Tang Da Wu

Returning to Singapore in 1979 after completing his undergraduate studies, Tang engaged in performance art,[4] works of art that are composed of actions performed by the artist at a certain place and time. The following year, he staged a work of installation art called Earthworks at the National Museum Art Gallery. This comprised two works, The Product of the Sun and Me and The Product of the Rain and Me, which were made up of dishes of earth, lumps of soil, and pieces of soiled and water-stained linen which he had hung in gullies at Ang Mo Kio, a construction site in the process of being turned into a public housing estate.[6] Installation art uses sculptural materials, and sometimes other media such as sound, video and performance, to modify the way a particular space is experienced.

In 1988, Tang founded The Artists Village, originally located at 61B Lorong Gambas in rural Ulu Sembawang, in the north part of Singapore. The first art colony to be established in Singapore, its goal was to inspire artists to create experimental art.[14] Tang described the Artists Village as:

... [an] alternative venue dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of experimental and alternative arts in Singapore. It endeavors to establish an open space for artists to mature at their own pace, and to provide a conducive environment which allows them to experiment, experience and exchange ideas.[16]

T.K. Sabapathy noted: "The Village was a beacon, and Da Wu both a catalyst and mentor."[17] Among the artists who moved to the Village were Ahmad Mashadi, Faizal Fadil, Amanda Heng, Ho Soon Yeen, Lim Poh Teck, Tang Mun Kit, Wong Shih Yaw, Juliana Yasin and Zai Kuning.[18] They were among the first contemporary artists in Singapore, and also among the first to begin practising installation art and performance art. Tang mentored younger artists and exposed them to artistic developments in other parts of the world.[14] He also organized exhibitions and symposia at the Village, and arranged for collaborations with the National Museum Art Gallery and the National Arts Council's 1992 Singapore Festival of the Arts.[18] Although The Artists Village lost its original site in 1990 due to land development,[19] it was registered as a non-profit society in February 1992 and now stages events in various public spaces.[20]

Tang Da Wu, Don't Give Money to the Arts, 1995, Cloth jacket, Collection of National Gallery Singapore

In January 1994, artist Josef Ng cut off his pubic hair with his back to the audience during a performance protesting the media's coverage of gay issues. The event was reported by The New Paper, and the resulting public outcry over its perceived obscenity led the National Arts Council (NAC) to cease funding unscripted performance art. After that, Tang and other performance artists practised their art mostly abroad, although some performances were presented in Singapore as dance or theatre. Interviewed in August 2001, T. Sasitharan, co-director of the Practice Performing Arts School, said that a review of the NAC's policy was "long overdue" and noted that although Tang had received the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 1999, "the art form he practises is de facto banned in Singapore". The NAC eventually reversed its no-funding rule on performance art in September 2003.[21]

In August 1995, the President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong visited Singapore Art '95, an exhibition and sale of artworks by Singapore artists. Tang wore a black jacket emblazoned on the back with "Don't give money to the arts" in yellow and handed a note to the President that read, "I am an artist. I am important."[22] Although Tang was prevented from speaking to the President by an aide-de-camp, he later told the media he wished to tell the President that artists are important and that public money funded the "wrong kind of art", art that was too commercial and had no taste.[23]

Tang was the subject of one episode of artist Ho Tzu Nyen's documentary television series 4x4 Episodes of Singapore Art, which was broadcast on Arts Central (present-day Okto channel) in October 2005.[24] He was also one of the four artists representing Singapore at the 2007 Venice Biennale. He presented an installation, Untitled, consisting of two beds positioned upright, the trunks of plantain trees, a portable ancestral altar, a handmade album of drawings and photographs, and other found objects. Drawings of people and faces were strapped to the beds and wrapped around the tree trunks. The installation was accompanied by a recording by Tang's son, Zai Tang, of sounds captured in Venice during a single day. The work was described by the National Arts Council as suggestive of "the restlessness, rootlessness, spiritual wandering and emotional estrangement that mark the travelling life".[4][25] In 2007, a work by Tang consisting of ink paintings around a well, and representing the erosion of village communities by urban development, was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery for its Gallery of Modern Art.[26] From January to June 2016, Tang presented Earth Work 1979 at the National Gallery Singapore, a re-staging of his 1979 exhibition, the first recorded instance of Singapore land art. The exhibition includes "Gully Curtains", where Tang placed large pieces of fabric between gullies and let the rain and sun mark the fabric.[27] His work Tiger's Whip (1991) is also displayed at the National Gallery's DBS Singapore Gallery.[28] In 2017, Tang started the performance-art group Station House Da Opera, comprising more than 60 art educators, students, and fellow local artists.[29]

Known for his reticence, Tang remains an enigmatic person. In an August 2008 interview with the Straits Times, fellow artist Vincent Leow said of Tang: "He's a very hands-on person, very improvisational and has good ideas. But he doesn't really talk much. You can't really tell who he is."[6]

• Masahiro, Ushiroshoji (1999), Fast moving Asian contemporary art: Tang Da Wu and his works (PDF), Asian Month, retrieved 20 October 2008.
• Toh, Charmaine (2017). Going Home: Negotiating Identity in Tang Da Wu's work. Cultural Connections. retrieved 17 April 2023
• Toh, Charmaine (2022). Tang Da Wu: Performance and Pedagogy. Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia 6 (1), 195-202.  doi:10.1353/sen.2022.0010, retrieved 17 April 2023.
• Yeo, Alicia Kay Ling (7 August 2008), Information on Singapore artist Tang Da Wu, Reference Point Enquiries Bank, National Library, Singapore, archived from the original on 26 August 2011, retrieved 20 October 2008.

• Sabapathy, T.K. (1993), "Contemporary Art in Singapore: An Introduction", in Turner, Caroline (ed.), Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, pp. 83–92, ISBN 978-0-7022-2583-3.
• Sabapathy, T.K. (1998), Trimurti and Ten Years After, Singapore: Singapore Art Museum.
• Singapore Art Museum (2007), Telah Terbit (Out Now): Southeast Asian Contemporary Art Practices during the 1960s to 1980s, Singapore: National Heritage Board, ISBN 978-981-05-7623-3.
• Tang Da-Wu タン・ダ-ウ展 (in Japanese), Fukuoka: Fukuoka-shi Bijutsukan, 1991.
• Toh, Charmaine (2016). Tang Da Wu: Earth Work 1979, Singapore: National Gallery Singapore. doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1k3np6j.
• van Fenema, Joyce (1996), Southeast Asian Art Today, Singapore: Roeder Publications, ISBN 978-981-00-6002-2.

• "Art therapy helps people express their frustrations", The Straits Times, 16 June 1994.
• Leow, Jason (14 June 1996), "Art taken for a ride at HDB estates – around your place", The Straits Times.
• "Through the artists' eyes", Business Times (Singapore), 28 October 2000.
• Sreshthaputra, Wanphen (3 January 2002), "Art fest a big hit with Singaporeans: A diverse range of media is employed but the quality of the works on display is mixed", Bangkok Post.