Yesterday some classmates and I went down to the Esplanade to catch the Museum of Broken Relationship, an exhibit at the window (Jendela) gallery. It’s an art thingamajig from Croatia that displays artefacts from broken relationships. Most of the pieces are collected all over the word (primarily from Croatia and neighbouring states) and some pieces from Singapore.
It’s interesting how mundane (and not-so mundane) objects are instilled with emotions based on the story told by the owner. A (Malay) teddy bear, a matchbox, a prosthetic foot, a towel. Out of all the exhibits, I have the strongest impression of the story of the (Malay) teddy bear, the axe, and the caterpillar soft toy. Let me attempt to tell the stories here:
The (Malay) teddy bear story belongs to this inter-racial love between a Chinese and a Malay in Singapore. Apparently the boyfriend bought them two bears from Polo Ralph Lauren, one white and one brown. The Chinese (girl?) took the brown bear and that was the only reminder her entire house that signified their inter-racial love. No pictures, no other momento.Eventually they broke up and that toy went into deep freeze.
The caterpillar toy belonged to this person who had an online relationship with someone and they promised to break a leg off the caterpillar each time they met in person, and they promised when all the legs were broken, they’d take their relationship to the next level (not sure which level though). However they parted before all the legs were torn off and so the caterpillar found way into the museum.
The axe belonged to this guy whose girlfriend left him but left a bunch of furniture in his house, to be collected when she comes back from a tour. The guy would hack one piece of furniture into pieces each day with the axe, and by the time the girlfriend came home, all was left was a pile of broken wood.
The museum was full of interesting (and not-so interesting) stories. I just find it a tad … boring? How they encode their stories into inanimate objects is not none of my business, and really, as much as I can love an inanimate object, I cannot empathize with them. Sure, without the stories these objects are crap, but it was quite a disappointing exhibition.
Anyway, admission is free and it runs till this Sunday. Photography is allowed.
of the three, i like the caterpillar story best. sort of signifies lost hope. the axe one was such an angry story.
i have kept mementos from exes too. the first one was a bracelet he gave me for my birthday. didn’t really keep it for memory’s sake but because it’s nice – he had pretty good taste, i suppose. :lol: the other one gave me his favourite book and a cow soft toy. i wanted to throw away the soft toy but it’s really nice and it’s ty. haha.
Heh, I like the caterpillar story too. It’s okay to keep momento from past relationships, but I don’t think what the museum has done is … healthy? Maybe? Excessive?