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The Artists Village
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The Artists Village
The Artists Village (TAV) is a Singapore-based contemporary art group. TAV began as Singapore's first art colony, founded by contemporary artist Tang Da Wu in 1988. Apart from Tang, prolific performance artists such as Amanda Heng and Lee Wen were also closely associated with TAV.
TAV is best known for its engagement with societal changes and issues through late-1980s and 1990s Singapore, often through performance art, installation art, and process-based work. TAV is historicised as producing significant shifts in the history of Singapore's contemporary art. TAV's original space from 1988 to 1990 was a chicken farm at Lorong Gambas in Ulu Sembawang, which has since been redeveloped.
Members were among the earliest contemporary artists in Singapore to practice installation and performance art. At the Village, younger artists were informed about artistic developments unfolding internationally, often mentored by Tang. Exhibitions, happenings, and symposia were organised at the Village, and collaborations were embarked upon with the then-National Museum Art Gallery and the National Arts Council's Singapore Festival of Arts.
In 2008, the Singapore Art Museum held the retrospective, The Artist Village: 20 Years On, a 20th anniversary exhibition that sought to examine the "tensions, disjuncture and collision of the individual and collective memories of TAV" as a collective that had "engendered radical shifts in contemporary art throughout the 80s and 90s".
In 1988, Tang returned to Singapore after completing his art education at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, along with his English wife Hazel McIntosh and his then-5-year-old son Ben Zai. The returning family took residence at 61-B Lorong Gambas in Ulu Sembawang, which was provided rent-free by Tang's relative.
By June 1998, Tang had started inviting like-minded artist friends to his home. They used the 1.6-hectare kampong space for their art practice, also discussing art during these informal gatherings. This gradually developed into an artist community that would show their work together at the Open Studio Show in January 1989. The show featured 10 artists: Tang himself, his brother Tang Dahon, Hazel McIntosh, Amanda Heng, Lim Poh Teck, Baet Yeok Kuan, Tang Mun Kit, Soh Siew Kiat, Vincent Leow, and Wong Shih Yaw. It was during this event that the name "The Artists Village" was first used. Tang had envisioned TAV as:
... [an] alternative venue dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of experimental and alternative arts in Singapore. It endeavors to establish an open space for artists to mature at their own pace, and to provide a conducive environment which allows them to experiment, experience and exchange ideas.
From 1989 onwards, performances and exhibitions were held by the artists living within the forested enclave. Populated by farm animals and durian trees, the site was one of the few rural spaces in highly urbanised Singapore. Art critic T.K. Sabapathy would describe the space and its early activity in a review of TAV's Open Studio Show, published in The Straits Times on 10 February 1989:
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The Artists Village
The Artists Village (TAV) is a Singapore-based contemporary art group. TAV began as Singapore's first art colony, founded by contemporary artist Tang Da Wu in 1988. Apart from Tang, prolific performance artists such as Amanda Heng and Lee Wen were also closely associated with TAV.
TAV is best known for its engagement with societal changes and issues through late-1980s and 1990s Singapore, often through performance art, installation art, and process-based work. TAV is historicised as producing significant shifts in the history of Singapore's contemporary art. TAV's original space from 1988 to 1990 was a chicken farm at Lorong Gambas in Ulu Sembawang, which has since been redeveloped.
Members were among the earliest contemporary artists in Singapore to practice installation and performance art. At the Village, younger artists were informed about artistic developments unfolding internationally, often mentored by Tang. Exhibitions, happenings, and symposia were organised at the Village, and collaborations were embarked upon with the then-National Museum Art Gallery and the National Arts Council's Singapore Festival of Arts.
In 2008, the Singapore Art Museum held the retrospective, The Artist Village: 20 Years On, a 20th anniversary exhibition that sought to examine the "tensions, disjuncture and collision of the individual and collective memories of TAV" as a collective that had "engendered radical shifts in contemporary art throughout the 80s and 90s".
In 1988, Tang returned to Singapore after completing his art education at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, along with his English wife Hazel McIntosh and his then-5-year-old son Ben Zai. The returning family took residence at 61-B Lorong Gambas in Ulu Sembawang, which was provided rent-free by Tang's relative.
By June 1998, Tang had started inviting like-minded artist friends to his home. They used the 1.6-hectare kampong space for their art practice, also discussing art during these informal gatherings. This gradually developed into an artist community that would show their work together at the Open Studio Show in January 1989. The show featured 10 artists: Tang himself, his brother Tang Dahon, Hazel McIntosh, Amanda Heng, Lim Poh Teck, Baet Yeok Kuan, Tang Mun Kit, Soh Siew Kiat, Vincent Leow, and Wong Shih Yaw. It was during this event that the name "The Artists Village" was first used. Tang had envisioned TAV as:
... [an] alternative venue dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of experimental and alternative arts in Singapore. It endeavors to establish an open space for artists to mature at their own pace, and to provide a conducive environment which allows them to experiment, experience and exchange ideas.
From 1989 onwards, performances and exhibitions were held by the artists living within the forested enclave. Populated by farm animals and durian trees, the site was one of the few rural spaces in highly urbanised Singapore. Art critic T.K. Sabapathy would describe the space and its early activity in a review of TAV's Open Studio Show, published in The Straits Times on 10 February 1989: