LEE Wen, 李文
Born in Singapore, 1957
Education
2006 MA Fine Arts, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1992 City of London Polytechnic, London, UK
1990 LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Solo Exhibitions:
2017. Birds, 3331 Art Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
2015 Songs Unsung, iPreciation, SINGAPORE
2014 Mirrors In The Dark, Grey Projects, SINGAPORE
2012 Lee Wen: Lucid Dreams In The Reverie Of The Real, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
2008 Anthropometry Revision, Soo Bin Art Int’l, SINGAPORE
2007 Freedom to Daydream, Mothers of Imagination, Your Mother Gallery, SINGAPORE
2004 Unframed¬7, P-10, SINGAPORE
2003 Strange Fruit, The Substation, SINGAPORE
2002 Everybody Should Be Happy, Utterly Art, SINGAPORE
1997 Hand-Made Tales, The Black Box, Theatre Works, SINGAPORE
1995 Neo-Baba, VA-nishiogi Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
1993 Journey of a yellow man no.3: DESIRE, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Selected Exhibitions:
2015 The Prudential Singapore Eye, Art Science Museum, SINGAPORE
‘Secret Archipelago', Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
Whose Game is It?, Royal College Of Art, London, Curating Contemporary Art Exhibitions,ENGLAND
(Art Garden) Le Printemps 2015 Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille, FRANCE
Do Disturb, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
Prudential Eyezone, Co-curated by ArtScience Museum START, Saatchi Gallery, London, ENGLAND
The Esplanade Presents National Day Celebrations, SINGAPORE
2015 Artist Making Movement, 5th Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,
Taichung, TAIWAN, R.O.C.
Kulstof 15 Performance Art Festival Nordkraft, Alborg, DENMARK
BONE 18 Performance Art Festival Bern, SWITZERLAND
2014 The Roving Eye: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, ARTER, Istanbul, TURKEY
‘Modern Love’, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore LASALLE College of the Arts’, SINGAPORE
'Lee Wen at Art Basel, HK 2014', Presented by iPreciation, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), HONG KONG
Roppongi Art Night, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown Plaza, Tokyo, JAPAN
2013 Britto International Artists Workshop, Dhaka, BANGLADESH
7th Kuala Lumpur Triennial BARRICADE , Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Cascadence / Singapore Redux, SINGAPORE
“The Realm in the Mirror, the Vision out of Image”, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, CHINA
“Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
‘My Earth Staglinec 2013’ Staglinec, Koprivnica, CROATIA
"Rethinking of Protocols-Us and/As Institutions’ curated by Biljana Ciric, Guangzhou Times Museum, Guangzhou, CHINA
“Lit Up 2013”, Aliwal Art Center, SINGAPORE
"The Artist, the Book and the Crowd", The Substation, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Biennale 2013: If The World Changed”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Concept Context Contestation: art & the collective”, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, Bangkok, THAILAND
2012 "Wanderers 2 / Underground Site", 4th International Performance Art Festival Toyama, JAPAN
"New Strange Faces", Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
“The Lecher of Art” The Substation, SINGAPORE
“14th Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival”, Bangkok, THAILAND
“The First Venice International Performance Art Week”, Venice, ITALY
2011 R.I.T.E.S. “Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” #01/2011, The Substation, SINGAPORE
“This Is Performance Art”, Aberdeen and Glasgow, SCOTLAND
“Negotiating Home, History & Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art from S.E. Asia, 1991– 2011”,
Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Video: An Art, A History”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Survey 2011: Imagine Malaysia”, Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
Future of Imagination 7, Goodman Art Centre, SINGAPORE
“Currents: from Singapore in Macau”, Ox warehouse, MACAU
“Guangzhou Live”, You You Gallery, Guangzhou, CHINA
2010 National Review of Live Art 2010, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Performance Art Laboratory Project (PALA Project) 2010 /“undisclosed territory#4”,
Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
9th International Performance Art, Turbine, Giswil 2010, SWITZERLAND
Rencontre internationale d’art performance de Québec, Quebec, CANADA
Survey from Singapore, FADO, Toronto Free Gallery, Toronto, CANADA
4 Directions from Asia, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
"The winds project" encontro internacional da performance, Teatro TUCA, Sao Paulo, BRAZIL
Action Script: Symposium on Performance Art Practice and Documentation in Asia, HONG KONG
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2009 International Performance Show-Ceramic Passion, 5th World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, S. KOREA
Infr’Action ‘09 -Festival International d’Art Performance, Paris, FRANCE
Rasa Aksi-4 Artists From Singapore, Lublin, and, Warsaw, POLAND
Live Action Göteborg 09, Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Momentum- Platform for Performance-Art, Brussels, BELGIUM
“Drawing As Form”, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
10th OPEN International Performance Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
LIVE International Performance Art Biennale, Vancouver, CANADA
Performance In Frames, Singapore Management University Gallery, SINGAPORE
2008 "Small East Co-prosperity Restaurant 08", Tokyo, JAPAN
Intervene! Interrupt! Rethinking Art as Social Practice, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Kết Nối : Vietnam-Singapore Performance Art Dialogue, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Performatica’08, Four Artists From Singapore, 26cc, Rome and La Casa Verde, Foligno, ITALY
Blow!5- Performance Art Meeting between Singapore and Germany, Hildesheim & Ilsede, GERMANY
The Artists Village: 20 Years On, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Infr’Action -Festival International d’Art Performance, Sète, FRANCE
UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
2nd Vital Chongqing International Live Art Festival, Chongqing, Sichuan, CHINA
Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Performance Art in China & Asia, Macao Museum of Art, MACAU
Future of Imagination 5, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Asiatopia, 10th Anniversary, Bangkok Art &Culture Centre, THAILAND
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perfurbance #3, “spiritual renewal”, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA
Là-bas-> Hyper Center in Helsinki, FINLAND
IX Międzynarodowy Festiwal Sztuki Akcji "Interakcje 2007" Piotrkow Trybunalski; Bielsko-Biała, POLAND
Made In China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Humlebæk, DENMARK
Future of Imagination 4, 72-13, TheatreWorks, SINGAPORE
Maju Jaya – CHAOS Dab!, Jogjakarta National Museum, Jogjakarta, INDONESIA
Vital 07: essence of performance, Chinese Art Center, Manchester, ENGLAND
LONG’ACTION 07- rencontres franco-chinoises d’art performance, Sète FRANCE
2006 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2006, SINGAPORE
Satu Kali, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Future of Imagination 3, The Substation, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
acción!06MAD - III Encuentro Internacional de Arte de Acción. Madrid, SPAIN
Ctrl+Alt+Del, Singapore Management University Arts Fest 2006, SINGAPORE
4th DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
S+S, 1, ALL_2, Shenyang, CHINA
7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, CANADA
DEFORMES, Primera Bienal de Performance, Santiago, CHILE
Birds Migration: Indonesia International Performance Art Event [IIPAE, Jakarta, INDONESIA
Episode5: 12-Hour Performance, Sound and Video Festival, SINGAPORE
2005 Performance Site, Myanmar 05, Borders:withIN withOUT, NICA, Yangon, MYANMAR
National Review of Live Art, 2005 , Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Crossing Time International, Dartington College of Arts, Totnes, Devon, ENGLAND
3 Encuentro Internacional de Performance, Institut Valencia D’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, SPAIN
National Review of Live Art – MIDLAND 05, Perth, AUSTRALIA
Stopover, Japan Singapore Performance Art Meeting, FronT Room Gallery, SINGAPORE
Situations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
REACH OUTLYING 2005 Tipalive Taiwan International Performance Art Festival, Taipei, TAIWAN
"UGNAYAN‘05", 4th Philippine International Performance Art Festival (PIPAF), Manila, The Philippines
Spaces and Shadows: Politics of Fun, House of World Culture, Berlin, GERMANY
Self-portrait Performativ, langaut, Golberode, Dresden, GERMANY
BLURRR 5 biennial of performance art, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
2004 130 Bank Gallery, 10th Anniversary Commemoration Exhibition, Kitakyushu, JAPAN
National Review of Live Art, 2004, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perform:State:Interrogate: Performance Studies international Conference
(PSi#10), The Substation, SINGAPORE
2nd DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
Giving Water An Image, Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
Sea Art Festival, Busan Biennale 2004, Pusan, S. KOREA
Voice of Site, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Sustainable, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Future of Imagination 2, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
Future of Imagination, The Substation, SINGAPORE
4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
“Alter-Native Dialogues”, Video/ Performance collaboration with James Luna, Tokyo, JAPAN
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2001 EXIT International Festival for Unusual Live Performances, Cable Factory, Helsinki, FINLAND
2nd Open Art Festival, Pengshan, Leshan and Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
Theertha International Artists Workshop - 2001, Lunaganga, SRI LANKA
2000 FEAST! Food In Art! Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Critical Response, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
Artists Investigating Monument - AIM projects, Raffles Landing Site, Singapore.
1999 Rånd, Festival der Regionen, Zuckerfabrik Enns, AUSTRIA
The Third Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Nokia Singapore Art 1999, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Post-Ulu”, The Artists Village Exhibition, The Substation, SINGAPORE
1998 Construction in Process VI - The Bridge, The Artists Museum, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Sub-Fiction, Werkleitz Biennale 1998, Tornitz & Werkleitz, GERMANY
"3rd Asian Performance Art Series”, Tokyo, JAPAN
Asiatopia, Bangkok, THAILAND
ZUG. Flexible:X, Performance Art Operation Work, Dresden, GERMANY
1997 Simposio International De Escultura Mexico-Japon, Tuxtla Guttierez, Chiapas, MEXICO
Sexta Bienal de La Habana, Havana, CUBA
2nd Asian Performance Art Series, Nagano, Tokyo, JAPAN
SeptFest Art Conference-Multi-culturalism, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Performance Art Conference5, Bangkok, Suan Pakkad Palace, Bangkok, THAILAND
1996 Recontre International d’art Performance Et Multi-media 1996, Quebec, CANADA
Between the Visible and Invisible, Lahore International Arts Workshop, PAKISTAN
1995 2nd Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo & Nagano, JAPAN
Castle of Imagination, 3rd International Artists Meeting, Bytow, POLAND
“International Nature Art Symposium”, Yatoo, Kong Ju, South KOREA
Kwang Ju Biennale,, Kwang Ju, KOREA
MA: East West Study Project, Dusseldorf & Darmstadt, GERMANY
Chiang Mai Social Installation, Chiang Mai, THAILAND
1994 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
5th Fukui International Video Biennale, Tawara, Fukui City, JAPAN
1993 Sense Yellow, Concrete House, Nontburi, THAILAND
1992 International Sculpture Symposium, Gulbarga, Karnataka, INDIA
1990 TIME Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
C.A.R.E.: Concerned Artists for the Environment, Artist Village, Singapore Art Festival, SINGAPORE
1989 HAPPENINGS II, QU*ART Gallery, Hong Kong, HONG KONG
HAPPENINGS, National University of Singapore, SINGAPORE
The Drawing Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
Performances with Black Market International
2000 Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
2002 4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Zweiten Ilseder PerformanceAbend, Gebläsehalle in Ilsede, GERMANY
13th Performance Art Conference - “The Art of Action 111”, Podewils‘schen Palais, Berlin, GERMANY
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
Le Theatre de L'Usine (place des Volontaires), Geneve, SWITZERLAND
2006 TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2010 “undisclosed territory#4”, Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
Performance Art Season 2010, Warsaw, POLAND
Black Market in Town, Orangerie Theater im Volksgarten, Köln, GERMANY
Blow!8, Umformerstation, Ilsede, GERMANY
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2011 “This Is Performance Art”, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2013 “Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
2015 Kulstof 15, Kroppen Som Proces OG Billede International performance festival NORDKRAF, Aarlborg DENMARK
BONE 18 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
AWARDS
2014 ASA (Artist Scholar Activist) Award, Performance Studies international (PSi)
2013 Artist-in-Residence, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2013 Artist-in-Residence, Contemporary Art of Japan, Saitama, Japan
2008 Artist-in Residence, Red & Grey Contemporary, Chengdu, China
2005 Cultural Medallion, Singapore
2002 Artist in Residence, La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore
1998 Artist in Residence (Asia Europe Ministerial Meeting, Cultural and Arts Program) supported by Visiting Arts, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Gasworks Studios, London, UK
TEACHING EXPERIENCE :
Workshops / Seminars
2013 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2007 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2006 NRLA (National Review of Live Art) International Winter School, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2004 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
2003 Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, MEXICO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
2002 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Musashino Art University, TOKYO
2001 Musashino Art University, TOKYO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2000 Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1999 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1998 Norwich College of Art and Design, NORWICH, UK
1996 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Singapore Art Museum;
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan);
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, Australia);
Lenzi-Morisot Foundation (Singapore – France);
ARTUR in Istanbul, Turkey
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Chin Hock Seng (1981)
‘Pop dog’ artist shares a dream
The Straits Times, Singapore. May 9, 1981
Lee Wen,
A Waking Dream- drawings and poetry,
Select Books, Singapore, 1981
Ng Sek Chow
Yellow reflections
The Straits Times, Singapore, July 23, 1993
Chandrasekaran.S., Langenbach, R. & Lee Wen (1993)
Local Performance Art, Democracy: Commentary.
Journal of the National University of Singapore Society, Singapore, National
University of Singapore Society (Vol.11 No. 2)
Swinson, James
Lee Wen Connection / Location
Third Text/ no.45 Winter, London 1998-99 - pp.95-97
Lee Weng Choy
Artist essay on Lee Wen
The Third AsiaPacificTriennale 1999 Catalogue,
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Australia.
Lee Weng Choy, (2000)
Just What Is it that Makes the Term Global-Local So Widely Cited, Yet So Annoying?
"Flight Patterns: picturing the Pacific Rim" catalogue
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
(A shorter version of this essay was first published in Artlink, Volume 20 Number 2, June 2000.)
Woon Tien Wei
Between Journeys: an Interview with Lee Wen
Performance Research 6(l), pp.3‑7 © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2001
Barragan, Paco
The Art To Come
Subastas Siglo XXI, Madrid 2002
Oon, Clarrisa
Hello, yellow fellow
The Straits Times, Singapore, October 21, 2003
Glenis Israel
Senior Artwise 2 visual arts 11-12,
Part 3 Asian Artists – contemporary, Chapter 14
John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, Sydney 2004
HO Tzu Nyen
“strange fruit”
Art Asia Pacific / Spring 2004 No.40
Gunalan Nadarajan, Russell Storer and Eugene Tan
Contemporary Art in Singapore
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, Singapore 2007
Valentin Torrens, Editor
Pedagogia De La Performance, Programmas de Cursos y Talleres
Diputacion Provincial De Huesca, Barcelona, Spain, 2007
Lee Wen, Editor
Anthropometry Revision
Soo Bin Art International, Singapore, 2008
Kwok Kian Woon, Lee Wen, Co-Editors
The Artists Village: 20 Years On
Singapore Art Museum, The Artists Village, Singapore, 2009
Richard Martel
Arte en vivo y en directo
EXIT Express Magazine #47 November 2009, p16-25
Adele Tan
Art and the iterative force: Lee Wen’s untaming of Yves Klein
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, May 2010, Vol. 32, No. 2, Pages 17-23
Iola Lenzi, Tan Boon Hui, Khairuddin Hori, editors, et. all.. Negotiating Home History and Nation Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 Singapore Art Museum 2011 Christine Van Assche, Patricia Levasseur de la Motte, et, all... Video, an Art, a History 1965 - 2010 A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections Singapore Art Museum 2011
Mitsu Salmon
Lee Wen's Revolutionary Daydreams, IN TIME December 2013, newsletter, Chicago, pg.22, 23
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
AFFILIATION:
Black Market International, (international performance art collective / first participation in 2000)
Co-founding Artistic Director, “Future Of Imagination”, International Performance Art Event, Singapore (in collaboration with Kai Lam & Jason Lim 2003-2011)
Guest Curator: UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, 2008 Cheng Du China.
Co-founding Artistic Director, “R.I.T.E.S.” - Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak, Performance Art development & research agency, Singapore
(in collaboration with Kai Lam 2009-2013)
Artistic Director, I.A.R.C. - Independent Archive and Resource Centre, Singapore
e-mail: wen.lila@gmail.com
Lee Wen
Short bio:-
Born in 1957, Lee Wen (Chinese: 李文; pinyin: Lǐ Wén) is a multidisciplinary artist and one of Singapore’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists. Best known for his Yellow Man series, painting his own body with bright yellow poster paint, he expresses an exaggerated symbol of his ethnic identity as a citizen of Singapore. Lee now lives and works extensively on a global circuit and based between Singapore and Tokyo.
Lee Wen’s performances and installations often expose and question the ideologies and value systems of individuals as well as social structures. His work attempts to combine Southeast Asian contexts with international currents in contemporary art. His early practice was associated with the Artists Village, an alternative art group in Singapore and later forged a more individuated artistic career. (Lee officially resigned from TAV in 2011). Lee has been represented at the Singapore Biennale (2014), Busan Biennale (2004), the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane (1999), the Sexta Bienal de La Habana, (1997), the Kwang Ju Biennial (1995) and the 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka (1994).
Lee’s enthusiasm as an artist goes beyond his solo work and continues to be active and involved with the new generation in spawning possibilities of collaborations, network and discourse. In 2003 Lee initiated, with the support of the Artists Village, “The Future of Imagination”, an international performance art event and “R.I.T.E.S.- Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” (2009), a platform to support and develop performance art practices, discourse, infrastructure and audiences in Singapore.
Since 1999 Lee has worked with Black Market International an innovative, ground-breaking, utopian performance art “group” comprising artists from various countries and cultural backgrounds. Lee initiated the Independent Archive in 2012 to develop documentation, research and resource sharing of ephemeral art manifestations in Singapore a well as internationally.
LEE Wen, 李文
Born in Singapore, 1957
Education
2006 MA Fine Arts, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1992 City of London Polytechnic, London, UK
1990 LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Solo Exhibitions:
2017
2014 Mirrors In The Dark, Grey Projects, SINGAPORE
2012 Lucid Dreams In The Reverie Of The Real, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
2008 Anthropometry Revision, Soo Bin Art Int’l, SINGAPORE
2007 Freedom to Daydream, Mothers of Imagination, Your Mother Gallery, SINGAPORE
2004 Unframed¬7, P-10, SINGAPORE
2003 Strange Fruit, The Substation, SINGAPORE
2002 Everybody Should Be Happy, Utterly Art, SINGAPORE
1997 Hand-Made Tales, The Black Box, Theatre Works, SINGAPORE
1995 Neo-Baba, VA-nishiogi Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
1993 Journey of a yellow man no.3: DESIRE, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Selected Exhibitions:
2015 Kulstof 15, Kroppen Som Proces OG Billede International performance festival NORDKRAF, Aarlborg DENMARK
BONE 18 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2015 Artist Making Movement, 5th Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,
Taichung, TAIWAN, R.O.C.
Prudential Eyezone, Co-curated by ArtScience Museum START, Saatchi Gallery, London, ENGLAND
The Esplanade Presents National Day Celebrations, SINGAPORE
(Art Garden) Le Printemps 2015 Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille, FRANCE
Do Disturb, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
‘Secret Archipelago', Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
Whose Game is It?, Royal College Of Art, London, Curating Contemporary Art Exhibitions,ENGLAND
The Prudential Singapore Eye, Art Science Museum, SINGAPORE s
2014 The Roving Eye: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, ARTER, Istanbul, TURKEY
‘Modern Love’, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore LASALLE College of the Arts’, SINGAPORE
Art Basel, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), Hong Kong HONG KONG
Roppongi Art Night, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown Plaza, Tokyo, JAPAN
2013 Britto International Artists Workshop, Dhaka, BANGLADESH
7th Kuala Lumpur Triennial BARRICADE , Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Cascadence / Singapore Redux, SINGAPORE
“The Realm in the Mirror, the Vision out of Image”, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, CHINA
“Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
‘My Earth Staglinec 2013’ Staglinec, Koprivnica, CROATIA
‘Rethinking of Protocols-Us and/As Institutions’ curated by Biljana Ciric, Guangzhou Times Museum, Guangzhou, CHINA
“Lit Up 2013”, Aliwal Art Center, SINGAPORE
"The Artist, the Book and the Crowd", The Substation, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Biennale 2013: If The World Changed”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Concept Context Contestation: art & the collective”, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, Bangkok, THAILAND
2012 "Wanderers 2 / Underground Site", 4th International Performance Art Festival Toyama, JAPAN
"New Strange Faces", Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
“The Lecher of Art” The Substation, SINGAPORE
“14th Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival”, Bangkok, THAILAND
“The First Venice International Performance Art Week”, Venice, ITALY
2011 R.I.T.E.S. “Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” #01/2011, The Substation, SINGAPORE
“This Is Performance Art”, Aberdeen and Glasgow, SCOTLAND
“Negotiating Home, History & Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art from S.E. Asia, 1991– 2011”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Video: An Art, A History”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Survey 2011: Imagine Malaysia”, Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
Future of Imagination 7, Goodman Art Centre, SINGAPORE
“Currents: from Singapore in Macau”, Ox warehouse, MACAU
“Guangzhou Live”, You You Gallery, Guangzhou, CHINA
2010 National Review of Live Art 2010, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Performance Art Laboratory Project (PALA Project) 2010 /“undisclosed territory#4”,
Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
9th International Performance Art, Turbine, Giswil 2010, SWITZERLAND
Rencontre internationale d’art performance de Québec, Quebec, CANADA
Survey from Singapore, FADO, Toronto Free Gallery, Toronto, CANADA
4 Directions from Asia, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
"The winds project" encontro internacional da performance, Teatro TUCA, Sao Paulo, BRAZIL
Action Script: Symposium on Performance Art Practice and Documentation in Asia, HONG KONG
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2009 International Performance Show-Ceramic Passion, 5th World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, S. KOREA
Infr’Action ‘09 -Festival International d’Art Performance, Paris, FRANCE
Rasa Aksi-4 Artists From Singapore, Lublin, and, Warsaw, POLAND
Live Action Göteborg 09, Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Momentum- Platform for Performance-Art, Brussels, BELGIUM
“Drawing As Form”, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
10th OPEN International Performance Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
LIVE International Performance Art Biennale, Vancouver, CANADA
Performance In Frames, Singapore Management University Gallery, SINGAPORE
2008 "Small East Co-prosperity Restaurant 08", Tokyo, JAPAN
Intervene! Interrupt! Rethinking Art as Social Practice, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Kết Nối : Vietnam-Singapore Performance Art Dialogue, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Performatica’08, Four Artists From Singapore, 26cc, Rome and La Casa Verde, Foligno, ITALY
Blow!5- Performance Art Meeting between Singapore and Germany, Hildesheim & Ilsede, GERMANY
The Artists Village: 20 Years On, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Infr’Action -Festival International d’Art Performance, Sète, FRANCE
UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
2nd Vital Chongqing International Live Art Festival, Chongqing, Sichuan, CHINA
Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Performance Art in China & Asia, Macao Museum of Art, MACAU
Future of Imagination 5, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Asiatopia, 10th Anniversary, Bangkok Art &Culture Centre, THAILAND
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perfurbance #3, “spiritual renewal”, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA
Là-bas-> Hyper Center in Helsinki, FINLAND
IX Międzynarodowy Festiwal Sztuki Akcji "Interakcje 2007" Piotrkow Trybunalski; Bielsko-Biała, POLAND
Made In China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Humlebæk, DENMARK
Future of Imagination 4, 72-13, TheatreWorks, SINGAPORE
Maju Jaya – CHAOS Dab!, Jogjakarta National Museum, Jogjakarta, INDONESIA
Vital 07: essence of performance, Chinese Art Center, Manchester, ENGLAND
LONG’ACTION 07- rencontres franco-chinoises d’art performance, Sète FRANCE
2006 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2006, SINGAPORE
Satu Kali, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Future of Imagination 3, The Substation, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
acción!06MAD - III Encuentro Internacional de Arte de Acción. Madrid, SPAIN
Ctrl+Alt+Del, Singapore Management University Arts Fest 2006, SINGAPORE
4th DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
S+S, 1, ALL_2, Shenyang, CHINA
7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, CANADA
DEFORMES, Primera Bienal de Performance, Santiago, CHILE
Birds Migration: Indonesia International Performance Art Event [IIPAE] 2006, Jakarta, INDONESIA
Episode5: 12-Hour Performance, Sound and Video Festival, SINGAPORE
2005 Performance Site, Myanmar 05, Borders:withIN withOUT, NICA, Yangon, MYANMAR
National Review of Live Art, 2005 , Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Crossing Time International, Dartington College of Arts, Totnes, Devon, ENGLAND
3 Encuentro Internacional de Performance, Institut Valencia D’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, SPAIN
National Review of Live Art – MIDLAND 05, Perth, AUSTRALIA
Stopover, Japan Singapore Performance Art Meeting, FronT Room Gallery, SINGAPORE
Situations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
REACH OUTLYING 2005 Tipalive Taiwan International Performance Art Festival, Taipei, TAIWAN
"UGNAYAN‘05", 4th Philippine International Performance Art Festival (PIPAF), Manila, The Philippines
Spaces and Shadows: Politics of Fun, House of World Culture, Berlin, GERMANY
Self-portrait Performativ, langaut, Golberode, Dresden, GERMANY
BLURRR 5 biennial of performance art, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
2004 130 Bank Gallery, 10th Anniversary Commemoration Exhibition, Kitakyushu, JAPAN
National Review of Live Art, 2004, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perform:State:Interrogate: Performance Studies international Conference
(PSi#10), The Substation, SINGAPORE
2nd DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
Giving Water An Image, Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
Sea Art Festival, Busan Biennale 2004, Pusan, S. KOREA
Voice of Site, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Sustainable, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Future of Imagination 2, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
Future of Imagination, The Substation, SINGAPORE
4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
“Alter-Native Dialogues”, Video/ Performance collaboration with James Luna, Tokyo, JAPAN
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2001 EXIT International Festival for Unusual Live Performances, Cable Factory, Helsinki, FINLAND
2nd Open Art Festival, Pengshan, Leshan and Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
Theertha International Artists Workshop - 2001, Lunaganga, SRI LANKA
2000 FEAST! Food In Art! Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Critical Response, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
Artists Investigating Monument - AIM projects, Raffles Landing Site, Singapore.
1999 Rånd, Festival der Regionen, Zuckerfabrik Enns, AUSTRIA
The Third Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Nokia Singapore Art 1999, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Post-Ulu”, The Artists Village Exhibition, The Substation, SINGAPORE
1998 Construction in Process VI - The Bridge, The Artists Museum, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Sub-Fiction, Werkleitz Biennale 1998, Tornitz & Werkleitz, GERMANY
"3rd Asian Performance Art Series”, Tokyo, JAPAN
Asiatopia, Bangkok, THAILAND
ZUG. Flexible:X, Performance Art Operation Work, Dresden, GERMANY
1997 Simposio International De Escultura Mexico-Japon, Tuxtla Guttierez, Chiapas, MEXICO
Sexta Bienal de La Habana, Havana, CUBA
2nd Asian Performance Art Series, Nagano, Tokyo, JAPAN
SeptFest Art Conference-Multi-culturalism, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Performance Art Conference5, Bangkok, Suan Pakkad Palace, Bangkok, THAILAND
Recontre International d’art Performance Et Multi-media 1996, Quebec, CANADA
Between the Visible and Invisible, Lahore International Arts Workshop, PAKISTAN
2nd Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo & Nagano, JAPAN
Castle of Imagination, 3rd International Artists Meeting, Bytow, POLAND
“International Nature Art Symposium”, Yatoo, Kong Ju, South KOREA
Kwang Ju Biennale,, Kwang Ju, KOREA
MA: East West Study Project, Dusseldorf & Darmstadt, GERMANY
Chiang Mai Social Installation, Chiang Mai, THAILAND
1994 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
5th Fukui International Video Biennale, Tawara, Fukui City, JAPAN
1993 Sense Yellow, Concrete House, Nontburi, THAILAND
1992 International Sculpture Symposium, Gulbarga, Karnataka, INDIA
1990 TIME Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
C.A.R.E.: Concerned Artists for the Environment, Artist Village, Singapore Art Festival, SINGAPORE
1989 HAPPENINGS II, QU*ART Gallery, Hong Kong, HONG KONG
HAPPENINGS, National University of Singapore, SINGAPORE
The Drawing Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
Performances with Black Market International
2000 Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
2002 4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Zweiten Ilseder PerformanceAbend, Gebläsehalle in Ilsede, GERMANY
13th Performance Art Conference - “The Art of Action 111”, Podewils‘schen Palais, Berlin, GERMANY
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
Le Theatre de L'Usine (place des Volontaires), Geneve, SWITZERLAND
2006 TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2010 “undisclosed territory#4”, Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
Performance Art Season 2010, Warsaw, POLAND
Black Market in Town, Orangerie Theater im Volksgarten, Köln, GERMANY
Blow!8, Umformerstation, Ilsede, GERMANY
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2011 “This Is Performance Art”, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2013 “Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
2015 Kulstof 15. Aarlborg, Denmark
AWARDS
2016 Joseph Balestier Award presented by Art Stage Singapore/U.S. Embassy Singapore
2014 Performance Studies international Ltd. (P.S.i) Artist/ Scholar/ Activist (A.S.A.) award,
2013 Artist-in-Residence, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2013 Artist-in-Residence, Contemporary Art of Japan, Saitama, Japan
2008 Artist-in Residence, Red & Grey Contemporary, Chengdu, China
2005 Cultural Medallion, Singapore
2002 Artist in Residence, La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore
1998 Artist in Residence (Asia Europe Ministerial Meeting, Cultural and Arts Program) supported by Visiting Arts, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Gasworks Studios, London, UK
TEACHING EXPERIENCE :
Workshops / Seminars
2013 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2007 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2006 NRLA (National Review of Live Art) International Winter School, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2004 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
2003 Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, MEXICO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
2002 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Musashino Art University, TOKYO
2001 Musashino Art University, TOKYO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2000 Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1999 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1998 Norwich College of Art and Design, NORWICH, UK
1996 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Singapore Art Museum;
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan);
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, Australia);
Lenzi-Morisot Foundation (Singapore – France);
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Chin Hock Seng (1981)
‘Pop dog’ artist shares a dream
The Straits Times, Singapore. May 9, 1981
Lee Wen,
A Waking Dream- drawings and poetry,
Select Books, Singapore, 1981
Ng Sek Chow
Yellow reflections
The Straits Times, Singapore, July 23, 1993
Chandrasekaran.S., Langenbach, R. & Lee Wen (1993)
Local Performance Art, Democracy: Commentary.
Journal of the National University of Singapore Society, Singapore, National
University of Singapore Society (Vol.11 No. 2)
Swinson, James
Lee Wen Connection / Location
Third Text/ no.45 Winter, London 1998-99 - pp.95-97
Lee Weng Choy
Artist essay on Lee Wen
The Third AsiaPacificTriennale 1999 Catalogue,
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Australia.
Lee Weng Choy, (2000)
Just What Is it that Makes the Term Global-Local So Widely Cited, Yet So Annoying?
"Flight Patterns: picturing the Pacific Rim" catalogue
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
(A shorter version of this essay was first published in Artlink, Volume 20 Number 2, June 2000.)
Woon Tien Wei
Between Journeys: an Interview with Lee Wen
Performance Research 6(l), pp.3‑7 © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2001
Barragan, Paco
The Art To Come
Subastas Siglo XXI, Madrid 2002
Oon, Clarrisa
Hello, yellow fellow
The Straits Times, Singapore, October 21, 2003
Glenis Israel
Senior Artwise 2 visual arts 11-12,
Part 3 Asian Artists – contemporary, Chapter 14
John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, Sydney 2004
HO Tzu Nyen
“strange fruit”
Art Asia Pacific / Spring 2004 No.40
Gunalan Nadarajan, Russell Storer and Eugene Tan
Contemporary Art in Singapore
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, Singapore 2007
Valentin Torrens, Editor
Pedagogia De La Performance, Programmas de Cursos y Talleres
Diputacion Provincial De Huesca, Barcelona, Spain, 2007
Lee Wen, Editor
Anthropometry Revision
Soo Bin Art International, Singapore, 2008
Kwok Kian Woon, Lee Wen, Co-Editors
The Artists Village: 20 Years On
Singapore Art Museum, The Artists Village, Singapore, 2009
Richard Martel
Arte en vivo y en directo
EXIT Express Magazine #47 November 2009, p16-25
Adele Tan
Art and the iterative force: Lee Wen’s untaming of Yves Klein
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, May 2010, Vol. 32, No. 2, Pages 17-23
Iola Lenzi, Tan Boon Hui, Khairuddin Hori, editors, et. all.. Negotiating Home History and Nation Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 Singapore Art Museum 2011 Christine Van Assche, Patricia Levasseur de la Motte, et, all... Video, an Art, a History 1965 - 2010 A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections Singapore Art Museum 2011
Mitsui Salmon
Lee Wen's Revolutionary Daydreams, IN TIME December 2013, newsletter, Chicago, pg.22, 23
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
National Gallery, Singapore
AFFILIATION:
Black Market International, (international performance art collective / first participation in 2000)
Co-founding Artistic Director, “Future Of Imagination”, International Performance Art Event, Singapore (in collaboration with Kai Lam & Jason Lim 2003-2011)
Guest Curator: UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, 2008 Cheng Du China.
Co-founding Artistic Director, “R.I.T.E.S.” - Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak, Performance Art development & research agency, Singapore
(in collaboration with Kai Lam 2009-2013)
Artistic Director, I.A.R.C. - Independent Archive and Resource Centre, Singapore
e-mail: wen.lila@gmail.com
Born in Singapore, 1957
Education
2006 MA Fine Arts, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1992 City of London Polytechnic, London, UK
1990 LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Solo Exhibitions:
2017. Birds, 3331 Art Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
2015 Songs Unsung, iPreciation, SINGAPORE
2014 Mirrors In The Dark, Grey Projects, SINGAPORE
2012 Lee Wen: Lucid Dreams In The Reverie Of The Real, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
2008 Anthropometry Revision, Soo Bin Art Int’l, SINGAPORE
2007 Freedom to Daydream, Mothers of Imagination, Your Mother Gallery, SINGAPORE
2004 Unframed¬7, P-10, SINGAPORE
2003 Strange Fruit, The Substation, SINGAPORE
2002 Everybody Should Be Happy, Utterly Art, SINGAPORE
1997 Hand-Made Tales, The Black Box, Theatre Works, SINGAPORE
1995 Neo-Baba, VA-nishiogi Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
1993 Journey of a yellow man no.3: DESIRE, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Selected Exhibitions:
2015 The Prudential Singapore Eye, Art Science Museum, SINGAPORE
‘Secret Archipelago', Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
Whose Game is It?, Royal College Of Art, London, Curating Contemporary Art Exhibitions,ENGLAND
(Art Garden) Le Printemps 2015 Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille, FRANCE
Do Disturb, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
Prudential Eyezone, Co-curated by ArtScience Museum START, Saatchi Gallery, London, ENGLAND
The Esplanade Presents National Day Celebrations, SINGAPORE
2015 Artist Making Movement, 5th Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,
Taichung, TAIWAN, R.O.C.
Kulstof 15 Performance Art Festival Nordkraft, Alborg, DENMARK
BONE 18 Performance Art Festival Bern, SWITZERLAND
2014 The Roving Eye: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, ARTER, Istanbul, TURKEY
‘Modern Love’, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore LASALLE College of the Arts’, SINGAPORE
'Lee Wen at Art Basel, HK 2014', Presented by iPreciation, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), HONG KONG
Roppongi Art Night, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown Plaza, Tokyo, JAPAN
2013 Britto International Artists Workshop, Dhaka, BANGLADESH
7th Kuala Lumpur Triennial BARRICADE , Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Cascadence / Singapore Redux, SINGAPORE
“The Realm in the Mirror, the Vision out of Image”, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, CHINA
“Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
‘My Earth Staglinec 2013’ Staglinec, Koprivnica, CROATIA
"Rethinking of Protocols-Us and/As Institutions’ curated by Biljana Ciric, Guangzhou Times Museum, Guangzhou, CHINA
“Lit Up 2013”, Aliwal Art Center, SINGAPORE
"The Artist, the Book and the Crowd", The Substation, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Biennale 2013: If The World Changed”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Concept Context Contestation: art & the collective”, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, Bangkok, THAILAND
2012 "Wanderers 2 / Underground Site", 4th International Performance Art Festival Toyama, JAPAN
"New Strange Faces", Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
“The Lecher of Art” The Substation, SINGAPORE
“14th Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival”, Bangkok, THAILAND
“The First Venice International Performance Art Week”, Venice, ITALY
2011 R.I.T.E.S. “Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” #01/2011, The Substation, SINGAPORE
“This Is Performance Art”, Aberdeen and Glasgow, SCOTLAND
“Negotiating Home, History & Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art from S.E. Asia, 1991– 2011”,
Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Video: An Art, A History”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Survey 2011: Imagine Malaysia”, Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
Future of Imagination 7, Goodman Art Centre, SINGAPORE
“Currents: from Singapore in Macau”, Ox warehouse, MACAU
“Guangzhou Live”, You You Gallery, Guangzhou, CHINA
2010 National Review of Live Art 2010, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Performance Art Laboratory Project (PALA Project) 2010 /“undisclosed territory#4”,
Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
9th International Performance Art, Turbine, Giswil 2010, SWITZERLAND
Rencontre internationale d’art performance de Québec, Quebec, CANADA
Survey from Singapore, FADO, Toronto Free Gallery, Toronto, CANADA
4 Directions from Asia, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
"The winds project" encontro internacional da performance, Teatro TUCA, Sao Paulo, BRAZIL
Action Script: Symposium on Performance Art Practice and Documentation in Asia, HONG KONG
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2009 International Performance Show-Ceramic Passion, 5th World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, S. KOREA
Infr’Action ‘09 -Festival International d’Art Performance, Paris, FRANCE
Rasa Aksi-4 Artists From Singapore, Lublin, and, Warsaw, POLAND
Live Action Göteborg 09, Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Momentum- Platform for Performance-Art, Brussels, BELGIUM
“Drawing As Form”, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
10th OPEN International Performance Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
LIVE International Performance Art Biennale, Vancouver, CANADA
Performance In Frames, Singapore Management University Gallery, SINGAPORE
2008 "Small East Co-prosperity Restaurant 08", Tokyo, JAPAN
Intervene! Interrupt! Rethinking Art as Social Practice, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Kết Nối : Vietnam-Singapore Performance Art Dialogue, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Performatica’08, Four Artists From Singapore, 26cc, Rome and La Casa Verde, Foligno, ITALY
Blow!5- Performance Art Meeting between Singapore and Germany, Hildesheim & Ilsede, GERMANY
The Artists Village: 20 Years On, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Infr’Action -Festival International d’Art Performance, Sète, FRANCE
UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
2nd Vital Chongqing International Live Art Festival, Chongqing, Sichuan, CHINA
Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Performance Art in China & Asia, Macao Museum of Art, MACAU
Future of Imagination 5, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Asiatopia, 10th Anniversary, Bangkok Art &Culture Centre, THAILAND
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perfurbance #3, “spiritual renewal”, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA
Là-bas-> Hyper Center in Helsinki, FINLAND
IX Międzynarodowy Festiwal Sztuki Akcji "Interakcje 2007" Piotrkow Trybunalski; Bielsko-Biała, POLAND
Made In China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Humlebæk, DENMARK
Future of Imagination 4, 72-13, TheatreWorks, SINGAPORE
Maju Jaya – CHAOS Dab!, Jogjakarta National Museum, Jogjakarta, INDONESIA
Vital 07: essence of performance, Chinese Art Center, Manchester, ENGLAND
LONG’ACTION 07- rencontres franco-chinoises d’art performance, Sète FRANCE
2006 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2006, SINGAPORE
Satu Kali, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Future of Imagination 3, The Substation, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
acción!06MAD - III Encuentro Internacional de Arte de Acción. Madrid, SPAIN
Ctrl+Alt+Del, Singapore Management University Arts Fest 2006, SINGAPORE
4th DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
S+S, 1, ALL_2, Shenyang, CHINA
7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, CANADA
DEFORMES, Primera Bienal de Performance, Santiago, CHILE
Birds Migration: Indonesia International Performance Art Event [IIPAE, Jakarta, INDONESIA
Episode5: 12-Hour Performance, Sound and Video Festival, SINGAPORE
2005 Performance Site, Myanmar 05, Borders:withIN withOUT, NICA, Yangon, MYANMAR
National Review of Live Art, 2005 , Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Crossing Time International, Dartington College of Arts, Totnes, Devon, ENGLAND
3 Encuentro Internacional de Performance, Institut Valencia D’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, SPAIN
National Review of Live Art – MIDLAND 05, Perth, AUSTRALIA
Stopover, Japan Singapore Performance Art Meeting, FronT Room Gallery, SINGAPORE
Situations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
REACH OUTLYING 2005 Tipalive Taiwan International Performance Art Festival, Taipei, TAIWAN
"UGNAYAN‘05", 4th Philippine International Performance Art Festival (PIPAF), Manila, The Philippines
Spaces and Shadows: Politics of Fun, House of World Culture, Berlin, GERMANY
Self-portrait Performativ, langaut, Golberode, Dresden, GERMANY
BLURRR 5 biennial of performance art, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
2004 130 Bank Gallery, 10th Anniversary Commemoration Exhibition, Kitakyushu, JAPAN
National Review of Live Art, 2004, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perform:State:Interrogate: Performance Studies international Conference
(PSi#10), The Substation, SINGAPORE
2nd DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
Giving Water An Image, Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
Sea Art Festival, Busan Biennale 2004, Pusan, S. KOREA
Voice of Site, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Sustainable, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Future of Imagination 2, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
Future of Imagination, The Substation, SINGAPORE
4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
“Alter-Native Dialogues”, Video/ Performance collaboration with James Luna, Tokyo, JAPAN
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2001 EXIT International Festival for Unusual Live Performances, Cable Factory, Helsinki, FINLAND
2nd Open Art Festival, Pengshan, Leshan and Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
Theertha International Artists Workshop - 2001, Lunaganga, SRI LANKA
2000 FEAST! Food In Art! Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Critical Response, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
Artists Investigating Monument - AIM projects, Raffles Landing Site, Singapore.
1999 Rånd, Festival der Regionen, Zuckerfabrik Enns, AUSTRIA
The Third Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Nokia Singapore Art 1999, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Post-Ulu”, The Artists Village Exhibition, The Substation, SINGAPORE
1998 Construction in Process VI - The Bridge, The Artists Museum, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Sub-Fiction, Werkleitz Biennale 1998, Tornitz & Werkleitz, GERMANY
"3rd Asian Performance Art Series”, Tokyo, JAPAN
Asiatopia, Bangkok, THAILAND
ZUG. Flexible:X, Performance Art Operation Work, Dresden, GERMANY
1997 Simposio International De Escultura Mexico-Japon, Tuxtla Guttierez, Chiapas, MEXICO
Sexta Bienal de La Habana, Havana, CUBA
2nd Asian Performance Art Series, Nagano, Tokyo, JAPAN
SeptFest Art Conference-Multi-culturalism, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Performance Art Conference5, Bangkok, Suan Pakkad Palace, Bangkok, THAILAND
1996 Recontre International d’art Performance Et Multi-media 1996, Quebec, CANADA
Between the Visible and Invisible, Lahore International Arts Workshop, PAKISTAN
1995 2nd Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo & Nagano, JAPAN
Castle of Imagination, 3rd International Artists Meeting, Bytow, POLAND
“International Nature Art Symposium”, Yatoo, Kong Ju, South KOREA
Kwang Ju Biennale,, Kwang Ju, KOREA
MA: East West Study Project, Dusseldorf & Darmstadt, GERMANY
Chiang Mai Social Installation, Chiang Mai, THAILAND
1994 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
5th Fukui International Video Biennale, Tawara, Fukui City, JAPAN
1993 Sense Yellow, Concrete House, Nontburi, THAILAND
1992 International Sculpture Symposium, Gulbarga, Karnataka, INDIA
1990 TIME Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
C.A.R.E.: Concerned Artists for the Environment, Artist Village, Singapore Art Festival, SINGAPORE
1989 HAPPENINGS II, QU*ART Gallery, Hong Kong, HONG KONG
HAPPENINGS, National University of Singapore, SINGAPORE
The Drawing Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
Performances with Black Market International
2000 Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
2002 4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Zweiten Ilseder PerformanceAbend, Gebläsehalle in Ilsede, GERMANY
13th Performance Art Conference - “The Art of Action 111”, Podewils‘schen Palais, Berlin, GERMANY
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
Le Theatre de L'Usine (place des Volontaires), Geneve, SWITZERLAND
2006 TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2010 “undisclosed territory#4”, Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
Performance Art Season 2010, Warsaw, POLAND
Black Market in Town, Orangerie Theater im Volksgarten, Köln, GERMANY
Blow!8, Umformerstation, Ilsede, GERMANY
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2011 “This Is Performance Art”, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2013 “Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
2015 Kulstof 15, Kroppen Som Proces OG Billede International performance festival NORDKRAF, Aarlborg DENMARK
BONE 18 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
AWARDS
2014 ASA (Artist Scholar Activist) Award, Performance Studies international (PSi)
2013 Artist-in-Residence, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2013 Artist-in-Residence, Contemporary Art of Japan, Saitama, Japan
2008 Artist-in Residence, Red & Grey Contemporary, Chengdu, China
2005 Cultural Medallion, Singapore
2002 Artist in Residence, La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore
1998 Artist in Residence (Asia Europe Ministerial Meeting, Cultural and Arts Program) supported by Visiting Arts, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Gasworks Studios, London, UK
TEACHING EXPERIENCE :
Workshops / Seminars
2013 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2007 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2006 NRLA (National Review of Live Art) International Winter School, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2004 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
2003 Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, MEXICO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
2002 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Musashino Art University, TOKYO
2001 Musashino Art University, TOKYO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2000 Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1999 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1998 Norwich College of Art and Design, NORWICH, UK
1996 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Singapore Art Museum;
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan);
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, Australia);
Lenzi-Morisot Foundation (Singapore – France);
ARTUR in Istanbul, Turkey
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Chin Hock Seng (1981)
‘Pop dog’ artist shares a dream
The Straits Times, Singapore. May 9, 1981
Lee Wen,
A Waking Dream- drawings and poetry,
Select Books, Singapore, 1981
Ng Sek Chow
Yellow reflections
The Straits Times, Singapore, July 23, 1993
Chandrasekaran.S., Langenbach, R. & Lee Wen (1993)
Local Performance Art, Democracy: Commentary.
Journal of the National University of Singapore Society, Singapore, National
University of Singapore Society (Vol.11 No. 2)
Swinson, James
Lee Wen Connection / Location
Third Text/ no.45 Winter, London 1998-99 - pp.95-97
Lee Weng Choy
Artist essay on Lee Wen
The Third AsiaPacificTriennale 1999 Catalogue,
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Australia.
Lee Weng Choy, (2000)
Just What Is it that Makes the Term Global-Local So Widely Cited, Yet So Annoying?
"Flight Patterns: picturing the Pacific Rim" catalogue
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
(A shorter version of this essay was first published in Artlink, Volume 20 Number 2, June 2000.)
Woon Tien Wei
Between Journeys: an Interview with Lee Wen
Performance Research 6(l), pp.3‑7 © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2001
Barragan, Paco
The Art To Come
Subastas Siglo XXI, Madrid 2002
Oon, Clarrisa
Hello, yellow fellow
The Straits Times, Singapore, October 21, 2003
Glenis Israel
Senior Artwise 2 visual arts 11-12,
Part 3 Asian Artists – contemporary, Chapter 14
John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, Sydney 2004
HO Tzu Nyen
“strange fruit”
Art Asia Pacific / Spring 2004 No.40
Gunalan Nadarajan, Russell Storer and Eugene Tan
Contemporary Art in Singapore
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, Singapore 2007
Valentin Torrens, Editor
Pedagogia De La Performance, Programmas de Cursos y Talleres
Diputacion Provincial De Huesca, Barcelona, Spain, 2007
Lee Wen, Editor
Anthropometry Revision
Soo Bin Art International, Singapore, 2008
Kwok Kian Woon, Lee Wen, Co-Editors
The Artists Village: 20 Years On
Singapore Art Museum, The Artists Village, Singapore, 2009
Richard Martel
Arte en vivo y en directo
EXIT Express Magazine #47 November 2009, p16-25
Adele Tan
Art and the iterative force: Lee Wen’s untaming of Yves Klein
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, May 2010, Vol. 32, No. 2, Pages 17-23
Iola Lenzi, Tan Boon Hui, Khairuddin Hori, editors, et. all.. Negotiating Home History and Nation Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 Singapore Art Museum 2011 Christine Van Assche, Patricia Levasseur de la Motte, et, all... Video, an Art, a History 1965 - 2010 A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections Singapore Art Museum 2011
Mitsu Salmon
Lee Wen's Revolutionary Daydreams, IN TIME December 2013, newsletter, Chicago, pg.22, 23
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
AFFILIATION:
Black Market International, (international performance art collective / first participation in 2000)
Co-founding Artistic Director, “Future Of Imagination”, International Performance Art Event, Singapore (in collaboration with Kai Lam & Jason Lim 2003-2011)
Guest Curator: UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, 2008 Cheng Du China.
Co-founding Artistic Director, “R.I.T.E.S.” - Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak, Performance Art development & research agency, Singapore
(in collaboration with Kai Lam 2009-2013)
Artistic Director, I.A.R.C. - Independent Archive and Resource Centre, Singapore
e-mail: wen.lila@gmail.com
Lee Wen
Short bio:-
Born in 1957, Lee Wen (Chinese: 李文; pinyin: Lǐ Wén) is a multidisciplinary artist and one of Singapore’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists. Best known for his Yellow Man series, painting his own body with bright yellow poster paint, he expresses an exaggerated symbol of his ethnic identity as a citizen of Singapore. Lee now lives and works extensively on a global circuit and based between Singapore and Tokyo.
Lee Wen’s performances and installations often expose and question the ideologies and value systems of individuals as well as social structures. His work attempts to combine Southeast Asian contexts with international currents in contemporary art. His early practice was associated with the Artists Village, an alternative art group in Singapore and later forged a more individuated artistic career. (Lee officially resigned from TAV in 2011). Lee has been represented at the Singapore Biennale (2014), Busan Biennale (2004), the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane (1999), the Sexta Bienal de La Habana, (1997), the Kwang Ju Biennial (1995) and the 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka (1994).
Lee’s enthusiasm as an artist goes beyond his solo work and continues to be active and involved with the new generation in spawning possibilities of collaborations, network and discourse. In 2003 Lee initiated, with the support of the Artists Village, “The Future of Imagination”, an international performance art event and “R.I.T.E.S.- Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” (2009), a platform to support and develop performance art practices, discourse, infrastructure and audiences in Singapore.
Since 1999 Lee has worked with Black Market International an innovative, ground-breaking, utopian performance art “group” comprising artists from various countries and cultural backgrounds. Lee initiated the Independent Archive in 2012 to develop documentation, research and resource sharing of ephemeral art manifestations in Singapore a well as internationally.
LEE Wen, 李文
Born in Singapore, 1957
Education
2006 MA Fine Arts, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1992 City of London Polytechnic, London, UK
1990 LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Solo Exhibitions:
2017
2014 Mirrors In The Dark, Grey Projects, SINGAPORE
2012 Lucid Dreams In The Reverie Of The Real, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
2008 Anthropometry Revision, Soo Bin Art Int’l, SINGAPORE
2007 Freedom to Daydream, Mothers of Imagination, Your Mother Gallery, SINGAPORE
2004 Unframed¬7, P-10, SINGAPORE
2003 Strange Fruit, The Substation, SINGAPORE
2002 Everybody Should Be Happy, Utterly Art, SINGAPORE
1997 Hand-Made Tales, The Black Box, Theatre Works, SINGAPORE
1995 Neo-Baba, VA-nishiogi Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
1993 Journey of a yellow man no.3: DESIRE, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Selected Exhibitions:
2015 Kulstof 15, Kroppen Som Proces OG Billede International performance festival NORDKRAF, Aarlborg DENMARK
BONE 18 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2015 Artist Making Movement, 5th Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,
Taichung, TAIWAN, R.O.C.
Prudential Eyezone, Co-curated by ArtScience Museum START, Saatchi Gallery, London, ENGLAND
The Esplanade Presents National Day Celebrations, SINGAPORE
(Art Garden) Le Printemps 2015 Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille, FRANCE
Do Disturb, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
‘Secret Archipelago', Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FRANCE
Whose Game is It?, Royal College Of Art, London, Curating Contemporary Art Exhibitions,ENGLAND
The Prudential Singapore Eye, Art Science Museum, SINGAPORE s
2014 The Roving Eye: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, ARTER, Istanbul, TURKEY
‘Modern Love’, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore LASALLE College of the Arts’, SINGAPORE
Art Basel, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), Hong Kong HONG KONG
Roppongi Art Night, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown Plaza, Tokyo, JAPAN
2013 Britto International Artists Workshop, Dhaka, BANGLADESH
7th Kuala Lumpur Triennial BARRICADE , Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Cascadence / Singapore Redux, SINGAPORE
“The Realm in the Mirror, the Vision out of Image”, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, CHINA
“Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
‘My Earth Staglinec 2013’ Staglinec, Koprivnica, CROATIA
‘Rethinking of Protocols-Us and/As Institutions’ curated by Biljana Ciric, Guangzhou Times Museum, Guangzhou, CHINA
“Lit Up 2013”, Aliwal Art Center, SINGAPORE
"The Artist, the Book and the Crowd", The Substation, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Biennale 2013: If The World Changed”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Concept Context Contestation: art & the collective”, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, Bangkok, THAILAND
2012 "Wanderers 2 / Underground Site", 4th International Performance Art Festival Toyama, JAPAN
"New Strange Faces", Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
“The Lecher of Art” The Substation, SINGAPORE
“14th Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival”, Bangkok, THAILAND
“The First Venice International Performance Art Week”, Venice, ITALY
2011 R.I.T.E.S. “Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” #01/2011, The Substation, SINGAPORE
“This Is Performance Art”, Aberdeen and Glasgow, SCOTLAND
“Negotiating Home, History & Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art from S.E. Asia, 1991– 2011”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Video: An Art, A History”, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Singapore Survey 2011: Imagine Malaysia”, Valentine Willie Fine Arts, SINGAPORE
Future of Imagination 7, Goodman Art Centre, SINGAPORE
“Currents: from Singapore in Macau”, Ox warehouse, MACAU
“Guangzhou Live”, You You Gallery, Guangzhou, CHINA
2010 National Review of Live Art 2010, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Performance Art Laboratory Project (PALA Project) 2010 /“undisclosed territory#4”,
Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
9th International Performance Art, Turbine, Giswil 2010, SWITZERLAND
Rencontre internationale d’art performance de Québec, Quebec, CANADA
Survey from Singapore, FADO, Toronto Free Gallery, Toronto, CANADA
4 Directions from Asia, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
"The winds project" encontro internacional da performance, Teatro TUCA, Sao Paulo, BRAZIL
Action Script: Symposium on Performance Art Practice and Documentation in Asia, HONG KONG
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2009 International Performance Show-Ceramic Passion, 5th World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, S. KOREA
Infr’Action ‘09 -Festival International d’Art Performance, Paris, FRANCE
Rasa Aksi-4 Artists From Singapore, Lublin, and, Warsaw, POLAND
Live Action Göteborg 09, Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Momentum- Platform for Performance-Art, Brussels, BELGIUM
“Drawing As Form”, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
10th OPEN International Performance Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
LIVE International Performance Art Biennale, Vancouver, CANADA
Performance In Frames, Singapore Management University Gallery, SINGAPORE
2008 "Small East Co-prosperity Restaurant 08", Tokyo, JAPAN
Intervene! Interrupt! Rethinking Art as Social Practice, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Kết Nối : Vietnam-Singapore Performance Art Dialogue, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Performatica’08, Four Artists From Singapore, 26cc, Rome and La Casa Verde, Foligno, ITALY
Blow!5- Performance Art Meeting between Singapore and Germany, Hildesheim & Ilsede, GERMANY
The Artists Village: 20 Years On, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Infr’Action -Festival International d’Art Performance, Sète, FRANCE
UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
2nd Vital Chongqing International Live Art Festival, Chongqing, Sichuan, CHINA
Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Performance Art in China & Asia, Macao Museum of Art, MACAU
Future of Imagination 5, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Asiatopia, 10th Anniversary, Bangkok Art &Culture Centre, THAILAND
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perfurbance #3, “spiritual renewal”, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA
Là-bas-> Hyper Center in Helsinki, FINLAND
IX Międzynarodowy Festiwal Sztuki Akcji "Interakcje 2007" Piotrkow Trybunalski; Bielsko-Biała, POLAND
Made In China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Humlebæk, DENMARK
Future of Imagination 4, 72-13, TheatreWorks, SINGAPORE
Maju Jaya – CHAOS Dab!, Jogjakarta National Museum, Jogjakarta, INDONESIA
Vital 07: essence of performance, Chinese Art Center, Manchester, ENGLAND
LONG’ACTION 07- rencontres franco-chinoises d’art performance, Sète FRANCE
2006 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2006, SINGAPORE
Satu Kali, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Future of Imagination 3, The Substation, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
acción!06MAD - III Encuentro Internacional de Arte de Acción. Madrid, SPAIN
Ctrl+Alt+Del, Singapore Management University Arts Fest 2006, SINGAPORE
4th DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
S+S, 1, ALL_2, Shenyang, CHINA
7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, CANADA
DEFORMES, Primera Bienal de Performance, Santiago, CHILE
Birds Migration: Indonesia International Performance Art Event [IIPAE] 2006, Jakarta, INDONESIA
Episode5: 12-Hour Performance, Sound and Video Festival, SINGAPORE
2005 Performance Site, Myanmar 05, Borders:withIN withOUT, NICA, Yangon, MYANMAR
National Review of Live Art, 2005 , Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Crossing Time International, Dartington College of Arts, Totnes, Devon, ENGLAND
3 Encuentro Internacional de Performance, Institut Valencia D’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, SPAIN
National Review of Live Art – MIDLAND 05, Perth, AUSTRALIA
Stopover, Japan Singapore Performance Art Meeting, FronT Room Gallery, SINGAPORE
Situations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
REACH OUTLYING 2005 Tipalive Taiwan International Performance Art Festival, Taipei, TAIWAN
"UGNAYAN‘05", 4th Philippine International Performance Art Festival (PIPAF), Manila, The Philippines
Spaces and Shadows: Politics of Fun, House of World Culture, Berlin, GERMANY
Self-portrait Performativ, langaut, Golberode, Dresden, GERMANY
BLURRR 5 biennial of performance art, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
2004 130 Bank Gallery, 10th Anniversary Commemoration Exhibition, Kitakyushu, JAPAN
National Review of Live Art, 2004, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Perform:State:Interrogate: Performance Studies international Conference
(PSi#10), The Substation, SINGAPORE
2nd DaDao Live Art Festival, Beijing, CHINA
Giving Water An Image, Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
Sea Art Festival, Busan Biennale 2004, Pusan, S. KOREA
Voice of Site, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Sustainable, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Future of Imagination 2, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
Future of Imagination, The Substation, SINGAPORE
4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
“Alter-Native Dialogues”, Video/ Performance collaboration with James Luna, Tokyo, JAPAN
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2001 EXIT International Festival for Unusual Live Performances, Cable Factory, Helsinki, FINLAND
2nd Open Art Festival, Pengshan, Leshan and Chengdu, Sichuan, CHINA
Theertha International Artists Workshop - 2001, Lunaganga, SRI LANKA
2000 FEAST! Food In Art! Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
Critical Response, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
Artists Investigating Monument - AIM projects, Raffles Landing Site, Singapore.
1999 Rånd, Festival der Regionen, Zuckerfabrik Enns, AUSTRIA
The Third Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Nokia Singapore Art 1999, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
“Post-Ulu”, The Artists Village Exhibition, The Substation, SINGAPORE
1998 Construction in Process VI - The Bridge, The Artists Museum, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Sub-Fiction, Werkleitz Biennale 1998, Tornitz & Werkleitz, GERMANY
"3rd Asian Performance Art Series”, Tokyo, JAPAN
Asiatopia, Bangkok, THAILAND
ZUG. Flexible:X, Performance Art Operation Work, Dresden, GERMANY
1997 Simposio International De Escultura Mexico-Japon, Tuxtla Guttierez, Chiapas, MEXICO
Sexta Bienal de La Habana, Havana, CUBA
2nd Asian Performance Art Series, Nagano, Tokyo, JAPAN
SeptFest Art Conference-Multi-culturalism, The Substation, SINGAPORE
Performance Art Conference5, Bangkok, Suan Pakkad Palace, Bangkok, THAILAND
Recontre International d’art Performance Et Multi-media 1996, Quebec, CANADA
Between the Visible and Invisible, Lahore International Arts Workshop, PAKISTAN
2nd Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo & Nagano, JAPAN
Castle of Imagination, 3rd International Artists Meeting, Bytow, POLAND
“International Nature Art Symposium”, Yatoo, Kong Ju, South KOREA
Kwang Ju Biennale,, Kwang Ju, KOREA
MA: East West Study Project, Dusseldorf & Darmstadt, GERMANY
Chiang Mai Social Installation, Chiang Mai, THAILAND
1994 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
5th Fukui International Video Biennale, Tawara, Fukui City, JAPAN
1993 Sense Yellow, Concrete House, Nontburi, THAILAND
1992 International Sculpture Symposium, Gulbarga, Karnataka, INDIA
1990 TIME Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
C.A.R.E.: Concerned Artists for the Environment, Artist Village, Singapore Art Festival, SINGAPORE
1989 HAPPENINGS II, QU*ART Gallery, Hong Kong, HONG KONG
HAPPENINGS, National University of Singapore, SINGAPORE
The Drawing Show, Artists Village, Ulu Sembawang, SINGAPORE
Performances with Black Market International
2000 Expo 2000, Performance with Black Market International, Hanover, GERMANY
TransEuropa -Theatre Festival 2000, Hildesheim, GERMANY
2002 4th Asiatopia, Bangkok THAILAND
Recontre Int’l d’art performance de Quebec 2002, LELIEU, Quebec, CANADA
2003 Aciones en Ruta, Mexico City and Encuentro Intl de Performance Yucatan, Merrida, MEXICO
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
Zweiten Ilseder PerformanceAbend, Gebläsehalle in Ilsede, GERMANY
13th Performance Art Conference - “The Art of Action 111”, Podewils‘schen Palais, Berlin, GERMANY
Bone 8, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
Le Theatre de L'Usine (place des Volontaires), Geneve, SWITZERLAND
2006 TROUBLE #2, halles de schaerbeek, Brussels, BELGIUM
2007 National Review of Live Art 2007, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2010 “undisclosed territory#4”, Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, INDONESIA
Future of Imagination 6, Sculpture Square, SINGAPORE
Performance Platform Lublin 2010, POLAND
Performance Art Season 2010, Warsaw, POLAND
Black Market in Town, Orangerie Theater im Volksgarten, Köln, GERMANY
Blow!8, Umformerstation, Ilsede, GERMANY
BONE 13 – Festival für Aktionskunst, Berne, SWITZERLAND
2011 “This Is Performance Art”, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
2013 “Gu Yu International Performance Art Festival 2013”, Xi An,Shang Nan, Beijing, CHINA
2015 Kulstof 15. Aarlborg, Denmark
AWARDS
2016 Joseph Balestier Award presented by Art Stage Singapore/U.S. Embassy Singapore
2014 Performance Studies international Ltd. (P.S.i) Artist/ Scholar/ Activist (A.S.A.) award,
2013 Artist-in-Residence, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2013 Artist-in-Residence, Contemporary Art of Japan, Saitama, Japan
2008 Artist-in Residence, Red & Grey Contemporary, Chengdu, China
2005 Cultural Medallion, Singapore
2002 Artist in Residence, La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore
1998 Artist in Residence (Asia Europe Ministerial Meeting, Cultural and Arts Program) supported by Visiting Arts, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Gasworks Studios, London, UK
TEACHING EXPERIENCE :
Workshops / Seminars
2013 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.
2007 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2006 NRLA (National Review of Live Art) International Winter School, Glasgow, SCOTLAND
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2004 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, VIETNAM
University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
2003 Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, MEXICO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
2002 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Musashino Art University, TOKYO
2001 Musashino Art University, TOKYO
Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
2000 Nanyang College of Fine Art, SINGAPORE
La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1999 La-Salle-SIA College of the Arts, SINGAPORE
1998 Norwich College of Art and Design, NORWICH, UK
1996 Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, JAPAN
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Singapore Art Museum;
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan);
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, Australia);
Lenzi-Morisot Foundation (Singapore – France);
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Chin Hock Seng (1981)
‘Pop dog’ artist shares a dream
The Straits Times, Singapore. May 9, 1981
Lee Wen,
A Waking Dream- drawings and poetry,
Select Books, Singapore, 1981
Ng Sek Chow
Yellow reflections
The Straits Times, Singapore, July 23, 1993
Chandrasekaran.S., Langenbach, R. & Lee Wen (1993)
Local Performance Art, Democracy: Commentary.
Journal of the National University of Singapore Society, Singapore, National
University of Singapore Society (Vol.11 No. 2)
Swinson, James
Lee Wen Connection / Location
Third Text/ no.45 Winter, London 1998-99 - pp.95-97
Lee Weng Choy
Artist essay on Lee Wen
The Third AsiaPacificTriennale 1999 Catalogue,
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Australia.
Lee Weng Choy, (2000)
Just What Is it that Makes the Term Global-Local So Widely Cited, Yet So Annoying?
"Flight Patterns: picturing the Pacific Rim" catalogue
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
(A shorter version of this essay was first published in Artlink, Volume 20 Number 2, June 2000.)
Woon Tien Wei
Between Journeys: an Interview with Lee Wen
Performance Research 6(l), pp.3‑7 © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2001
Barragan, Paco
The Art To Come
Subastas Siglo XXI, Madrid 2002
Oon, Clarrisa
Hello, yellow fellow
The Straits Times, Singapore, October 21, 2003
Glenis Israel
Senior Artwise 2 visual arts 11-12,
Part 3 Asian Artists – contemporary, Chapter 14
John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, Sydney 2004
HO Tzu Nyen
“strange fruit”
Art Asia Pacific / Spring 2004 No.40
Gunalan Nadarajan, Russell Storer and Eugene Tan
Contemporary Art in Singapore
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, Singapore 2007
Valentin Torrens, Editor
Pedagogia De La Performance, Programmas de Cursos y Talleres
Diputacion Provincial De Huesca, Barcelona, Spain, 2007
Lee Wen, Editor
Anthropometry Revision
Soo Bin Art International, Singapore, 2008
Kwok Kian Woon, Lee Wen, Co-Editors
The Artists Village: 20 Years On
Singapore Art Museum, The Artists Village, Singapore, 2009
Richard Martel
Arte en vivo y en directo
EXIT Express Magazine #47 November 2009, p16-25
Adele Tan
Art and the iterative force: Lee Wen’s untaming of Yves Klein
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, May 2010, Vol. 32, No. 2, Pages 17-23
Iola Lenzi, Tan Boon Hui, Khairuddin Hori, editors, et. all.. Negotiating Home History and Nation Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 Singapore Art Museum 2011 Christine Van Assche, Patricia Levasseur de la Motte, et, all... Video, an Art, a History 1965 - 2010 A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections Singapore Art Museum 2011
Mitsui Salmon
Lee Wen's Revolutionary Daydreams, IN TIME December 2013, newsletter, Chicago, pg.22, 23
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
National Gallery, Singapore
AFFILIATION:
Black Market International, (international performance art collective / first participation in 2000)
Co-founding Artistic Director, “Future Of Imagination”, International Performance Art Event, Singapore (in collaboration with Kai Lam & Jason Lim 2003-2011)
Guest Curator: UP-ON First International Live Art Festival, 2008 Cheng Du China.
Co-founding Artistic Director, “R.I.T.E.S.” - Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak, Performance Art development & research agency, Singapore
(in collaboration with Kai Lam 2009-2013)
Artistic Director, I.A.R.C. - Independent Archive and Resource Centre, Singapore
e-mail: wen.lila@gmail.com
" Mango Leaf, bandana, shoes and iPad." Colour pencils on paper, 2016.
'i shall...Blame my Public Relations..." and you... yes you....i had been wanting to say this way back when, but better late than never as they say, and it not only gave me time to collect my ideas but also so much had transpired and water under the bridge i must say helped to reconfirm or at least gave me food for rethinking somewhat all them quandaries upon quandaries...
I must also quickly shift the topic to the Venice Biennale. You know how one year we are pulling out and then now Singapore is staking the participation for ten years or so, right up front as if we are late never mind but we gonna be number 1 from now on like "KIASU boh kiasi"(in Hokkien; "Scared lose but not scared die"). And who gonna bother after all if it does relate to all them problematic questions in the art quandary. To me it is a reality check that this is happening and whatever outcome at this point i am happy it transpired. Although i did not signed the open letter about re-installing our participation in Venice Biennale as drafted by Alvin Tan, Heman Chong and Ho Rui Ann, cause there were a number of arguments in it I could not bring myself to agree with yet I am glad to see a strong list of signatures which i don't remember if at any one time in recent past our local art community had given such concerted response. Hence it is necessary that the decision should be reconsidered if not given a more thorough explanation.
I must admit that although i have participated in a number of international biennales although not the high and mighty Venice as is commonly perceived the pinnacle of best of the best in the world of art shows i never once travelled to one just to see the works exhibited like a pilgrim of art. I did visit the Venice Biennale before Singapore got on the bandwagon but i only went because i was in between gigs. i was stopping by Venice after having participated in an event in Linz Austria and going to another one in Amalfi in South Italy. (After Venice, I was going to meet Boris Nieslony who was performing in another event in a small town in North Italy and together we would travel south to Amalfi by car. ) The Venice Biennale was impressive to me because it was Venice itself more so than how the world flock to see the best of the best in art in such charming fairy tale like scenario. But then i could only afford one night hotel in one that fortunately were making some noisy renovations in the lobby and some rooms, hence giving me a room with discounted rate.
yes i shall blame myself and them damned P.R. people And you and you and you.... but seems like another sudden change in topic but no not actually...
I have always maintained that the world had already ended long ago. This is a response to various so-called doomsday soothsayers or watchers. I see it metaphorically in the sense that the intensity of globalization in the world has in some ways changed the rules of the game for cultural evolution. In the sense that cultures of the past used to have certain level of unique and distinct differences in terms of being able to exist in separate entity from any outside influences in any direct way. The knowledge and perception of reality of a certain people within their own boundaries based on borders if say it were defined as a country would not be easily disrupted.
If there was any specific day we can name to mark the change where cultures that used to grow in isolation opened up to the proximities of other cultural manifestation whereby one world view or perception of reality cannot be taken to be the only one anymore it would be August 27, 1883 the day the volcano Krakatao erupted at a time when technologies like the telegraph were becoming widespread and was used to provide the information increasingly could be disseminated in much shorter time compared to that in the past. Of course cultures did had cross fertilization and contact via trade routes and missionaries etc. zealously spreading their beliefs. However it did not happened at such a fast lightning pace and with the complete availability of information on the internet it is even more so than before as if that the world had died twice over. (a wonderful telling on this phenomenon is Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester that covers the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.)
I must also quickly shift the topic to the Venice Biennale. You know how one year we are pulling out and then now Singapore is staking the participation for ten years or so, right up front as if we are late never mind but we gonna be number 1 from now on like "KIASU boh kiasi"(in Hokkien; "Scared lose but not scared die"). And who gonna bother after all if it does relate to all them problematic questions in the art quandary. To me it is a reality check that this is happening and whatever outcome at this point i am happy it transpired. Although i did not signed the open letter about re-installing our participation in Venice Biennale as drafted by Alvin Tan, Heman Chong and Ho Rui Ann, cause there were a number of arguments in it I could not bring myself to agree with yet I am glad to see a strong list of signatures which i don't remember if at any one time in recent past our local art community had given such concerted response. Hence it is necessary that the decision should be reconsidered if not given a more thorough explanation.
I must admit that although i have participated in a number of international biennales although not the high and mighty Venice as is commonly perceived the pinnacle of best of the best in the world of art shows i never once travelled to one just to see the works exhibited like a pilgrim of art. I did visit the Venice Biennale before Singapore got on the bandwagon but i only went because i was in between gigs. i was stopping by Venice after having participated in an event in Linz Austria and going to another one in Amalfi in South Italy. (After Venice, I was going to meet Boris Nieslony who was performing in another event in a small town in North Italy and together we would travel south to Amalfi by car. ) The Venice Biennale was impressive to me because it was Venice itself more so than how the world flock to see the best of the best in art in such charming fairy tale like scenario. But then i could only afford one night hotel in one that fortunately were making some noisy renovations in the lobby and some rooms, hence giving me a room with discounted rate.
yes i shall blame myself and them damned P.R. people And you and you and you.... but seems like another sudden change in topic but no not actually...
I have always maintained that the world had already ended long ago. This is a response to various so-called doomsday soothsayers or watchers. I see it metaphorically in the sense that the intensity of globalization in the world has in some ways changed the rules of the game for cultural evolution. In the sense that cultures of the past used to have certain level of unique and distinct differences in terms of being able to exist in separate entity from any outside influences in any direct way. The knowledge and perception of reality of a certain people within their own boundaries based on borders if say it were defined as a country would not be easily disrupted.
If there was any specific day we can name to mark the change where cultures that used to grow in isolation opened up to the proximities of other cultural manifestation whereby one world view or perception of reality cannot be taken to be the only one anymore it would be August 27, 1883 the day the volcano Krakatao erupted at a time when technologies like the telegraph were becoming widespread and was used to provide the information increasingly could be disseminated in much shorter time compared to that in the past. Of course cultures did had cross fertilization and contact via trade routes and missionaries etc. zealously spreading their beliefs. However it did not happened at such a fast lightning pace and with the complete availability of information on the internet it is even more so than before as if that the world had died twice over. (a wonderful telling on this phenomenon is Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester that covers the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.)
IF YOU LOOK AT WHAT I AM DOING in this day and age you may see it as retrogressive, if not nostalgia in extreme but this being a conscious choice i snub those privileged standard bearers and arrogant pillars of society and the front runners and trend setters.
Being of relevance to contemporary times, reconciliation of contradictions, and resistance to the bullying tyranny of the status quo- these are my calling cards. All the other points of references may help contribute but may not be as important.
EVERYBODY! 皆さま！ALMAL! TODOS! 모두 TOUT LE MONDE!! SEMUA ORANG! ทุกคน Lahat ng tao JEDERMANN! 大家! 大家 ! ВСЕКИ! Kila mtu !!ALLA! Tout moun! ทุกคน! DENON! ALLE!! ԱՄԵՆ! Te gjitheve! УСЕ! TOTHOM! SVI! VŠICHNI! IEDEREEN! Kõigile! Kaikille! ΟΛΟΥΣ!
יעדער!
الجميع!
And do you think "Everybody" means Everybody the same way to EVERYBODY? OR does it still do??? I doubt. As much the way we introduce ourselves in a biography short and sweet as such....
Lee Wen works (or dies working) as a mixed media artist presenting works as drawings. paintings, installations, photographs, videos, performance and documentations. Then again once best known for his Yellow Man series of work, the multidisciplinary artist is also one of Singapore’s pioneering performance artists. Through unexpected twists of fate, re-construed plays, rites, rituals, games or sports like "Ping-Pong Go Round" and other re-constructed personas such as "Stagger Lee", and sometimes even re-visits of presentations of other origins like "Give Peace A Chance Redux"; the artist re-emerged and plays provocateur for infinite over finite games; motivated by a strong conviction of justice and idealism, with a persistence to stay true to the self in an unsympathetically structured world. Lee often uses his life experiences and personal dilemmas as initial entries into artistic journeys as human encounters, reconciling conflicts, recovering memories and remaking mythologies.
As in trendy po-mo-lingo goes its all about context bro, as such bbbut what is it all about?
Being of relevance to contemporary times, reconciliation of contradictions, and resistance to the bullying tyranny of the status quo- these are my calling cards. All the other points of references may help contribute but may not be as important.
EVERYBODY! 皆さま！ALMAL! TODOS! 모두 TOUT LE MONDE!! SEMUA ORANG! ทุกคน Lahat ng tao JEDERMANN! 大家! 大家 ! ВСЕКИ! Kila mtu !!ALLA! Tout moun! ทุกคน! DENON! ALLE!! ԱՄԵՆ! Te gjitheve! УСЕ! TOTHOM! SVI! VŠICHNI! IEDEREEN! Kõigile! Kaikille! ΟΛΟΥΣ!
יעדער!
الجميع!
And do you think "Everybody" means Everybody the same way to EVERYBODY? OR does it still do??? I doubt. As much the way we introduce ourselves in a biography short and sweet as such....
Lee Wen works (or dies working) as a mixed media artist presenting works as drawings. paintings, installations, photographs, videos, performance and documentations. Then again once best known for his Yellow Man series of work, the multidisciplinary artist is also one of Singapore’s pioneering performance artists. Through unexpected twists of fate, re-construed plays, rites, rituals, games or sports like "Ping-Pong Go Round" and other re-constructed personas such as "Stagger Lee", and sometimes even re-visits of presentations of other origins like "Give Peace A Chance Redux"; the artist re-emerged and plays provocateur for infinite over finite games; motivated by a strong conviction of justice and idealism, with a persistence to stay true to the self in an unsympathetically structured world. Lee often uses his life experiences and personal dilemmas as initial entries into artistic journeys as human encounters, reconciling conflicts, recovering memories and remaking mythologies.
As in trendy po-mo-lingo goes its all about context bro, as such bbbut what is it all about?
Self-portrait, 1978
ink on paper
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facebook entry on June 15, 2011
https://www.facebook.com/lee.wen2
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Footnote:
1. Heinrich Böll; End of a Mission / translated by Leila Vennewitz. – New York : McGraw-Hill, 1967
1. Heinrich Böll; End of a Mission / translated by Leila Vennewitz. – New York : McGraw-Hill, 1967
