AIM is an artists initiative public art project that involves members of
The Artists Village and individual local and overseas artists. The first
event will be followed up with 2 more events at public sites and later on
an exhibition of art documentation.

The public art event of Artists Investigating Monuments (AIM) will be staged
at The Raffles Landing Site (this site is next to Empress Place Building
facing Singapore River) on the 22 July 2000, Saturday.


AIM Organising Committee.
contact address:
C/O: Kai aka Lam Hoi Lit,
Block 101, Pasir Ris Street 12,
# 12 - 31, Singapore 510101.
Tel: 65 - 585 6429

Installation Art and Art Performances by local artists

on 22 July 2000 at The Raffles Landing Site.

3 PM: Performance/Installation Art.

Installation/Performance by Lee Wen.

"Untitled: Picnic" by Woon Tien Wei.

"From" Site-specific Installation by Gordon Koh and Kng Mian Tze.

"Missed" visual projections in the evening by Wilkie Tan.

5 PM Opening Reception.


6 PM Art Performances.

"Having my fair share of the cheese in his land" by Benjamin Puah.

"Package Deal" by Jason Lim.

Poetry and prose by Sia Joo Hiang.

Music and movement by George Chua.

- finish

Artists’ Concepts for Artists Investigating Monuments (AIM):
  1) Artist: Lee Wen
  Location: Raffles Landing Site.
  Date: 22 July 2000
  Title: untitled
  Nature of work: Performance/Installation.
  Artists’ concept:
  The artist will invite audiences to this platform for a full day so they
can experience viewing the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles closely. This
work plays on the idea of contemporary locals responding to our colonised
history.
  -To erect a platform of equal height to the pedestal that the statue of
Sir Stamford Raffles stands on, using scaffolding that is usually used in
construction sites. This platform should be facing the statue about an
arm’s length away.
  - Below the platform will be installed a small library shelf of books and
reading table and chairs. Books will be photocopied from actual books that
can be found in Singapore pertaining to Raffles, post-colonialism and
Singapore history. Spectators are encouraged to fill in the empty pages of
the books with drawings or writings based on their thoughts and impressions
concerning Singapore, history and post-colonialism.
2) Artist: Wilkie Tan

Location: Raffles Landing Site

Date: 22 July 2000.

Title: Missed

Nature of work: Visual Projection.

Materials: Projection-based, images of human parts on buildings/ environs.

Artist’s concept:

Ghosts and apparitions link us to a certain past, a certain imagination
that might somewhat have miraculously stayed consistent over the years.
They inhabited and roamed and prescribed a certain approach, everything
adding up, precursoring to the definition of M. They left their footprints
on the doors, marks on the wall, footsteps that travels alongside this loud
daylight of a cosmopolitan city, beside you and me. They defined what
places are.

3) Artists: Gordon Koh and Kng Mian Tze

Location: Raffles Landing Site

Date: 22 July 2000


Title: ‘From’

Nature of work: Site-specific Installation.

Artists’ concept:

Art Objects relating to Sir Stamford Raffles will be installed along the
site where event is going to take place.

  Singapore, being one of the British Colonies for 140 years until 1959
where self-government was attained. In the same year, Singapore had its
first general election and since then, Singapore venture forth to stand on
it’s own. Before that, Singapore existed under the shadow of the British
Empire, never really had an identity of her own until 9
  August 1965 where she became an independent nation.
Being Singaporean, where exactly should our root begin is a question we
would like to address in our artwork. From being part of the British Empire
history until now where we can have a history of our own, what is our
identity?


4) Artist: Benjamin Puah

Location: Raffles Landing Site.

Date: 22 July 2000.

Title: ‘Having My Fair Share of That Cheese in His Land’

Nature of work: Performance.

  Artist’s Concept:
  The artist will role-play himself into the ‘King Rat’ in appropriating
the story of the Piped Piper. Instead of ‘killing’ rats and leading
children away like the Piped Piper, The King Rat will ‘breed’ rats. In this
work, he like to question how colonialism has affected Singapore’s history
and what is a post-colonised community’s aspirations.

5) Artist: Sia Joo Hiang

Location: Raffles Landing Site

Date: 22 July 2000.


Title: Untitled

Nature of work: Recital of poems and prose.

  Artist’s concept:
  The artist will recite poems of fictional theme in relation to the
history of colonised Singapore and the implications of Sir Stamford
Raffles’s contribution to the city-state. Objects of significance prepared
by the artist will be used in this recital.

6) Artist: George Chua

Location: Raffles Landing Site

Date: 22 July 2000.


Title: Untitled

Nature of work: Music and Movement.

Artist’s Concept:

The artist will entertain and provoke thoughts surrounding the body (with
movement),

traditions and contemporary society. In this work, the artist will serve
soft drink from a Chinese teapot in between music and dance. This work
choose to challenge our contemporary identity in an urban landscape.

7) Artist: Woon Tien Wei

Location: Raffles Landing Site

Date: 22 July 2000.


Title: "Untitled : Picnic"

Nature of Work: Performance/Installation.

Artist’s Concept:

The artist will embark on a 'gesture'/action.
For this 'gesture', He will lay a picnic mat and have his lunch / picnic with
anybody who cares to join him. On the picnic ground, He will supply some food,
some drinks, and some books on raffles... life/autobiography.
Taking form the cue that if Sir Stamford Raffles is the fore-father of
Modern Singapore, we modern Singaporeans must be somehow be his
later-children.

The monument of Sir Stamford Raffles, is located in a distant part of our
daily activities. Both geographically and psychologically. The very
existence of him as a person, representation of him as a monument, Raffles
as a founder of Modern
Singapore, Raffles as a coloniser... are honestly almost non-existent.

It is not the artist’s aim to make everyone remember him or promote the
'get to know' Raffles campaign but however, his aim is to excavate or
explore the public
figure through his private life. This project would attempt to gather
information or construct a picture that is so absent with most public
personas.

8) Artist: Jason Lim Eng Hwa

Location: Raffles Landing Site, The Merlion Park and Hong Lim Park.

Date: 22 July 2000, 12 August 2000 and 26 August 2000.


Title: "Package deal"

Nature of work: Performance/Installation.

Artist’s concept:

The artist will present a gift; installed on the sites and occasionally
moving around the site to blend in with the urban landscape. This work
comment about the ‘gift’ one receives as historical and cultural heritage;
in the context of a post-colonial society.