Thursday, 28 March 2024, 7–8pm

Ngee Ann Auditorium
Asian Civilisations Museum

THIS TALK IS FREE.
Registration (with a $10 refundable deposit) required.

Register here: https://hiddenhybridity.peatix.com/

The Minangkabau from the highlands of West Sumatra form the world’s largest matrilineal society. Family property, land, and heirlooms pass down from mothers to daughters. A Minangkabau headdress in Singapore’s National Collection epitomises the community’s identity, and features a combination of local and imported materials that sheds light on the complex cultural and commercial interactions of the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Hidden from view, an adhesive was used to line two imported cloths to the underside the headdress.

In this talk, a conservator, curator, and conservation scientist will present an integrated analysis of the headdress. They will reveal how gold, natural resin, machine-printed cottons from Europe, and brocades of Indian or possibly European origin were integral to the production of Minangkabau material culture.

Light refreshments will be served from 6pm onwards at the basement foyer.

About the speakers

Naomi Wang is Curator for Southeast Asia at ACM and Peranakan Museum. She received an MA in Art History and Archaeology from SOAS University of London in 2022. She recently curated the jewellery galleries at the Peranakan Museum (2023) and ACM (2020). Her past co-curated exhibitions include Raffles in Southeast Asia: Revisiting the Scholar and Statesman (2019) and Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums in Asia, 1500–1900 (2016).

Geraldine McClelland is a Textile Conservator at the Heritage Conservation Centre, Singapore (HCC). She has an MPhil in Textile Conservation from the Centre of Textile Conservation and Technical Art History at the University of Glasgow. At HCC she supports the conservation of textiles from institutions under the National Heritage Board. She is currently studying intangible sensitivities within the National Collection.

Lynn Chua is Conservation Scientist at HCC. She performs material analysis using multiple instrumental techniques to study works from the National Collection, for example, polychrome objects, paintings, metals, ceramics, and glass. She also collaborates with conservators, curators, and researchers on projects centering on the technical study of the collection.

The ACM Conversations Lecture Series is generously sponsored by Royal Insignia