Performing queerness: Singapore’s ‘Global City for the Arts’ and the politics of invisibility

Abstract

Whilst the study of Singapore’s vision to become a global city is not in itself new, there has been scant examination of the heteronormative hegemony that continues to underpin its nationalist-contemporary art narrative. Taking a case-study approach, this paper re-assesses the relationship between the cultural and economics-driven desires of the nation-state in promoting ‘Singaporean-ness’ by taking into consideration the role and place of Singapore’s visual queer in mediating representations of nationality. By critiquing the instrumentalisation of contemporary art and visual culture as shaped by the ‘Global City for the Arts’ (GCA) plans, this article explores the contradictions in Singapore’s GCA aspiration in light of wider queer politics played out in socio-spatial and visual-cultural spheres, particularly where the suppression of non-normative subjectivities had involved the demolition of queer spaces, censorship of obscene objects and the proscription of performance art.

Keywords:

• Singapore contemporary art
• queer history
• performance art
• global city

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to her colleagues Chiara O'Reilly, Anna Lawrenson and Stephen Gilchrist for reading early drafts first presented at ASAA Sydney 2018 conference. The author thanks the reviewers for the incisive comments and feedback. Special thanks as well to the editors, Michelle Antoinette and Francis Maravillas, for the close edits and support throughout the process. All errors are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Yvonne Yanmei Low (PhD, University of Sydney) specialises in the modern and contemporary arts of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. She writes and researches widely on Asian art and visual culture. Her research interests include colonial histories, diaspora perspectives, cultural politics of art development, gender/women artists and feminist art history, and digital art history. Low has published in books, peer-reviewed journals and exhibition catalogues, and is on the editorial committee of the journal Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia. She is currently a Sessional Lecturer in Asian Art at the University’s Power Institute. She has previously taught Asian art and architecture subjects at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, University of New South Wales and National Art School, Sydney. Her current projects include a cross-institutional, collaborative research network on Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories and the establishment of an independent digital platform for it, as well as bilingual archival exhibitions (Bangkok, Sydney). Recent publications include the co-edited anthology, Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art (2018) and a co-edited special issue on gender for Journal of Southeast of Now (2019).

Notes

1 Distinguished from the cosmopolitans, the ‘heartlander’ has been described by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in a National Day Rally Speech in 1999, as one whose ‘orientation and interests are local rather than international. Their skills are not marketable beyond Singapore. They speak Singlish. They include taxi drivers, smallholders, provision shop owners, production workers and contractors … Heartlanders play a major role in maintaining our core values and our social stability. They are the core of our society. Without them, there will be no safe and stable Singapore, no Singapore system, no Singapore brand name’ (cited in Poon 2013).

2 Opportunities were presented for example in both Japan and Australia, noted for spearheading and driving a number of initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region namely: Artists’ Regional Exchange in Perth, the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale in Japan. Within Southeast Asia, platforms such as Womanifesto and Chiang Mai Social Installation in Thailand offered invaluable opportunities for performance artists.