Towering over viewers right after entering the Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery at National Gallery Singapore is a massive photograph by Singaporean artist Lee Wen. It features the statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles with a platform nearby upon which ordinary people can literally and figuratively be on the same level as the figure who's considered the founder of Singapore.
Next to that is a traditional portrait of him from 1817 by George Francis Joseph, and such contemporary-vs-traditional points of encounter -- at times complementing one another and at others satirically confrontational -- persists throughout a large part National Gallery's latest exhibition "Artist And Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies", which is their first ever collaboration with Tate, London.
While the Tate exhibition, entitled "Artist And Empire: Facing Britain's Imperial Past", which ended earlier this year, features an array of artworks and other objects from collections across Britain to examine the influence of the British Empire in art, this Singapore version shifts the focus to works from former colonies in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Apart from the resonance that the exhibition has to the shared colonial history, which Singapore and the region had with Britain's imperial past, it will also be a valuable counterpoint to reflect on the issues of post-colonisation and decolonisation," said director of National Gallery Singapore Dr Eugene Tan. "Unlike the London show, which took on a more British-centric perspective, we took Tate Britain's narrative as a point of departure to shift the curatorial focus and perspective to the former colonies from the Asia-Pacific region, including responses to colonialism by contemporary artists."
One of the works from Australian artist Michael Cook's 'Undiscovered' series. Photo scourtesy of National Gallery Singapore
Similar to Lee Wen's critical tone, works by Australian artist Michael Cook further inside take up the issue of colonialism. For the series "Undiscovered", Cook had an aboriginal man wear civilised European clothes, acting as an explorer who discovered Australia, echoing an episode in 1769 when Captain James Cook claimed the territory for Britain and named it New South Wales. Again, Cook's work is put among other historical works, which reflect the same issue but from a completely different perspective. British artist Benjamin Duterrau's painting from 1851, for instance, depicts a Christian missionary working for the British colonial government among indigenous Tasmanians.
Quite a few other works continue in such a critical light on the colonial past, for example, Andrew Gilbert's installation British Infantry Advance On Jerusalem or Hew Locke's mixed media collage works.
While this first part of the show presents a contemporary dialogue on the colonial past, the second and last part of the show looks further as to how artists in later times responded during the transition from colonies to nation-states.
"The question we wanted to ask was: Is there such thing as a common experience [among former colonies] in going towards independence?" said assistant curator Melinda Susanto. "We start to see the emergence of local consciousness. Artists started to think about things which represent themselves, looking through their own local tradition to find a form of expression."
One of the the most striking aspects of works in this section is the attempt by artists to return to the very roots of their heritage, whether it's the nature or the cultural legacy. In work by Australian artist Frederick McCubbin, Violet And Gold, completed after the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, for example, we see the artist simply resort to the nature of where he lived and the work is a celebration of the Australian bush landscape. In Indian artist Jamini Roy's colourful painting, he depicts the Hindu deities Krishna and Balarama, with the style inspired by Bengal art traditions despite having been trained in Western art.
"The exhibition opens up fresh perspectives on how we can view Singapore and our region's colonial visual heritage," said exhibition curator Low Sze Wee. "It will offer visitors an opportunity to examine afresh our society today, and how we have built our sense of identity and place in relation to our colonial past."
"Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies" continues until March 26 at National Gallery Singapore.
