Wayang Spaceship
19 Jan–10 Mar 2024 
Various timings 19 Jan–8 Feb Mon–Sun, 10am–midnight, Daily activations from 7.15–7.45pm (additional timings from 9.15–9.45pm every Fri–Sun)
9 Feb–10 Mar Mon–Sun, 10am–10pm, Daily activations from 7.15–7.45pm
Empress Lawn A Wayang Spaceship has landed on our shores. Alongside the industrial, technological and ecological crises that have taken place throughout time, it also stands witness to our place in the cosmos. During the day, the Wayang Spaceship is seemingly dormant, its own inactivity is interrupted by the occasional stray radio transmission relayed from another dimension.
At dusk, the Wayang Spaceship reclaims its former role as a travelling Chinese theatre, illuminating the past, present and future with an operatic symphony of light, sound and image, as though it is livestreamed from the memory of a scholar-warrior, a time travelling consciousness who moves freely between the past, present, and future, inviting the public to commune with this solitary figure of Chinese opera.
Wayang Spaceship is commissioned by The Everyday Museum, a public art initiative by Singapore Art Museum, and made possible with the generous support of Sun Venture.
The installation is located at the Empress Lawn, which is not accessible by wheelchair.
The world of cinema is Ming Wong’s gateway to imagination. In many of his works, he subverts the role of the actor in order to reveal how gender, race, nationality, language, body type and other categories are always a form of performance. Since 2012, he has investigated the modernisation of Cantonese opera in the 20th century, its cinematic transformations and unlikely relationship with the development of science fiction in the Chinese speaking world.
Wong represented Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 with his solo exhibition, Life of Imitation, which won a special mention.
www.mingwong.org
