SAW Dialogues 2022 | A Performance Lecture: Dear Singapore Art Museum Acquisition Committee

28 Jan

Salty Xi Jie Ng, Shayus Sharif and Zarina Muhammad
By Bryson Ng

Screenshot of talk. From left to right: Zarina Muhammad, Salyy Xi Jie Ng, Artist & Pilot Resident of Singapore Art Museum, Shayus Sharif (Bras Basah Open, current SAM resident).

Key points:

The meanings which museums ascribe to social art is due for critical examination.
Traditional methodologies used by museums in the collection of social art could be re-evaluated.
Acquisition strategies for social art have to take into consideration potential obstacles for their reactivation.

‘A Performance Lecture: Dear Singapore Art Museum Acquisition Committee’ took place on 16 January from 2pm to 3pm at the Main Deck, Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, as part of SAW Dialogues 2022, presented by Art & Market in partnership with National Arts Council, Singapore. It explored the intricate relationship between museums and practitioners of social forms of art, as well as highlighting future directions for the progressive development of such a relationship. Conducted in a performance lecture format, the event was hosted by Salty Xi Jie Ng, Artist and Pilot Resident of Singapore Art Museum, in collaboration with Shayus Sharif, Bras Basah Open, current EX-SITU: Art Spaces Residents of Singapore Art Museum.

The performance lecture saw a lively presentation of Xi Jie’s research interspersed with dramatic elements, including a mock exhibition space outside the room. Audiences were also encouraged to participate in the performance lecture by casting votes during key points of the presentation. Towards the end of the event, the speakers laid out a budget red carpet – in the form of a red string – for Zarina Muhammad, art practitioner and lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts, to deliver an excerpt from her work, ‘9 Questions as Instructions to Construct Pragmatic Prayers for Peculiar Habitats’.

Here are the takeaways from the event:

The meanings which museums ascribe to social art is due for critical examination. Xi Jie shared how institutional acquisitions of social art are often directed towards making a contribution to the national collections, and she elaborated that there is a need to consider what the national collection encompasses in the first place. Such an inquiry may highlight who and what forms of social art are plausibly excluded from the national collections. Referring to a physical poster that listed the official categories of art in Roots.sg, Singapore’s online repository for the national collections, Xi Jie emphasised that museums could re-evaluate their internal taxonomies of art that define social art collections. An example that Xi Jie examined was the inclusion of criteria that can plausibly capture the relational and dialogical processes often involved in social art practice. She added that in 2001, artists Jay Koh and Chu Chu Yen pushed for dialogue to become recognised as an integral part of the aesthetic strategies of an artist, and not just as a supplementary component to an artist’s practice. The inclusion of such criteria can help conserve the participatory aspects behind social art practice even after its acquisition by a museum.

Traditional methodologies used by museums in the collection of social art could be re-evaluated. Xi Jie pointed out that museums must reflect and challenge the status quo behind the process of acquiring art, as the traditional conventions of art acquisition tend to be based on monetary systems of value and the museum’s financial capabilities. Alternative methodologies could help museums depart from practices that may prioritise capitalist values over the inherent value of social art practice. Furthermore, Xi Jie explored alternative strategies that can enable museums to more fully capture and represent the important social contexts behind any form of social art when it is reactivated. One strategy would be to acquire important relics that can supplement social artworks. Xi Jie provides the example of a relic in the form of an eraser featuring the Singaporean flag for Shaiful Risan’s exhibition, ‘Erasure: The World Tournament’, where the relic can be collected and presented with future iterations of Shaiful’s work after acquisition. Such a relic would carry with it the socio-historical narratives surrounding the artwork, thus helping to better recontextualise the social artwork when it is reactivated after its acquisition.

Acquisition strategies for social art have to take into consideration potential obstacles for their reactivation. Xi Jie identified four key challenges she believes that museums will face and must assess when they acquire social art. Firstly, the question of post-acquisition authorship arises, as the museum must decide on who manages the artwork and its future reactivation. Secondly, there is the consideration of format. The museum could consider what constitutes feasible and user-friendly platforms that will engage with the public. The museum could also consider the means of moderating social art, so as to ensure that it is not abused by the public. Additionally, the museum must consider the resources needed to commit to the reactivation of social art in the long term. Lastly, Xi Jie proposes the creation of a new category of art that sits between the classifications of archive and national collection. This is to acknowledge the unique position that social art occupies, as well as to ensure that forms of social art will be better documented and continue to thrive after its acquisition by the museum.

In conclusion, ‘A Performance Lecture: Dear Singapore Art Museum’ raised important issues, as well as recommendations, about social art in Singapore. Through its unique blend of self-reflexive satire and research-based insights, the performance lecture pushed for greater critical engagement towards the processes of social art acquisition and production in Singapore.

Watch the full recording of SAW Dialogues 2022, A Performance Lecture: Dear Singapore Art Museum here:

About the writer:

Bryson is a writer and researcher of the arts, media, and the moving image. Having recently graduated from Yale-NUS with a major in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Bryson currently works for the National Library Board of Singapore as a Research Fellow of the digital humanities. In his free time, Bryson is an avid enthusiast of genre films, punk rock, and interacting with cats and dogs.