Tell me, princess… Oh, my bad! That title really got me going. But it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it is the perfect background music for when you make the rounds at this year’s Light to Night Festival! With over 60 interactive experiences around the Civic District that will blow you away, you will be presented with a whole new world where art meets technology in an absolutely beautiful marriage. Being the marquee event of Singapore Art Week, this year’s festival returns with pomp you have never seen before! From now till 3 February 2022, the festival is yours to explore and fall in love with!
This year’s theme is “New Ways of Seeing, Thinking and Being”, and it could not have been more fitting. Some installations are especially provoking as they challenge your perspectives with wondrous work that will change the narrative. Here are three of my favourite installations to which I hope you will pay a visit to admire and experience in their full glory:
Move For?ward (Unseen: Inside Out) by Unseen Art Initiatives
Even after attending the entire event, I could not stop thinking about this installation. A team consisting of some visual and hard of hearing artists worked for about two years to put this installation together, making changes until the last minute to ensure it was perfect.
You will face a maze with your eyes closed! You will be guided through it via audio recordings that you can access on your phone (so bring along your earpiece/headphones for this one!). As you listen to the audio recordings, you will be asked questions to make it to the end of the maze. Through this thirty-minute experience, you will uncover an important message from this special community that will revolutionise your worldview.
Claire, the leader of this project, is visually impaired herself, and she fought for the rights of her community through this magnificent project. The team had worked alongside access consultants to ensure the community was represented and appealed to properly.
We can’t assume we know the needs of this community. And since we don’t know so much about them, we should strive to learn – and this installation is one way to do so.
Art Skins on monuments
Of course, we can’t forget the highlight of Light to Night, can we? The art skins are the biggest and most anticipated installation of all. You just can’t miss them! Take a walk around the Civic District to tour the beautiful buildings, the Singapore River, and enjoy the evening breeze. Then, as day turns to night, look out for the monument buildings and marvel at the beauty of technology and art unfolding before your eyes. Storytelling will never be the same again.
You can admire this new world of colour and light put together by local talents, around the Civic District and the Rotunda Library & Archive! In the Gallery, Jo Ho’s Into Multiplicities
& Intriguant transforms the Rotunda Library & Archive into an immersive audio-visual
experience that explores how we collect and interpret information in this hyper-digital world. Second Year Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Design & Media students return to the festival with unique projections for The Arts House, Asian Civilisations Museum, Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall!
Fragment of a Shoreline by Spatial Anatomy
Singapore is our beloved sunny island. Our sandy beaches and stunning sea views are some of our biggest points of pride. But this installation encaptures the rich history and pays homage to our shorelines. The most wonderful thing about this installation is that you get to experience the beach in the middle of the Padang! You are invited to sit in the sand and chill on the supposed beach with the city’s theatre unfolding before your eyes. The audio is also a digital reinterpretation of the waves hitting the shoreline, so you really get the whole multi-sensory experience!
Scan the QR code, and you will get to see ten stories about the evolution of the Padang with essays written by various artists. On a black night, you will also see the lights projected onto the National Gallery in a beautiful show that will leave you speechless. I would go back just for this installation!
There is so much to anticipate at Light to Night Festival 2022. From unique installations that will steal your heart at first sight to programmes that will keep the Festival buzzing!
The perfect way to end an infuriatingly mundane week at work is with laughs, and Light to Night has got you covered. Behold, Funny Fridays! This live comedy series presents stand-up comedians that (hilariously) share stories of humour’s role in the pandemic.
You can also anticipate mind-blowing AR exhibitions held outdoors in conjunction with Acute Art! On a roster filled with renowned international artists like KAWS, Olafur Eliasson, and Cao Fei, our very own Singaporean artist, Ho Tzu Nyen, makes an appearance with his new art commission! You can also celebrate the return of the beloved Festival village, Art X Social! The village is a must-visit, from craft-making activities and an aura photo booth to claw machines and local craft shops!
All these installations and programmes are merely the tip of the iceberg! There’s so much more that awaits you at the Grand Festival that is Light to Night. As you make the rounds at the Festival, think of the lyrics in ‘A Whole New World’. So many of those lines reflect the world that you will see when you step into Light to Night. But the most fitting lines would have to be:
“Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky”
These lines truly sum up the experience that the Festival brings us, and it reflects the theme so very well: “New Ways of Seeing, Thinking and Being”.
I hope this new world thrills you. You can’t experience it from just a couple of photographs and articles. The experience comes from walking thousands of steps around the Civic District and inside the Gallery to ensure you don’t miss a single thing. The best part of all? Admission is free! So bring your family and closest friends to witness Light to Night!
For more details to plan your itinerary (and your cameras!), visit the Light to Night website or their Instagram and Facebook pages. The Festival is yours to explore till 3 February!
A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view! Don’t mind me. Just jamming to a musical masterpiece.
Photos by Wong Hui Yi of the DANAMIC Team.
