National Gallery launches virtual extension

Titled unrealised, this virtual extension can only be accessed at specific locations within the gallery, through the Gallery Explorer app on a smart phone. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - The National Gallery Singapore launched a new digital extension to its long-term exhibitions on Tuesday (Aug 15).

Titled unrealised, this virtual extension can only be accessed at specific locations within the gallery, through the Gallery Explorer app on a smart phone.

It debuts with commissioned works by three Singapore artists - a work incorporating live Twitter updates by conceptual artist Heman Chong; and video works by Ho Tzu Nyen and London-based artist Erika Tan.

The works were created in response to the gallery's permanent Singapore and South-east Asia exhibitions, with the artists responding to different aspects of the exhibition.

Ho, for example, created three video works in response to artworks which depicted tigers, such as Tang Da Wu's installation artwork, Tiger's Whip.

When visitors access the app on their smart phones or tablets available on loan for free, the digital works are unlocked automatically, using proximity-based technology known as iBeacon, when they are in the vicinity of specific artworks or in particular areas of the gallery.

For example, they can access Tan's work, Apa Jika, The Mis-placed Comma (I, II, III), when they walk in the corridor near the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery.

Tan's work was filmed within the gallery's exhibition spaces before it was opened to the public, while works were still being hung.

The work, which honours an old Malay weaver, is currently on show in Venice, Italy, as part of the prestigious Venice Biennale.

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