expiration date 

we’ve been trying to go to the Art Garden Exhibition every year and check out Mr. Walter every summer. the past two years have been a great fun.

this year, unlike last year, the exhibition is back to it’s original home, at the 8Q SAM… which i think is a more suitable place for this kind of exhibitions.

this year, the format is very similar to the 2010’s: activity rooms are on the 2nd floor and there is a movie room. and this time the popular exhibits are making comebacks.

for example, the Solar Dancing Flowers from last year…

aina’s favorite, the Dress Me Up room, is also here… she can stay in this room forever…

and, of course, Walter the Bunny… aina even bought herself a mini Walter to accompany her at home. she named him Walter Tuna… i’m not sure why Tuna. and she’s been taking the little walter to bed with her every night.

there are also other new exhibits, where aina could “make” and “draw” stuff… she looooves these kinds of things.

the first one was Everyday Wonders, where she was to decorate a magnet made out of plaster, using everyday objects. and she was allowed to bring the magnets home… which is now sticking on our fridge.

then, on the next room, there is an activity room where she was allowed to color drawings and stick them on the wall.

too bad she wasn’t that interested in the film area. there was Reactive Wall, where you can talk or scream into a microphone and the big image in front of you reacts based on your voices. aina, who doesn’t enjoy loud noises was immediately appalled by kids screaming into microphones. oh well.

the Let’s Dance exhibit was actually fun, where you can record yourself dancing to music and it will show up on the big screens. but apparently, aina couldn’t dance to a disco music… only ballet, she said. well, maybe she has forgotten that she used to dance to Madonna’s songs.

the other room that she liked was the Art of Imagination, by the same artist who made the Dress Me Up room, Justin Lee. there were walls of boxes stacked up in the room, and you could rearrange and draw your dreams on the boxes.

then, she got into her new favorite room… Grow a Garden in the Dark exhibit. it was basically a glow in the dark forest, albeit small, with flowers from fluorescent papers and tissue papers. aina could can make the flowers and stick them to the walls and vines. she looooves origami, so she spent most of the time sitting on the floor making flowers that glow in the dark. the room was beautiful, too bad it doesn’t show in the pictures.

she also met the giant 5QU1D that changes and flickers colors.

the last room we visited was actually on the first floor. but it had a long line and was very crowded when we first arrived, so we skipped it. good idea, because by the time we entered, no one was there. and we could enjoy the room for ourselves.

it’s the Echoes-Infinity-The Forest. it’s a beautiful room with artworks flowers (forest) on the floor. but overtime, the “forest” faded away with each steps of the visitors.

then, we could watch the making of the room and saw how it looked like a month ago, when the flowers were still freshly painted.

they said that the artist, Shinji Ohmaki, will come and redo the artwork again this July. so that means, sometime in July, this exhibit will be closed for a few days (re-painting) and re-opened again with fresh flowers for the remainder of the exhibition (until 12 of Auguest)! so, if you want to see fresh flowers, come at the end of July… :)

more photos in the art garden exhibition 2012 photo album.

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Art Garden 2012
at the Singapore Art Museum is at SAM at 8Q
18 May to 12 August 2012

OPENING HOURS
Mondays to Sundays 10am to 7pm (Last admission at 6:15pm)
Fridays 10am to 9pm

more info here.