Abstract
Abstract This paper focuses on how the social, dialogical and collaborative strategies and practices of The Artists Village openly intervened in the public spaces of Singapore at various times in the city-state’s history from 1989 to 2015. The objective of this paper is to draw out how the artists collective used social situations to openly produce relational, participatory and socially engaged art in public spaces with specific functions, history and importance. These various forms of artistic interventions took place on a farm, in shopping malls, on public transport networks and at national monuments during different moments in Singapore’s rapid urban transformation. From these examples, one is able to understand why The Artists Village openly intervened in the public spaces of Singapore and how these interventions functioned in their limited scope. Through this study we are able to assess how the varying levels of collaboration, openness and criticality present in their public art projects enabled them to grow outside the centralised system of the nation-state in inserting their practice into the public sphere and engaging the masses.
Highlights
Where do we begin our study of public art in the city of Singapore? One less obvious place is The Artists Village and a selection of projects[1] carried out between 1989 and 2015
This paper focuses on how the social, dialogical and collaborative strategies and practices of The Artists Village openly intervened in the public spaces of Singapore at various times in the city-state’s history from 1989 to 2015
Through a study of these public art projects,[2] we are able to analyse the types of artworks that arose from intervening into public spaces, why they were made and how they functioned as critical artistic interventions despite the limitations faced by the artists’ collective
Summary
Where do we begin our study of public art in the city of Singapore? One less obvious place is The Artists Village and a selection of projects[1] carried out between 1989 and 2015. Tang Da Wu,[6] who had lived in England for some twenty years, returned to Singapore in the late 1980s and chose to work outside of the urban confines and invited like-minded friends, students and arts practitioners to visit, use the space and stay. He imaginatively expanded the space to allow for an “open, pedagogic process, both for the artist and for his audience”[7] as a site for hosting exhibitions and performances from 1988 to 1990
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