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Revisit Sembawang Through the Eyes of Tang Da Wu

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Revisit Sembawang Through the Eyes of Tang Da Wu D4 life arts | THE STRAITS TIMES | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 | Revisit Sembawang through the eyes of Tang Da Wu Ong Sor Fern Senior Culture Correspondent BOOK IT / SEMBAWANG: THE D. D. LAND AND SEMBAGRAPHIE Artist Tang Da Wu is sporting a large bandage over his right eye, WHERE: Ngee Ann Kongsi but he waves away concern: “It’s Galleries at the Nanyang just a little scratch.” Academy of Fine Arts, The contemporary art pioneer 80 Bencoolen Street has been busy installing works for a new show at the Ngee Ann Kongsi WHEN: Sembawang: The D. D. Galleries at the Nanyang Academy Land is on until Sept 29; of Fine Arts (Nafa), the double-bill, Sembagraphie runs from Sembawang: The D. D. Land and Oct 5 to Nov 3 Sembagraphie. ADMISSION: Free As he walks among his works, Tang says: “I like making things. I INFO: http://str.sg/J4wQ make art every day. If I’m not draw- ing, I’m making. I make and draw in order to study something.” Art is not the only thing that en- gages the 77-year-old. Given his Sembawang: The D. D. Land and age, he says: “I’ve already started Sembagraphie, a double-bill show preparing for, and celebrating my at the Nanyang Academy of Fine death. I welcome it happening.” Arts, is by artist Tang Da Wu (far In the meantime, he keeps busy left), seen here with Dr Bridget Tracy with his artmaking. Dr Bridget Tracy Tan (centre), director of the Institute Tan, 45, director of the Institute of of Southeast Asian Art, and artist Southeast Asian Art at Nafa, ob- Jennifer Ng. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO serves: “His mind is always working.” Tang proposed the new show to Dr Tan two years ago after he It’s just things around me, so it’s ing of William Ernest Henley’s has seen several times over the arts education. Tang was trained in finished his last Nafa double-bill: natural I respond to it, work on it.” famed Invictus poem, which he is years: “I enjoy studying that paint- Britain and thus well schooled in Hak Tai’s Bow, Brother’s Pool and The self-deprecating artist de- penning on a wooden slab as part of ing. It is the icon for world peace.” European art history. Our Children. A tapestry from that clares about his art practice: “I’m no an installation. It took him about two years to pro- He has a first class honours show is on display at Artesan good by myself. I need people to The wood slab has been cut from an duce his remixed version. “I changed degree in sculpture from Birming- Gallery at the Esplanade. work with me.” African mahogany tree salvaged it from a horizontal to a vertical ham Polytechnic’s School of Fine In this new show, the performance Gesturing around at the works, he from Pasir Ris Park. The rest of the format. I need a more concentrated Art as well as a master’s degree in artist best known for co-founding adds: “This show is many people’s tree forms part of another installa- picture and vertical is good, it looks fine arts from Goldsmiths College the landmark Artists Village in 1988, effort.” tion, part of his habit of maximising like a big gate you can walk through at the University of London. an artists’ collective which promoted Certainly, Sembagraphie, the all his materials and recycling bits and into. When it’s horizontal, one’s He is a dedicated arts educator experimental art, revisits Semba- second part of the double-bill, from other works. He says wryly: “I’m reference is the cinema image, himself and his latest double-bill wang where it was located. involves more people: the perfor- a karung guni man. I can’t work in my where you sit and watch passively.” will be accompanied by workshops The neighbourhood may loom mance piece will feature about 20 studio any more. It’s storage for art The tapestry also borrows the and seminars for Nafa students. large in his imagination, but the performers from his troupe Stitchen works. I work outside in the open.” figure of the dead soldier from Eu- He declares: “I always think I’m not soft-spoken artist demurs when Haus da Opera interacting with a He is positively voluble when he gene Delacroix’s iconic Liberty an artist, but I have made these asked whether he is sentimental tapestry he has created. talks about the tapestry that is the Leading The People painting. works. I have my many years of learn- about the changes in its landscape. He is most animated when talk- centrepiece for Sembagraphie. It is He admits with a glint of mischief ing and I like to pass it on so I teach.” “I’m not sentimental. But I spent a ing about his work, at one point a reworking of Pablo Picasso’s that he likes copying the greats, but His advice to budding art students: lot of time there in my childhood. breaking into an impassioned read- famed Guernica painting which he the practice of copying is rooted in “Don’t make art. Make questions.” .
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