1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

TAPE 1 - SIDE A - KANAGA SABAPATHY Moving from China now to Singapore I am pleased to be able to introduce to you Kanaga Sabapathy who was bom in Singapore and initially studied Art History at the University of Singapore. He continued his art historical studies at post-graduate level at the University of California in Berkley and the School of Oriental and African studies in London. He was previously a lecturer in art history at the University Sans Malaysia in Penang when he introduced the course in Modem Malaysian Art. He was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Art Malaysia for two terms. He is the author of "A View of Modem Sculpture in Malaysia" published in 1976 and "Piyadasa" in 1978. He is also the author together with Redza Piyadasa of Modem Artists of Malaysia. He is now a distinguished art critic in Singapore and a lecturer in the School of Architecture, National University of Singapore, if you’d like to welcome him. KANAGA SABAPATHY You may be wondering why I’m talking about Singapore, I guess I should be talking about Malaysia after that introduction. Could I have the first two slides, I would appreciate it if you could work the projector for me, I’m not very good at this. I begin with these two slides, on the left hand a painting by Jun Su Ping: and the slide on the right hand side Performance in 1992 by Tang Da Wu. In a sense one could construct a synoptic view of artistic practices in Singapore just by looking at these two works, and looking at them in a binary schema and there is some validity in doing that. Let me just tease out some of the implications concerning that. I’ll refer to them as left and right proper to you. On the left marks a significant moment in the art history in Singapore a consolidation of a very regionalist view by artists who primarily migrated from China in the 30’s and then again CASUAL\ARTGALL.TP1 24 May 1994