The fact that the budget for the third installment of the Singapore Biennale is lower, at $6million, than ever before is not a good sign. Yet veteran Matthew Ngui and his crew still promise a great show, despite the lack of any major headliners. We’re certainly hoping they can deliver; and looking at the line-up there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic. Here’s what to look out for, and what you might want to give a miss.
National Museum of Singapore (NMS)
93 Stamford Rd., 6332-3659.
Open daily 10am-7pm.
PERSIAN PRINTS
Tala Madani, the feisty young Iranian artist heralded for meshing naive charm and black humor in oil paintings of domineering male figures in works like Diving in Cake, is here to dazzle us with an assorted collection of art works.
LIFE, LESS ORDINARY
Popular urban photographer Beat Streuli unveils Story Lines, a three-channel video installation consisting of portraits of ordinary folks from the streets of Singapore and New York at two venues—NMS and Old Kallang Airport. If the indecipherable art works on show elsewhere make you dizzy, this tongue-in-cheek potraiture will be a welcome reprieve.
NIHILISTS R’US
Copenhagen based arts collective Superflex continue their nihilistic agitprop streak in Flooded McDonalds, a 20-minute apocalypse flick that observes the destruction of a specially built replica of the (in) famous fast-food restaurant including the carcass of Roland McDonald floating in the aftermath.
Old Kallang Airport
9 Stadium Link.
Open daily 10am-7pm. 
KARAOKE FAIL
Amping up the aural element is Ang Song Ming, a young Singaporean artist who uses awkward, kitschy elements of music and sound like an all-female a cappella group covering Kraftwerk’s “The Robots.” Be True to Your School, in which former students of Japanese elementary school sing what they recall of their school song, is nausea-inducing, but all the better for it. All in pursuit of breaking down the walls of high art pretension.
THE RADIO STAR
Tune into Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Frequency and Volume, an interactive installation that aligns different radio frequencies to the shadows of gallery viewers, straddling the spheres of architecture and performance art.
DRAIN BRAIN
Former national sailor Charles Lim examines the nation’s drainage system in All Lines Flow Out, an invigorating mash of video installation and found art, offering some quirky, personal musings about the island in the process.
Singapore Art Museum & SAM at 8Q
71 Bras Basah Rd., 6332-3222, 8 Queen St., 6332-3200.
Open daily 10am-7pm.
MUMMY’S BOY
Looking to do more than just gawk at random exhibits in a gallery? Then Filipino street artist Mark Salvatus’ Wrapped offers the perfect antidote with some participatory art. All you need to do is draw the outline of an object you’re carrying onto the wall and the artist proceeds to fill it in with bandage patterns.
HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS
Food may well be the most democratic domain in our nation. Malaysian multi-disciplinary artist Ise enlightens us with insights into how six anonymous Singapore families buy, cook and eat food, through his installation of six fridges filled with items handpicked by the participants. Expect chilling revelations in Secret Affair.
Marina Bay
The Merlion Park, One Fullerton.
Open daily 10am-7pm. 
FISHY BUSINESS
Half fish, half lion. All myth. Acclaimed Japanese provocateur Tatzu Nishi gives our beloved Merlion the quintessential Tatz makeover by building rooms around it. From Apr 4-May 5, residents and tourists alike can soak in the opulence of the Merlion Hotel for just S$150 nett per night for two. All 32 nights sold out within an hour, but the space is open to the public (and especially the kawaii photo brigade), for free, daily through May 15 from 10am to 7pm.
Back to the Drawing Board
It’s not all good stuff at the Biennale. These festival duds had us scratching our heads. Ceal Floyer’s installation piece titled Overhead Projection at Old Kallang Airport illuminates a big fat zilch. A lightbulb on an overhead projector seems more like a cry for help than inspired art. Self-Portrait, Our Landscape is a collection of self-potraits, represented via a distinct landscape or object, done by over 3,000 Singaporean students. To judge by the results, they might want to consider alternative career paths.
Catch these works at the Singapore Biennale 2011 through May 15. For more details, log on to www.singaporebiennale.org.
