Welcome back to SG: Yayoi Kusama + A little food trip!

My husband and I haven't been to Singapore for some time, and to be perfectly honest, we've never had the inclination to visit unless it's for a specific reason like a scheduled event, an exposition or convention. So, yes, it was Echelon Asia that eventually prompted us to go for a short trip last month... well, he had to attend it and I was along for the ride. Fortunately, the National Gallery was hosting an exhibit by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at the time, which I looked forward to, so there's that.

Yayoi Kusama.
In the middle of the exhibit, there's a video wall showing the artist singing a song she wrote.

Image-heavy after the jump!

Though I know it was just a small sample of the work she's done, I was still quite awestruck at her uninhibited use of color and the level of focus (seems to the point of obsession?) she must've had to have managed repetition in huge canvases. To create rooms dedicated to her vision! To make art an EXPERIENCE besides being something to look at, and to do this for most of her life. It's actually overwhelming. 

I must confess, though I was amazed by her work, some of the larger pieces did make me cringe. (Here's a new word for you: Trypophobia. Be careful when you google. It's not pretty.) Case in point:

Looking at this still gives me the heebee jeebies. *shudders*
Being in black and white DOES NOT HELP AT ALL.

Here are some close-up shots of the more colorful pieces. Good for backgrounds, too, but only for personal use.

I like the middle one with the blue lines and yellow dots. (Makes me think of lactobacillus, for some reason.) Three guesses what the white blobs on the last one are! (It's called, "The Imagery of Human Beings.")

Of course, people lined up for her rooms. 

The polka dotted pumpkins are a must-see, and one of the highlights of her exhibit.
Unfortunately, you can't be inside the room with them, and you can only see them
from a square porthole.  

The pumpkin room's outside walls are made of mirrors. The bigger room
that houses it was painted the same yellow with black dots
that cover the precious items inside.

This was a beautiful room and my favorite besides the one with the pumpkins.
Plus, you could actually BE IN IT! Except we were put in groups of 4 and only
had about 20 seconds per group because of all the people.

This was another room that could only be accessed through several portholes
on the sides. It was a kaleidoscope of christmas lights, except this felt more
Vegas vs the previous one which was more Harry Potter, vs the next set
below which was more Alice in Wonderland.

The last room had these big silver balls which made me worry that I'd
end up like that tourist that broke one of the pumpkins in the US. Funny
that this would be the thing you'd have to go through before leaving.

Ceiling installation at the National Gallery.

-----

Let me just make this short post about FOOD!

Besides the Yayoi Kusama exhibit, we decided to go on a food trip to Singapore's famed hawker centers. We realized we've been to the country a number of times but we've never REALLY explored the food? We were usually at Orchard Road, wandering one or two malls! I didn't want to go through that again--you've seen a mall, you've seen them all!--and I didn't want to spend on anything besides food.

We managed to check out three hawker stops. At Newton Food Center, we finally tasted the country's famed chili crab and cereal prawn, plus had our first taste of BBQ stingray.



(I'm sorry if I only have a photo of the crab. :P I was starving.) I won't go into full-blown food blogger descriptions about what we ate since I'll probably do a sucky job of it, and I have nothing to compare it to since it was the first time we've eaten them (to my recollection.) Suffice to say, they were yummy. And the stingray was a revelation! I always thought it'd have a more squid-like consistency so I was surprised that the meat was more like fish.

Note: Again, it was my first time to eat stingray, do not judge me. LOL.

The next day, we met friends at Lau Pa Sat (or the Telok Ayer Market, as it's labeled in Google Maps.) I had gone ahead and secured a table in the middle next to the beverages and desserts and did not know that the place to be was actually outside, where the satay street is located. *toinks self* Point though is that at least we didn't end up smelling like grilled food. Satay was yummy. I think yummy will just describe all the food for the rest of this post.

The night before we left, I insisted on having dinner at the hawker center on Old Airport Road which was closest [of the more popular food places] to where we were staying. This decision was reinforced by this blog post I found that painstakingly listed and updated all the stalls and their notable food items. (Good job, Mr. Blogger!) My curiosity just HAD to be appeased.



Unfortunately, about 90% of the stalls had closed by the time we arrived, which admittedly was very late. One of the only stalls still open was Toa Payoh Satay, so that pretty much dictated our dinner. For dessert, we had "the best soya beancurd" from Lao Ban, which also hadn't shuttered yet, to my delight.

We are not going to refute it. It really is the best soya beancurd. Too bad we couldn't take some back with us. Doubt it'll survive the hours between refrigerators.

Pro: At least we now have extra reasons to visit Singapore next time!

Con: If only it wasn't so expensive! Oh well.