University maces carry intricate details that express the university’s values, heritage and goals in the medium of design. SINGAPORE – In June and July, university graduates around Singapore look ahead to their new lives – and are ready to close the chapter on student life with commencement ceremonies. Each ceremony will be unique, with different commencement speakers and pageantry, for instance.
But these events share similar scenes: excited graduates in gowns, loved ones in the audience – and ceremonial maces. Maces have a long tradition as combat weapons, with archaeologists having unearthed maces used in the Bronze and Stone ages. But maces were also the emblems of sovereign rulers, their power and authority made manifest in a tangible object.
In modern times, even as hand-to-hand battle has become obsolete, maces have endured as ceremonial objects. In Singapore’s Parliament, for instance, a lion-head mace is used to mark the commencement and suspension of a sitting. Within the university setting, the mace functions during important occasions as a symbol of authority, while also carrying intricate details that express the university’s values, heritage and goals.
Industrial designer Benny Tan, 65, has the distinction of creating maces for four local bastions of learning – Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). While he was part o.