#NEVERBEFORESG | Singapore’s First and Largest Online Art Showcase

National Museum of Singapore presents #NEVERBEFORESG in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

Location: Online
Date: Available from 5 Oct 2020
Hour: All-day
Fee: Free

Featuring newly commissioned works by Singapore-based talents, #NEVERBEFORESG is presented by the National Museum of Singapore as part of the Proposals for Novel Ways of Being initiative.

Spearheaded by National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum, the initiative brings together local art institutions and independent art spaces and collectives to curate responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Guest curated by fashion designer veteran and multidisciplinary artist Yang Derong, #NEVERBEFORESG will feature 140 works from 91 creatives. 

Drawing by Lee Kow Fong/National Museum of Singapore

Through nine chapters that reflect various themes on the circumstances during Singapore’s circuit breaker period, the online art showcase features works created through various mediums such as photography, fashion, visual arts, lyrical verse, and gaming that portray different perspectives of life during the pandemic.

Photography by Jet Ho/National Museum of Singapore

The nine chapters include photo essays from photographers like David Chan and Ryan Loh who documented their lives at home for 19 days as well as Instagram photographers like Ivan Kuek and Yafiq Yusman that documented deserted hot spots in Singapore during the circuit breaker.

Feeling Blue by Ivan Kuek/National Museum of Singapore

You will find digital video essays by Chia Aik Beng depicting people in the community and interpretations of the new normal by architects like Loo Hui Jing, Lee Hui Lian and Kenneth Koh.

No No Square by Start Something Studios/National Museum of Singapore

In addition to digital games inspired by the pandemic and the circuit breaker period and lyrical essays by songwriters and writers incorporating acronyms like ‘CB’ ‘Covidiot’ and ‘HBL’, fashion designers like Sabrina Goh and Wykidd Song have also contributed to the online showcase with their take on full-body PPEs to pay tribute to healthcare workers. 

Design by Wykidd Song/National Museum of Singapore