Name: Screening & Dialogue | Objects for Thriving
Start: 2024-09-21T14:00:00+08:00
Location: 1 St. Andrew’s Road, Singapore, Singapore 178957

Screening & Dialogue | "Objects for Thriving"
Sat 21 Sep | 2pm | National Gallery Singapore, City Hall Wing, Level B1, The Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium | Free, registration required: https://web.nationalgallery.sg/#/detail?id=316129&type=product
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The exhibition "Figuring a Scene" explores the process of form-making within certain contexts, including history and society. Through the elements of shadow, fruit, fire, air, wax and city, it unfolds the interconnectedness between artistic forms and the broader realms of history and everyday life.
This screening programme shifts the attention to domestic households and ordinary domestic objects, like a Butterfly sewing machine and a granite pestle. Directed by Ian Mun and Lilian Chee, "Objects for Thriving" highlights how ordinary objects like these are evolving forms of heritage and instruments that embody both personal and social histories.
There will be a post-screening dialogue with NUS Associate Professors Thomas K Kong and Lilian Chee. The discussion will be moderated by exhibition curator Patrick Flores.
Image: "Objects for Thriving" (still)
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"Objects for Thriving"
Singapore | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 2022 | 24 min 50 sec | PG
Thrive: to grow vigorously, flourish, or prosper.
"Objects for Thriving" fleshes out the complexity of lived worlds in ordinary domestic objects. It focuses on the capacity of such objects to behave as affective mediators and repositories of experiences and events. A Butterfly sewing machine, a granite pestle and mortar set, household talismans and altars, all are equally ordinary and extraordinary. The setting for each object—within a domestic space–changes the nature of how these are perceived. They are involved in identity formations, ritual continuity and meaning making. As instruments embodying histories (personal, social, cultural), they are ordinary forms of heritage which continue to evolve and to matter in the everyday. They are instruments for living, or what we call “objects for thriving.”
"Objects for Thriving" is a collaboration between NUS Associate Professor Dr Lilian Chee and architecturally trained filmmaker Ian Mun. The film is part of the Whampoa Heritage project led by Thomas Kong, Associate Professor from the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore.
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About the speakers
Lilian Chee is Associate Professor of Architectural Theory and Design at the Department of Architecture in the National University of Singapore, where she co-leads the Research by Design Cluster. She also serves as Academic Director at the NUS Museum, and Assistant Dean at the College of Design and Engineering and holds a joint appointment at the Department of Communications and New Media, NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her work includes "Architecture and Affect" (2023), "Art in Public Space" (2022), "Remote Practices" (2022) and the award-winning essay film "03-FLATS" (2014). She leads the Social Sciences Research Council-funded Foundations for Home-based Work (2021-24) and is conducting a limited study on "Dementia, care, and public housing" (2023-24). She writes on affect, architectural representation, domesticity, and works creatively across the intersections of architecture and visual cultures. She co-directed the documentary "Objects for Thriving" (2022), which connects objects, domestic spaces, structures of feeling and the elderly.
Thomas Kong received his architecture degree with honours from the National University of Singapore, and was awarded a Masters of Architecture with distinction from Cranbrook Academy of Art, USA. He is a licensed architect in Singapore and an associate member of the American Institute of Architects. Kong has received awards and grants from Finland, the Netherlands, the US and Singapore. He has lectured and published internationally on the intersection of art and design education and interior architecture. From 2020 to 2022, he was the principal investigator for a research project that introduced the concept and practice of social curating and archiving in transforming the personal possessions of Whampoa elders into a public legacy. Both projects were funded by the National Heritage Board, Singapore.
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About "Figuring a Scene"
Discover a new perspective on exhibitions with "Figuring a Scene", where we break free from traditional art history norms. Here, we believe exhibitions hold intrinsic significance beyond historical or societal contexts. Emotions, imagination, and sensory experiences take centre stage in our understanding of art, defining how we make sense of the world around us.
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