The 2019 Teaching Labs series, part of AAA’s teacher professional development programme, focuses on performance art.

What is performance art, and why is it important? Using the Lee Wen Archive as a point of departure, this Teaching Labs programme gives an introduction to the history of performance art in Singapore and South East Asia. The talk will also introduce Lee Wen’s works, and discuss how his training in drawing and painting laid the foundation for his development as a performance artist.

The talk will begin with an overview of some key moments in the history of performance art in Singapore. We will then focus on Lee’s practice as a case study, looking at his sketchbooks, notebooks, and performances to understand how he thought about drawing as a time-based medium and performance as image-making. A tour of the exhibition Form Colour Action: Sketchbooks and Notebooks of Lee Wen is also offered to participating teachers.

Lee Wen (1957–2019) was a multidisciplinary artist who defined and shaped performance art in Asia. He had solo exhibitions at Singapore Art Museum, The Substation, and elsewhere. Group exhibitions included SunShower (2017), Secret Archipelago (2015), Singapore Biennale (2013), Asiatopia (2008 and 1998), Third Asia Pacific Triennial (1999), Sexta Bienal de La Habana (1997), and Gwangju Biennale (1995). Alongside his artistic practice, Lee was active in artist-run initiatives—in particular, the collective Black Market International, and the festivals Future of Imagination and Rooted in the Ephemeral Speak (R.I.T.E.S.).

 

Talk | Sat, 11 May 2019, 11am–12:30pm

SPEAKER
Chương-Đài Võ, Asia Art Archive Researcher

LANGUAGE
English

TARGET
Teachers from all disciplines are welcome. The talk is also open to members of the public.

A tour of the exhibition Form Colour Action will be offered to teachers who sign up for the talk, from 12:30–1pm. 

 

Teachers’ Learning Community

In the Teachers’ Learning Community, participating teachers will brainstorm ideas on using contemporary art materials in the classroom, design teaching plans, and try out new ideas in their schools. These proposals will be shared in order to encourage a peer-support learning community.

Teachers who signed up for the Teachers’ Learning Community are required to attend both the workshop and sharing session.

Workshop | Sat, 11 May 2019, 2–5pm

The Hong Kong artist and art critic Anthony Leung Po Shan will help teachers consolidate what they learned from the talk. Under her guidance, teachers will set a theme for their teaching plans, observe and reflect upon the performative nature of the classroom setting, as well as take part in experimental performances. The goal of the workshop is to support teachers who wish to make use of the Lee Wen Archive and other resources at AAA, and introduce performance art to students.

Teachers’ Sharing | Sat, 8 Jun 2019, 10:30am–1:30pm

Teachers will share their teaching plans in small groups, and discuss the challenges they face when introducing performance art to their classes. Anthony Leung Po Shan will lead the discussion and provide feedback to teachers.

FACILITATOR & SPEAKER
Anthony Leung Po Shan, Artist & Art Critic

LANGUAGE
Cantonese

TARGET
Teachers from all disciplines are welcome (Liberal Studies and Visual Arts teachers, in particular). The Teachers’ Learning Community seeks teachers who are passionate about arts and culture, and interested in taking part in discussions.

QUOTA
30

About Anthony Leung Po Shan
Belonging to the last generation of university students under the colonial rule, Leung studied Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong but witnessed the Handover as a reporter. Weaving through art and politics, she teaches, writes, researches, cooks, meditates and takes to the streets. She was a member of Para/Site Art Space, In-Media (Hong Kong) and Hong Kong Culture Monitor. Her research interests include, among others, art ecology, city space and cultural politics. Her essays and commentaries have been published in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, InMedia (Hong Kong), City Magazine and etc. She is also a regular contributor to various cross-border Chinese platforms, including Leap, Art Newspaper (Chinese edition), Artouch and initium media. Publications edited by her include Modern Art in a Colony: Narrated by Hon Chi-fan at the Millennium, Odd One In: Hong Kong Diary (by Pak Sheung-cheun), QK – Specimen Collection of Chan Yuk Keung, The Red Twenty-years of Ricky Yeung Sau-churk, etc. She has finished her doctoral thesis on art labour at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2017. Her latest title I Love Art Basel: On Art and Capital is well received in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She is now a member of the art critic collective, Art Appraisal Club.

The exhibition Form Colour Action, featuring sketchbooks and notebooks of Lee Wen, is on view at AAA Library from 13 March to 29 June 2019.

The AAA Learning and Participation Programme is supported by the S. H. Ho Foundation Limited, and the C. K. & Kay Ho Foundation.

 

 

Relevant content

Lee Wen Archive
Lee Wen Archive 李文檔案
Collections

Lee Wen Archive 李文檔案

lee wen thumbnail
A Performative State of Indefinite Duration
LIKE A FEVER | Essays

A Performative State of Indefinite Duration

Bruce Quek reflects on contingency, institutional order co-existing with fractal weirdness, and the Independent Archive

Image: Courtesy of S. Yi Yao Chao.
Indecisive Intuition
LIKE A FEVER | Notes

Indecisive Intuition

S. Yi Yao Chao’s artist response to the Lee Wen Archive

leewenhome3
Line Form Colour Action
LIKE A FEVER | Essays

Line Form Colour Action

Chuong-Dai Vo uses Lee Wen’s notebooks to explore his work as performance and process

leewan Mini course
From Drawing to Performance: The Lee Wen Archive
Learning & Participation

From Drawing to Performance: The Lee Wen Archive

WATCH: This talk Introduces the history of performance art in Singapore and South East Asia and the artistic practice of Lee Wen

Performance_homelist
Performance Art in the Classroom
Learning & Participation

Performance Art in the Classroom

A series of performance art exercises for students to think about the idea of learning