I Am Not A Performance Artist/This Is Not A Work Of Art - lee wen 李文

“Rånd”, Festival der Regionen, Zuckerfabrik Enns, Austria
1999

In Singapore, we face much bureaucratic difficulties in organizing “Performance Art”. Some artists have denied describing themselves as performance Artists due to this difficulty, or changing their practice into dance or experimental theatre instead. I started using the words “I am a not a Performance Artist”, in response to this situation and this led on to the need to question and re-position the nature, rationale and philosophy of art in one’s art practice. The performances were meditations on the various questions on art such as what constitute a work of art? Or, why we should make art at all? And serve as starting point for various other discussions..