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The UOB Southeast Asia Gallery is temporarily closed and will reopen in late 2027. In the meantime, works from the National Collection remain exhibited across the Gallery. 

SINGAPORAMA is a site-specific and multimodal installation by Thai artist, Navin Rawanchaikul and Navin Production, presenting a panorama of diverse peoples and stories in Singapore. Composed of monumental panels painted in the style of old cinema billboards, video interviews and a travelogue film played on television screens, SINGAPORAMA captures and showcases the shared connections, memories, and aspirations of Singapore.

  • When: 9 Jan – 29 Nov 2026
  • Suitable For: All
  • Where: Padang Atrium

A Panorama of Life in Singapore

Spanning the width of the Padang Atrium, SINGAPORAMA presents a panorama of people and stories in Singapore, seen through the perspective of Navin Rawanchaikul as a transient figure, or artist-as-traveller. Developed through the artist’s year-long research and engagement across multiple trips, Navin came to know people and communities through shared stories, food, and festivities. Through this process, Navin cultivated friendships with artists and cultural producers, as well as with individuals affiliated with migrant worker groups, Indigenous communities, Peranakan community leaders, social advocacy groups, and faith organisations in Singapore. 

Through monumental billboard paintings in Navin’s signature style, augmented by a series of video interviews and a travelogue film, SINGAPORAMA takes the viewer on the artist’s journey through the layers and density of lives encountered along the way. The work plays with our sense of time and space as it folds together the present and the past. Photos taken by Navin and his team are placed in dialogue with images from online media platforms and visual references to iconic artworks by artists from Singapore and Southeast Asia. Personal stories are interwoven with histories and national narratives. Photos of people gathering on the streets or in their homes are juxtaposed with historical photos and images depicting the many facets of Singapore, creating parallel dialogues between histories shaped by both state narratives and lived experiences. SINGAPORAMA celebrates the diversity of people in Singapore.    

This is a joint commission by OUTBOUND and Light to Night 2026. Inaugurated in 2018, OUTBOUND is an initiative that reimagines transitional spaces and key entrances at the Gallery through a series of unique artwork commissions, developed in collaboration with leading artists from around the world, to provoke critical reflection, curiosity, and playfulness.

SINGAPORAMA* cites the following artworks:

  1. John Turnbull Thomson, View of the Padang, 1847. Gift of Dr. John Hall-Jones. Collection of the National Museum of Singapore.
  2. Lim Kheng Chye, Singapore River, 1902-1905. Lim Kheng Chye Collection, collection of  National Archives of Singapore. 
  3. Liu Kang, Life by the River, 1975. Collection of National Gallery Singapore.  
  4. Chua Mia Tee, Epic Poem of Malaya, 1955. Collection of National Gallery Singapore.  
  5. Lee Wen, Strange Fruit, 2003. Collection of Singapore Art Museum.  
  6. Montien Boonma, The Pleasure of Being, Crying, and Eating, 1993. Collection of Singapore Art Museum.  

*National Gallery Singapore extends its sincere appreciation to all collaborators, community partners, and individuals whose generosity, trust and contributions made SINGAPORAMA possible. 

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Singaporama Video Interviews

This three-part video series brings together voices from the diverse communities and collaborators involved in SINGAPORAMA with Navin Rawanchaikul, offering insights into the people, memories, and connections that shaped the work.

SINGAPORAMA – Video interviews (Part 1)

SINGAPORAMA – Video interviews (Part 2)

SINGAPORAMA – Video interviews (Part 3)

Singaporama Travelogue

SINGAPORAMA travelogue EP1

Captured through the artist’s point of view as a traveller to Singapore, the first episode of the travelogue opens with Navin’s encounters with stories of the diaspora of multiple Peranakan communities in Singapore. Through tiffin and enamelware, kueh, orchid, and vintage kebaya, the travelogue unfolds the layers and textures of Singapore’s multicultural past and present.

SINGAPORAMA travelogue EP2

In this episode, Navin takes us through the rhythm of migrant life, from the quiet labour of National Gallery Singapore's workers to the vibrancy of Sunday gatherings at City Hall, Lucky Plaza, and Little India. It captures shared moments of rest, celebration, and creativity through the annual Kaugnay Trashion Show, a book reading event by Migrant Writers Singapore, Sajeev Digital Studio in Little India, and a Songkran Festival held at the Thai Embassy in Singapore.

SINGAPORAMA travelogue EP3

This episode details Navin’s wandering into the art scene in Singapore, learning from artists in their studios, galleries, and art schools. The journey extends to Bukit Brown Cemetery with Jennifer Teo and Woon Tien Wei from Post-Museum. Moving between the living and the remembered, the episode frames art as both practice and passage that are rooted in place yet constantly shifting within the city’s evolving cultural terrain.

SINGAPORAMA travelogue EP4

Capturing different sites – both communal and personal – where multiple faiths in Singapore are practiced and observed, the camera follows Navin’s visits to places of worship and devotion in Singapore. The episode lingers on the stories of South Indian labourers who built temples along the railway corridor in the city, which echo through time, connecting devotion with migration.

SINGAPORAMA travelogue EP5

The episode captures memories of Singapore residents as the city transforms its skyline from plantations and kampongs to modern housing complexes and high-rise buildings. Amongst the stories told, the memories of the Orang Laut communities endure on the coastlines through celebration of food, music, and customs, maintaining ancestral connections to the surrounding seas and islands.

SINGAPORAMA travelogue EP7

Starting with the spectacle of Singapore’s National Day in 2025, the episode shifts to the celebratory creativity of Kaugnay Trashion Show 2025, organised by and for domestic workers in Singapore. The lens then turns to the making of SINGAPORAMA itself – the painting of each panel, the hanging of the massive billboard at the Padang Atrium, and the launch of the video interviews where stories of the different communities converge into a collective portrait around the billboard. The travelogue concludes with a sense of gathering through shared stories, food, labour, and imagination that hold Singapore as a city.

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About the Artist

Born in 1971 in Chiang Mai, Navin Rawanchaikul is a Thai artist of Hindu-Punjabi heritage whose practice centres on collaboration, storytelling, and social engagement. Since 1994, he and his team formed Navin Production to develop participatory projects to introduce art into the lives of everyday people. His work explores globalisation, memory, and diasporic experiences and identity through billboards, films, installations, and community events. Rawanchaikul has exhibited widely at major international institutions and participated in leading art festivals. His works are held in prominent museum collections worldwide, and he represented Thailand at the 2011 Venice Biennale.

Did you know?

Did You Know?

SINGAPORAMA is the largest artwork ever produced by Navin Rawanchaikul and his studio. Created over less than six months, the monumental canvases were entirely hand-painted in a realist style, marked by meticulous detail and scale. Complemented by video interviews of his collaborators and a travelogue film, the project reflects an extraordinary collective effort, bringing together painting, moving image, and storytelling on an ambitious scale.

Get to know the people on SINGAPORAMA here

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