The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings — an early 19th century collection of 477 paintings of the region’s flora and fauna — is prized as one of the National Museum of Singapore’s eleven national treasures. It was showcased in its entirety for the first time in a temporary exhibition celebrating the Museum’s 120th anniversary. gsmprjctºcréation faced the challenge of giving each unique piece its due justice, while visually organizing the works to communicate greater themes and historical context.
As a solution to the design puzzle, gsmprjctº, arranged the works into several sections that played out as a journey through the head of a natural history collector. The exhibition began with an immersion into a surreal jungle environment, backed by an ambient soundscape that juxtaposed local forest noises, a Malay shaman's chanting, and underwater sounds.
The exhibit’s sections included a collector’s room featuring artefacts from the Museum’s collection, a space dedicated to the different techniques used by the Chinese artists, and areas that focused on plants and fish that still have an economic impact on the region. A few antique preserved animal specimens presented alongside corresponding paintings gave the exhibition added depth.
Though this collection is well known and well loved by Singaporeans, no one had seen all of its 477 pieces at the same time. Visitors were delighted and awed by the sheer number of pieces and beauty of the exhibition, and Empire of Nature received rave reviews.