Michael Lin @National Gallery Singapore

Commissioned project and public installation

During the 2026 Singapore Art Week, artist Michael Lin’s commissioned project Gathering on the Lawn and the public installation Untitled Gathering has been shown at the National Gallery Singapore, invited the public to engage with art in an intimate, grounded way. Commissioned for the 2026 Light to Night Singapore, Lin’s works respond to the festival theme “The Power in Us,” aiming to draw attention to the energy held within collective gathering.

 

*Gathering on the Lawn* responds to the Padang’s long history as a civic ground for communal gathering. Featuring artist-designed paper lantern bags bearing batik-inspired motifs from Singapore’s visual and material heritage, the work is activated through performances and participatory experiences across four festival weekends. Visitors are invited to walk, create and gather, thus becoming active participants. By centering collective action and shared experience, the work reflects the festival theme, The Power in Us, affirming public space as a site of connection and cultural memory.

 

Concurrently, Michael Lin's new public installation, *Untitled Gathering*, is on view on Level 2 of the City Hall Wing at the National Gallery Singapore. *Untitled Gathering* 

transforms the simple act of sitting into a reflection on cultural memory, connection and shared agency. Its hand-painted wooden furniture pieces carry batik-inspired motifs. Visitors are invited to sit, move and rearrange the pieces, becoming co-creators of an ever-shifting composition. The work highlights the quiet power of collective action and the everyday gestures that bring people together.

 

The motifs are adapted from batik pieces by Little Nonya Batik and realised with student collaborators from LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

 

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