4000 words 24 hours
CURATORIAL PROPOSAL: Singapore Re(re)membered
Singapore Re(re)membered is an exhibition of contemporary artists who use the
construct of memory to re-examine aspects of ‘The Singapore Story’. Through a blend of
archival footage and documentation, this exhibition invites the audience to reflect on ‘The
Singapore Story’ and revisit their assumptions.
Singapore became a sovereign independent nation on August 9, 1965 when the
Parliament of Malaysia voted unanimously to expel it from the Federation of Malaysia. While
the country has indeed developed into a First World nation, the ruling People’s Action Party
has been criticised for its style of benevolent dictatorship. Its authoritarian style of
government includes a state controlled media, media and artistic censorship and the
successful suing of political opponents and foreign publications. Artistic expression in
Singapore is subject to restrictions. Most chillingly, in 1994, a protest by performance artist
Josef Ng (“Brother Cane”, 1993-94) over police entrapment of homosexuals resulted in a ten
year restriction on performance art and forum theatre.
In 2000, the Renaissance City Master Plan was endorsed by the government. This
plan sought “to establish Singapore as a global arts city conducive to creative, knowledge-
based industries and talent; and second, to strengthen national identity and belonging among
Singaporeans by nurturing an appreciation of shared heritage.”1 On the back of this and
subsequent master plans, new institutions such as the National Gallery Singapore and art
schools were built while an arts marketplace was created through the parachuting of an art
fair alongside a state supported gallery district.
Despite signs of relaxation, restrictions on artistic expression remain especially on
politics. Even in present day Singapore, the state continues to jealously guard its account of
1 Ministry of Information and the Arts. (2000). Renaissance city report: Culture and the arts in Renaissance
Singapore (p. 4). Singapore: The Ministry
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the national narrative. In 2015, a graphic novel on Singapore politics told through the eyes of
a fictional cartoonist, “The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye”, had its publishing grant
withdrawn by the National Arts Council due to “its sensitive content"2. Nonetheless the novel
became a bestseller.
Given Singapore’s high cost structure, under-developed art market and the lack of
private sector support for the arts, the State is omnipresent in the arts through statutory boards
such as the National Arts Council and the National Heritage Board. Through these vehicles,
the state funds the bulk of the country’s museums, selects artists for prestigious platforms
including the Venice and Singapore Biennale and provides artists grants and arts housing.
This places many Singaporean artists in a gilded cage as they are unable to openly critique
government policies due to the implicit threat of reduced support.
While due credit must be given to pioneer artists such as Vincent Leow (“Money
Suit”, 1992) Tang Da Wu (“Don’t give money to the Arts, 1995”), Lee Wen (“Journey of a
Yellow Man No. 11, 1997”) and Amanda Heng (“Let’s Walk”, 1999) who created art that
critiqued Singapore’s cultural policies and social issues. Singapore Re(re)membered focuses
on a younger generation of artists who have had the benefit of a longer tableau to provide
subtle but pointed social and political commentary. Through art works which evoke
documentation, allegory and the invention of fictional institutions to stir recollections, it is
hoped that a contemporary audience will be able to better appreciate these works which
revisit and re-interprets government policies and state supported narratives.
For example, through using his photographs as building blocks to construct fictional
narratives, Robert Zhao Renhui has created a fictional institute, the Institute of Critical
Zoologists (ICZ). According to its website, the aim of the ICZ is to “develop a critical
2 http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/nac-withdraws-grant-for/1881738.html
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Zoological Gaze” which examines the “appalling state” of relationships between urban
societies and nature and calls into question Singapore’s ‘Clean and Green’ image.
2015 marked a year-long state sponsored campaign to celebrate Singapore’s Golden Jubilee
and was construed by the opposition as a propaganda tool by the PAP ahead of elections
which were held the next year. While the proliferation of social media has provided space for
alternative voices, it has also led to the rise of ‘fake news’ which a previously trusting
populace is gradually coming to grips with. The unquestioning respect Singaporeans have for
authority has even led to the ICZ receiving requests for support from students and more
troublingly, zoologists. As Singapore enters its next fifty years of development in an
increasingly uncertain geo-political climate, it is essential that its people develop more
critical thinking and independent analysis skills.
Singapore Re(re)membered encourages visitors to see these artworks in a new light to
recall and question previously embraced narratives. Through the re-examination of fables,
movies and archival material, Singapore Re(re)membered helps amplify the voices of
marginalised communities such as sexual minorities and the indigenous Malay population
who often find themselves muzzled in a restricted media-scape. It is hoped that this
exhibition encourages Singaporeans to reflect on the compromises made in the name of
progress and spur them to imagine a new future.
In recommending the exhibition site, different locations such as the Singapore Art
Museum which focuses on contemporary art and Singapore’s longest-running independent
arts space, the Substation were considered. However, to attract a broader audience and to
better contextualise the show, it should be staged at the National Gallery Singapore. While
the critical nature of this exhibition is not lost to me, the Gallery has shown a willingness to
critically examine Singapore’s history and narrative. It has staged shows by controversial
local artists and its current collaboration with the Tate, Artist and Empire is an effort to re-
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contextualise Asia’s colonial legacy. Housed in Singapore’s former Supreme Court and City
Hall, the Gallery is the centrepiece of Singapore’s cultural policy. More importantly, it has
been the setting for many of the nation’s historic moments including the surrender of the
Japanese during World War II and the country’s National Day Parades; it serves as a
poignant reminder that history is written by the victors.
Additional Programs
I would like to propose apart from inviting the artists to conduct educational talks on their
works over the weekends, Ho should conduct his performance lecture to accompany the
video work Utama, Everyman is I.
Loo should re-enact his performance for Cane and to be accompanied by an interview
between himself and Josef Ng and add another piece of archival material to this exhibition.
(Word count for Curatorial Proposal + Additional Programs - 1018)
Image from Cane (2012) http://www.loozihan.com/cane2012/
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2. Wall Labels
Ho Tzu Nyen
Singaporean, b. 1976
Utama, Every name is I, 2003
Single channel video, duration 23min
Ho is an artist who has evolved from working primarily with film and video to create multi-
sensory environmental installations. In this early work, Ho revisits the legendary account of
the founding of Singapore. While official records of Singapore’s founding date to 1819 when
it was founded by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles as a colony of the East India Company, little
is known about the pre-colonial founder of Singapore, Sang Nila Utama. A Malay prince
from Palembang, Utama coined the name Singapura (Lion City) in approximately the 14th
Century, when he encountered a lion on the island’s shores. However, this fable has been
questioned as lions are not native to Singapore.
Ho crafts a genre-bending film part documentary and part fiction. Through the deployment of
a small cast who play interchangeable roles including one Malay actor who depicts a mythic
lineage of conquerors and explorers from Julius Cesar, to Christopher Columbus to Utama
and eventually Raffles who wrests control of Singapore from Utama’s descendant. Ho
collapses time and space to query Singapore’s founding narrative and asks cryptically, “Who
defines the truth?”
Ming Wong
Singaporean, b. 1971
Four Malay Stories, 2005,
4 channel video installation, 25 min loop
Ming Wong is a multimedia artist based in primarily in Berlin. He is focused on the image as
a form of collective memory and as a medium for cross-cultural experiences and
performances. In "Four Malay Stories," Wong re-enacts scenes and plays all 16 roles (male
and female) from four films by Malay movie icon, P. Ramlee. Ramlee was an icon of the 50s
and 60s, the forgotten golden age of Singapore’s film industry, whose popularity cut across
the racial divide and social strata. To this date, his memory is a beacon for cultural pluralism
and racial harmony.
Apart from exploring gender and evoking stereotypes of yesteryear, Wong speaks of the loss
of language. While Singapore’s national anthem is sung in Malay and Malay is the national
language, the majority of Singaporeans, including Wong do not learn the language. Each
monitor repeats scenes where Wong repeats his lines in Malay, until he is almost able to
reproduce them correctly.
This video not only questions Singapore’s presumed national identity, but by recalling an era
where the local cinema industry produced and exported Malay and Chinese films regionally,
questions the current lack of demand for Singapore’s artistic production.
(195 words)
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Loo Zihan
Singaporean, b. 1981
Archiving Cane, 2012
Installation and mixed media performance
Loo is a performance and moving-image artist who builds his performances on archival
material and history. He focuses on issues regarding politics, queer identity and shame.
Archiving Cane is an installation comprising documentation and props from Loo’s live
performance of “Cane”, newspaper reviews of “Cane” and documentation including
newspapers and videos from Josef Ng’s original “Brother Cane” performance.
Audience agency is encouraged through interaction with the artefacts and by providing your
account and interpretation of “Brother Cane” after this installation. Loo will be present to
interact with the audience and check your age in compliance of the censorship board’s
directives that the installation is accessible to persons aged 21 and above.
Archiving Cane is performance art in the guise of archiving Loo’s 2012 performance Cane.
Through this installation, Loo exposes the myth of objective impartiality in archival. All
archivists from Loo to journalists who covered the “Brother Cane” scandal have their own
agendas whether self-imposed or directed by the state. Power is wielded and yielded as the
past is manipulated and some narratives are inevitably privileged above others.
Archiving Cane raises pertinent questions over the subject of identity, collective memory and
who shapes Singapore’s narrative.
(195 words)
John Clang
Singaporean, b. 1973
The Land of My Heart, 2014,
15 photographs, fine art archival print
Clang is a photographer based primarily in New York City. In this series, Clang recalls the
commoditised images of female sensuality, the Singapore Girl and subverts her. An icon of
the national carrier and a symbol of Asian exoticism, the Singapore Girl is typically
showcased in exotic destination. Clang’s photographs resemble Singapore Airline’s typical
commercials, but she is now re-appropriated as an ambassador for Singapore’s heartlands.
Many of the photographs are set in Clang’s childhood housing estate and portray scenes of
everyday life are now under threat in the city’s relentless drive for efficient use of land. By
reclaiming a national icon and placing them in scenes relatable to Singaporeans, Clang is
reminiscing on a bygone era and protesting the erosion of memories.
Based in NYC, Clang’s sense of displacement from Singapore is growing and he has
included his personal reflections of home. In this series he has handwritten messages on each
photograph which reveal themselves only upon closer inspection. For example, the text in
“Flower Shop” (above) are from an uncle suffering cancer. The stark nature of the words “I
don’t want to die. Help me.” shock the viewer and are a loving memorial to Clang’s uncle.
(198 words)
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Robert Zhao Renhui
Singaporean, b. 1979
Ulu Tirum, Bukit Pangjang, Singapore and View from Ulu Tirum, 2014
Diptych, archival piezographic print
Zhao works mainly with photography, but often adopts a multi-disciplinary approach by
presenting images together with documents and artefacts which may or may not be fictional.
His work addresses man’s relationship with nature, paying close attention to how our
attitudes and opinions shape our assumptions about the natural world.
The Land Archive is another fictional institute created by Zhao to create dialogue between
Singapore’s man-made infrastructure and its natural spaces. Created as ‘documentation’ for
the archive, Zhao revisits Singapore’s policy of land reclamation which has increased the
island’s land mass by twenty two per cent. Landmarks such as the Marina Bay Sands
integrated resorts have been built on reclaimed land and profoundly altered the island’s
cityscape and economic destiny. Zhao weaves a fictional account of how in the 1990s as
Singapore was under-going rapid urbanisation and land reclamation; sand was stored in
remote parts of the island. These man-made sand dunes temporarily changed Singapore’s
urban-scape, eventually becoming attractions for local tourists.
Through this fictional account of a not too distant past by an assumed authority, Zhao invents
narratives for Singaporeans to ponder on national boundaries and collective memories.
(188 words)
3. Checklist
Image from https://www.gillmanbarracks.com/others/gillman-barracks/1057
Ho Tzu Nyen (b. 1976, Singapore), Utama, Every name is I, 2003, Single channel video
(23min), collection of National Gallery Singapore, Singapore.
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Image from http://www.initiartmagazine.com/interview.php?IVarchive=12
Ming Wong (b. 1971, Singapore) Four Malay Stories, 2005, 4 channel video installation, (25
min loop), collection of National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
Images from http://www.loozihan.com/archiving-cane-2012/
Loo Zihan (b. 1981), Archiving Cane, 2012, Installation and Performance (mixed media),
Collection of the artist.
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Images from http://johnclang.com/the-land-of-my-heart
John Clang (b. 1973, Singapore), The Land of My Heart, 2014, 15 photographs, Fine art
archival print, (96.5 X 142.2 cm), Private collection
Images from http://prudentialeyeawards.com/artists/photography-2/robert-zhao
Robert Zhao Renhui (b. 1979, Singapore), Ulu Tirum, Bukit Pangjang, Singapore and View
from Ulu Tirum 2014, Archival Piezographic Print in frame (121cm x 84cm), Diptych,
collection of The Land Archive, Singapore