TacoCat’s Travels #261 (SG): Exploring Art and History before Delicious Dim Sum! 📸

September 2024 · 10 min read · Singapore

Hey Hive!

I'm taking a pause from documenting international travels, as I just wrapped up my series on our 2022 trip to Seoul—what a journey that was over the past nine months! During this break, I'm excited to explore and write about the hidden gems and vibrant spots we have right here in Singapore!

So last week, we began our adventure at the National Gallery in Singapore from back in March 2023, a place we hadn’t explored before. To our delight, we discovered an incredible collection of art, each piece steeped in its own unique history!

We explored Liu Kuo-Sung's captivating collection, featuring a stunning blend of traditional ink paintings alongside his innovative space series, inspired by breathtaking photographs of Earth!

Anyway, there are lots more to see at the National Gallery so let's go!

The other big collection on display was this incredible photography exhibition titled "Living Pictures," showcasing the vibrant photographic art of Southeast Asia.

It depicts a captivating journey through the lens, highlighting Southeast Asia's rich culture and stunning landscapes.

The photos showcased a vibrant tapestry of local lives, capturing people from all corners of the region in hidden gems and lesser-known spots that many travelers might overlook. There were some risque photos that I wasn't expecting though, but I guess it's art so it's okay?

The exhibit showcased a fascinating collection of historical photos, transporting visitors back to long-gone eras.

These photos were from 1906 and 1993! It's amazing how good they looked even back then and how well they've been preserved. I guess they're replicas but they still look really clear for how old they are.

Of course since these photos depict history in the region, there were bound to be some political images of war times back then.

There was a warning here for this section since these images depicted violence. I feel like we saw the nude photos before we came across this warning though.

There were quite a lot of violent images here, it felt like we should be extra quiet to be respectful.

This section showcases the 1970s and how photography was part of the larger turn towards conceptualism and institutional critique in the fine arts and many artists began performing for the camera.

I personally don't really get photography but just like how I'm an artist that doesn't understand all the artsy talk, I can also appreciate photographs and good angles.

This section was about how photographs act as historical documents yet create new worlds with their interpretation of reality, or shifting realities within the frame of the photographic image. More specifically, the Second Indochina War in Vietnam back from 1955-1975 and how photographs from opposing sides present completely different "realities".

I've never really thought of how photographs can have an agenda based on the angles and expressions or even the environment itself. I guess now with technology like Photoshop and AI, you never know if a photo is real or fake which is even more suspicious. Photography seems to be drifting away from the truth and reality even more in that sense.

Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen, but I think it will drastically affect how history is recorded in the future. How will generations from now be able to tell what really happened if everything is or can be fabricated?

There were some family portraits of people from the early 1900s on display like this one from Lee Brothers Studio active from 1910-1940. I've never heard of them before so I'm not sure if they were famous but I guess they must be in some way to have their photos here.

Most of the portraits here were too old for us to know about them though, so it felt like we were just looking at random Asian people from the olden days. I feel like you could've snuck in some photo of an actual random person and no one would bat an eye.

I like how they designated different sections by the colours of the walls. They used really deep colours too, which I guess makes most of the photos pop since they're mostly black and white.

This section was about the colonial times in Southeast Asia in the 19th century, when European colonists produced an archive for viewers all over the world. They became hugely popular and widely circulated in books and postcards but were often racist and ignorant.

This section had slightly more "modern" photos from the 1980s so it was a bit more relatable, and we could see pictures of early Singapore and how it used to be.

These looked slightly more familiar since we've seen similar images in our old history books.

I guess this was the more historical section in this exhibition.

The exhibition does continue in another area in the gallery though.

There were lots of photo cards on display that were samples from the published book of the same name - Living Pictures.

This part of the exhibition looked more interactive with some actual articles and objects on display.

I guess these were early flora and fauna from when Europeans first arrived on our shores and were documenting the place and examining our coconuts.

This table had some more curious articles of nature and life in SEA.

There were insects preserved in resin, models of some native birds, various news articles and even a fake plate of Chicken Rice!

This was definitely the most modern part of the gallery depicting technology and the detriments of social media, most likely.

We headed into the final section of the gallery here.

I'm not sure what these cards were but I remember them being quite graphic and morbid.

This section was describing how the digital age has dramatically increased the creation, circulation and consumption of photographic images.

It's quite ironic now that everyone wants to capture everything with their phones but they get distracted because of that and not taking the time to actually enjoy the very moment they're trying to capture. Just look at how concerts are these days with the audience just full of phone screens.

After that we were done with the National Gallery and ended up back at the gift shop we first saw when we arrived.

We passed by a very nice and cozy-looking cafe on the way out.

And there was also a long walkway for a Children's Gallery with art from different schools.

This section presents art from Assumption Pathway School which is a special needs school here in Singapore. The artwork was actually quite inspired but I guess it was probably very well curated.

We walked back out into the foyer towards the exit of the building, passing by more cafes on our way.

This one actually looked really nice, and it reminded me of some fancy cafes in Paris.

We found our way our after a while and enjoyed a nice stroll in relatively cool weather.

It was pretty early for dinner but we figured we might as well beat the crowds. It was a nice day for a walk so we decided to walk to the mall at Raffles City. We passed by the Parliament House on the way and noticed the very well-manicured lawn.

Eventually we arrived and just in time because we were hungry!

We had vouchers to use here at Imperial Tresure and thankfully since it was early there wasn't many people around and the restaurant was fairly empty.

We were shown to a table shortly after arriving and had about $50 to spend here, which to be honest was just enough for the two of us considering the prices.

They had quite a number of Chinese/Cantonese dishes from congee to roasted meats and vermicelli rice rolls.

Since this branch was called Imperial Treasure Yi Dian Xin they specialised in dim sum and had quite the menu of dim sum items.

For an appetiser we ordered the Roast Pork Belly which was crispy on the top with tender meat on the bottom. It wasn't overly oily either and was seasoned perfectly, absolutely delicious!

Roast pork belly or siu yuk is probably one of my favourite meat dishes. It's so crispy and savoury and while unhealthy it's just too delicious to resist!

We also ordered the roast duck steamed rice roll since their duck is supposedly really good but was too pricey to order on its own. It was pretty good though and we've never had duck in a rice roll before so it was unique.

It tasted pretty good, but I don't know if I would order it again. It's slightly more savoury compared to the regular rice roll with roast pork but I found it a tad oily.

One of the entrees we ordered was a bowl of shrimp wonton noodles. I figured it was the only thing that was affordable that could make me full since it came with soup.

The noodles were thin and chewy and the shrimp wontons were fairly decent in size. The broth was quite light but I thought it was a little plain. I think I ended up adding some chili in there to spice it up and it was a little better.

It was still a decent portion size for one person though but I don't know if it's worth 10 bucks when you could get something cheaper at a hawker center that's probably tastier albeit unhealthier as well.

For dim sum, we ordered two things; the first was a shrimp roll in beancurd skin - our favourite!

This one was crispy on the outside, savoury on the inside. It was a little more meaty and less oily compared to other dim sum places we've tried but delicious all the same.

We also tried a new dish called Pan-fried Chive Dumpling that looked like a glutinous rice ball.

Turns out that's what it was, with roast pork and chives inside! It was chewy on the outside due to the glutinous rice and slightly crisp too which was quite unique.

We also tried an actual Deep Fried Glutinous Rice Dumpling which is also something you don't normally see in a dim sum restaurant.

This one was a lot thicker than on the outside than the chive dumpling and was filled with sweet roasted pork filling. The glutinous rice was very crisp on the outside and didn't taste like rice to me since it was quite gelatinous. It was really yummy though!

Overall it was a very delicious meal and we were really stuffed after eating all the scrumptious snacks! It was a nice reward after all that walking we did though.