Identity, Choice and Conflict: Uncovering the Inner Struggle at SKULLPANDA CAGE-UNCAGE Singapore

Have you ever have this feeling of being “Caged” in your everyday life and work? In today’s digital and social media world that we are living in, are we getting more “Caged”? Is this perhaps our most familiar state of reality? Do you feel that you need to “Uncage”? We are limited by the boundaries around us, whether they are self-imposed or social constructs, feeling “Caged”. Yet we are also searching for freedom, finding ourselves constantly drawn back to the trusted, safe, and familiar surroundings. This intangible space created by the possibilities and dilemma of  Identity, Choice and Conflict: Uncovering the Inner Struggle at SKULLPANDA CAGE-UNCAGE Singapore at the National Museum of Singapore. 

An immersive and thought-provoking showcase that encourages visitors to explore and discover their sense of self through the deeper narrative behind the popular SKULLPANDA character, taking at the National Museum of Singapore from 12th December 2025 to 22nd February 2026.

SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore 

SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore is presented by POP MART, in collaboration with SKULLPANDA character creator, Chinese artist Xiong Miao, and in partnership with the National Museum of Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board.

“I’m truly excited and honoured to present SKULLPANDA’s work outside of China for the first time through the immersive showcase SKULLPANDA CAGE–UNCAGE. Singapore, with its unique charm—balancing tradition with innovation, structure with creativity—is a truly fitting venue for an exhibition that explores the tension between contrasting ideas and perspectives,” said Chinese artist Xiong Miao, creator of the original SKULLPANDA character series. 

SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore presents a visual journey through popular culture, that explores the tensions between containment and release that exist within our decisions. Through creative spatial design and unique visual language, this showcase is a space for visitors to contemplate, where they are invited to stand with SKULLPANDA, and confront how our choices are shaped by the multiple layers of our identity: as an individual, a part of a larger community, and more. 

Exploring Contemporary Culture in Singapore 

While the National Museum of Singapore presents shared narratives that shaped Singapore,  the SKULLPANDA CAGE-UNCAGE Singapore presents a totally different approach, turning the visual storytelling lens inward, inviting visitors to discover and explore the personal choices, contradictions, and conflicts that shape their own stories and identities. 

Through this form of self-reflective meditation, the National Museum of Singapore has created a space for introspection that allows one’s deeper understanding of self. This showcase also continues on the museum’s exploration of enduring appeal of contemporary collectible culture in Singapore, building upon its popular 2024 showcase Play:Date – Unlocking Cabinets of Play, that demonstrates how popular culture has resonated across generations. 

These showcases present the museum’s commitment to examining contemporary Singapore culture through fresh perspectives and unique experiences, creating new pathways to engage diverse audiences.

Six Zones for you to Uncover the Complexities and Contradictions of your Choice

Based on the SKULLPANDA The Paradox Series, there are six thematic zones for you to uncover the complexities and contradictions of your different choices and aspects that you have to make in your everyday life. They are Emotion, Direction, Fortune, Rules, Life, and Exploration. 

Spot the keys and locks at SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore, visual metaphors of our everyday life. Each zone presents an interactive and sensory experience that transforms abstract ideas into tangible reflections on life, inviting visitors to engage through touch, movement, and sound. Throughout your journey at SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore, you are encouraged to draw from your own lived experiences, and to physically connect with installations and sculptures, discovering the possibilities that lie within.

The Key

Begin your SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore experiential journey with The Key, where fragmented mirrors and keys invite you to reflect on the boundaries between reality and infinite possibilities. 

Now, it’s time to continue on into the six sections:

• Emotion: The lock and key are placed in opposition to each other, dissolving the conventional relationship. The SKULLPANDA’s signature astronaut helmet is reimagined as a floating sphere, catching the light, casting a shadow below. The interplay of light and dark, mirrors the tensions and harmony between perception and truth. Your emotional connections become visible through the threads of entangled lines. 

• Direction: Flip through the giant book, as the symbols unfold transparent book pages carrying images of imprisonment through thorns, shackles and webs. Unfolding page by page, presenting different paths to freedom, revealing how one might navigate through the obstacles and break free or they can find sanctuary within those constraints themselves. 

• Fortune: The Fortune that you have, it can have a dual nature of both dazzling and sharp. Look at the enclosed cabinet, look at the mirror. Do you see reflected images of yourself? How are you shaped by notion of wealth, the fragile balance between wealth and imprisonment? 

• Rules: An endless spinning top, presenting the concept of time, gravity and discipline, placed on a precarious scale, vulnerable to the slightest touch. The law of order distorts over time, they are on the verge of imbalance yet still seeking new equilibrium through motion. Is this the type of personal and working life that you have been going through or went through? 

• Life: Observe the sand flowing through, just like time itself in Life, experiencing the meditative theatre of life. Watch how life can unfold in both breath and depth, and how it can allow you to reshape how you view the idea itself.

• Exploration: Enter into a cage that has a interactive set of rotating blocks, build and rebuild your own patterns. Explore and ignite your curiosity to understand the world around you, opening up new perspectives. 

The Room

At the heart of this showcase is The Room, combining all of the six thematic zones together. Inside this chamber of one-way mirrors, two SKULLPANDA sculpture sit back-to-back, with a key in each sculpture’s hand, symbolising the weight of constraint and hope of freedom.

Do you feel the paradox of perception? When you are outside, it’s recognisable. Once inside, you can see and feel the infinite maze of displaced reflections. You are both the observer and the one being observed, giving you the feel of being trapped in a prison within it yet you are also observing the prison. 

Exclusive Highlights at SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore
There are exclusive highlights at this exclusive co-curated SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore, it pays homage to bird singing in Singapore. This is a beloved past time enjoyed in Singapore’s housing estate, a very much less-known aspect of Singapore life, that is introduced to international audiences. 

Observe the suspended bird cages, they are home to the original prototype of figurines from the SKULLPANDA The Paradox Series. This artwork is accompanied by a specially created video artwork by Xiong Miao, featuring her signature butterfly emblem gliding past familiar local sights of Singapore.

From one popular local culture bird singing uniting bird singing enthusiasts, to another popular culture shown by the passion and dedication of contemporary culture collectible fans. 

SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore Showcase-Exclusive Merchandise

Want to bring home a special memory from your visit to SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore at the National Museum of Singapore? Don’t miss the showcase-exclusive merchandise available for purchase at the Gallery Theatre retail zone to ticket holders only and is subject to eligibility and purchase limitations. 

Additional POP MART merchandise can be purchased at the POP MART POP-Up store at the National Museum of Singapore Longer Concourse, which is open to the general public.

Visitors can look forward to a special SKULLPANDA Plush Doll-Cage-Uncage, and POPOP, POP Mart’s jewellery line making its Singapore debut at the showcase for a limited time only. For more information on the showcase-exclusive merchandise, please visit this link. Details on purchase conditions may be found here.

New Era of Contemporary Popular Culture Visual Storytelling

Coming from a more old school era of popular culture collector, it is exciting and fun to see how popular culture has grown, risen and established a new era of contemporary popular culture. SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore at the National Museum of Singapore is more than just an eye opener, this special showcase has shown how contemporary popular culture has grown in stature and perception, from the small cute plushies that you might hang on your bag, they can become a contemporary cultural exhibition with its own stories and themes that connect with people from all walks of life beyond contemporary popular culture. 

SKULLPANDA CAGE:UNCAGE Singapore Exhibition Information

• Venue: National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road, Singapore 178897
• Date: 12th December 2025 – 22nd February 2026

Locations:

• Ticketed Showcase – Stamford Gallery (Level 1) and Gallery Theatre (Basement Level)
• Merchandise POP-Up Stores – Longer Concourse (Level 1) and Gallery Theatre (Basement Level)
• Free-to-Access Art Installations – Front Lawn and Level 1 Spaces

Ticketing Details

Ticket Tier Details:

• Early All Access Tickets – Priority access to the showcase and priority to purchase exclusive merchandise from 12th to 16th December 2025.
• Standard All Access Tickets – Entry to the showcase and access to purchase showcase exclusive merchandise from 17th December onwards
• All Ticker Tiers – Includes entry to the National Museum’s current exhibitions, Once Upon a Tide: Singapore’s Journey from Settlement to Global City I and Singapore Odyssea: A Journey Through Time.

Tickets can be purchased here or through the showcase’s ticketing partner Trip.com