Interior Layout
$2 in ION vs. $60 in ION
Mapping
L4
L4
L2
L2
B1
B1
B3
B3
L3
L3
L1
L1
B2
B2
B4
B4
Sculptures
Sculptures within ION can only be found from Level 1 onwards.
Waterfall
Type: Installation, Mixed media, 1250x50x50cm , 2009
Artist: Troika, United Kingdom
Location: ION Orchard Level 2-4, Singapore
An installation that is two-and-a-half stories high and fixed on to one of the columns in an atrium of ION Orchard, this work by Troika uses flip dots controlled by a specially developed animation software to create the illusion of flowing water falling freely in two levels of cascades.
The appearance of the work changes constantly throughout the day, their highly reflective surfaces catching and bouncing off light as they flip.
Divinity General - Qin Shu Bao
Type: Stainless steel sculpture
Artist: Ren Zhe, China
Location: ION Orchard L1, Singapore
Gallery: Galerie Bartoux
Qin Shubao was a Chinese general who lived in the early Tang dynasty of China. Along with Yuchi Gong, he continues to be worshipped in China as a door god. Combining oriental spirit with western sculpture skills, traditional heroic images and Chinese art spirit, Ren Zhe’s work features inerratic creation. Ren Zhe tries to find, in Chinese traditional culture, a new point cut that accumulates from the outside, reflects from the surface and focuses within.
L'Esperance
Type: Sculpture in bronze
Artist: Etienne, France
Location: ION Orchard, Singapore
Gallery: Galerie Bartoux
Meaning “The Hope” in french, the bronze installation features an abstract rendition of a human, incorporated with birds that signify hope. When seen from the front, the sculpture appears to be part of the pillar although it is separate from ION’s structure. The optical illusion created from one’s perspective balances the mass and space, breaching the divide between artwork and reality.
Dance of Time II
Type: Bronze ,126x120x151cm
Artist: Salvador Dali, Spain
Location: ION Orchard, Singapore
Gallery: Opera Gallery
A surrealist painting brought to life, the sculpture features
a melting clock, one of Dali’s iconic images used in his artwork of dream-like worlds. The ever-present fluidity
of time is represented in this sculpture as time not only moving, but also dancing in rhythm to the beat of the universe. Universal time knows no limit; it must be remembered that time, as we understand it, is
human notion.
Instead, Dalinian time is perpetual and ‘dances on’, stopping for no man, history or even the cosmos. The image depicts Dali’s fantastical relationship with time,
his perception of its constricting limitations and the importance he believed to be inherent in memory.
A mall for the elite
Regardless of whether the sculptures were commissioned specially for ION or are a part of several art galleries’ marketing stint, scattering these artworks around the mall gives ION an air of sophistication, akin to a one that is observed in museums.
Traditionally, sculptures fall under ‘fine arts’, which contributes to the ‘high culture’ that the elite indulge in (Lenk, 2006).
Although blurring the lines between shopping and visiting a museum adds dimension to patrons’ experience, to whom is it catered to? Displaying these art works only on
Level 1 through 4 may be a hint on who
their intended audience really is.
ION’s efforts to be “more than a mall” excludes those with lower spending power and youths (Manson and McCarthy, 2006), which deepens the divide between socio-economic classes perpetuated by the mall.
In attracting those with deeper pockets, ION’s artistic slant might just be a well-packaged campaign to maximise profits off the elite who are drawn to the dynamic shopping experience.