Shannon Tham
A group of Singapore performance artists named
5th Passage stirred controversy and government ire for their activities in a
rent-free studio in at Parkway Parade. Subsequently, the National University
Singapore Society banned an issue of the Commentary publication that focused on
the performance art and its controversy. Articles from the banned publication
were posted on the Internet.
First, performance artist Vincent Leow drank his own urine before an audience.
Two performances at the shopping center early on New Year's Day 1994 ensued the
controversy.
Performance artist Josef Ng, then 22, cut his pubic hair and presented it on a plate
before an audience. Performance artist Shannon Tham, then 20, vomited
into a bucket as part of his performance. The "performances" protested the arrests
of 12 men for homosexual solicitation and protested the perceived imbalances in
the news coverage of the
arrests.
The hair cutting and hurling drew the curtain on the 5th Passage art group and
Performance Art and Forum Theater. The shopping center removed the group, and
the Singapore government cracked down on their activities.
The National Arts Council branded the acts "vulgar" and "extremely distasteful."
"By no stretch of imagination can such acts be construed and condoned as art.
Such acts, in fact, debase art and lower the public's esteem for art and artists
in general," the NAC said.
Police charged Ng with committing "an obscene act." He pleaded guilty and was
fined $1,000. Josef's lawyer said, "He did it for the love of art and in the
interest of expanding the general outlook of art in Singapore."
Commentary writers Lee Weng Choy and Ray Langebach defended Ng's public pubic
clipping as contemporary art.
Lee Weng Choy said Josef Ng arranged 12 tiles, representing the arrested men, on stage in front
of the audience. He placed a block of white tofu (flesh) and a plastic pack of
red paint (blood) on each tile. Josef Ng, dressed in a black robe and black swimming
trunks, picked up a rattan cane and danced and hopped around a bit.
Then he lashed the tofu blocks and paint bags with the cane, splattering the art
asunder.
After caning the tofu and paint bags, Ng went to a corner of the stage, faced
away from the audience, dropped his trunks, and started clipping.
"No one actually observed him cut his pubic hair. The audience only became aware
of what appeared to be cut hair when Ng placed it on a plate before us.
"He received enthusiastic applause from the audience. He requested help in
cleaning up the tofu. A few members of the audience assisted in the process,"
Ray Langebach commented.