Positioned on the museum’s front lawn, ‘lumbung’ (Malay for rice granary or barn) is a granary for current times, harking back to the history of Bras Basah, while drawing on graphic imagery of a more modern era.

Gerald Leow’s work situates the lumbung in the curved embrace of the museum building’s colonial architecture. Constructed from wood, the lumbung’s material echoes back to its forebears, and stands in contrast to the building’s imposing stone and brickwork. The material is recycled crate pinewood—the same used to crate the artworks that move constantly through the museum’s doors. Imprinted with stamps that reveal past passages and journeys, the wood also gestures to Singapore’s past-and-present as a transportation hub and port city.

Image: Cribs (exhibition view at Palais de Tokyo), Gerald Leow, 2015. Image courtesy of Gerald Leow.