What Would You Like to Remember?

What would you like to remember? How would you like to grow old?

These were the provocative questions Samantha Tio posed in her exhibition currently held in the Ang Mo Kio Public Library (Silver Arts Festival). She named her exhibition “Spaces between the Clouds”. I learned about the exhibition four weeks ago while reading “Arts for seniors going strong,” published in the Straits Times on September 9, 2021.

“Spaces between the Clouds” exhibition, Ang Mo Kio Library. Note the white spaces around the portraits of seniors.

What was the inspiration behind the exhibition? It was a brain scan! Artist Mintio (Samantha Tio) described her grandmother’s brain scan (when she was diagnosed with dementia) as patches that look like clouds and gaps. I wanted to see how the impressions of a brain scan (among other things) could inspire an artist.

I have seen thousands of MRI scans with “brain clouds and brain gaps” during my professional life as “Neurons”. (A neuron is a brain cell, and “Neurons” is the nickname for neuroradiologists, radiologists with special training analysing head scans).

The art pieces on display were cyanotype prints of photographs of seniors (from Dementia Singapore) layered over the shibori-dyed fabric. The white spaces (clouds) around the portraits were inspired (presumably) by the white areas surrounding the shrivelled brains of dementia patients seen on MRI. The “gaps” are the large voids within the brain substance (called ventricles in medical terminology).

I thought artists were very imaginative in transforming ideas from different domains into new expressions, characterising their work. In essence, this ability to see a common link between two superficially unrelated things is at the heart of creativity.

Going to art museums is fun and calming! We can escape for a day and learn something new. It encourages us to think creatively and imaginatively. There is no wrong answer in art; we can imagine and be more daring to think in new ways.

The clouds that inspired Samantha reminded me of a poem:

Clouds come floating into my life from other days, no longer to shed rain or usher a storm, but to give colour to my sunset sky.
Stray Birds CCXCI, Rabindranath Tagore

The clouds of the exhibitions were white, and happily, they brought colours to yet another day in my sunset years.

So finally, what would you like to remember? How would you like to grow old? These are essential questions for us to ponder in the days ahead!