Andy Warhol Exhibition: 15 Minutes Eternal, Singapore

Several times I’ve visited Singapore and I started to think it’s only good for shopping and that’s becoming less and less interesting to me. A few months ago I found out about Andy Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal, an exhibition of the late Pop Art icon, being held in Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Singapore, from March until middle of August, 2012. After a long (budget) consideration I finally decided to go! Talked Diyan into going with me and booked the plane tickets. Woohoo!

The Exhibition

The exhibition was actually held in one of the galleries of Art & Science Museum, across the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes building.

Honestly, I wasn’t (and still am not) a big fan of Andy Warhol. I was quite familiar with some of his works and knew a bit about him from random media, but it was great to see an exhibition of one of the world’s most influential artists. The exhibition displayed his original works, some were sketches and some were final ones. Some were borrowed from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, and some were from the Andy Warhol foundation. *do correct me if I got this wrong*

Coming from a country with poor museum and exhibition displays in general, I’ve always been fascinated with Singapore museums and art galleries, including this Warhol exhibition. Images are projected onto walls, Campbell soup cans and Kellog’s cereal boxes are displayed on shelves, iPads with audio visual documentation were installed in some sections, and they even turned one of the sections into Warhol’s Silver Factory with silver wallpapers and all. Awe to the some!! As Warhol used various types of media in his art, there were sketches, paintings, silk screen paintings, 3 dimensional items and videos displayed throughout the gallery. We sat and watched the 2’45” videos of people’s expressions, and found Salvador Dali a very amusing person! It was a clever call to cast Adrien Brody as Dali in the “Midnight in Paris” cos I could so see the resemblance in facial features and characters! (speaking as if I know them in person.. hahaha)

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the gallery. But as a fan of photo booths, I was happy that Diyan had the same idea, taking photos in the booth provided at the gallery, SG$5 / 4 clicks, with some Warhol-related apparels provided by the booth. Apparently Andy was a fan of photo booths himself! *high five* LOL...

The Silk Screen Printing Workshop

 The SG$15 admittance fee included a free guided tour at certain times in the weekend, and the silk screen printing workshop at 2-3pm in the weekends. We purchased the tickets via MBS website, and it didn’t say anything about the workshop schedule whatsoever.

So we came on Saturday 5.30 pm, coincidentally the right timing for the guided tour, but we had missed the workshop L I was disappointed. The workshop was one of the reasons why I wanted to go see the exhibition all the way from Jakarta. Being an angelic boyfriend, Diyan offered to accompany me going back there again the next day. Woot!! He read my mind! I didn’t have the heart to ask him to go back again cos that would mean paying double admission fee, but I guess he saw how bad I wanted it ^.^ Well, not to flatter myself too much, he wanted the workshop as well.. LOL .

So we came back for the workshop on Sunday. Honestly, it was nothing really deep or artsy or creatively challenging at all. We basically gathered round the staff for an explanation about what silk screen printing is and how it works – which I had learned in college long long time ago – and then squeegeed paints on the silk screen they had prepared.

This so-called art work I partly made is really nothing special creation-wise, but I plan to frame it and hang it on my wall at home anyway. It’s the whole excitement, fun, and memorable moment that’s embedded in the red-brown Warhol self-portrait that make the piece mean a lot to me J

The Art & Science Museum

Other than the Andy Warhol exhibition, another hip event was also going on at the Art & Science Museum, that is “Harry Potter: The Exhibition”. As much as I enjoyed the Harry Potter movies, I just wasn’t interested enough to see the exhibition and having to pay extra dollars. Judging from the entrance, I bet it’s awesome, though.

Then there is also the permanent museum on the top floor. It doesn’t display many artsy nor scientific items, but videos projected on the specially designed walls instead. The contents? The history of innovations, such as lanterns and robot fish, and how they later developed into more sophisticated innovations and how they were utilized in finding deeper knowledge, etc.

The building top is designed based on the lotus flower shape, cos lotus is a symbol of knowledge and you can see a lotus pond in front of the museum.

One of the things I love about this museum (which actually applies to many of places in Singapore) is the area to sit out, enjoying the open air. We got our snack and bottled water, and it felt so much like a picnic :D