National Gallery Singapore is presenting GLISTEN (2024), a dazzling three-sided installation by artist Lisa Reihana of Aotearoa New Zealand. The triangular installation has been commissioned by the museum and reveals the artist’s research into Māori cultural practices such as weaving and costume making. For this particular work, Reihana has extended her focus to include the Songket weaving tradition, which is shared by nations in the Malay peninsula, specifically looking at Malaysian Songket motifs. The installation is on view from June 14, 2024 – July 13, 2025. Qinyi Lim, curator at National Gallery Singapore, joins STIR to discuss the installation in greater detail.

Reihana is of Welsh-English and Māori descent, with ancestral ties to several Māori iwi (tribes), including the Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāi Tūteauru and Ngāi Tūpoto. The artist pursues a multidisciplinary practice that includes filmmaking, photography and installation art, seeking to represent Pacific and Māori cultures. Reihana’s large-scale installation at the National Gallery Singapore comprises 114,000 small, square shimmering discs that flap in the wind in response to the natural environment. These have been arranged to form a rich tapestry of angular and floral patterns that reflect sunlight, creating a dazzling effect.

Lim tells STIR, “GLISTEN is an invitation from Aotearoa New Zealander artist [Lisa] Reihana to think of the intersections between Southeast Asian textile traditions and that of Maori weaving practices.” The installation draws a connection between Tāniko and Songket weaving, the former of which is a traditional Māori technique of twinning or interlacing fibre to form intricately decorated mats or clothes. The latter is a form of brocade work, that often involves gold and silver threads inserted into silk or cotton fabrics to create shimmering patterns. It is found across Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.

As the installation’s press release tells us, the Tāniko patterns featured on the installation are the pâtikitiki and kaokao patterns. Pâtikitiki, which means ‘flounder’, symbolises abundance, especially for young people. It is represented through repetitive diamonds. Kaokao means the side of the body or a mountain, and is used to evoke protection. It is manifested through repetitive ‘M’ shapes, which are also connected to the rib cage and arms of warriors. The Songket motifs represented in GLISTEN include Pucuk Rebung and Gigi Yu. These fuse the Rebung or bamboo shoot with the angular Gigi Yu or shark’s tooth motif. Reihana has also used the Teratai (lotus) motif, which is a common symbol throughout Malay cultures, and the mangosteen, which symbolises the spiritual link between the weaver and their environment.

As both techniques are historically practised by women, GLISTEN highlights their role as custodians of ancestral knowledge and traditional handicrafts. Lim explains that the installation also hints at a precolonial connection between the Malay Peninsula and Polynesia. In her words, “GLISTEN points toward the plurality of feminisms that existed in pre-colonial societies and continue to persist in Asia and Pacific regions where women provided sustenance not just for their immediate family, but for their community.”

Reihana’s installation is accompanied by a handcrafted wind chime made from recycled materials by Aotearoa New Zealander steel fabricator Gary Hunt. As Lim tells STIR, “These materials respond to the surrounding environment and time of day according to the air rising from the heat on the ground. It reminds us of the power of nature amidst the platform, and orchestrates a multi-sensory encounter with the artwork.”

National Gallery Singapore’s commission centres a dialogue between two visually striking weaving practices, within a larger discourse around tradition and the transfer of knowledge through the labour of women across cultures. Since the show began, the museum has continued fostering intercultural dialogue through the ongoing exhibition City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s – 1940s, which runs through August 17, 2025. The show presents the influence of Parisian culture and Western art on 90 Asian artists who lived in the French city during that time.

‘GLISTEN (2024)’ is on view from June 14, 2024 – July 13, 2025, at National Gallery Singapore .