 Mr.
Tang Da Wu has played a leading role in bringing the art scene of Southeast
Asia to today's prosperity, setting his base in Singapore throughout the
1980's and 90's. He pioneered a new way of expression that had not been
seen in the Southeast Asian art scene with the bold cutting-edge expressions
of street performances, installations made of daily objects, collaboration
with the audience and workshops with children. He took the current and
social issues of the environment and human rights as his subject and greatly
influenced the art and culture in Southeast Asia. These facts make him
a true pioneer for the contemporary art scene in Southeast Asia.
Born in 1943 in Singapore
under the Japanese occupation and having finished the Chinese school in
Singapore under the British rule, he left for England to study in 1970.
He learned and acquired the methods and awareness of the issues of contemporary
art in the St. Martin's College of Art & Design and the Goldsmiths
College that were the sources of British contemporary art, contemplating
about his own identity at the same time. When he went back to his home
country in 1988, he dared to have a street performance on a main street
where a lot of tourists were. He called upon the young artists gathered
around him to found The Artists Village in Sembawang in the northern part
of Singapore later in the same year. It is the art community where they
make art, hold exhibitions and have performances together. This community
swept over the Singaporean art scene with Mr. Tang Da Wu taking the lead.
These activities and
works of Mr. Tang Da Wu attracted the challenging artists of the younger
generation in Singapore. With a charismatic power of influence, Mr. Tang
Da Wu has always kept encouraging, stimulating and inspiring the young
artists and the generation emerged from the Artists Village are now taking
a central role in the Southeast Asian art scene.
Mr. Tang Da Wu's activities
have extended to Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, which makes
him highly recognized as the most representative contemporary artist in
Southeast Asia today. He has often been introduced in Japan, in such exhibitions
as "Asian Artist Today -- Fukuoka Annual V: Tang Da Wu" (1991,
Fukuoka Art Museum), "New Art from Southeast Asia 1992" (1992,
Fukuoka Art Museum and other museums) and "Creativity in Asian Art
Now" (1994, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art).
Mr. Tang Da Wu's works
are not attractive and characteristic only because of their avant-garde
freshness, the extremeness of social themes or the quality of highly completed
artwork. But his attraction and character lies in his attitudes of seeking
for the culture inside himself as a Chinese Singaporean and for his personal
identity as well as his attitudes of questioning the true identity of
Asian art. These artistic activities and attitudes of Mr. Tang Da Wu make
him a truly worthy recipient for the Arts and Culture Prize of the Fukuoka
Asian Culture Prizes. |
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