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National Gallery 3 Chatbot (Politics (Most of the art works in this…

- - - - Tradition
        
        Despite riding the waves of globalization, Singapore retains its predominant Asian values and beliefs. As a result, social stigmas and superstitious irrationality is still prevalent in society today. This section will showcase art pieces that offer powerful commentary of the artist’s views about such traditions and their impacts to the ethos of society.
        
        Tiger's Whip
        
        Tiger’s Whip (1991) comments on the exploitation of tigers for the supposed aphrodisiac powers of their sexual organs. Through performance, installation, painting, and drawing, Tang explores social and environmental themes including deforestation, animal endangerment, and urban transformation.
        For this work, in part a performance, Tang dragged behind him one of ten life-size papier-mâché tigers. In the work’s installation component, a tiger stands with front paws resting on a rocking chair that has been painted with a red phallus and draped in red cloth. This represents the tiger’s vengeful spirit returning to haunt the poacher.
        
        Another Woman
        
        Three photographs explore gender issues via the domestic relationship between a mother and daughter in a traditional Chinese household.
        This work holds deep personal significance for Amanda Heng (b. 1951). She had given up a stable job to become an artist, a decision which was difficult for her mother to understand. Heng felt the best way to explain the values and social responsibilities of an art practitioner was to involve her mother physically in the art-making process.
      - Conflict
        
        The performance art scene in Singapore has had its fair share of disorder and disarray. From the provocative artworks by Wong Shih Yaw to Josef Ng’s controversial performance of “Brother Cane”, the turmoil that resulted in turn inspired artists to create new content. These artworks are created in both solidarity for their fellow artists and protests against authority.
        
        Still Performance
        
        Still Performance is a series of slightly different self-portraits of the artist, Zai (b. 1964). The over-sized portraits consist of only heads and torsos that seem to stare down at the viewer, while the red background is reminiscent of the Singapore flag. The large head, complete with a grin that shows the artist’s crooked teeth, makes this piece unsettling and confrontational.
        Zai created this piece a year after Josef Ng’s controversial Brother Cane performance in 1993 triggered a ban on government funding of performance art events in Singapore. Zai created this piece to stand in solidarity with Ng by conveying the message that while a performance has been "stilled", it will still continue regardless.
        
        Don't Give Money to the Arts
        
        In August 1995, the President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong visited Singapore Art '95, an exhibition and sale of artworks by Singapore artists. Tang wore a black jacket emblazoned on the back with "Don't give money to the arts" in yellow and handed a note to the President that read, "I am an artist. I am important."
        Although Tang was prevented from speaking to the President, he later told the media he wished to tell the President that artists are important and that public money funded the "wrong kind of art", art that was too commercial and had no taste.
      - Identity
        
        The history of Singapore can be traced back thousands of years before Sang Nila Utama even discovered and named this island. Yet, much of Singapore’s official history is still premised on the colonial moment when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles landed onto the shores of Singapore. Numerous artists have spoken up on the topic of Singapore’s past identity.
        
        Ho Tzu Nyen - Utama - Every Name in History is I - 2003
        
        Utama is a work by Ho Tzu Nyen that unravels through the legend of Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince from Palembang, who founded the Kingdom of Singhapura in the late 13th century and and weaves together literature, document, history and imagination. It was first presented at The Substation in Singapore before being selected for the 26th Sao Paulo Biennale in 2004.
        Utama presents a counterpoint to the official narrative of Singapore’s British colonial past which is commonly understood to begin with the arrival of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and his compatriot William Farquhar in 1819. It is seen as a formative work by Ho, where he laid the groundwork for a rigorous interrogation of history.
        
        Spending Time with Raffles Club
        
        Spending Time with Raffles Club is a piece by Woon Tien Wei and Dennis Tan who set up a heterotopic site of devotion to Raffles: the “Spending Time With Raffles Club”. They canvassed
        for membership in shirts that had the club’s insignia embroidered on the breast pockets and organized expeditions to places in Singapore bearing the Raffles name such as the Raffles
        Lighthouse, the Raffles Landing Site, Raffles City and Raffles Hotel.
        This pilgrimage brought into sharp relief the fact that Raffles, although apparently only having spent a total of ‘8 months, 3 weeks and 9 days’6 in Singapore, marked its topography indelibly with his name. Like a pilgrimage to Mecca to honour the Black Stone, Dennis and Tien’s pilgrimage touched the ‘foundation stone’ of colonialism, which has been assimilated into “national identity”. It commemorated what is seen as a positive point of change, a moment which is still being projected onto post-colonial buildings and businesses through the naming process.
        
        Untitled (Raffles)
        
        This object of this piece was to build a scaffolding with a platform of equal height and as close as possible to the pedestal that the statue of Raffles is standing on and to invite audiences and passers-by to go up to the platform and look at the statue of Raffles from the platform.
        Lee Wen then interviewed the audience who went up to the platform, asking them the feeling of looking at Raffles from a different perspective. In a sense it evokes the idea of confronting the empire on an even level, not as inferior. That’s the intended spirit set at the beginning of the exhibition: an equivocal presentation of contesting perspectives, and power dynamics between the coloniser and colonised.
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      - Artwork 4
      - Artwork 2
      - Artwork 5
      - Artwork 1
      - Artwork 6
      - Exit
    - - Origins
        
        The turn towards conceptual art had already begun to emerge by the 1970s. Artists like Cheo Chai-Hiang experimented with such art forms by creating a square measuring 5 feet by 5 feet at an exhibition. Needless to say, it was not considered “art” and hence was not shown.
        
        Cheo Chai Hiang - Singapore River - 1972
        
        Singapore River depicts six connected lines that formed a 5’ x 5’ square draped equally between the wall and the floor. It was initially submitted as a proposal to the Modern Art Society and rejected – in part, perhaps, because the country wasn’t ready for such conceptualist works at the time.
        Singapore River is often regarded as the first moment in Singapore’s art history where a Singapore artist tackled conceptualism and challenged the status quo definition of art in the 1970s. The Singapore River represented the history, legend, and dilemma for a modernizing, young and small nation. The Singapore River was thus the object of representation of all things Singaporean, and by some small measure, a test piece for painters.
        
        Tang Da Wu - Space Experimentation - 1972
        
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      - Rebellion
        
        In 1994, controversy surrounding a performance by artist Josef Ng titled Brother Cane, halted the momentum of the performance arts scene in Singapore. The National Arts Council condemned the performance and subsequently stopped funding performance art in Singapore. Despite this set back, fellow artists rallied in support of Ng and continued to engage in this medium.
        
        Zai Kuning - Still Performance - 1994
        
        Still Performance is a series of slightly different self-portraits of the artist, Zai (b. 1964). The over-sized portraits consist of only heads and torsos that seem to stare down at the viewer, while the red background is reminiscent of the Singapore flag. The large head, complete with a grin that shows the artist’s crooked teeth, makes this piece unsettling and confrontational.
        Zai created this piece a year after Josef Ng’s controversial Brother Cane performance in 1993 triggered a ban on government funding of performance art events in Singapore. The title Still Performance can be seen as a commentary on the state of performance art: “still” connotes a paused performance, but also one that will continue nonetheless.
        
        Josef Ng - Brother Cane - 1994
        
        Brother Cane is a performance by Josef Ng that comments on the arrest of 12 men for solicitations of a homosexual nature. Ng used a cane to strike 12 pieces of tofu arranged in a semicircle, each with a packet of chilli sauce on top in a chilling metaphor for capital punishment. He ended the performance by snipping off a small amount of his pubic hair.
        His performance resulted in one of Singapore’s biggest arts controversies and following a heated public debate, the National Arts Council released a statement condemning the performance and its status as an art form. NAC subsequently stopped funding performance art for ten years and fined and banned Josef Ng.
      - Growth
        
        By the 1990s, the arts scene in Singapore was exploding. The Substation, which became a key venue for experimental exhibitions and performances, was established in 1990 and the National Arts Council was formed in 1991 to regulate and provide funding to the growing arts scene.
        
        Vincent Leow - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: The Three-Legged Toad - 1992
        
        Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous: The Three-Legged Toad is a performance art show by artist Vincent Leow In which he impersonated a toad and leaps around a warehouse with fake American notes in his mouth to express his dissatisfaction with the rise of consumerism and materialism in Singapore society.
        In Chinese feng shui tradition, the three-legged toad possesses the power to enhance and protect a person’s wealth. This work was also Leow’s attempt to reconcile performance art with his sculpture practice. After the performance, he had the Money Suit lacquered and turned into a sculpture.
        
        Vincent Leow - Money Suit - 1992
        
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      - Looking Forward
        
        An increasing interest in art from Asia propelled Singaporean artists into the “international” art scene. Art curators and historians recognized that artists from Singapore were producing critically loaded art works. Combined with policies by the Government to develop Singapore into a global city for the arts, many local artists started looking outwards.
        
        Lim Tzay Chuen - MIKE - 2005
        
        MIKE is a solo presentation by Lim Tzay Chuen who proposed to move the merlion statue from Singapore to venice for the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. Lim failed and instead, converted part of the pavilion into a luxurious public toilet, displayed some documentation of the project and placed a sign which read “I wanted to bring Mike over”. The photograph is thus simply a marker of the idea of a conceptual work that never materialised. The Merlion remains unmoved.
        MIKE is intended to be a tongue-in-cheek comment on tourism, self-representation and capitalism and its failure to obtain approval from the relevant parties also comments on the bureaucracy of modern society. MIKE was the ultimate symbol of the shift towards conceptual art that started in Singapore in the 1970s; a point where the idea completely replaced the art object.
        
        Ho Tzu Nyen - Utama - Every Name in History is I - 2003
        
        Utama is a work by Ho Tzu Nyen that unravels through the legend of Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince from Palembang, who founded the Kingdom of Singhapura in the late 13th century and and weaves together literature, document, history and imagination. It was first presented at The Substation in Singapore before being selected for the 26th Sao Paulo Biennale in 2004.
        Utama presents a counterpoint to the official narrative of Singapore’s British colonial past which is commonly understood to begin with the arrival of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and his compatriot William Farquhar in 1819. It is seen as a formative work by Ho, where he laid the groundwork for a rigorous interrogation of history.
- - - - Delivery
        
        Experimentation with new mediums to create art has expanded the creativity of artists. Every conceptual artist possesses their own perspective on what medium is the best form to build their works on. In this section, we will explore some of the more unorthodox and unique forms that art works have been delivered.
        
        Gully Curtains
        
        Gully Curtains were created by leaving seven pieces of fabric to hang in deep gullies (landforms created from erosion) in the fields of North Ang Mo Kio, near Sembawang in the northeastern part of Singapore, and exposed to mud, rain and sun. What is left is a haunting series of stains resembling Chinese shan-shui (transliterated as mountain-water) paintings.
        While being a necessary answer to the acute housing shortage faced by Singapore at the time, the housing projects marked the loss of traditional forms of rural life of the Kampung (village in Malay) and the loss of a closer connection to nature.
        Tang’s work seems to establish a strong physical relationship with the identity and values of his heritage, while acknowledging the dissolving solidity of their once established foundations and landmarks.
        
        MIKE
        
        MIKE by Lim Tzay Cheun is Singapore’s first solo presentation at the Venice Biennale. Lim proposed to bring the Merlion from Singapore to Venice, in a tongue in cheek comment on tourism, self-representation and capitalism. This never materialised due to the lack of approval from relevant parties, which also comments on the bureaucracy of modern society.
        The Singapore Pavilion at Venice Biennale was instead converted into a large public toilet, with a signboard outside which reads “I wanted to bring MIKE over.” In a way, MIKE was the ultimate symbol of the shift towards conceptual art that started in Singapore in the 1970s; a point where the idea completely replaced the art object.
      - Contemporary
        
        Questions concerning the art object and its relationship to everyday life are constantly under scrutiny by contemporary artists. Many early conceptual art works like “Sculpture” and “The Picnic” have critiqued on the estrangement between art and everyday life. Hence, artists have started to explore new ways to define art and make art “live” again.
        
        Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame
        
        Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame is a performative installation by Suzann Victor. The fleeting yet repetitive and mesmerising contact of the bulbs of troubled lovers, who seem to be locked in the never-ending cycle of splitting and reconciling, hurting and healing.
        In describing the work, Victor has said: “Upon closer scrutinity of these eroticised objects of the everyday, these fat-bottomed globes mimic the gesture of clitoral stimulation on its own reflected image. But which is stimulating which? What is “pleasuring” what? Who is looking and who is being looked at? Who is the seer and who is seen?”
        
        Study of Three Thermos Flasks
        
        Study of Three Thermos Flasks ended up at the centre of a heated public debate after emerging from A Sculpture Seminar in 1991. The artist, M. Faizal Fadil, had bought these flasks from the Sungei Road flea market and asseted them as sculpture.
        What was significant were the debates it provoked in Singapore and the region about the traditional ideas of sculpture. Questions were raised about the role of the artist and the difference between artworks and non-art objects.
      - Perspective
        
        Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation. Often of times, conceptual art works convey much more meaning that what is being seen. The artist’s message may even be convoluted by the viewer’s own interpretation. That is the beauty of art; a medium that breeds creation.
        
        Yellow Field
        
        Yellow Field is an oil painting by Vincent Leow. At first glance, it appears to be a minimalist landscape (a yellow field) which may seem weird to be painted by an artist known for provocativeness in his art works. However, this painting is in actual fact, a painting of his stretched out yellow shirt.
        Leow created this painting to explore the genres of still life and landscape painting. At the same time, he wanted to offer a humorous commentary on his formal training in academic painting. Leow's art has been about emphasizing the process in art where he constantly challenges how people consume and understand art.
        
        Walks through a Chair
        
        Walks through a Chair by Matthew Ngui is the anamorphic chair that falls apart and reconstructs itself for the viewer depending on their perspective. The artwork is accompanied by a video showing Ngui walking through it.
        It highlights the tension between reality and image, as the artwork constantly shifts in meaning between a stable object (i.e. a chair), and its disparate, abstract elements. Ngui’s work often portray this uncertainty of perception, that “a singular point of view can be false and incorrect”
- - - - Local Culture
        
        The Artists Village, the prevailing performance art group then was considered by some Singaporean artists as having Western-oriented values that were alienated from our Asian society. Their performances were thought to lack elements not rooted from the Eastern region. Hence, the Trimurti exhibition was created to showcase modern art with an Asian flair.
        
        Four Malay Stories
        
        Four Malay Stories by Ming Wong is a four-channel video installation, recreating key scenes from four of P. Ramlee’s, a Malay show business icon, best-known films. Wong acts out 16 characters, both male and female.
        Relying on his limited knowledge of the Malay language, the artist can be seen repeating his lines in repeated takes of the same scene. The foreign presence of Wong within the films questions the premise of the nation’s multicultural story and highlights the stereotypes and cinematic tropes in our national cinema.
        
        Visvayoni
        
        Visvayoni is an artwork inspired by elements pertaining to Hinduism. Hindu concept of creation and preservation through the perfect and indestructible union of two fundamental forces: the masculine and feminine principles traditionally embody in the forms of the deity Shiva and his consort Sakti respectively. Unified in oneness, Shiva-Sakti manifests Visvayoni, the womb of the universe.
        Drawing inspiration from Hindu folklore, S. Chandrasekaran blends in religious influences into this masterpiece to create his interpretation of universal wholeness and unity.
      - Controversy
        
        With the explosion of the conceptual art scene, artists became more daring in their experimentations. Artists like Wong Shih Yaw saw art as a strong medium of expression which led them to create art works which are provocative in nature. This naturally led to many controversies surrounding their art works.
        
        Study of Three Thermos Flasks
        
        Study of Three Thermos Flasks is a readymade sculptural work that first exhibited at Sculpture in Singapore, which was curated by T.K. Sabapathy and held at the National Museum Art Gallery from 16 November to 15 December 1991. According to The Straits Times article published on 1 December 1991, Faizal Fadil bought his flasks for about five dollars each from Sungei Road.
        It provoked debates in Singapore and the region about the traditional ideas of sculpture. Questions were raised about the role of the artist and the difference between artworks and non-art objects. There was even a debate in the Straits Times by writers Ng Wei Joo and Koh Buck Song, who took opposing views about the work’s originality and artistic value.
        
        Transformation
        
        An advocate of provocativeness in art, Wong Shih Yaw’s “Transformation” depicts a fully grown male, vulnerable in his nakedness, is yanked out of a black bag by a bony outstretched arm grasping his neck. Another skeletal arm is peeling the bag away. This powerful horror show is almost reminiscent of the viciousness of birth.
        This powerful and confrontational work commented on a society in a way local audiences had never encountered before. Hence, it generated a lot of negative reviews, with visitors leaving angry comments in the guest book about “disgusting” paintings.
      - Start of a movement
        
        Art Commandos, a project started by artist Vincent Leow in 1988 brought performances to different parts of the island, including Orchard Road. This event brought art out of the white walls of the gallery or museum, prompting significant debate about our understanding of what art is or could be.
        As such, local audiences were introduced to a new artistic media and ideas of tradition and identity were also questioned.
        
        The Picnic
        
        The Picnic is an outdoor exhibition organised by Tan Teng Kee which featured a “fire sculpture”, a work that was burnt as night fell. It was a critique on the sacrosanctity of the art object, but also a type of performance that prefigured the things to come.
        These early stirrings laid the groundwork for a sustained transformation of the art scene in the mid-1980s.
        
        Singapore River
        
        Singapore River depicts six connected lines that formed a 5’ x 5’ square draped equally between the wall and the floor. It was initially submitted as a proposal to the Modern Art Society and rejected – in part, perhaps, because the country wasn’t ready for such conceptualist works at the time.
        Singapore River is often regarded as the first moment in Singapore’s art history where a Singapore artist tackled conceptualism and challenged the status quo definition of art in the 1970s. The Singapore River represented the history, legend, and dilemma for a modernizing, young and small nation. The Singapore River was thus the object of representation of all things Singaporean, and by some small measure, a test piece for painters.