MAD Museum of Art and Design Singapore - bigger, better and madder

Singapore’s first private art museum just went bigger, better and madder with a new space and a fantastic opening party last saturday.

It all began with a fun and original invitation for the grand opening of the new MAD. Have a look: printed on very thick black paper, gold printed, our names hand-written in gold ink and a fun text. Phrases like “Leave your sanity with our friendly reception” and “dress code: go MAD” promised nothing less then a crazy cool event.

And it was!

But wait; let’s go back a bit, to when I first set foot in MAD, then located in Mandarin Gallery on Orchard Road. I loved its choice in art and the merchandise they had! Like the art from Yoshitomo Nara, an artist who’s work I like very much.
I learned that MAD was planning to move to a bigger space, so I was put on a mailinglist.

Well, last saturday I was able to finally see the new MAD at its location at 10 Tanglin Road and wow, I am in awe! Really! Their claim “MAD Museum of Art & Design - bigger, better and bolder” is totally truthful.

The size of the space is amazing (19.000 sq feet), the lay-out and decor of the museum is spacious and beautiful and the art is contemporary and interesting.

Let’s start at the opening party. I’ll show you around; be my guest;-).

The number of gifted floral pieces to congratulate MAD was impressive!

Upon entering you could have your picture taken: MAD founder Jasmine must have posed at least a hundred times, that evening. She is the one wearing the brown, pleated dress.

The opening event was attended by a crowd of art lovers, art collectors (some big names amongst them) and celebrities from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Here we see Hong Kong star couple Michael Wong and Janet Ma being interviewed.

And here is the short video in which this interview appears. With a super-mini-surprise-appearance at 4:00 exactly of…..little me! Yes, it’s really me. But it’s THAT short, that you have to be quick to pause the video at 4:00 minutes to catch my less then one second of fame, hahaha. And don’t blink or you will miss me! It’s between 4:00 and 4:01 😉

Another celebrity at the event was the beautiful and kind Maggy Wang, Malay radio- and TV-host and part-time blogger.

She was wearing a gorgeous dress from young brand Benten from Malaysia. Isn’t the back spectacular!?
When Maggy saw me taking pictures of her, she offered to have someone take some pictures of us together. An offer I gladly accepted.

It was clear to me that she ‘was somebody’ aka ‘a celebrity’, but I had no idea who.
That’s the thing; I’m quite well-informed if it concerns celebs from Europe and the USA. But I know little about Asian celebrities. Unhandy in situations like this. Because it leaves me with a few options, neither of which is very nice.
1. either I don’t ask, with as result that I have no idea who I just talked to and who I took a photo with, which is a bit silly, right?
2. ask who they are, which might insult them, making me feel awkward and uncomfortable.
I tend to choose for 2, with the risk of coming across as a fool or of receiving answers like: “Oh, I’m the prime-minster.” or “I’m the winner of Asia’s next topmodel.” Oops….

Looking at the picture of us, I noticed a few things:

• Do you see how Maggy professionally turns her back to the camera, in order to display the back of the dress, I guess? And me, ruining her intention by placing my hand right there? Note to self: hold hand hidden behind the other person or behind myself.
• Since a while I notice that I tend to bend over to make myself small. As if I’m afraid that otherwise I don’t fit in the frame. Other times I bend over to match the height of the other (smaller) posing person. Result: I look like someone with a serious hunchback. Note to self: straighten up, girl. Look tall and proud.
• That outfit did not look good on me. At all. Note to self: throw out that top and that skirt right away. (Done.)

Encouraged by the dress code (Go MAD) several guests went for their most outrageous, daring, bold and different outfits. Totally up my alley! (to see the boldest ones, scroll to the end of this article. Or better: just read on; you’ll get there;-))

And those who did not go crazy at least looked special and fashionable. Like this elegant lady that I had a small chat with. Her name is Viola Yong and she is president of Ikebana International. She wears a top in origami-fold. Very unique.

There was even some ‘flesh’ and (almost) nudity to be seen.

Singaporeans usually don’t show a lot of cleavage, but this girl did. I have to admit; she looked hot. The reason I photographed her though was her Piers Atkinson fascinator/headband. I love his hats, headbands and fascinators, like hers, with a glitter oversized lipstick on it.

The two guys are models, hired for the event by celebrity hair stylist Kim Robinson, who also paints. It was quite funny, that when I asked one of them what was the correlation between them and the art there, the Ukrainian model looked at me with a blank face and shrugged his shoulders. I tried once more and said:”But you surely know why you are here, right?”. “I have no idea”, he answered. “All I know is that I have to stand here.” Weird! How can you not ask that, when you are hired?

Oh, and apparently the girl with the lipstick on her head queued up for 26 hours (!!!) last week in order to purchase clothes from Alexander Wang for H&M. With success, looking at an Instagram picture of her with at least 20 bags of clothes when she came out of H&M. 26 Hours; insane!

That’s all very interesting, Curly Traveller, but aren’t we here for MAD? Remember? Museum, art and event space ?
Oh, right, of course we are!

But to give MAD Museum of Art & Design and its art the attention it deserves, I will showcase it in a separate post.

For now, let’s leave MAD’s opening party with a bang, ok? How? By looking at these guests and be wowed.

I cannot get over their outfits, which in fact are not even extraordinary for them. On the contrary, it’s their daily wear. How amazing is that?! They sell this fashion at their own store at Orchard Gateway: Superspace. Where by the way they also sell the hats from Piers Atkinson that I mentioned a bit earlier in this post. Oh, if only I was brave enough to be this loud!

So what do you think?

• Would you have liked to join me to this event?
• What do you think of what the guests are wearing?
• Would you like my autograph now that I am a moviestar? Hahaha….not!
• Would you queue up for 26 hours to grab the newest iphone, some fashion that you love or anything else for that matter?
• Do you see things (of yourself) on pictures, that you did not notice before when looking in the mirror?
• Are you looking forward to part two about this museum? I know I am! Stay tuned for more and check back in wednesday to see the new MAD. It’s fabulous!