German Division in the Form of Wolves

This exhibition in the basement of the Singapore National Museum is a truly stunning installation of 99 replica foxes by Cai Guo-Qiang. It supposedly represents the national psychological ghosts of the Berlin wall, with the circular motion of the foxes - running in a repeated circle towards a glass barrier - representing the human tendency to repeat mistakes. I like this work as metaphor of insanity, and I love the impact you get walking around it, but as someone who used to live in ex-DDR I find it hard to relate the running wolves to the ossie-wessie divide, which I do believe exists but see more as a systemic issue rather than psycho-social phenomenon. Of course there are personal traumas associated with the Berlin wall and it has left differing impacts on each side of the country (financial difficulties, and coping with change, regret and resentments) but I am not sure how these impacts can be construed as repeated human errors. Perhaps there are effects I am overlooking?

Olive-backed sunbird

I spotted this tiny native Singaporean bird right in the heart of the city in the gardens of a condo. It was incredibly bold and hardly bothered by my presence, I actually followed it around as it flitted from flower to flower. In some ways it is similar to a humming bird, brightly coloured, living mostly on nectar - drinking here from a heliconia - and as I learned later it can actually hover, but only for a little while and seems to prefer the acrobatics in the photos below. Female sunbirds (identifies by their paler heads) join the males in a monogamous pair to raise chicks, in flask shaped nests they build suspended from anything they deem twig-like - door frames, electric wires and yes even twigs.

Chinese ghost festival

Just out the back of Plaza Singapura I came across this makeshift shrine erected by the staff of one of the shops in that mall. They were good enough to tell me what it meant to them. For one month every year ghosts or souls of the departed are invited to return to earth and have fun. The ghosts include deceased family so I guess this is a manifestation of what is called ancestor worship. Shrines are erected and paper money and incense is burned in most housing estates across Singapore. But it's only on the 1st 15th and 30th day of the lunar calendar month that the bigger festivities happen so today these people are making offerings and saying prayers for, according to one older man, such things as safety at work.

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Heritagefest

Useful things I learned @ Singapore's cultural festival today:
1. how to carve a straight line in a piece of wood
2. the difference between Devanagari and Nepali script
3. the best eavesdropping spots in a Peranakan house
4. why Farquar went to back to Scotland disappointed
5. how to say rub your hands together in Fijian

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Gardening competition

Which wins the prize for the most weird and wonderful plant - the bright flowers in Fort Canning Park or the grim looking plants on sale at the cluster of garden centres on Thomson Road?

The first is a Carnivorous Pitcher Plant - I am equally fascinated and repulsed by it, but you have to admire it's cunning to trap insects into a pool of liquid rather than the boring old way of just taking nutrients from the soil.


The second is a Lobster Claw Heliconia, a relative of the banana, it provides the main source of nectar for humming birds and a very stylish tent for the minuscule Honduran white bat.


Third and finally, Stag's Horn Ferns (circled in red), which grow on trees or in very little soil, propagate by producing spores and 'offsets' i.e. bits that break off the mother plant, and have been around since the dinosaurs.

Scentstational

Not my joke...this is actually called a Scentstation...proudly shown off by the man who fills it every morning with different chopped up cuttings of herbs and plants. I do think it is a cool idea but I can't help feeling a little irony in the fact that the plants are taken from the gardens surrounding it, and displayed on the 14th century walk and the spice garden (see pix below) where you can blatantly smell them from the foot path in any case...still nice that someone takes an interest in our sensorial experience.