National Gallery Singapore Unveils Its Newest Large-Scale Kinetic Outdoor Installation, GLISTEN

New Zealander Artist Lisa Reihana makes her Southeast Asia solo debut with GLISTEN, a large-scale kinetic sculpture that playfully responds to the surrounding environment.

Venue: Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Gallery, Level 5, City Hall Wing at National Gallery Singapore
Date: now to 30 Mar 2025
Fee: Free Admission

GLISTEN by Lisa Reihana

Bask in the shimmering light of National Gallery Singapore’s newest outdoor installation GLISTEN by Aotearoa New Zealander artist Lisa Reihana. At three metres tall, the striking and dazzling large-scale kinetic mural reacts and responds playfully to its surrounding natural environment, with thousands of shimmer discs reflecting sunlight, and accompanying soundscapes of wind chimes. Visitors of all ages are welcome to experience the celebratory and joyful nature of the artwork, set against the beautiful backdrop of the Gallery’s roof garden.

Drawing on the intricate indigenous weaving traditions of Southeast Asian Songket and Māori Tāniko patterns, GLISTEN pays homage to the traditions, labour and pivotal roles of Songket and Tāniko’s women weavers. GLISTEN marks Reihana’s first solo presentation in Southeast Asia and the seventh edition of the Gallery’s Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission.

GLISTEN Artwork Details

This kinetic sculpture draws from Reihana’s longstanding research into Māori ancestral knowledge, materials, and costume, and Reihana extended her research into Songket weaving for this unique commission. Drawing from Indigenous handwoven disciplines such as Southeast Asia’s Songket and Māori Tāniko weaving, Reihana innovatively integrates contemporary designs and materials to craft a mural of playful, shimmering colours activated by its surroundings. This sculpture honours the traditions, labour, and pivotal roles of Songket and Tāniko’s women weavers as makers, communicators, knowledge bearers, and mediators prior to Asia Pacific region’s first contact with Western culture.

Tāniko & Songket Weaving Patterns

• Tāniko

Tāniko is a traditional Māori style of finger weaving. Tāniko patterns are often woven around the borders of korowai (cloaks) and relay Māori stories, histories, and values. Māori weavers’ designs consisted of triangles, diamonds, diagonal bars and stepped patterns. These designs were usually worked in black, red, and white.

The featured patterns include the pâtikitiki and kaokao patterns. The pâtikitiki pattern is usually represented as a repetitive diamond or geometric pattern. Pâtikitiki is the word for flounder, symbolising abundance, hospitality and providing for your people. The kaokao pattern refers to protection and resembles a repetitive 'M' shape and is said to represent the rib cage and arms of warriors (haka stance).

• Songket

Songket is a textile handwoven in silk or cotton and patterned with gold or silver threads, and Lisa Reihana looked into Malaysian Songket weave patterns for GLISTEN, referencing materials such as Malaysian artist Grace Selvanayagam’s book, Songket: Malaysia’s Woven Treasure. Songket is traditionally worn during ceremonial occasions including weddings and religious ceremonies where the colour and grandeur of Songket adds to the occasion, and in the early centuries, Songket was only worn by Malay royalty. The motifs featured in the patterns include the Pucuk Rebung Gigi Yu which fuses the Rebung (bamboo shoot) and shark motifs, the Teratai (lotus) which is associated with Malay culture and religions, and the mangosteen which symbolises the reflection of one’s feelings or one’s inner self as related to human spiritual state (Dawa, 1997).

GLISTEN Programmes

Activity Sheets for Children & Youth

Be inspired by the intricate beauty of Southeast Asia’s Songket and Māori’s Tāniko in Lisa Reihana’s GLISTEN and ignite your creativity with activity sheets specially designed for students of different age groups. These activity sheets encourage students to develop visual literacy and critical thinking through close observation and mindful drawing exercises that forge meaningful connections with the artwork and the world around them.

For free guided tours with a self-guided exploration to GLISTEN, school groups can place bookings on BookMuseums@SG for the following programmes;

• [2024] Self-guided Tour for Sec and Post-sec School Groups to Special Exhibitions
• [2024] Self-guided Tour for Primary School Groups to DBS SG Gallery and UOB SEA Gallery

Activity sheets are also available while stocks last at the Keppel Centre for Art Education (KCAE) at the Gallery.

E-mail: school.bookings@nationalgallery.sg to find out more.

Weaving Sundays

Date: Ongoing, from Jul 2024 onwards
Fee: Free, registration via National Gallery Singapore’s website

Don’t miss Weaving Sundays, a series of hands-on weaving workshops where you can have a try at making your own woven creations or participate in a communal weaving session to create a tapestry of memories and stories. Through these artist-led sessions, learn more about the different techniques of weaving and the patterns used.