friday i had meant to go to the STPI to see the ‘paper pushers’ exhibition before it closed, and then have lunch and do my readings at toby’s estate. this did not happen because of a) the heavy rain that went on all afternoon and b) my waking up past noon (with me, plans that involve any part of the morning are always picturesque and so very plausible but seldom, on the whole, realistic.) after the unseasonable drought of the first quarter, the delayed rains had, when they arrived finally, been most welcome (and were, in fact, welcomed with island-wide exhilaration — it was march 16 that i was woken abruptly not by the alarm but the wild trampling on rooftops — i remember the exact date, for within minutes of the first rainfall all the singapore facebook statuses turned to thrilled cries of ’rain!’) and naturally, i’ve always enjoyed torrential rain in the tropics (is there anything nicer than lying in bed dozing, listening to the sustained roar of wind and water?) but barely three weeks later, that eagerness (even gratitude) for rain has faded, there is only mild annoyance that these belated pluvial days are getting in the way of my wandering about in the city.midway through the semester i’d told myself that droughts in the heart are the worst sort, that i needed to once again live again how i used to, and now i try to spend some part of each weekend going to an exhibition, walking about somewhere, or reading in a cafe. when the rain stopped briefly on saturday, i nipped out to gillman barracks to see what is on. at the mizuma gallery i found dizzying, hyper-real images created by a prisoner in the yogyakarta penitentiary, a kind of prison diary of ordinary items compulsively collated (the anthologising impulse delights me as much as the provenance of the items disturbs: a collection of prison slippers, each personalised with markers by their inmate owners; knives smuggled from the kitchen, still stained by juices and vegetable fibres; twisted rubberbands of different colours, almost sculptural.) what, by the way, is scanography exactly? i had not known of the word or this technique before. and at ota fine arts (i liked the pieces they brought to art stage this year) there were video installations by takao minami: the whole gallery was darkened, with only flickering tea lights in glass bowls, and wood benches in front of the longest displays, and i sat in the quiet darkness watching the rocking of the outlines of a little boat on lulling waves.
the weekend before desmond and i had gone to wessex estate for the annual “artwalk”. when it comes to traditional singaporean architecture i always say i love the peranakan shophouses, with their intricate, colorful exterior ornamentation. i think less often about, but perhaps love only a little less, the black and white colonial bungalows and apartments. the cluster of black and whites and portsdown, is, i often think, the lushest of these colonial estates, with both bungalows and barracks. since the 2000s it has also become home to many artists’ studios: once a year they hold a collective open-house over an “art-walk” weekend. we only went to six of the studios — it was too humid a day for prolonged walking, and the rain had left the paths muddier than i’d have liked. at one of them, a charming romanian artist (he was 68 this year, and had lived in singapore for the past 22 years. me, going over and kissing him: you’re the same age as my father!) sat on the bed idly taking photos of me while i wandered from wall to wall. ‘have a drink with me,’ he said, so we helped ourselves to beers from the refrigerator. at one point, his wife and i stood chatting. she, in a black dress, was ash blond, and beside her, my dark hair and blood red dress — we were of a height and made what must have been to him a strikng composition. “red and black,” he said, taking a photo. their walk-up was on the second storey, and there was a bunyan tree in front of their balcony, the curtain of long aerial roots a swaying sunshade. after that we walk down to the village square (the terrific throwback colbar, pietrasanta, the tuscan restaurant addy likes, a small biergarten, a few small cafes, and revolutionary coffee just down the road at media circle) for tea and chocolate. i like living in singapore very much at times like these.
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