Singapore Art History as a History of Mobilities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Moving away from the study of the history of art using place-bound and ‘rational' terms, this article examines how the different forms of mobilities practiced by Singaporean artists have shaped their artworks, practices and identities. This is achieved through a study of artists who practiced ‘unconventional’ forms of mobilities: Suzann Victor, an ‘unofficial exile’ who moved to Sydney due to the fallout from the Brother Cane incident, which made it difficult for her to continue to practice in Singapore; Jimmy Ong, who shifted his practice to the United States to lead a “domestic life” with his former husband and Gilles Massot, a French-born artist who moved to Singapore to become an “Other.” Specifically, the paper seeks to answer: What are the different types of mobilities practiced by the artists? How do these mobilities impact their practice? How are these mobilities and their impacts perceptible in the artworks? What are the ways that these mobilities differ from the ones that are typically studied in canonical art history? In this paper, the artworks are studied as ‘fluid spaces' that are shaped by the myriad forms of mobilities practiced by the artists – many of which cannot be described as completely ‘rational – rather than the product of a single form of mobility. The aim is to shift our study of art away from place-bound and ‘rational’ concepts towards the transience of the artists and the borderless nature of artistic influences and ideologies.