Both Catherine and I have been thinking for a long time over the past week on where to bring Darius to on his 2nd birthday. We had considered parks, reservoirs, establishments etc but realised we had already visited most of these places with him. In the end, we decided to bring him to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) again to check out their exhibitions for the Children Season 2010.

The event/exhibition had already started since May 2010 and would be ending on 18th July 2010. Since it was ending soon, a date with Darius there would be very timely and he would likely have a lot of fun exploring the various exhibits which are specially catered for children.

So on Thursday, we woke up early (though we still lightly overslept) and headed for SAM. We wanted to be there early so that we would have ample time at the museum before Darius was to have his lunch and afternoon nap. We tried getting a cab but the queue at the taxi stand was long and there wasn’t any cab in sight. In the end, we still took the MRT to Dhoby Ghaut before transferring to Bras Basah Station on the Circle Line.

Reaching the SAM at around 10.30am, we enquired about the Art Garden (the name of the exhibition for SAM’s Children Season 2010) and was told by the ticketing counter staff that it was held at another building called 8Q, across the road from this main building. She told us we could buy the tickets there at the main building though so we did so, getting two adult tickets at S$10 each. She then handed us three stickers writing ‘ART: No Experience is required’ which we were to paste on our clothings, Darius included (children under age 6 enters for free).

"This place sure looks familiar..."

SAM @ 8Q wasn’t difficult to locate since the staff had given us some directions and there were clear signs directing us there. We were welcomed by a huge blown up rabbit sitting outside the main entrance and we entered into the lobby to see more rabbits.

We parked our stroller beside the ticketing counter and checked out the first exhibition area on the ground floor, which consisted of a room covered with artificial grass and many triangular shaped cushions were lying around, meant to be thrown around. We took off our shoes and entered the room. Darius was a little resistant at first, probably because of the strange feeling he felt against the grass, despite him wearing his socks and not barefooted like some of the children there. After a while though, he started to open up and ran about along the walls.

After that, we took the stairs to the second storey. According to the signs, there were a total of four storeys with different exhibitions going on. Prepared to start climbing stairs whole morning! ^^

On the second floor, we came to the Moving Image Gallery, which was a relatively spacious movie theatre with platforms instead of seats, where children and parents could sit down to watch some short films for children. As the next show would only be starting in ten minutes’ time, we didn’t want to waste time and moved on to the next exhibit instead.

On the same floor, there was this Programme Room where queues of children from childcare or education centres were waiting to enter. Seeing the crowd, we decided to return at a later time.

Going up to the next floor, we checked out this exhibit titled Floribots. It consisted of 100 paper flowers that were attached to a robot stem each and they would grow by extending the stem upwards and with the petals opening up as they reached their peaks. It was quite a pretty sight seeing the flowers in motion and Darius kept saying ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ as the stems of the flowers moved up and down respectively. There was also a section where origami was taught but we didn’t really check that out.

Could the reflections on the wall be some hidden messages? ^^|

We checked the time and noted that the screening at the Moving Image Gallery downstairs was about to begin. We thus left and room and headed back to the second floor.

The Alphabet Soup film started soon after we sat down at one of the platforms, though we had to keep Darius still before the show began to prevent him from running around and disturbing the other audiences.

When the film started, Darius had all eyes on the big screen. Besides this being his first ‘movie’ on a big screen, this show also got him interested since it was all about alphabets, one of his favourite things. The 30-minute Alphabet Soup uses dogs to form each of the 26 alphabets and introduces words that begin with those letters. Throughout the film, the dogs were the main actors and it sure was interesting to watching these actors with dog heads and human limbs. The name of the film came about as two dogs (husband and wife) were trying to make a soup that consisted of materials that began with each of the alphabets.

It was a fun experience watching with other kids who were enjoying the film as well

As we stepped out of the theatre, we decided to check out the Progamme Room since the room looked pretty empty by then. There was a carpeted area and removing our footwear, Darius and I went into the area where he quickly picked up a book randomly from the shelf and started flipping through it. Meanwhile, I looked around the area and could see many handicrafts placed on the shelves.

Leaving the carpeted area, we found out that some activities were available, such as colouring, with the paper and colour pencils provided. We sat Darius down on one of the chairs and guided him. Though Darius was just quickly scribbing about by moving the colour pencils left and right, we were glad he knew what he was supposed to do since his scribbings were focusing on the areas that needed to be coloured.

Darius performing his 'duo colouring' skills

We then got back up to the third storey and checked out the Enchanted Forest. As we entered the place surrounded by painted vegetation and animals, we were mesmerised by the beauty of it. Darius was very excited too as he started running in circles, enjoying his stay in the enchanted forest.

Darius and one of his favourite animals

Since it’s called an enchanted forest, there was of course many parts of the forest that consisted of things we could not find see in an ordinary forest, such as a fish on stilts, a rabbit with mushroom as umbrella, monkeys grading animals doing dives and even a merlion in the lake! That was certainly an amazing journey we had at the forest! ^^

A fish that is taller than Darius~

The stories behind some of the characters found in the forest could be seen on a nearby wall

At the other end of the room, there was a wall full of paper butterflies. I wondered how many hundreds of paper butterflies were actually pasted there on the wall.

Moving on to the fourth storey, we reached the Funky Forest and Daisies room. It was a dark room with the Funky Forest situated on our left.

It was made up of an artificial waterfall and forest, both projected down onto the walls which would respond to our shadows. For the forest portion, new trees would grow from where our shadows were cast on, and the butterfly-like creatures’ would start hovering above them. The health of the trees depended on the amount of water that they were receiving, thus the importance of the waterfall. There was a meter on the wall which showed how much water was directed towards the forest.

Darius looking at the tree he 'grew'

When one steps on the water coming down from the waterfall, the water would be directed towards the forest, supplying them with the much essential stimulant to grow. Darius had fun seeing how the water split apart before him as he approached them and couldn’t stop playing with them.

Parting the river

On the other end of the room was a floor of black daisis which would disappear when one’s shadow was cast on it. A very beautiful sight to behold too but somehow, Darius was very resistant on stepping onto it. Maybe he was afraid he would fall into the depths of the ‘empty void’ when the daisies disappear beneath his feet? ^^|

We then checked out the last area which was titled Stop in here and get into the motion!. Basically it was a room decorated with the outlines of many monster-like creatures and there were stop motion pictures being projected on the walls. We didn’t really hang out there long though the staff was nice to provide us with an insight on the exhibits.

By then, it was already noon time and we left the building to make our way for our lunch at a nearby foodcourt.

After lunch, we headed over to the main building of SAM, wanting to check out the new exhibits that had been added since our last visit there. The place was basically deserted, except for the staff and some students on a museum tour. Not quite unexpected of a museum on a weekday afternoon.

We checked out the main exhibition hall and came across an activity room, where we could do some things like colouring and stamping. Darius had quite a delightful time doing the activities with Catherine, and also took the opportunity to pose behind the funny cut-outs there!

Darius loves to stamp! (though he uses too much strength at times)

More colouring!

Darius sure looks comical in this photo~ ^^

Besides the activity room, the other exhibit that got us interested was one titled Life of Imitation, which featured movie billboards like those I used to see in the 80s and early 90s outside those olden cinemas. Since the introduction of the cineplexs, these billboards were gradually phased out and became part of history with our last billboard artist Mr Neo.

Catherine back in the 80s!

The re-makes of the billboards in this exhibition were very nicely done, and even the authentic cinema seats were preserved and placed on display to create an even more nostalgic feeling. There were also short re-makes of some famous movies shown in separate mini-cinemas for viewing.

As we were making our way out, we noticed a part of the outdoor area with props like the gullotine and hanging rope. These were meant for the Night Festival which will be held on the nights of 17th and 18th July 2010. Several of the museums would also be opened for free to the public during these nights. Despite knowing about the free admissions, we didn’t really mind paying for them that day since we would be able to avoid the crowd and enjoy the exhibits at our own leisure pace.

The Amusement Park would transform into an Abusement Park

Anyway, Darius had fallen asleep halfway through our museum walk and Catherine and I sat near the entrance of SAM to decide where to go next. We had wanted to catch the Toy Story 3 movie with him but thinking that it could be a 3D movie requiring special glasses, it would not be feasible to bring him along.

As a result, we decided to call it a day and headed for home instead, since we were pretty tired after the whole morning too. It was a short outing but since Darius did enjoy himself in the morning, it had turned out to be a rather apt celebration for his birthday. ^^

No related posts.