Initiation International 2009: Wanderings of an Artist | 17 - 19 July 2009

Discovering New Selves in Other Cultures

As my friends and I walked into the departure lobby of Singapore Changi Airport - supposedly touted as the world's No 1 airport - a landscape decoration of Walt Disney's Mickey and Minnie Mouse holding a Chinese ingot - usually gold or silver depending on the currency values they carry in olden China - wishing all Singaporeans a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year on the background of swimming carps was simply - kitschy! Bad art aside, not to mention the indiscriminate taste of public bureaucrats and technocrats in their aesthetic choices, Singapore's choice to make Mickey and Minnie carry these Chinese symbol of prosperity might be a political response to the increasing problem of cultural homogenisation brought about by globalisation.

Globalisation has gotten itself a bad name in present times - one example would be India's increasing role of becoming the international call centre for western corporations - for it replaces the host country's domestic economic life with an economy that is heavily influenced or controlled from overseas, making it a model and process that these countries surrender their power to these western corporations, or in another vein keeping poorer nations in their place.

That's not the case in Singapore. Hence, my thesis on Mickey and Minnie as political responses to this cultural invasion has no grounds for further discussion. If there were, it would be pointless to devote time and effort on the subject. For being pragmatic has always been Singapore's political strategy in the world. Any grounds can be changed, as what Singapore always says, “for the good of Singapore.” There simply aren't any forms of socio-political resistance to the west.

What probably went through the minds of the bureaucrats in the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore is to conveniently choose an identifiable sign for Singapore's general aesthetic consumption. Embracing the west seems most natural and the accessible for Singapore. Chinese consumerist icons have not gotten themselves into its favourite list yet, later Indian, maybe; depending on the rate of economic development of both civilisations.

Thus far, it seems all these make Singapore sound like a follower of the strongest and fittest in the world. Well, it could be grossly unfair. Singapore's, young as it is at the age of 42 since independence, rise to economic prominence within such short period of time is indeed a remarkable achievement, but it has been done at the expense of intellectual development in culture. This could be clearly seen in its misappropriation of cultural symbols. By altering American symbols - making Mickey and Minnie carry Chinese ingots - to fit into the culturally worn-out Singaporean shoes.

Generally, I am not interested in airing my opinions on the lack of taste majority of Singaporeans (Singapore bureaucrats and technocrats alike) possess, their inability to look beyond the media-constructed mainstream aesthetics, inability to find a single cultural element to represent Singapore, inability to masterfully culture-appropriate other elements to Singapore; the list continues. They are nothing but cultural “bitchings”. The single most important thing that interests me is how these bureaucrats have gone at length to adapting these western signs to the Singapore context, in this case Mickey and Minnie celebrating the Chinese New Year.

That's the beauty of the human spirit having the desire to make sense of what foreign culture is when it is presented before us. And our attempts to want to internalise them within our body and experience them. It is a 2-way process. Upon meeting, the foreign element will adjust itself accordingly, and the site in the body of the foreign element. Let's take an artist's body, for example, as a site for this process of cultural appropriation and adjustment. An artist's body embodies history and culture of his/her origin. When encountered with another, it will respond accordingly, making the foreign experience uniquely one's own; a new experience with a new perspective.

It is in this profound interest I have decided to set the theme of Initiation International 2009 to The Wanderings of an Artist. Specifically, the traveling of one's culture to another. As an artist travels to many different places, not only his/her world perspectives will change accordingly, he/she will also reflect on his/her existing perspectives on these foreign cultures.

This is the hotbed of great creativity. I sincerely hope artists could share with us - the audience in Singapore - their unique art works based on these foreign cultural experiences.

A friend once told me to get out of the country more often to see the world. If not, I would eventually become an imbecile, he said, with limited knowledge and perspective of the world we live in. Although he said it in jest, becoming imbecile is kind of far-fetch, but I do agree that having limited knowledge and perspective could severely cripple us, both artistically and intellectually.

Initiation International 2009 aspires to be a platform for such meaningful exchanges to take place.

We look forward to welcoming you to Singapore.

Richard Chua
Festival Director