Annie Liebovitz plus

While wandering through the Chinese gardens on our Monday walk we found 2 more of the 'planet' plaques. This time it was Earth and Mars. We also found a suitable sign for some of us to have a photo taken...Eric is close enough to a senior so we let him join in too! 

We saw a reasonable variety of birds...when I first saw the grey heron I thought it was a statue...but then it moved. We finished the walk with lunch at Jurong before Kathy, Helen and I retired to Kathy's to discuss Great Race business.

Helen and I had dinner in Hougang before she headed home. 

I spent most of Tuesday completing some MAE work before meeting June and Joy to see Mother's Day, the movie. It provided a few laughs and wasn't too demanding. After the movie I met Robert, who was batching as Maria is in Australia for the week, and we had dinner at a Spanish restaurant on Clarke Quay.

Travis and Jamie came to work on Wednesday with information about a small Annie Liebovitz exhibition at the old Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, so on Friday Kathy, Helen and I visited it.

The Former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station was designed in the Art Deco style.
Four large sculptures by Angelo Vannetti, a sculptor from Florence, Italy, are installed on the front façade. These marble sculptures are allegories of the four main sectors of the Malayan economy: agriculture, commerce, transport, and industry. The initials F, M, S, and R above the figures stand for the Federated Malayan States Railways.

The roofs of the railway station are covered with wa dang (circular eaves tiles) and di shui (triangular drip tiles) with stylised characters of the Chinese word shou ( ‘longevity’) and Buddhist swastikas decorating their ends. These roof tiles are usually found in Chinese buildings and temples.
The 22-metre-high central hall of the station feels large and spacious without the visual obstruction of supporting columns. Tall murals, made up of approximately 9,000 ceramic tiles, line the interior walls. The murals depict scenes of Malayan industries such as rubber tapping, tin mining, rice cultivation, and different modes of transport. The coat of arms of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States can also be found on both ends of the grand hall.
The station is currently in poor repair and I am not sure what the future plans are for it. Perhaps an Art precinct.

The Annie Leibovitz exhibition was a small one titled Women: new portraits. There were some I had seen previously when we went to her exhibition in Sydney several years ago but it was interesting nevertheless. As well as some photos displayed on a large wall there was a large screen with a changing series of photos. One lot showed showgirls in everyday gear with their showgirl persona alongside...amazing transformations.

 Most of the MRT stations in Singapore display some sort of art work. At Tanjong Pagar it is a carved stone wall mural.

After having some lunch with the girls we went our separate ways so I had a wander round downtown trying to find the correct perspective for one of the Quiz questions for this week. As it turns out my very first guess was correct but as I wandered through Promenade I found a display of old photos including one of Tanjong Pagar with a train in the station! An interesting comparison on how it looked only a couple of hours ago.

Then and Now