Paint The Town Red – Singapore Heritage Light Up

10 national monuments and arts/cultural institutions are illuminated in the national colours of red and white to show the solidarity and celebration of Singapore’s 55th birthday

  • The Armenian Church (as shown below)
  • National Museum of Singapore
  • Cathedral of Good Shepherd
  • CHIJMES
  • Central Fire Station
  • National Gallery of Singapore
  • The Arts House
  • Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall
  • Asian Civilisations Museum
  • Esplanade 

  

While they tried to “paint the town red”, I assume the intention of the curators for the Singapore Heritage Light Up event was to simply bring to light the 10 monuments that would usually be overlooked during any other day and especially at night. To avoid gathering of crowds, the light and space designs were kept simple and to be viewed at a distance. Multiple news coverage of the event also tends to mention Covid-19 and how we should remember to mask up and maintain safe-distancing.

Unlike the Singapore Night Festival which took place in August 2019, around the same period as this year, the Singapore Night Festival has its fair share of projection mapping installations and light shows.

Video here.

This example above is a short clip from Singapore Night Festival 2019: The Legend of Ramayana. This installation is based on the Indian epic poem, The Ramayana. Cast on the National Museum’s iconic banyan tree, stories inspired by one of the two major epic Indian poems are depicted and narrated. This was the first time the story was projected and told on the banyan tree.

More works from Singapore Night Festival 2019 is available here.

Back in 2019, before the pandemic, there was more allowance of time and space for the designers to tell their stories. Spectators were allowed to gather and sit down to enjoy the shows as the stories/special effects unfold.

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