Artist Talk
Topic: Collaboration As An Approach To Art-Making
Speaker: Amanda Heng
Date: 19 Nov 2004, Fri
Time: 1.30 – 3pm
Venue: #02-08, Seminar Room
NAFA Campus 1 HQ & SVA Building
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
80 Bencoolen Street
Singapore 189655
Admission: Free

Synopsis: Collaboration was employed by feminist
artists in the 1970s as a strategy to confront the
modern / patriarchal notion of the artist as a sole
heroic and artistic genius. Artists engaged in process
work and community-based art reveal to the public the processes of the art-making and bring them into the creative process as active participants. In the 90s we saw a major rise in collective art practices, artist groups and duos exploring the idea of art as an expanded form of intellectual activity. The spirit of collaborative projects resides in its concern with the people, the issue of exchange, communication and interactivity. This forms the basis for the discussion in Amanda’s talk, sharing her experiences in making collaborative works and examining issues around the significance of participation, collaborative relations between artists and audience, the meaning of art and the role of art-making in this
fast changing contemporary society.

About the Artist:
Amanda Heng is Singapore’s foremost contemporary
female artist who rather identifies herself as a
full-time independent art practitioner and cultural
producer. She adopts an interdisciplinary approach to
her art practice that often deals with issues of
history, identity, communication and human
relationship in the urban condition. Her works have
been exhibited internationally in USA, Australia,
Japan, Cuba, Germany, Spain and Southeast Asian
region. Her other art activities include
co-directing the theatre production Bernard's Story,
and performing in theatre production A Woman On the
Tree in the Hill directed by Ivan Heng. She also
organized exhibitions, forums and public events such
as, Women And Their Arts, The 1st Asian film
Appreciation workshop, Women About Women, Memories of
Sense, TheFridayEvent and Open Ends. Amanda was
involved in the founding of two artist-run
initiatives in Singapore namely, The Artists’ Village
and Wita (Women in the Arts).