The Curious Adventure Of The Salaryman
Gerry is your average salaryman. His existence is monotonous. He is beset by constant pressure from his boss.
It is possible you relate to Gerry, though he is, in fact, an invented character created for the National Library Board's latest Read! Fest literary trails on positive thinking.
The self-guided trails, which are suitable for all ages, are located in West Coast Park, East Coast Park and the National Library Building.
Participants have to find their way among six art installations, collect three tokens and scan QR codes to activate the trail's storyline and multimedia elements.
The trails will feature quotes from some of the recommended reads of this year's festival.
These include The Way Through The Woods (2020), Malaysia-born Long Litt Woon's memoir on turning to mushrooming after her husband's sudden death; and Hard At Work (2019) by Gerard Sasges and Ng Shi Wen, which examines working life across a spectrum of jobs in Singapore.
Where: Starting points at West Coast Park (beside McDonald's restaurant); East Coast Park (beside East Coast Lagoon Food Village); National Library Building Plaza at Level 1, 100 Victoria Street
When: Till Oct 31
Admission: Free
Info: The Curious Adventure Of The Salaryman website
Alcina
Home-grown group The Opera People returns to the live stage after more than a year, joining forces with music ensemble Red Dot Baroque to present a full-length production of Alcina, George Frideric Handel's baroque opera about the downfall of a powerful sorceress.
In the opera, directed by Tan Shou Chen, Alcina rules an enchanted island, but is betrayed by her lover Ruggiero and defeated by Ruggiero's fiancee Bradamante. Stripped of her powers and confined to a cell, the sorceress reflects on her ruin.
Where: Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan, Level 4, 107 North Bridge Road
MRT: City Hall
When: Friday (Aug 20) and Sunday (Aug 22)
Admission: $15 to $98 via Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to the Sistic website)
Info: The Opera People Facebook page
only losers left alive (love songs for the end of the world)
In the second part of this group exhibition by home-grown art gallery Yeo Workshop, the works by local artists take their cue from science fiction and cinema, envisioning a ravaged, post-humanist world.
The title of the exhibition, curated by Louis Ho, is a reference to the vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), by American arthouse film-maker Jim Jarmusch.
Geraldine Lim's surreal series of drawings, I Meet Her At A Place We Always Go To (A Drawing Journal), records her isolation and anxiety, while Masuri Mazlan's installations draw on his fears of contamination and infection through sexual intimacy.
Juria Toramae's video piece Uncanny Lagoon is based on her documentation of marine species found in South-east Asian waters, and has been transformed by generative adversarial networks, a kind of machine-learning framework.
The exhibition is accompanied by a melancholic soundtrack composed by film-makers and sound artists Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen.
This, along with their songs from the first part of the exhibition in July, will be packaged as an album in the form of a limited-edition cassette tape.
Where: Yeo Workshop, 01-25 Gillman Barracks, 47 Malan Road
MRT: Labrador Park
When: Till Aug 29, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11am to 7pm; Sundays, noon to 6pm. Closed on Mondays
Admission: Free
Info: Yeo Workshop website
