Amanda Heng Liang Ngim
Performance, Interdisciplinary and Installation Artist
Amanda Heng, born in 1951, is a full-time artist who adopts an interdisciplinary
approach to art-making. Her works focus on the intersections of eastern and
western values and the traditions and gender roles in a multi-cultural and
rapidly-changing Singapore. Her recent works discuss the issues of
communication and human relationships in urban condition. Often, she would
collaborate with both artists and non-artists. Amanda was one of the members who
established the Artists Village in 1988. She is also active in curating
and organising shows, forums, and workshops and lectures on contemporary art.
She was a former civil tax officer.
A full-time independent art
practitioner, Amanda Heng adopts an interdisciplinary approach to her art
practice and is often concerned with issues of communication and human
relationship in urban condition, history and identity, and gender politic. Her
works have been exhibited in Cleveland Performance Art Festival USA (1997), the
3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia (1999),
the 1st Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (1999), the 7th Havana Biennial in
Cuba (2000). Werkleitz Biennale in Germany (2000), Performance Art Festival in
Spain (2001) and Channel N at Kyoto Art Center (2001). Her other art activities
include co-directing theatre production "Bernard's Story" written by Dana Lam
(2001), performed in theatre production "A Woman On the Tree in the Hill"
directed by Ivan Heng (2001), which was presented at the Singapore International
Performing art Festival. She has also organised and participated in various
exhibitions, public forums, workshops, research projects and art events such as,
The Space, fringe event of 1992 International Art Fest in Singapore, Women And
Their Arts (1990), The 1st Asian film Appreciation workshop (1994), Memories of
Senses (1994), Women About Women (1997), The Friday Event (2000) and Open Ends
(2001). Amanda was involved in the founding of Artists' Village, the first
artists-run space in Singapore, in 1988, and WITA (Women In The Arts), the first
artists-run women collective in Singapore in 1999, which is currently
establishing the archives of women in the Arts in Singapore.
Narrating bodies, 1998-1999
Installation and performance. 100 photos, laser prints, color images (A4 and
A3), mirror and chair.
SELECTED AWARDS / COLLECTIONS
Collections from Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Okinawa
Prefecture Museum and other Private Collectors.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / ACTIVITIES
Open Ends (Co-organizer, Co-curator and Participant) monthly talks on issues
pertaining to performance art and an exhibition of documentation on performance
art in Singapore, 2001.
Women Breaking Boundaries 21, exhibition and forum on networking, Tokyo and
Osaka, Japan, 2001.
A Woman in the Tree on the Hill, interdisciplinary, inter-cultural collaborative
project (theatre, video art, sculpture, music, dance, performance art) with Wild
Rice Theatre Company, Gong Myoung Percussion Ensemble, Korea, presented at
Jubilee Theatre of Raffles Hotel in Singapore, Singapore International Arts
Festival, Singapore, 2001.
Real Work-Werkleitz Biennale, Werkleitz, Germany, 2000.
Names Changed To Protect The Innocent, experimental performance event by The
Necessary Stage, Singapore, 2000.
Tachikawa International Art Festival (Artist-in-Residence and Panel Speaker),
Tokyo, Japan, 2000.
7th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba, 2000.
Friday Event (Co-organizer and Speaker), a series of public forum on
Contemporary Arts & Culture in Singapore, The Substation, Singapore, 1999 -
2000.
The First Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (Artist-in-Residence, Workshop and Panel
Speaker), Fukuoka, Japan, 1999.
Rand Festival, Austria, 1999.
The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Panel Speaker in Brisbane,
Canberra and Sydney), Queensland, Australia, 1999.
Women about Women (Curator, Organizer and Participant), Multi-media
collaborative event with Singapore International Film Festival and Singapore Art
Museum (SAM), Singapore, 1998.
Womanifesto (Participant of exhibition and Speaker of Women & Art forum), an
international womens art exchange in Bangkok, Thailand, 1997.
Cleveland International Performance Art Festival, Cleveland, USA, 1997.
Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo, Nagano, Japan, 1996.
Rapport, Singapore International Art Festival, traveling exchange exhibition,
Singapore, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, 1996.
Artists Project (Organizer and Participant), an interdisciplinary experimental
collaborative project (filmmaker, writer, lighting designer, installation and
performance artists), presented at Raw Theatre, The Substation, Singapore, 1994.
The 3rd Artists Regional Exchange (3rd ARX), Perth, Australia, 1992.
EDUCATION
1993
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art), Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.
1990
Research on Womens Liberation Movement and Feminist Art, Central St Martins
College of Arts and Design, United Kingdom.
1988
Diploma in Print-making, Lasalle School of Art, Singapore.
