractions at Marina Bay Sands, an integrated resort in S'pore owned by the US Las Vegas Sands company - Tom Zaller. Opened on 17 Feb 2011 by S'pore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, it is the world's 1st ArtAcience musuem.

Photos above: Ticket counter (left) and slotcard machine beside the two lift
Upon entered the ArtScience Museum, we were greeted by s staff who helped us to slot the card into the machine card, and we walked to the lifts that can leveled up to 3th floors. So we decided to go up to the 3th floor before going down one by one using staircase that look like 'spiral' staircase instead using the lift.

A lotus flower or a human hand or a mangrove plant?
Desciptions of ArtScience Museum's lotus shape - Newest destination is a memorably shaped, three-storey, 6,000 sq meters (50,000sq ft) building designed by Israel-born architect Moshe Safdie and this complex geometry of the ArtScience Museum is shaped by combining and intersecting a variety of curving geometric shapes and raise associations. There is still a friendly debate on whether the shape of the building is an interpretation of a lotus flower, a human hand or a mangrove plant. This shape is one of the earliest created by Moshe Safdie for this unique project.

Inspiration's Gallery 2

Above photos in Gallery 2: Kongming Lantern(left) and a ball, L. da Vinci's flying machine
As I came across the word "Inspiration" on the board-stand inside the gallery with a large patterns of an ancient Chinese scroll have in common with a 21st century robotic fish? How does the invention of th sky lantern centuries ago relate to the creation of the ArtScience Museum? The objects on display in this gallery are meant to provoke debate about the conceptual barriers that have have erected between artistic and scientific activity.
Emanating from the diverse places and times, these six innovations - and others explored in the gallery-embody the essence of "ArtScience." They exist not in one world or the other, but at the intersection of the two.
Judging on the frontiers of ArtScience, the breaking boundaries on the norm: East meets West, Form meets Function, Nature meets Technology and Fiction becomes Real. Do you believe this?
Vincent van Gogh


Above: 3 Photos of Belitung shipwecked treasures - Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds
The 1st photo - A pair of lobed oval bowls with two ducks in repousse among chased flowers (China/Tand dynasty,ca 825-50/Gold)
The 2nd photo - Gold Cup is the most important Tang gold object ever found outside China. It is unusually large (and heavy) and the coat of its material alone would have equalled ten years' salary for a low rank Chinese official. The musicians and dancer on the cup are identifiable as foreigners by their long hair and billowing clothes and the ring handle with its bearded faces also suggests the influence of Central Aian metalware. The cup's precise place and date of manufacture are unknown, but it was most likely made in Yangshou.
The 3rd photo - A dragon with a long tongue.
Van Gogh's Quote: "To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe and drink one's coffee in peace".
One of the museum's major show, "Van Gogh Alive-The Exhibition," ongoing until 6th Nov, is an engaging revue of the Dutch artist's works, but the fact is that it does not display actual paintings. Instead, it uses 40 high-definition projectors to transform the ceiling, floor and walls of a cavernous gallery into one giant Post-Impressionist canvas that ever changing perspectives on this giant moving canvas.
Also I explored the astonishing shipwrecked cargo of some 60,000 objects carried by a ninth-century Arab dhow, ranging from exquisite ceramics to rare items of finely worked gold. Lying undisturbed on the ocean floor for more than 1,100 years until its discovery near Indonesia's Belitung Island in 1998 by Tilman Walterfand (Seabed Explorations NZ Ltd) and his team in Gaspar Strait (Connects the Java Sea to the South China Sea). It is one of the oldest and most important marine archaeological finds of the late 20th century. The find confirms for the first time the existence of a direct maritime trade route from China to the Persian Gulf and beyong. The artifacts on display are from the Tang Shipwreck Treasure: Singapore's Maritime Collection. The acquisition was made pssible by the generous donation of the Estate of Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat.
Interactive touch screen
Postcard
The effect is dramatic and visceral on the screen, the 100-year-old masterpieces to marvel at colors and texture, not be in awe of what is essentially an expensive slideshow that has turned important works of art into a one-dimensional graphic design. You can create your own unique design projects on 40'HD interactive touch screen (that shares them with friends and friends over the Internet) which I sent you an email of "Postcard" through this screen with a touchscreen! Have you received it?
Dali's Theme Room
Salvador Dali: Mind of a Genius
Dali's Gallery
The museum has followed up with Spanish Surrealist "Dali: Mind of a Genius," ongoing until Oct 30, which boasts over 250 artworks which highlight the creativeness of Dali across different mediums, including bronze sculptures, rare graphics, furniture, gold jewelry and crystal pieces in three themed areas - Femininity and Sensuality, Religion and Mythology, Dreams and Fantasy. Highlights includ Dance of Time I(Dali's famous representation of melted Clocks). Woman Aflame (sculpture uniting two of Dali's obessions - drawer and fire). Spellbound (a huge painting featured in 's movie of the Alfred Hitchcock's of the same name) and the Mae West Lips Sofa (inspired by actress Mae West's sensual lips).
Mae West Lips Sofa
(inspired by actress Mae West's sensul lips)
Dali: His Melted Clocks

Above from Dali's artworks: Vision of the angel (thumb) and Space elephant
Vision of the angel: The strength and supremacy of God is here represented by a thumb from which life emerges, symbolized by the tree branches.
Space Elephant: Dali created the image of an elephant carrying an obelisk, a symbol of technological progress in the modern world. The almost invisible spindle-like-legs emphasizes the contrast between robustness and fragility, weight and lightness. This phantasmagoric creature seems to be coming out from a dream.
Both the Van Gogh and Dali shows are traveling exhibitions. The museum has its own small permanent collection-housed in three galleries on the top floor, called Curiosity, Inspiration and Expression-which contain interactive works that argues the connection between art and science.

"Back" of the entrance
From the outside of the 'back' entrance (no one enters without tickets) it looks like a floating flower with 10 petals-these houses 21 galleries, which all oddly shaped because they are meant to capture the natural light.


Photos above: Rainwater on the pond (left) and Bowl-shaped roof top (collects rainwater)
This bowl-shaped roof assembly is supported by ten-columns and tied down at its center by a basket-like diagrid (sculpture centered piece) that accommodates the asymmetrical forces that the building's form generates. And consquently in resolution of the structure forces for the building, giving it a seeminly weightless quality as it hovers above the ground.

The restrooms use rainwater which is collected from the ceiling that flowing through its bowl-shaped roof into a reflecting pond at the lowest level of the building, and drops down like a waterfall into a reflecting pond in the courtyard. The rainwater is harvested.and then recycled for use in the building's restrooms.
Spiral staircase facing the pond
There is a 'spiral-like' staircase that faces the lily pond along with tables & chairs on the floor with its surroundings.
At last but not least, I am looking forward for my write-up to the next chapter - Mint Museum of Toys.

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