Big Picturing
My boss 'forced' me to be on full day time-off on Monday. I hopped on a bus towards City Hall, hoping to spend the afternoon with God at the greens at Chijme or SMU. But when my bus approached the Singapore Art Museum, i thought, why not there.
The signage for 'The Big Picture Exhibition' caught my attention (i am usually very much a big picture person), and i headed for it. My heels were not a tad shy in announcing my arrival to the paintings. It was definitely an experience walking through the galleries, hearing their chirpy knocks against the parquet floor. In the stillness of the air, i anticipated not just every big picture that enfolded, but also the dance of my heels.
I had one favourite painting in this exhibition, which made me pause a couple of times, even making circular and back-and-forth steps as though dancing before it. It was like, the moment you intended to walk away from the painting, the corner of your eye would catch another detail, another dab, another corner of it that made you want to ponder more again.
Finally i settled down at the bench before it, and read my Bible in which God interestingly brought me to Ecclesiates 2:17-26 on 'toil is meaningless'. I thanked God that i have His 'wisdom, knowledge and happiness in my work' (v.26a), and these gifts of God had become more and more evident in my present job.
Looking up, my eyes roamed the picture before me again, and the writing below birthed forth from my soul:
The signage for 'The Big Picture Exhibition' caught my attention (i am usually very much a big picture person), and i headed for it. My heels were not a tad shy in announcing my arrival to the paintings. It was definitely an experience walking through the galleries, hearing their chirpy knocks against the parquet floor. In the stillness of the air, i anticipated not just every big picture that enfolded, but also the dance of my heels.I had one favourite painting in this exhibition, which made me pause a couple of times, even making circular and back-and-forth steps as though dancing before it. It was like, the moment you intended to walk away from the painting, the corner of your eye would catch another detail, another dab, another corner of it that made you want to ponder more again.
Finally i settled down at the bench before it, and read my Bible in which God interestingly brought me to Ecclesiates 2:17-26 on 'toil is meaningless'. I thanked God that i have His 'wisdom, knowledge and happiness in my work' (v.26a), and these gifts of God had become more and more evident in my present job.
Looking up, my eyes roamed the picture before me again, and the writing below birthed forth from my soul:
it was almost like by divine appointment
that i stepped into 'the Big Picture'.
i felt a little small inside,
especially in front of this gigantic depiction
of the Grand Canyon.
i was thinking,
probably i am that dot at this corner,
probably i'm the little speck of brown
on top of that peak,
probably i'm at that faraway corner,
too small to even pinpoint where i am.
Yet the picture uplifted my soul.
it was a juxtaposition of colours of the land,
brought forth by the breaking of dawn
or set lighting over the land.
(even the spotlights above it
cleverly converged their rays upon the source
of the breaking light
-dramatising it)
How great is our God,
my soul sang.
Yet it wasn't its original tune,
but a new one of cheeky playfulness,
as though i was
leaping from peak to peak in the picture.
that i stepped into 'the Big Picture'.
i felt a little small inside,
especially in front of this gigantic depiction
of the Grand Canyon.
i was thinking,
probably i am that dot at this corner,
probably i'm the little speck of brown
on top of that peak,
probably i'm at that faraway corner,
too small to even pinpoint where i am.
Yet the picture uplifted my soul.
it was a juxtaposition of colours of the land,
brought forth by the breaking of dawn
or set lighting over the land.
(even the spotlights above it
cleverly converged their rays upon the source
of the breaking light
-dramatising it)
How great is our God,
my soul sang.
Yet it wasn't its original tune,
but a new one of cheeky playfulness,
as though i was
leaping from peak to peak in the picture.
(The picture is a 199.2 x 435.8cm 'Colour Melody of the Grand Canyon' (1997) by Pratuang Emjaroen, Thailand)
No comments:
Post a Comment