Histories, Practices, Interventions

Histories, Practices, Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art brings together key writings about ideas, practices, issues and art institutions that shape the understanding of contemporary art in Singapore. This reader is conceived as an essential resource for advancing critical debates on post-independence Singapore art and culture. It comprises a total of thirty-three texts by art historians, art theorists, art critics, artists and curators. In addition, there is an introduction by the co-editors, Jeffrey Say and Seng Yu Jin,as well as three section introductions contributed by Seng Yu Jin; artist, curator and writer Susie Wong; and art educator and writer Lim Kok Boon.

Contents:

• Introduction (Jeffrey Say and Seng Yu Jin)

• The State of Art Writing in Singapore (Jeffrey Say and Seng Yu Jin)

• CONSTRUCTING THE CONTEMPORARY: THEORIES AND HISTORIES:

  • Introduction (Seng Yu Jin)
  • New Art, New Concepts (1972) (Cheo Chai-Hiang)
  • Art, Besides Being New, Has to Possess an Intrinsic Quality in Order to Strike a Sympathetic Chord in the Hearts of the Viewers (1972) (Ho Ho Ying)
  • Tracing (Un)certain Legacies: Conceptualism in Singapore and the Philippines (2011) (Isabel Ching)
  • Contemporary Art in Singapore: An Introduction(1995) (T K Sabapathy)
  • Not Modern: Theses on Contemporary Art (2007) (Gunalan Nadarajan)
  • Sustaining Alterity in the Times of R(v)apid Changes (2009) (Lee Wen)
  • In & Out of Shadows: Some Notes on Photographic Art in Singapore (2014) (Lindy Poh)
  • Envisaging Hollowness in Contemporary Singapore (2001) (Joan Kee)
  • The Crisis of Context: What Holds Heterogeneities Together (2000) (Susie Lingham)
  • Creative Rebelliousness and the Aesthetics of the Postmodern (2002) (William SW Lim)
  • Practising Contemporary Art in the Global City for the Arts, Singapore (2012) (CJ W-L Wee)

• INTERVENTIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY: THE STATE, ART INSTITUTIONS AND THE PUBLIC:

  • Introduction (Susie Wong)
  • A Censorship Manifesto (2000) (Alfian Sa'at)
  • Looking Back at Brotfler Cane: Performance Art and State Performance (1996) (Ray Langenbach)
  • Alternative Spaces and Radical Pleasures (1996) (Lee Weng Choy)
  • Encounters in Engagement: Investigating Public Engaged Art in Singapore (2002) (Jay Koh and Chu Chu Yuan)
  • Artist as Mediator-On Amanda Hang's Art (2011) (Wu Mali)
  • A Field of Dreams: Re-Positioning the Arts (2005) (Kuo Pao Kun)
  • The LASALLE School: 20 Years of Fine Arts from LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts (2004) (Gunalan Nadarajan)
  • Locating Culture: Art, Policy and the Production of Culture in Singapore (2002) (Venka Purushothaman)
  • Bland Modernity, Kitsch and Reflections on Aesthetic Production in Singapore (2002) (CJ W-L Wee)
  • A Glimpse of the Ineffable, the Uncanny, the Transcendent ... (2007) (Kwok Kian-Woon)
  • In Venetian Waters: Singapore at the 49th Venice Biennale (2002) (Kevin Chua)

• PRACTISING THECONTEMPORARY: ART ASAN EXPANDED FIELD:

  • Introduction (Lim Kok Boon)
  • Perpetual Beginnings — Strands of Processes in Painting (2004) (Ho Tzu Nyen)
  • Crossing the Ink Boundary (1999) (Chua Ek Kay)
  • Sculptors and Sculpture in Singapore; an Introduction (1991) (TK Sabapathy)
  • Home Grown — Installation/Conceptual Artists in Singapore (1999) (Binghui Huangfu)
  • Trimurti and Dimensions of Performance Art (1998) (Tay Swee Lin)
  • Reproduction of Trimurti Exhibition Catalogue (1988) (S Chandrasekaran, Goh Ee Choo and Salleh Japar)
  • The Artists Village: Collaboration as Transformation (2009) (Russell Storer)
  • (Non)Visible Bodies/Spaces (2001) (John Low)
  • Vincent Leow: Coffee Talk (1992) (2010) (Ray Langenbach)
  • Interview with Tang Da Wu (1991) (TK Sabapathy)
  • The Slow Burn: Privatised Protest in Recent Contemporary Art from Singapore (2012) (Tan Boon Hui)

Readership: Academics, undergraduates and postgraduates in the following fields: Art History, Curatorial Studies, Arts Management, Museum Studies, Cultural Studies, History, Literature, Social Studies, alongside museums, universities, and professionals.
Key Features:

• Diversity of texts written by art historians, art theorists, art critics, artists and curators
• Texts from a range of genres and art forms are included to reflect the complexity of contemporary art practice in Singapore
• The reader includes a broad range of key writings that serve to open up further debates and contestations that can only enrich the contemporary art discourse here
• The book contains primary texts which would be useful to students, teachers and researchers