“To me, these conversations that happen after the work was more crucial. The work to me just brings up a point for discussion, creating a dialogue or conversation for the audience to question and ponder their stands/position, or better, what they can do in their own efforts to help… The conversation shouldn’t stop when the work stops, it starts.” – Lu, a Fine Arts Student
The Artist
Lu is a 23-year-old Singaporean student based in London who is reading Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University of London.
She is also an artist whose works touch on matters like the death penalty in Singapore and self-censorship. She shares that although not all of her works are a form of protest, a lot of them will be perceived to be so in the context of Singapore.
Comforting the Disturbed. Disturbing the comfortable.
Lu began producing mixed media installations but is now focused primarily on performance art. She aims to create interactive and inclusive works.
She also hopes for her art to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”.
My often candid and blunt opinions regarding social issues are evident usually through sarcasm or dark humour. The opinion and experiences of others are highly valued in my practice, and I hope to create more inclusive and interactive works, making the unseen seen and the unheard heard. My practice has then seen a shift from mixed media installation towards performance art.
The blunt and candid nature of the works hopes to provide a space for the audience to reflect upon or share their own experiences, acknowledge their own potential prejudice and discrimination, and confront the ills of our society.
In her view, the conversations that occur after the art is more crucial than the art itself. The work, she states, just brings up a point for discussion and creates a dialogue. The audience can then question or reflect on their own views and positions. Some, she hopes, may even be inspired to show solidarity or speak up in their own ways.
I love my Country. Not my Gahmen.
This work from 6 April 2022, titled “I love my country, *** ** ******.” is a 15-minute long performance which may be viewed here. This work was done in response to her critics, who had often asked her to “leave Singapore if she did not like it” and accused her of being “ungrateful”.
She usually responds not by way of art, but by simply telling her critics that her sentiments towards the powers that be can be distinguished from her sentiments about Singapore. As she said, “the love I have of the country is definitely different to the policies/ politics, it’s my family, my friends, the food, the culture that makes me feel like this is home and/or where I call home.”
In the performance, Lu paints the words “I love my country, not my gahmen” with black paint. She then voluntarily “whitewashed” the second half of the sentence.
Her Instagram video on the performance has been viewed more than 200 times thus far.
Following her performance, a member of the audience asked Lu whether, in light of the fact that she censored herself, it was the government or herself that “governed” her. Lu opined that the work reflects both self-censorship and censorship by the state.
Some members of the audience told Lu that sitting through the performance was a nerve-wrecking experience for 2 reasons
Based on some of the audience feedback I have gotten, some felt that it was nerve-wrecking as they knew that something will be whitewashed (since the white paint was placed there at the start of the performance).
And the nerve wreck also came from the supposed “rush” that I should be having, but instead I was taking my own time painting the walls without using a faster medium such as a spray can
My Gahmen just killed another in my name
On 10 May 2022, Lu performed #notinourname.
After she learnt that the notice of execution for Nagaenthran had been issued, she decided to remove the work that she was originally going to perform and did #notinourname instead.
She shared her inspiration for the work during an interview with Wake Up Singapore:-
The original inspiration of how the work came about was definitely from the Hong Lim Park Candlelight vigil that happened on the 25th April that I couldn’t be part of. I was definitely ignorant previously to issues like these and were unable to comprehend fully to make a stand, and by doing so I was part of the problem. I (unfortunately) only recently started following in with the protest on the death penalty from Adbul Kahar’s case, and when later reading up on researches done, it made me realise that almost all of my reasons for being on the fence or staying silent were invalid and the information that I have grown up perceiving were arguably one-sided.
Nagaenthran’s execution was devastating to me, and I can only imagine what it is like for his family, friends and even the activists, volunteers, supporters that have worked and followed so closely and so emotionally invested with the case
As an artist, she felt that the most appropriate and natural way for her to speak up would be through her work.
Video by Lu (@/sweetartisiticlife on Instagram) pic.twitter.com/eYfGheVAn0
— Wake Up Singapore (@wakeupsg) May 16, 2022
Sparking Conversations
She noted that her work was well received by her friends and her tutors.
It was a heartwarming response/support from the audience members as they were from all walks of life and took part in the candlelight vigil and took a moment of silence at the later part of the performance. Many of them stuck around the gallery space after the performance to share their own thoughts and position in regards to the death penalty and its process as some of their own countries are facing with similar issues.
To me, these conversations that happen after the work were more crucial… It is definitely a heavy topic, and questions of how death penalty affects the stigma of drug use/addiction were brought up, should death penalty be abolished entirely or just in certain cases were brought up, alongside many others.
What’s Next?
Lu, who is graduating in 2022, has a show from 24 to 27 June 2022 that will touch on racism and race relations in Singapore. If you’re in London at that time, do consider popping by the Ben Pimlott Building at Goldsmiths University of London to watch Lu’s performance seminar (exact timings are to be confirmed).
If you wish to follow Lu’s work, you may follow her on Instagram (@sirenabovewater) at this link. We look forward to seeing more works from Lu and like-minded artists that unabashedly speak truth to power.
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