Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

This 'White Man' does not indicate western art history appropriating my voice, my presence. He is not rubbing up next to Danto, or being a ventriloqu ist for the vestiges of western Modernism . Rather, it is this 'White Man' who has appropriated western Modernism , art history, desire - but wait, there's more; he appropriates China and the New Asia too . This 'White Man' is not just the token 'Asian White Male' but is specifically Singaporean. So far I have said next to nothing about Singapore in this presentation , wh ich may be contrary to what I was expected to do. But I save my commentary on this small island city-state for last: Singapore offers an exemplary image of the appropriating agent. Thank you 1 Many thanks to Sharmini Pereira, who pointed out the Alice Yang article to me. 2 Lee Wen stands up; he had been sitting at the back of the conference hal l . Lee Wen had painted himself black a l l over, though he did not dress only i n his underwear, as he typically does in the 'Yellow Man' performance series, but wore a jacket and street clothes. Lee Wen did not know what my text was about, although he had approached me earlier about doing a performance during my presentation and I agreed . Throughout the day he walked around with a wooden box, inside which was an open ox's heart, similar to the one used in his performance in the APT3 show itself. Later, during a break in the presentations, he stripped down to black underwear and lay on the floor in the foyer just outside the conference hal l ; arranged around him were various items in add ition to his box and ox's heart, including a newspaper with headlines about the concurrent crisis in East Timor. Texts cited : Danto, Arthur C . , The Wake ofArt: Criticism, Philosophy, and the Ends of Taste, G+B Arts International, 1 998. Danto, Arthur C . , After the End ofArt: Contemporary Art and the Pale ofHist ory, Princeton University Press , 1 997. Sabapathy, T. K., 'Developing Regionalist Perspectives in South-East Asian Art Historiography', The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (exhibition catalogue), Queensland Art Gallery, 1 996 . Supangkat, Jim, 'Contemporary Art: What/When/Where', The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (exhibition catalogue), Queensland Art Gallery, 1 996. Yang, Al ice, 'Modernism and the Ch inese Other in Twentieth-Century Art', Why Asia ?, New York University Press, 1 998. 6 1