LEE WEN
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      • A Clockwork Pisang
  • IDENTITY
    • Journey Artist's Statement >
      • "We are 'perfurbing' here" March 2008
      • "Will the real Singapore art please stand up?" Dec.1999
      • "If you see a performance artist, kill him", 1997
      • Lexicon Of Dissent
      • Sustaining Alterity in the Times of R(v)apid Changes.
      • How To Change The World Without Really Trying
      • Open Letter to the Nation of Josef Ng's
      • Letter to Alan Oei
      • Return to Daydreams >
        • Iola Lenzi/Shifts
    • Journey Of A Yellow Man >
      • Journey of a yellow man No.2
      • Journey of a yellow man No.3
      • Journey of a yellow man No.4
      • Journey of a Yellow Man No.5: Index to Freedom
      • Journey of a yellow man no.6
      • JYM No.9: Trees Resurrection
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      • Journey No.15: Touching China
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      • More China, Rome
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      • More China, Cheng Du
      • More China, Suzhou
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      • Ghosts Stories, Mexico
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      • Freedom, Service, Hope #1
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    • "A Performative State of Indefinite Duration" Bruce Quek
    • Chinese texts: 中文 >
      • Chng Seok Tin/黄人之旅--李文与行为艺术
      • 已死艺术家的日记 1 – 070513 : 英汉翻译:朱爱伦

Open Letter to the Nation of Josef Ng's

Picture
He lives in Shanghai now
and he’s doing fine.
He is a man of dignity and understands
about art and money better than most of you and me
i met him in the Shanghai gallery that he runs recently.
A stately gallery on the bund with a team of well educated ladies fluent in at least two languages
Well done Josef!! but
i can’t say if he is happy but he’s doing fine
in fact more than fine
cause he knows where to draw the line
the lines that draws blood
the lines of power and judge
the lines that speak from the artist’s heart
the lines that break the law and mother’s heart

“hey lee wen “, he gave me a line i will never forget,
“tell them i am fine,
i may have broken the law
but i did no wrong.”

he is fine dear
my dear nation of Singapore
a nation of fines
we lost a man of honour and sensitivity
an artist whose actions shook minds and hearts
asked questions of care and concern
intelligence and fair comment
with actions performed with unrehearsed theatre
of spontaneity in authentic plainness
real life in situ no need for skill nor dramatic art
what did we do to him?
it was 1994
enough enough
let us redress this error for ever more
he did no wrong
an individual of rare courage so strong

he dared to speak his mind while in silent apathy others watched on
did he really break the law?
must there be judgement based on the parallel of equations liken to math and algebra?
for are we not human homo emotional and, sapiens who knows what is what and what is not
what we saw were actions that knowingly knocked on questions hard and sore
surely not even a hint on erotic score?
surely non of obsessesion of flesh nor eros call?
surely the law is more than words on a page of thy holy queen long past their prime over our nation’s land and door?
surely we have come this far in higher consciousness and expressing our humane need to be of even higher heartfelt passion for our fellow beings even strangers in pain and suffering.?
surely Josef Ng’s actions were those that shook us for only our passionate return to those in need of redemption
when did he go wrong ?
where is the flaw?
it is now 20 years and 300 odd from when the queen gave nay pressed upon us that law
and surely had application not towards such a noble ritual that came forth on an eventful night of celebration

that our nation has arrived with the future
possible sons and daughters of hundred flowers
nay, a  hundred sunflowers on one trunk
shall we not embrace what may be our rightful fortune of brightness
and cheerful pleasure yet to come
if only our hearts were open
that we should receive such genuine touch of risky edges of precocious flashes
instead of fearful thundering guns and canes
heavy insistence of absent intentions
to take aim and blame upon
Josef Ng
He is an artist
He is now a director of an art gallery in China
a human being with inquiry and responsibility
he is an important son of Singapore
with him i wish
with the future generation i pray
with the present optimism i want
to live on this land this home this nation
my nation in pride to walk in stride
with integrity and say i do yes i do
live in a fine country and people

maju lah!

Lee Wen
first published on 3 August 2013
http://republicofdaydreams.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/open-letter-to-the-nation-of-josef-ngs/


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  • ABOUT
    • Curricullum Vitae/bio
    • Downloads
    • Links
    • Videos, Films, Moving Images
    • Bibliography
    • Interviews >
      • Huang Zhiming/Open Ends
      • Woon Tien Wei/Performance Researchwa
      • Iola Lenzi/Shifts
      • "Modern Art Reveries" Cheah Ui-Hoon
      • Artlink/Interview2014
      • BLOC TALK >
        • Beauty Is A Battle
  • Collectives
    • Artists Village/FOI/RITES
    • Independent Archive
    • Black Market International
    • Eternal Network international >
      • Call Of The Red
      • We Here Spend Time : Jason Wee & Lee Wen
      • A Clockwork Pisang
  • IDENTITY
    • Journey Artist's Statement >
      • "We are 'perfurbing' here" March 2008
      • "Will the real Singapore art please stand up?" Dec.1999
      • "If you see a performance artist, kill him", 1997
      • Lexicon Of Dissent
      • Sustaining Alterity in the Times of R(v)apid Changes.
      • How To Change The World Without Really Trying
      • Open Letter to the Nation of Josef Ng's
      • Letter to Alan Oei
      • Return to Daydreams >
        • Iola Lenzi/Shifts
    • Journey Of A Yellow Man >
      • Journey of a yellow man No.2
      • Journey of a yellow man No.3
      • Journey of a yellow man No.4
      • Journey of a Yellow Man No.5: Index to Freedom
      • Journey of a yellow man no.6
      • JYM No.9: Trees Resurrection
      • Journey No.11: multi-culturalism
      • Journey No.15: Touching China
    • More China Than You[我比你中国] >
      • More China, Manchester
      • More China, Rome
      • More China, Tokyo
      • More China, Cheng Du
      • More China, Suzhou
    • Ghosts Stories >
      • Ghosts Stories, Tokyo
      • Ghosts Stories, Kwang Ju
      • Ghosts Stories, Mexico
    • Stagger Lee >
      • Stagger Lee
    • Re-imagined Self >
      • Mirrors In The Dark
      • Picasso & Me
  • Interactive Art
    • Ping-Pong Go Round
    • World Class Society
    • AIM: Raffles
    • Chewing Gum Paintings
    • Give Peace A Chance Redux
    • Art vs. Art
    • Freedom, Service, Hope >
      • Freedom, Service, Hope #1
  • Revisits
    • Give Peace A Chance Redux
    • Anthropometries
    • Zen For Clay
    • Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps)
    • COSMOS: Currencies OfferingS Move Over Sky
  • Contexts & forms
    • Drawings (as Renewal) >
      • Drawings (as Endgame)
      • Songs Unsung
      • Portraits of Remarkable People and Tree
    • Strange Fruit
    • Unframed7
    • Nychthemer 1 & 2
    • Lifeboat
    • Dream Boat
    • One Stone, Three Forms
    • Paintings
  • Institutional Critique
    • I Am Not A Performance Artist >
      • I Am Not A Performance Artist/This Is Not A Work Of Art
    • Is Art Necessary? >
      • Is Art Necessary?
    • Anyhow Blues Project >
      • Diary of A Dead Artist >
        • Diary of A Dead Artist #1, Xi-An, China
        • Diary of A Dead Artist #2, Staglinec, Koprivnica, Croatia
    • Dog Man Domesticate
    • "Room For Nothing To Do" >
      • "Room For Nothing To Do #1
      • "Room For Nothing To Do #2"
      • COSMOS: Currencies OfferingS Move Over Sky
  • Texts
    • Lucy Davis/“Insects as Others”
    • Adele Tan/Art & the Iterative
    • Lee Weng Choy/Critical Response
    • Mitsu Salmon/Daydreamer
    • "Inside an Outsider's Dream" Huang LiJie
    • "A Performative State of Indefinite Duration" Bruce Quek
    • Chinese texts: 中文 >
      • Chng Seok Tin/黄人之旅--李文与行为艺术
      • 已死艺术家的日记 1 – 070513 : 英汉翻译:朱爱伦