SINGAPORE (Jan 23): Here are our top picks things to do in the weeks ahead:
WINE & DINE
Experience the new Raffles Courtyard
Raffles Courtyard, Raffles Hotel
Located at the heart of the iconic Raffles Hotel, the newly-refreshed Raffles Courtyard returns as the city’s social gathering space. Now with a beautifully-landscaped and redesigned bar, Raffles Courtyard is the ideal al fresco destination for after-work drinks with friends and colleagues.
With live entertainment and Happy Hour offers every night, Raffles Courtyard is a great after-work respite, away from the city’s hustle and bustle. It offers a selection of special cocktails, including the infamous Singapore Sling. If that is not your thing, you can shake off a long day of work with a series of summer cocktails and mocktails such as the Pine Bamboo Cooler, a blend of light, fresh Manzanilla sherry, pineapple, fennel falernum and fragrant mint tea vermouth, or the Perry Cobbler, a taste of summer which combines refreshing blend of pear, Sloe gin, polished Oloroso sherry and fruits of the season.
Making its debut too is the Beach Road Pale Ale, a craft beer specially brewed for Raffles Singapore, in collaboration with local brewers, Brewlander. Brewed with premium European malts, the ale is a blend between aromatic hops of Chinook, Citra and Mosaic to result in a fruity, refreshing pale ale with hints of fruit flavours such as mango, pine and citrus.
And, no after-work soiree is complete without food. For this, the Courtyard offers up a spread of local delicacies, including Black Pepper Crab Rolls, satay and Nonya Kueh Pie Ti.
Happy Hours are from 6pm to 9pm on weekdays with offers that include Kirin Beer, selected house beverages (spirits and pours) and a selection of wines by the glass, at only $10++ each. Reservations are preferred, although walk-ins are welcomed.
ART
Straits by Nobuaki Takekawa & Tang Dixin
OTA Fine Arts, Gillman Barracks
Jan 15–Feb 29
This exhibition explores the unconventional ways of art-making between the two artists, Nobuaku Takekawa and Tang Dixin, as a result of their unique, impromptu and playful collaboration with each other. The two first participated in an artist residency at Sifang Museum, located in the suburb of Nanjing, China, in 2018, and together with other local artists, they spent time together, not only making art but also exchanging ideas and having discussions.
Taking their conversations further, Takekawa and Tang have come together again in Singapore this January to present Straits. For this exhibition, they will showcase new works created during their residence here. The two artists explored the environment around Gillman Barracks as well as across Singapore, collecting observations which they translated into ideas for their creations. Inspired by the tropical country away from their homes, they will present mixed media drawings and paintings with motifs such as human figures, birds, mosquitoes and plants, executed in the painterly and illustrative styles that they are known for.
Elemental Beings by Lionel Sabatté
Now until Feb 23
Cuturi Gallery
World-renowned French contemporary and experimental artist Lionel Sabatté will showcase his latest works in an exclusive solo exhibition entitled Elemental Beings. Young local painters Yunita Rebekah and Aisha Rosli, who are currently being mentored through the gallery’s ground-breaking c/discoveries initiative, will debut their works in the showing Stages and Mirrors.
Elemental Beings is a continuation of Mind over Matter, Sabatté first exhibition in Singapore in 2018. His latest exhibition at Cuturi Gallery pays homage to the four natural elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
Stages and Mirrors, which will run simultaneously in the gallery, will debut new paintings by c/discoveries artist Yunita Rebekah, showcasing her development in textural exploration and simultaneous deconstruction of her self-portrait. Fellow c/discoveries artist, Aisha Rosli, will also present a series featuring androgynous maidens on stages, platforms and beds. Unidentifiable, faceless and agonised, they perform their erotic contortions to an audience that is absent.
MUSIC
Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire in Concert
Esplanade
Feb 28 & 29
The Harry Potter Film Concert Series returns to the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert, the fourth film in the Harry Potter series. The Metropolitan Festival Orchestra will perform this magical score live from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while the entire film plays in high-definition on a 40-foot screen, for two nights only. Relive the movie which charmed audiences both adult and children alike with the music from the movie, where Harry is mysteriously entered into the Triwizard Tournament, a gruelling contest among three wizarding schools in which he confronts a dragon, water demons and an enchanted maze only to find himself in Lord Voldemort’s grasp. Tickets start from $79 on Sistic.com
