Stealing Public Space
How Southeast Asian Contemporary Art Co-opts the City and Other Collective Sites
Curated by Iola Lenzi
11 January–23 February 2020
12pm–8pm daily (Closed on Mondays)
The Substation
Stealing Public Space examines Southeast Asian contemporary art that co-opts different types of public space to engage and empower the public on collective, social issues.
Since the 1970s, and more markedly after 1990, regional artists have occupied alternative spaces for their works to expand viewership beyond the white cube, or in reaction to institutions unreceptive to experimental art. This site-specificity emerges from necessity, and a desire to activate art as an incursion into public zones, which can be physical, as well as sometimes immaterial.
Stealing Public Space explores the connection between Southeast Asian art languages, the city, and intangible or symbolic public “sites” such as money, national anthems, history, and maps. This expansive exhibition comprises 25 artists and 32 historical and newly-commissioned works by established and emerging artists from across the region. Several works invite audience participation, exemplifying expressive strategies that distinguish Southeast Asian contemporary art on the global scene.
Cover image: Body to Body by Chaw Ei Thein
Graphic design: Sziyi Tuan
Featured artists & works
MANIT SRIWANICHPOOM
Thailand
The Election of Hatred
2011
Photography (series of 36) 90 x 60cm each
LEE WEN WITH THE ARTISTS VILLAGE
Singapore
A.I.M. (Artists Investigating Monuments)
2000
Video, interactive site-specific performances 46:25 min
Video courtesy of Independent Archive, Singapore (iA)
JAKKAI SIRIBUTR
Thailand
There’s no place...
2020
Ongoing and geographically-mobile participative installation
GREEN ZENG
Singapore
Confession Studies (Study of Absence)
2018
HD digital video displayed on flat screen 16:9 aspect ratio, colour, sound, 5:00 min
BUI CONG KHANH
Vietnam
Porcelain Medals
2018
One of five series of moulded and hand- painted fictional porcelain medals
RESTU RATNANINGTYAS
Indonesia
Hidayah
2020
Participative installation, set of five hand- sewn fabric dolls with removable scarf
H 30cm each
LEE WEN
Singapore
Lone Boxer No. 1
2016
Performance photography with iPhone (series of 18)
Digital prints, 35 x 35cm each
Photography Karl Kerridge. Artist’s proof courtesy of Lee Wen’s estate
GREEN ZENG
Singapore
Malayan Exchange (Study of a Circulated Note)
2020
Digital images, printed back and front on paper
6.5 × 13.5cm each
POKLONG ANADING
Philippines
Anonymity
2004-2010
Chromogenic transparencies in lightbox (series of 9)
127 x 102 x 3.5cm each
Courtesy of Lourdes and Michelangelo Samson
ISABEL & ALFREDO AQUILIZAN
Philippines
Commonwealth: Project Another Country
2020
Recycled and cut-out tin can crowns, participative, try-on version from 2014 approx.
H 25cm each
VU DAN TAN
Vietnam
Money Series (Currency)
1997-1999
Monoprints, hand-colored with ink, acrylic, and correction pen, on photocopied ink templates on paper
Approx. 10 x 21cm each
Courtesy of Natalia Kraevskaia
TARING PADI
Indonesia
Series of posters
1998
Woodcut on brown paper 60 x 45cm each
Courtesy of Mella Jaarsma and Nindityo Adipurnomo
MARTHA ATIENZA
Philippines
Our Islands 11°16’58.4”N 123°45’07.0”E
2017
Two channel HD video, no audio 72:00 min
Courtesy of Lourdes and Michelangelo Samson
DINH Q. LE
Vietnam
Texture of Memory #17 & #18
2000-2001
Hand embroidery white thread on white cotton fabric
220 x 120cm each
SARAH CHOO JING
Singapore
Waiting for the Elevator
2014
Single-channel video, 5:22 min
ALWIN REAMILO
Philippines
Mutya ng Pasig
2017
Restored art case piano 108 x 146 x 60cm
Courtesy of Lourdes and Michelangelo Samson
VANDY RATTANA
Cambodia
Khmer Rouge Trial
2009
Digital c-prints (series of 16)
40 x 60cm each
YADANAR WIN
Myanmar
Existence Subsistence Resistance
2020
Participative badge-making project, Burmese and English
TANG MUN KIT
Singapore
The Other Singapore Story (TOSS Series) Sets 1 and 2 #1, 9, 11, 17, 18, 25 2012
Japanese ink, rubber ink stamp on Thai Saa handmade paper
Approx. 81 x 56cm each
VU DAN TAN
Vietnam
Transformed & Deformed Record Series
1993-1999
Transformed, including heat-transformed vinyl- LP records, acrylic and paper on vinyl records 30cm
Courtesy of Natalia Kraevskaia
VU DAN TAN
Vietnam
Arlekino
1998
Transformed portable LP record-player, gouache and acrylic on unvarnished wooden case
46 x 34 x 19cm
Courtesy of Natalia Kraevskaia
POPOK TRI WAHYUDI
Indonesia
Worthy Failure
2020
Site-specific mural on canvas and working sketches
402.2 x 356cm
SUTEE KUNAVICHAYANONT
Thailand
History Class (Indonesia version)
2016
Set of 8 teakwood carved children’s desks
Black Board
2020
314.5cm x 221.5cm (canvas with stand)
Participative image-rubbing installation
CHRIS CHONG CHAN FUI
Malaysia
Block B
2008
Single-channel audio-visual installation, HD, original 35mm, 20:00 min
Chinese, Malay and Tamil with English subtitles
NINDITYO ADIPURNOMO
Indonesia
Beyond the Modesty
2002
Carved stones, some with text
Various dimensions
VERTICAL SUBMARINE (JUSTIN LOKE & YANG JIE)
Singapore
Toilet lit.
2020
Participative lavatory graffiti installation
Various dimensions
BUI CONG KHANH
Vietnam
Hymne National
2010–
Singing and writing performance Singapore variation 5:15 min
ANGEL VELASCO SHAW
Philippines
Markets of Resistance
2014–
Sets of 18 postcards (for barter with the public, as sets or individually) Postcards
10 x 15cm each
CHRIS CHONG CHAN FUI
Malaysia
Shopping
2020
Single-channel video installation, HD, 13:00 min
VERTICAL SUBMARINE (FIONA KOH & JUSTIN LOKE)
Singapore
Flirting Corner
2020
Participative public-space installation (lightbox and metal pole)
400 x 150 x 150cm
MING WONG
Singapore
Four Malay Stories
2005
Four channel video installation Various durations
CHAW EI THEIN
Myanmar
Body to Body
2016
Single-channel video, 9:08 min
About the
Guest Curator
IOLA LENZI (b. 1962, Canada)
Iola Lenzi is a Singapore art historian and curator of Southeast Asian contemporary art. Also trained in law, her exhibitions chart art historical discourses of Southeast Asian art framed within Asian cultural, political and social contexts. Major Asian and European curatorial projects include Concept Context Contestation: art and the collective in Southeast Asia, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Goethe Institut Hanoi and Yangon, and Cemeti Art House Yogyakarta, 2013-2019; The Roving Eye: Contemporary art from Southeast Asia, Arter/Koc Foundation, Istanbul, 2014; and Negotiating Home, History and Nation: Two decades of contemporary art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011, Singapore Art Museum, 2011.
Lenzi publishes prolifically, is the author/editor of four multilingual multi-author research publications on Southeast Asian art, and since 2010 has organised numerous international symposia on Southeast Asian art, most recently co-convening “Art and Action: art and discourse in Southeast Asia”, LASALLE College of the Arts, 2018. She is the author of Museums of Southeast Asia (2004), and teaches undergraduate and graduate modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art history in Singapore.