By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

ONE OF the things I most enjoy about living in Singapore is the easy access to the wide variety of cultural offerings the city has to offer.

In recent years Singapore has gone out of its way to spend money on art galleries, museums, exhibition spaces, public art and free cultural events of all sorts, from music to dance performances.

Yes, there are the specific cultural activities that occur during the various religious and cultural festivals that are held every year, but the established venues are just as interesting, whether holding special exhibitions or simply their usual displays.

One of my favourite places to visit is the Asian Civilisations Museum at Empress Place, on the riverside, just opposite Boat Quay.

Surely just about everyone in Singapore has visited this excellent museum at least once, right? Apparently not. A straw poll among friends and colleagues – both local and expat – found that not many of them had bothered.

Which is a great shame. This museum is a microcosm, not only of the region, but more importantly, also of Singapore's own culture.

The  five main galleries in the Empress Place Building – a beautifully restored former colonial office – cover the major civilisations of Asia; China, India and South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Asia or the Islamic societies.

Originally established at Armenian Street – now home to the Peranakan Museum – ACM is the first museum in the region to combine pan-Asian cultures in one place, and this is what makes it so interesting.

Usually, museums feature displays from one particular culture or place rather than a combination. But it makes sense in multi-ethnic Singapore for all Asian cultures to be showcased.

The Empress Place site opened in 2003 and according to their very comprehensive website, the ACM covers 4,000 square metres, housing 11 galleries with over 1,300 artefacts.

The artefacts come from a variety of sources, from private donations to the historic Southeast Asian ethnographic collection of the former Raffles Museum. The museum also houses a number of visiting exhibitions from around the region and rotating special shows from their archives.

When I visited recently they were in the process of changing their special exhibition over, but there was still plenty to see.

For visitors to Singapore, the Singapore River Gallery on the second level offers an insight into 'old' Singapore; the Singapore of godowns, coolies, clipper ships and colonialism. Uniquely viewers can stare out the windows to the river itself, now fringed with towering office blocks – although the surviving shophouses of Boat Quay add a touch of authenticity.

On show are items from archaeological digs on the riverbanks, including some bits and pieces of 14th century Chinese ceramics that were actually found near the Empress Place Building, and a series of historical photographs.

My favourite space is the Southeast Asian gallery, also on the second level.

This large, dark space is filled with a huge variety of artefacts from all around the region. There is everything from massive stone Buddha sculptures and enormous wooden totems from Borneo to tiny, intricate carvings of buttons and religious icons.

The Mary & Philbert Chin gallery on the side includes some beautifully preserved items of dress and a large collection of swords, parangs and kris from the Malay archipelago. There are also a small number of Peranakan decorative items and some fantastic fabrics, including batik and ikat.

The Kwek Hong Png China gallery is not exhaustive, but it does carry some interesting pieces from the region, particularly some characteristic ceramic work and a few examples of detailed embroidered garments. There's also some nice pieces of furniture.

A recent addition since my last visit some years ago, is the West Asia or Islamic Gallery. There is an extensive display of decorative and historical Quran's from both India and further afield including Iran, Iraq and what was known as Persia. The gallery also explains the various prohibitions about recreating living things and reproducing the words of Allah.

Rounding out this gallery are some lovingly carved mosque screens and other architectural items.

On the first level, actually kind of in the basement and quite difficult to find, is the South Asia gallery with some substantial pieces from India and the subcontinent.

Most of the artefacts are related to the various religions of the area with some absolutely stunning Buddha carvings and detailed Hindu sculptures. There are also some really fantastic pieces of metal work from the region including stuff from the Mughal period.

If you go slowly and truly look at every thing in the ACM, you could easily spend a day there. You can also take some time out to listen to all the interactive videos that dot the galleries – each one featuring a Singaporean of a particular ethnicity explaining something about a cultural practice related to a display.

The museum is very dark, with each display case lit from within, showing the items off like gems – there are also  drawers where you can have a closer looks at some items.

Each time I visit the ACM I discover some new thing that I haven't seen before, and the quite hush lulls one into an almost dream-like state so that you can almost imagine you're a part of history.

A visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum is one of the most relaxing and interesting things you can do in Singapore.

Current exhibitions
Hunters and Collectors: The Origins of the Southeast Asian Collection runs until September 21 and covers the islands of Indonesia and Borneo and the people who 'hunted' down the artefacts that are currently in the museum's Southeast Asia collection.

Seeing The Invisible: An Insight to Conservation runs until December 13; it tells you more about the people who look after museum artefacts.

Details
The Asian Civilisations Museum is located at 1 Empress Place. You can  take the MRT and get off at Raffles Place stop before crossing the footbridge outside the Fullerton Hotel. ACM is open all week, from 1pm-7pm on Monday and from 9am-7pm Tuesday to Sunday. It is also open until 9pm on Friday. It costs $5 to enter; this lets you into all the galleries but special exhibitions can cost more. There is a shop with lots of very nice products – but they are expensive – as well as a riverside cafe, a restaurant and bar. You can also hire the venue for events – my friend actually got married there.