A tribute to cats at the Malay Heritage Centre
SINGAPORE – Five resident cats – Oreo, Ginger, Sneaky, Truffles and Tam – regularly greet visitors to the Malay Heritage Centre (MHC).
Starting Wednesday (March 10) and until May 30, visitors will also come across 30 cat standees and 10 others highlighting common Malay proverbs.
All are part of MHC’s latest installation on their lawn, Paw-verbs on the Lawn.
The 10 standees showcasing Malay proverbs will highlight how cats are used in Malay literary culture to convey different aspects of human behaviour and impart age-old lessons.
Some of these proverbs include seperti anjing dengan kucing (like a dog with a cat) to reference two people who always quarrel, or malu-malu kucing (like a shy cat) to describe someone pretending to be shy.
At the launch on Wednesday, Mr Alvin Tan, deputy chief executive of policy and community at the National Heritage Board, said: “We wanted to present an installation that is visually appealing so as to attract more visitors and concurrently, we wanted it to be educational and provide insights into Malay literary culture.”
The 30 cat standees were designed by Japanese artist Juno, who specialises in vivid illustrations of cats and has over 300,000 followers on Instagram to date. This is her first collaboration with MHC and the first time her work has been featured in South-east Asia.
MHC is housed in Istana Kampong Gelam, a former Malay palace that was gazetted as a national monument in 2015. The centre showcases the history, culture and contributions of the Malay community in Singapore.
Ms Low Yen Ling, Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, told Parliament on Monday that the former palace would be closed next year for redevelopment to ensure its continued relevance and accessibility.
The latest exhibition will feature fringe activities including eight performative storytelling sessions which touch on how cats are embedded in the Malay language. Tickets cost $10 each and the sessions will be performed in English and Malay.
Starting next week, visitors can also take part in a weekly sticker hunt activity at the heritage centre for a chance to win random gifts, including cat badges made by Juno.
There will also be two sessions about cat welfare which will be held virtually.
The exhibition is open to the public from March 10 to May 30.
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