Our Forum about ‘Artist and Empire’ at Tate Britain expands here to a subsequent part on the second edition of the exhibition in Singapore (6 October 2016 – 26 March 2017). Staged as a live debate on 12 January 2017 at Singapore Art Week, the papers published here stem from presentations that were given with a focus on the contemporary artists’ voices in the exhibition. Organised in association with Tate Britain, this second exhibition explored the different ways in which the British Empire has been represented and contested through art. It critically examined art produced for the British Empire from a contemporary perspective, and featured viewpoints from Southeast Asia. The Singapore exhibition also took a close look at the relationship between colonial experience and the rise of modern art in former colonies such as Singapore, with a special focus on Sir Stamford Raffles.
Ranging from the 16th century to the present day, ‘Artist and Empire’ in Singapore drew upon close to two hundred works from international and regional collections as well as Singapore institutions. The National Gallery Singapore’s revision of the Tate’s ‘Artist and Empire’ exhibition (2015–2016) was the basis for further debate of contemporary artistic responses to colonial history in the former British dominions. In deciding to hold the ‘Artist and Empire’ exhibition in Singapore, the National Gallery Singapore was drawn to the show’s potential resonance with its audiences, given Singapore’s history as a former British colony. The papers published here follow those published in Part 1 relating to the Tate Britain iteration of the exhibition. The focus is on artist’s voices and curatorial strategies of address and design, historical revisions of national narratives of empire, and different institutional perspectives and critique in the global and local context of Singapore. Differing from the Tate in its framing of the historical through the lens of contemporary art, the Singapore iteration of ‘Artist and Empire’ provided an exhibition history through which to reflect on the larger issues in Asian, British, and settler colonial art histories.
Third Text, together with LASALLE College of the Arts, hosted a series of responses to this exhibition in its local and international contexts. It was introduced by Third Text editor, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, and there were contributions from Venka Purushothaman (Vice-President [Academic] & Provost, LASALLE) and Professor Janis Jefferies (Visual Arts, Goldsmiths, University of London); artists, including Erika Tan; publisher Anca Rujoiu; and the curators of the exhibition, Low Sze Wee, Toffa Abdul Wahed, Junni Chen and Melinda Susanto.