Gardens by the Bay hosts some of the most beautiful and interactive pop-up exhibits, with a wide array of flora, sculptures, and art. Its newest exhibit, Impressions of Monet doesn’t fall short of this claim.
Based on the French impressionist Claude Monet, who was known for his floral paintings, the exhibit is filled with arrangements of flowers featured in his artworks, as well as, an immersive experience that brings his and other impressionist artists’ pieces to life.
A collection of paintings by artists inspired by Monet.
Impressions of Monet is located inside the Flower Dome, and is inclusive with a ticket to the Flower Dome (from $12) for both residents and tourists.
There are two parts to this pop-up, The Garden and The Experience. The Garden looks like your typical Flower Dome pop-up; with an assortment of flower bushes and cultural structures, while The Experience adds a more modern twist to viewing a garden, through animations and projections. The garden section will be staying until 17th September 2024 and the experience will stay on for a limited time only.
The exhibit aims to educate visitors on Impressionism. For the uninitiated, this is a form of art where artists stray away from working inside studios and studies, and instead work outdoors and make “impressions” of real-life surroundings. They use specific paint strokes and angles to add movement to their works so that they feel like realistic images of their subjects.
When you step into the cool air of the Flower Dome, you’ll find that the familiar flower fields have been transformed into replicas of Monet’s famous gardens, which inspired his renowned pieces.
You’ll find framed images of his works nestled in between the bushels of brightly coloured flowers so that you can truly appreciate his attention to detail.
One of Monet’s most famous pieces is The Water Lily Pond, a painting of a bridge atop a waterbody lush with water lilies. There are tributes and replicas of the painting all over both exhibits, including an actual mini-bridge and pond.
Unfortunately, the water lilies were not in bloom yet on our visit, so we had to stick to admiring them from Monet’s pieces. That doesn’t mean we missed out on spotting some other gorgeous blooms like the striking yellow black-eyed susan and the dragon-like tropical water lily.
One of the coolest features to us was the recreation of Monet’s pink house in Giverny, France which we were able to enter and have tangible contact with artefacts from his era.
What looks like a miniature house on the outside, is 2 rooms that you can walk through, one being Monet’s kitchen and the other his dining room. The kitchen even had a full set of copper pots and vessels that would have been commonplace in 1800s France.
They also had a cross-section of the artist’s salon and reading room, fit with a glowing fireplace, lounge chairs and a tea set.
Once you’re done going around Monet’s garden, step into the Impressions of Monet: The Experience, an educative and aesthetic walk-through with light installations and projections, as well as museum-like information sections. The two standout zones of the experience were the Night at the Lily Pond and the Immersive Garden.
The Night at the Lily Pond exhibit puts visitors bang smack into a moving version of Monet’s water lily artwork. The lights are soothing and move gently so that you don’t get overstimulated, therefore they make a great chill-out zone for the gang.
The Immersive Garden is the culmination of the Impressions of Monet event as a whole, with a 30-minute light and sound show that walks us through the history of Impressionism and Monet, and a ceiling lined with glowing colourful orbs.
This section marks the end of the experience, leading you to a mini gift shop where you can purchase Monet merchandise, from pens and notebooks to tea sets and posters.
Another interesting use of light was at the Vivid Dreams section of the experience, which served as a mini-museum on a variety of Impressionist painters, with projections of their artwork floating around the information plaques.
Though most of this exhibit comes off as more sophisticated, they do have some fun places to take photos for super aesthetic IG pictures.
Put yourself right into one of Monet’s paintings in a giant picture frame or seemingly walk through a portal into one at the Blurring Boundaries section, with an entrance that is overgrown with blooms.
Art geeks will have a field day here, we even saw one doing a live painting in the garden. However, even if you’re not an art buff, the whole display is stunning to look at and stroll around. The tangible features, including the light installations also bumped this specific exhibit up from some of GBTB’s usual Flower Dome pop-ups.
If you’re looking for other cool things to do at Gardens by the Bay, try cycling around the Bay East Garden for an underrated view of Marina Bay Sands, or have some delicious desserts from a height in Janice Wong at the Supertree.
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