"Give Peace A Chance: Redux", Lee Wen with Kai Lam
Singapore Management University, Underpass Concourse,
September 11 to 15 Singapore 2006
In a project called “Give Peace A Chance Redux” I had re-visited the legendary “Bed-in for peace” performance of Yoko Ono and John Lennon during 11 to 15 September 2006 together with Kai Lam. We occupied an empty shop space for five days and installed a bed for sitting and discussing “war and peace”, decorated with hip tie-dyes, colorful rugs and carpets, a video documentary of the legendary “Bed-in” running in a loop and an anti-war poster corner where visitors can paint and put up on the wall their own messages against the futility of war. The project was also part of the Singapore Management University Arts festival and my work responded to a number of contexts quite uniquely Singaporean, such as the ban on public protests and blocking out the black-listed activists from entering the country during the World Bank meeting being held that week. Given the fame of John Lennon and the Beatles amongst youthful music lovers compared in contrast to ignorance of Yoko Ono’s art departures and “Bed-in for peace” seen as an extension of Ono’s performance art interventions gave us an opportunity to provoked interest in performance art as legitimate art practice.
Singapore Management University, Underpass Concourse,
September 11 to 15 Singapore 2006
In a project called “Give Peace A Chance Redux” I had re-visited the legendary “Bed-in for peace” performance of Yoko Ono and John Lennon during 11 to 15 September 2006 together with Kai Lam. We occupied an empty shop space for five days and installed a bed for sitting and discussing “war and peace”, decorated with hip tie-dyes, colorful rugs and carpets, a video documentary of the legendary “Bed-in” running in a loop and an anti-war poster corner where visitors can paint and put up on the wall their own messages against the futility of war. The project was also part of the Singapore Management University Arts festival and my work responded to a number of contexts quite uniquely Singaporean, such as the ban on public protests and blocking out the black-listed activists from entering the country during the World Bank meeting being held that week. Given the fame of John Lennon and the Beatles amongst youthful music lovers compared in contrast to ignorance of Yoko Ono’s art departures and “Bed-in for peace” seen as an extension of Ono’s performance art interventions gave us an opportunity to provoked interest in performance art as legitimate art practice.
