via Rice Media, 23 August 2022: An interview with a “Display Officer” in Singapore – a person responsible for mounting exhibits in the museum.
Syiqah’s face barely registers a reaction as I gush over the intricate handicraft on one of her recent artworks. The mount maker neither blushes nor writes off my compliments. Instead, she showers me with more information about the story behind her work, her process and her craft.
This geeky side of Syiqah is at odds with the lady I met in her workshop mere minutes ago. The one who picked up a metal cutter half her size with the choreographed movements of someone who has done it so many times. Or the one who bashed away at a thick stainless steel rod with a hefty hammer.
Bending, curving, and moulding unforgiving metal rods; scrutinising exhibits at museums to ensure that the artefacts have not budged the slightest; custom-mixing paint colours. All in a day’s work for 27-year-old Nur Rasyiqah Nabilah.
Her official designation? Senior Display Officer at the National Heritage Board (NHB). But really, she is a craftswoman who makes the metal mounts that hold up museum artefacts. She is one of the few in Singapore—if not the world.
Source: For the Queen of Mounts, Perfection Is When You Can’t See Her Exhibit Holders
