Singa Merlionus is one of the installation exhibits celebration the reopening of National Museum of Singapore

National Museum of Singapore

The National Museum of Singapore is a national museum in Singapore and the oldest museum in Singapore. Its history dates back to 1849 when it was started as a section of a library at Singapore Institution...

's re-opening. Created by David Chan, it is on display from December 2, 2006 to January 31, 2007. Singa Merlionus, the assigned technical name for this new Merlion model, is the project’s title. It draws on cultural heritage in the form of the Merlion

Merlion

The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot of Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means "sea town" in Javanese...

, a local icon in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, and reinvents or renews it as a genetically modified animal, thus imbuing it with new forms, meanings and identity.

In this version, the gap between fantasy and reality is finally bridged. The creature is realized, suggesting its implication from symbolic to subsistence. Giving the creature a realistic form, somewhat detaches it from the folklore, making it even more independent and less enigmatic. The sculpture though realistic is nonetheless inanimate. It does however, provide intimate suggestions of what it could have been if it was truly alive. Combined with the head of a lion, a mane similar to a pangolin’s scales, the body of a seal, tail of a shark and patterns from a whale, Singa Merlionus is a mammal designed to glide in the water and still survive on land. This is inspired by the latest folklores being promoted where it is supposed to come up to rest on Sentosa

Sentosa

Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay , is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year...

now and then.