An exhibition’s relentless authenticity expands our ideas of art
, Plural Art Mag
Welcome to A Piece of Home, presented by Singaporean arts charity ART:DIS and curated by John Tung. The show features 26 young artists with disabilities, most of whom are neurodiverse, with their works responding to the complex concept of ‘home’. Many of them have been working with the organisation since their primary school years, initially at a foundation level and before progressing into the Artist-In-Training programme, which nurtures them to work more independently. A fair few of the artists have spent more than 20 years developing their practices and finding their voices.
Tung got involved in curating the show after fellow artist Robert Zhao, who is a mentor with ART:DIS, referred him to the organisation. “In most cases, presentation of artworks by these individuals would not receive the same professional treatment (tangibly and conceptually) that would be accorded to able-bodied and neurotypical persons,” Tung explained. This meant that artworks by individuals with disabilities tended to be shown predominantly in community-oriented social spaces or liminal spaces such as corridors and atriums, and tend not to take centre stage in institutions.
Additionally, understanding the gravity of an artwork’s setting factored into the decision to show A Piece of Home at Objectifs. Angela Tan (Executive Director of ART:DIS) elucidated: “In situating our young artists’ exhibition in an established arts space, right in the heart of the arts and culture district, we want to raise the visibility of artists with disabilities in our cultural spaces, and bring greater awareness to their voices and perspectives.”
Between artistic ‘goodness’ and merit
Tung told me plainly that he curated A Piece of Home “no differently from how [he] would approach any other show.” This involved speaking with the artists, making studio visits, listening to artists’ desires and concerns, conceptualising a coherent curatorial overview, and planning the layout. Individual expression and identity were key factors in Tung’s curation, noting that he had selected works that “represented [the artist’s] personality and approach to engaging and interacting with the world around them.”
There weren’t many challenges in setting up the show, but Tung’s main concern was that “audiences would not see the same “goodness” that [he] had seen in the artworks. Informing this was his personal conviction that while “everyone has different rubrics for assessing the quality of an artwork..authenticity trumps all else.”
The show also takes the important step of being inclusive not just in its slate of artists but in how the works can be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible. There are audio guides for the visually impaired and there’s a black strip encircling the exhibition that functions as a tactile marker that supports wayfinding for the visually impaired. The overall effect is an immersive look into the world of art made by artists with disabilities, one which embraces all kinds of differences in its potential audience members as much as it highlights the artistic talent on display.
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- Image features curator John Tung explaining the numerous challenges artists faced when developing ceramic tableware.
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- Image features a guest donning on headphones and holding onto a mobile device as she embarks on an audio tour of the exhibition.
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- Image features a guest gazing at Christian’s linotype print (left) and Sunshine’s pencil drawing (right).
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- Image features a painting by Thilak, with a Godzilla-like Titan towering over the seabed.
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- Image features the artists who were part of the exhibition, as well as their teacher, staff of ART:DIS and John Tung.
The elephant in the room
I am determined to confront the elephant in the room and return to Tung’s aforementioned concern: that many of the show’s works might not pander to what many consider to be fine art or works revered by the typical art historical canon. The exhibition features, for example, a two-legged, Godzilla-like ‘Ocean Titan’ traversing the seas. So some might wonder, what is this doing in a visual arts space like Objectifs?
Well, for starters, the artists on show have been working for years, even decades, on their practices and their works reflect an understanding of artistic techniques and refining of one’s skills. They are no different from artists who spend years grappling with creative progress and seeking to improve their practices.
Tung shared the example of Kenneth Lee, who creates intricate perspective drawings on paper with micron markers. Lee started drawing from the age of five and initially worked with pencil outlines. However, this year marked a breakthrough in his practice, as he has started drawing without said outlines and now works with markers freehand.
Then, there’s the showcase of both successful and failed ceramics at the gallery’s heart. Many of the ceramics on display are usable and full of personality, bearing the physical imprints of their creators and coated in unique glazes. Notably, the artists mixed the glazes themselves, meaning that none of them was store-bought and that the artists had to learn and understand some of the chemistry behind glaze-making.
In his curatorial statement, Tung drew parallels between how these artists with disabilities are treated differently from their able-bodied counterparts, with the example of the term Art Brut, which literally translates into Raw Art. It was coined in the 1940s to describe “self-taught artists who worked outside artwork conventions and lacked professional artists’ formal training. This group of people tended to refer to artists with mental or physical disabilities, recluses, prisoners, or otherwise marginalised individuals on the fringes of society.”
This term was unfortunately translated into ‘Outsider Art’ by Roger Cardinal in the 1970s. Not only does this reveal a strict binary between who gets to be considered a ‘real’ artist, but it also has drastic ripple effects on our understanding of who gets to create art and who gets a say in what is considered as ‘art’. Funnily enough, Tung pointed out that the characteristics used to describe a work by an ‘outsider’ artist are similar to those used to talk about an ‘insider’ artist’s work. These typically include works “pertaining to obsessions over singular themes, obsessions, or personal mythologies in the work.”
It’s evident that each artist on show here has specific interests which are threaded through their work, by way of a chosen visual language. Simeon Tan is interested in creating chimaeras, resulting in him also drawing a fabulous chicken-headed chameleon hybrid, perched on a tree branch alongside a butterfly. In his series of linocut prints, Christian Tan reflects on his day job as a cleaner at Ren Ci Nursing Home in a harmonious palette of forest green, cobalt, and navy.
Seeing these artists express what’s important to them and build an artistic practice around such ideas, to me, is proof that art does not solely have to take the form of a work in the confines of a white cube gallery or art history textbook. This doesn’t devalue the hard work of practitioners who have toughed it out on the traditional paths of art school and gallery representation either. I merely advocate for an expanded understanding of what we may perceive as art. Our understandings should include works that were created intentionally to authentically express oneself with skills that were refined over time—no matter what forms they may take, and regardless of who has made them.