Art in the City.

On Saturday, I met Mag at Raffles City cuz we got tickets for Leila Haddad's performance at the National Museum. Though we were rushing, we stopped by to take a peek at Julian Beever's artwork just outside Raffles City. Can't miss it cuz there will be people gathering around taking pictures of it as that's the best way to see the picture.

Julian Beever is a talented chalk artist from Britain who draws on pavements. And his works are anamorphic drawings, meaning that they are 2D drawings but from certain perspectives, it appears 3D. It's really awesome. I was lucky enough to see some of his artworks when in Australia during my visits there and it's still awesome seeing it again. Thanks to Nokia for bringing him here to get this done! Yay! Pop over to Julian's official website to see his other works. It's really cool stuff.

Outside the museum, we stopped again to admire this gorgeous Lotus. I mean, it looked like a toy car and I was openly 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the sight of the car. And there were several guys there peeking in as well, totally in awe like I was looking at the car! Was a little frustrating trying to get a nice shot of the car minus the guys in the picture but we finally managed to.

And the highlight of the day was Leila Haddad's 'In the Trail of the Ghawazee'. As part of the National Museum's two-month long festival 'Under the Crescent Moon' to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Arab world and Turkey, the museum organised various activityes such as exhibitions, performances, films and lectures. We tried to get tickets for the other performances but they were sold out rather quickly. But managed to get tickets for Leila's show so that's another yay. I enjoyed the performance. We were entertained by a group of musicians playing traditional music and had Leila dancing as the musicians were playing the various instruments. They also were singing and dancing at some points so it was really interesting watching and soaking it all in. There was one dance that was rather hynoptic and intense and I liked it. Guess it's one of those where either you like it or hate it. I loved it. It was lovely watching a dancer who enjoyed performing and involving her musicians while engaging her audience. It was a good performance and I sure hope we get more of such performances.

A little bit about Leila (excerpt from the National Museum website)

"Born in Tunisia and now creating her works in Paris, Leila Haddad is one of the most recognised practitioners of Raqs Sharki, popularly known as oriental dance or belly-dancing. In the course of her career, she has taken the dance from cabarets and clubs to the major festivals and cultural institutions of Europe and the USA. With her performances, she has revived the dignity and tradition of the belly dance and conveyed its latent sensuality as a tribute to femininity rather than subjugation to male images of women."

I wasn't able to take any photos cuz no picture or video recording was allowed during the performance. See, if clear annoucements made, I will definitely not break any rule *laughs*. My camera stayed IN my bag the whole time. So no picture people. Would have been cool if I had some shots but I guess some things you have to experience it yourself.