SINGAPORE — Hollywood actress Lucy Liu may be known for her starring role in American TV series Ally McBeal and in the blockbuster movie Charlie’s Angels (2000), but few here would know her as an artist.

Or more specifically, an artist who collects junk to build her work.

These unwanted objects will now find a temporary home at the National Museum of Singapore this month and next, where her art pieces and those of Singaporean artist Shubigi Rao will be showcased.

The exhibition, titled Unhomed Belongings, runs from Jan 12 to Feb 24.

There will be 15 artworks by Ms Liu, 50, and Ms Rao, 43, an India-born Singaporean writer and artist.

Ms Liu’s collection comprises discarded objects she picks up on her travels. She hides these among 200 or so handmade books that were tossed out from an Italian printing house.

Speaking at a media preview on Thursday (Jan 10) at the museum, Ms Liu — who is visiting Singapore for the first time and having her first museum show — said that she dislikes polluting the environment and wasting things.

She spoke of her disadvantaged upbringing where her family made the best of what they had.

Recalling a trip to Lebanon, Ms Liu said that rocks, a broken lock and other items people would typically consider “junk” had become cherished toys for children there. She, too, tinkered with similar objects as toys during her childhood.

“I felt sorry for the (children in Lebanon), for things that were thrown on the ground or that were discarded or (when) people would throw things out the window,” she said.

So she made it a point to pick up discarded objects, first placing them in wooden boxes and later, books.

The ongoing project, which began in 2012, is about finding a place for these objects, so that they feel “loved and cared for”.

Ms Liu quipped that she has been criticised for picking up items from the streets “without gloves” and then putting them in her purse.

“It got to a point where people would see me at work, when I would be working on a show, and they would automatically just hand me a Ziploc bag,” she said.

NOTHING TO PICK UP IN SINGAPORE

She has several books left to fill, and said that she would create one with objects found in Singapore.

There is a problem, though.

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing on the ground,” she said with a laugh.

“It’s so clean and there’s nothing to pick up and I don’t want to take anything of nature from it because it belongs here,” she told reporters later.

Ms Liu’s Lost and Found installation echoes one by Ms Rao titled Pulp, a 10-year project comprising a five-volume book series, works of art and a series of films based on interviews, research and footage about the destruction of libraries and books, censorship and more.

Like Ms Liu’s exhibit, it is incomplete, Ms Rao said. She has, for instance, written two out of five volumes so far, and the project is in its fifth year.

“I’m showing a very nascent, early part of the project… because these things don’t have a place yet.”

The two women were brought together in the second half of last year and began corresponding, but never met in person as they developed the project. They met for the first time on Wednesday.

Mr Ryan Su, founding director of The Ryan Foundation, a private arts non-profit organisation, took the idea of featuring Ms Liu’s work to Ms Angelita Teo, director of the National Museum of Singapore.

Ms Teo then proposed that Ms Liu team up with Ms Rao.

It was “a rare opportunity” for the National Museum of Singapore, which focuses on social history, to house a contemporary-art exhibition, Ms Teo said.

Contemporary art, however, brings relevance to history and present-day social issues, she added. “This is the beginning of, I hope, more conversations, not just between artists, but among people.”

Mr Su said that Ms Liu’s star power would draw those who do not usually visit art exhibitions to “come out to see art”.

“They may not like art, but this would be their first exposure and they can decide for themselves whether they like it,” he added.

On her first impressions of Singapore, Ms Liu said that she was struck by the kindness and generosity of the people here, as well as the diversity of the population.

“It’s very much like New York. You just walk down the street for two minutes and you hear every possible language… (and) see all the different colours that people are.”

The exhibition is part of the Singapore Art Week and is presented by the museum and The Ryan Foundation. Admission is free.