Refrain, Reframe – Baba House Displaced

A bentwood kopitiam chair stands among the objects, the same kind of seat you find in coffee shops across Singapore, here shown next to the household things of a Straits Chinese home. NUS Baba House on Neil Road is closed for restoration until 2027, so its collection has moved to NUS Museum at Kent Ridge.

The museum doesn't rebuild the house's rooms. Furniture, decorative arts, domestic utensils and architectural fragments are grouped by function, material and theme instead, so an English ironstone wash basin on a Chinese stand and a handwoven tenong basket used for wedding deliveries sit side by side. The show also explains the research, documentation and decisions behind conserving a historic house museum.

Entry is free and the museum is open 10am to 6pm. It's the one museum chair you'll recognise from your Saturday kopi.