Have you ever wondered if the trees are watching you back?
Or if the ground remembers the weight of your footsteps once you’ve moved on?
Welcome to Temporary Bodies —a festival of peculiar realizations held within the Woodlands Botanical Gardens .
We are all just passing through.
Our bodies are wonderful, fleeting machines on a long-term loan from the Earth.
We invite you to poke your nose into the corners of this garden, to ask “Why?” and “How?”, and to rediscover your kinship with Gaia through these eight curious encounters:
1. The Looking Glass Portal
Location: The VR Exhibition
What happens when we step outside of our own skin? Don the headset and tumble into a digital realm where the physical laws of the garden shift and blur. This immersive vision invites you to see our world from a perspective entirely “other.” It is a curious journey through a landscape of light and shadow, asking: what will you discover when you see through new eyes?
2. The Echo Chamber
Location: Recorded Music Gallery
If the wind could play a record, what would the Earth’s soundtrack be? Step into this auditory nook where recorded melodies hang in the air like invisible vines. These sounds are a collection of “human moments” captured in time—fleeting, colourful, and strangely familiar. Do you recognize the rhythm of your own heart in these captured echoes?
3. The Weaver of Whispers
Location: Poetry, Dance + AR
Can a movement grow leaves?
Seek out the poet Catherine Joan Devadason and our dancers. As the verses flow and the bodies sway, the very air begins to thicken with magic. If you look through the digital looking-glass, you’ll see poetry manifest as shimmering AR shapes. It makes one wonder: how much of our world is made of stories we simply haven’t seen yet?
The Moon Princess waits for the moon to shine: 4:20pm, 4:25pm
4. Listen to Storyteller Hemang under the tree: 4:40pm, 4:45pm
5 & 6. The Loom of Legacy
Location: The Cloth Installation
A structure stands in the clearing, waiting for a touch of colour.
We invite you to take a fragment of cloth—a piece of the “temporary”—and tie it firmly to the frame. As you knot the fabric, make a silent wish for Gaia. Watch as the structure transforms into a vibrant tapestry of human devotion. What promise will you leave behind for the garden to keep?
7. A Note to Gaia
Grab a marker and create a message for a loved one, a message for yourself, a message for Gaia, our mother earth at the collective visual art gallery.
Peg your artwork to the wall of messages and let Gaia know she is loved.
8. The Fluttering Phantoms
Location: Butterflies (AR) The garden is inhabited by residents that are there—and yet, not there. Use your device to hunt for the digital spirits of the Woodlands. These AR butterflies are shy; they flicker at the edge of sight, reminding us that the most vital parts of nature are often the most invisible. How many can you find before they retreat back into the petals?
9. The Harmonious Stretch
Location: Music + Yoga Is your body a vessel or a bridge? Join us in a curious experiment of movement and sound. As live music hums through the trees, let your breath and posture align with the frequency of the soil. This fusion of Yoga and melody asks you to stop rushing and start resonating. Can you feel where your skin ends and the garden begins?
Listen to Violist Kailin & Yoga Shiva: 4:50pm
10. The Great Unfolding
Location: Stage Main Show
Finally, follow the music to the clearing for the ultimate spectacle.
Watch as dancers and musicians unite in a heartbeat made visible. It is a grand celebration of the “now”—a visceral reminder that while our time here is short, our dance with Gaia is a sacred responsibility.
Why do we perform? …
…. Perhaps because the Earth is cheering us on.
