Visiting the MENTAL exhibition at ArtScience Museum with a kid

Woah! It’s been more than a year since I updated this blog. I’m ashamed of how I’ve left this site and business to languish. Quick explanation: So this thing called new job sucked me in mid last year and didn’t let go until end September 2022 when a massive work event completed. In addition, it was really rough changing sector but the gory details are a story for another day.

Back to the blog post. I finally found some time to go back to my interests; naturally this new exhibition titled MENTAL: The Colours of WellBeing, at ArtScience Museum drew me in.

Bright, eye-catching installations and colours at MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing. Photo courtesy of Marina Bay Sands

I took the opportunity that is the PSLE marking break to bring the 9-year-old daughter along. In many ways, this is a good age to enjoy and even appreciate most of the 24 installations in this exhibition at face value. For one, the exhibition welcomes you with an array of unmissable installations from a giant rainbow hamster wheel to a dollhouse-like kitchen set-up. The text panels with welcome text like “Have you eaten?” and “How Are You”, are easy to understand. They convey the essence of the exhibition, which - at least to me - is the varying expressions of how we could think about mental health. For instance, what anxiety looks like, what its means to connect over the Internet, the sensorial and tactile material comforts that can help one relax. What the exhibition isn’t, as stated on its materials is that “it is is not an exhibition about mental illness, treatments or cures.”

The unmissable and Instagrammable giant hamster wheel which shows the effects of exercising at the MENTAL exhibition.

What’s also great is the free flow of the exhibition - there is no fixed route - my 9 year old was darting excitedly from installation to installation. Moreover, she was intrigued by how interactive and attractive many of these installations are. She tried jogging on the insanely Instagrammable hamster wheel, which aims to show you the effects of exercise on your mood. Visitors could also pick up a retro phone and speak to someone on the other side (I managed to talk to someone in Australia while the daughter insisted hers was Siri or A.I. on the line), listen to sounds that affect the growth the microbes in your gut (which has been called the second brain), enter a dark immersive maze of flashing lights, dizzying lines and dots that depict the neurological disorder called Visual Snow, put on headgear to watch a robotic arm dance in response to your brainwaves, and pull silly faces in front of an A.I mirror that reads your expression to generate a reading. It was all rather engaging, even for adults.

Get a reading in the form of a poem about how you’re feeling at this A.I. mirror that deciphers your expression.

There were a few installations that really resonated with the 9-year-old, in particular Kind Words. It’s no surprise that in this age of online chats and social media she gravitated towards a computer that lets you read the worries of others and type a word of advice or kindness to them. You could similarly share your concerns anonymously and even add stickers and drawings to your note. The second exhibit she like was called Even In Fear, a massive balloon placed in a cage that inflates to a threatening size before deflating slowly, to underscore the feelings of anxiety and pressures bubbling within us. To her, it was a “Look Mummy!” piece that immediately and accurately reflects what it’s like to be fearful of being punished/scolded.

From connecting online about your problems to showing what anxiety feels like, MENTAL has several installations that hit home for older kids.

I’m no art or mental health expert. There are well-articulated reviews about MENTAL by those more familiar with this topic such as this here by an emerging art therapist and here at The Pride by the Kindness Movement.

Personally, MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing has been a colourful, trippy and enlightening look at the sometimes intimidating issue. It provides a diverse ideas and creative interpretations about mental health from in your face to quieter, sombre ones. And if those eye-catching, interactive and installations can help make the topic more accessible, and even fun for us and the younger generation while easing into meaningful conversations with your older kids, I’d say it’s worth a visit for families.

MENTAL: Colours of WellBeing runs till Feb 26, 2023 at Marina Bay Sands’ ArtScience Museum. Tickets cost S$18 for adults and S$14 for children aged 12 and below.