A Night at the Museum

On the stormy Friday night of 7th January, right before semester 2 of school started, I helped an alumnus set up his exhibition for the Light to Night Festival at the National Gallery in line with Singapore Art Week 2022. It was housed at the Y-Lab, an Art x Tech convergence product innovation lab and was exhibited along other artworks revolving around this year's theme of New Ways of Seeing, Being and Thinking.

"New to Light to Night 2022, Art x Tech Programmes reimagine artworks in the Gallery’s collection in the phygital—taking visitors on a contemplative journey into selected works and offering the opportunity to experience the Gallery’s collection in novel and interactive ways." - @nationalgallerysingapore

'An Imagined Past' by Yanni Chua is a virtual reality experience that marries surrealism with paintings from the Gallery existing collection. Participants can put on the headsets and explore the bizarre landscapes that the artist has created. The artworks included "Kampong Kuchan (Lorong 3, Geylang)" by Suri bin Mohyani, “Construction of Chinese Chamber of Commerce” by Loy Chye Chuan and more.

Here are some side by side comparisons of the original artworks and the virtual landscapes that Yanni created using Unreal Engine and Blender

Kampong Kuchan (Lorong 3, Geylang), 1951

Video courtesy of Yale-NUS College Instagram

(@yalenuscollege)

What viewers will see when donning the headset

The Orchardman’s Smile, 1976

The Construction of Chinese Chamber of Commerce, 1963

Yanni's rendition of the artwork

In the process of setting up VR Sets!

Having a conversation with the artist, he told me that he graduated with an Arts and Humanities Major from Yale-NUS College. Yanni had an interest in 3D-Modelling but there were limited resources available specifically regarding that field of art. In the end, he looked up tutorials online on how to use software such as Blender, to create digital artworks during his undergraduate days.

Having just recently picked up Blender myself, Yanni's journey was definitely an inspiration. He grew from following the Donut tutorial by Andrew Price to be capable of creating and having his work exhibited at the National Gallery. His work was also interactive where people were allowed to venture around the digital space and get up close and personal with the elements of his art. This novel method of engaging with art has so much potential and I can't wait to see what else there is in store!

Images and video by @yawny.jpg for the @nationalgallerysingapore