SingaporeMotherhood | Culture
April 2024
Kids can be curators and conservators at Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer
As any parent of an “artistic” toddler knows, a painting never exists upon a single plane. In the hands of a child, these artworks take on geographical dimensions. They have gradients and crusts. They undulate across the canvas, weighing it with meaning. What was your child thinking when he put that blob of paint right there? // What makes a painting? How did your child know when her painting was complete? // When is a painting complete? How many times did your child ask “What is painting?” // What is painting?
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Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer embraces all these questions and more, as curator Teo Hui Min and conservator and founder of BARC Labs Dr Diana Tay excavate the layers of this Singaporean Nanyang artist’s works. In doing so, they uncover insights into his practice: his artistic innovations and experimentation from the 1950s to the 1980s.
What’s interesting is how they did it, and this is the part that your children might enjoy when you bring them to this free exhibition.
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Visual boards and activity tables
Unlike a usual art exhibition that features only paintings, Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer lets visitors ‘see’ into paintings.
Kids can play at being little curators and little conservators as they engage with the interactive stations scattered across the gallery, peering through microscopes to examine the textures of different canvases that the artist used.
🧑🏻🎨 Talk to your child about their favourite painting media and why they’d choose that. How difficult or how easy would it be to paint on jute versus linen, paper, or metal?
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Spot the differences
See how x-ray scans and infrared photography revealed that Cheong’s original sketch for Busy Planters (1968) actually included another two figures who are not present in the completed work. They also revealed that he shifted the position of his signature from the middle left, integrating it into the bundle of reeds at the bottom of the painting. Why? We don’t know, but we do know that even an accomplished artist like Cheong Soo Pieng did not get it perfect the first time.
🧑🏻🎨 Assure your child that the first try isn’t always the best, and that it is perfectly fine to change their mind throughout the creative process. Encourage them to explore different methods, processes, and materials, and make changes if they want to get to their ideal creation, just like Cheong Soo Pieng did.
This exhibition, by the way, is the first in Southeast Asia to use tools such as x-ray scans (in collaboration with radiographers from Singapore General Hospital!) and infrared photography to study the material.
Play a matching game
Cheong Soo Pieng had mastery over a wide range of mediums, working across painting, sculpture, batik, and printmaking. An assorted array of paint types complements this assembly of materials. Their differences are not always visible to the naked eye (or an inexperienced one like mine), but it is fascinating to see how many of these come together in one painting.
Take for example, Cheong’s Drying Salted Fish (1978) (see below) which is featured on the back of Singapore’s 50-dollar banknote. Did you know that the artist actually integrated different types of liquid ink within this iconic painting on silk?
Explore the artworks, then let the kids test their visual acuity at the onscreen game. They’ll have to match selected mini cross-section samples with the paintings featured in the exhibition.
🧑🏻🎨 Didn’t get it all correct? It’s okay. Remind your child that everyone makes mistakes, and that there is nothing wrong with making mistakes because we learn from them. Then maybe make another round of the exhibition!
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Just for kids at Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer
Children’s Activity Guide
Explore Cheong Soo Pieng’s artworks and learn about the different techniques and materials he used. This activity guide is only available at the exhibition.
Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer
When 5 April to 29 Sept 2024
Where City Hall Wing, Level B1, The Ngee Ann Kongsi Concourse Gallery, National Gallery Singapore
Cost Free admission
Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer is the first of four solo exhibitions in the Singapore Artist series, which will also spotlight Singaporean artists Teo Eng Seng, Kim Lim, and Lim Tze Peng at the National Gallery Singapore in 2024. For more information, visit www.nationalgallery.sg/cheongsoopieng
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