Asian Art Museum and Banana Island

I like San Francisco, but don't consider it a great museum town. I sometimes to go for special exhibits, but felt the regular collection is not worth the time and effort.

The lone exception is probably the Asian Art Museum. So, when I found someone organizing a docent led tour at the Asian Art Museum, I signed up for the event.

The featured exhibits at Asian Art Museum are Hiroshi Sugimoto's "History of History" and Stylized Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Fashion.

I arrived early and had a chance to wander about the museum before the docent led tour. The Japanese sections seem to have added new exhibits since my last visit. Interesting...I need to come back.

Our docent, Kaya, was an interesting lady. She was clearly enthusiastic but somehow unwilling to give direct interpretation of the art work we saw. There was a pendant with a ring of stylized fire sitting on a lotus flower base. In the ring was a photograph of a calm sea. Kaya pointed to the outer ring and said "History", then pointed to the photograph and said "Of History", then said no more. I could only take it to mean it was human history (the pendant) surrounding natural history (the photo of the sea).

There were several other exhibits that had similar theme. Fossils locked in a modern glass safe, jade pendants displayed inside a sterilizer and crystal balls inside a miniature pagoda. But there were also pictures of natural scenery which do not follow this pattern and Kaya also call them "History of history". I am confused.

The second part of the docent tour was for modern Japanese fashion. Kaya made a point about how kimono did not have size and adapted to the user by folding and tucking the fabric, especially resulting in a knot on the back. She told us to look for similar influences in modern Japanese fashion.

There were the usual spiky looking clothes but also several sensible looking clothes which was slightly oversized, but elegantly folded to form clean lines on the back. There was another dress which was more tubular in shape. A roll of excess fabric was form in the front of the dress, giving it a clean look with a little accent.

Then there were a few dress which not overly modern, but probably not pratical either. One example was the hunchback look, where the dress has a bough on the back to give the wearer a hunchback like look. Along the same line is the dress with a big bough on the behind, giving the wearer a snail like look.

After the docent led part of the tour, we ventured into the regular exhibit. Someone had wanted to see the central Asia exhibit, and I tagged along. I am very familiar with central Asian history and really enjoyed those exhibits.

As usual, I made dinner plans with friends living in the city whenever I visit. My friend S and I went to Banana Island in Daly City, a Singapore/Malaysian restaurant. Food was quite good, and I was amused by the chef stretching out the dough for roti prata. As a teenage, I would order the same dish and watch the chef stretch out the dough before frying it. Watching the chef do it in this restaurant brings back a lot of memories. For my detail review on this restaurant, please check Yelp!