AT first glance, Singapore and Perth don’t have much in common.
The former is a bustling gateway to Asia-Pacific with a population of about six million, the latter is one of the most isolated capital cities in the world with a population of about two million.
But they do have one unifying characteristic – they were both colonised by the British around the same time – the Swan River settlement was established in 1829 while Singapore was claimed as a port for Britain’s East India Company in 1819.
Fast forward to 2024 and that colonial influence is still being acutely felt and at times hotly debated – the Queens is still head of state in Oz and celebrating Australian Day has become highly divisive.
• Striking artwork by Perth’s Desmond Mah in Paper Trails Between Lion and Swan.
Six artists from Singapore and six artists from Perth have joined forces to prod, poke and dissect this colonial legacy in their exhibition Paper Trails Between Lion and Swan.
Lead curator Harrison W. See says the exhibition isn’t an exercise in propaganda, more a nuanced debate on what colonialism means in 2024.
“As the 12 artists respond to the theme, criticisms of Britain’s colonial legacy are indeed present in many of the works, while others have focused on more personal aspects within the greater narrative of coloniser/colonised, often in subtle and nuanced ways that don’t attempt to celebrate or condemn colonialism,” See says.
“The wrongs of the past must be acknowledged in order to address the ongoing impacts of colonial expansion; whether the best course of action forward means countries move to abandon their colonial connections is beyond the scope of the exhibition.
“The aim of the exhibition is to encourage cross-cultural discourse around such questions, rather than attempt to provide an answer…Art is often better suited to prompt questions than to offer answers—the latter risks entering the realm of propaganda.”
Conquest
All the artists worked with paper or textiles for the exhibition; a nod to the paper used by the British empire for deeds, certificates and other documents asserting their authority and ownership, and the textiles they used to make items associated with military conquest like flags, uniforms and the sails of ships.
“The artists have explored paper and textiles as a metaphor for diaspora, trade and identity,” See says.
Phase one of the project recently ended with an exhibition in Singapore (the city’s name is derived from the sanskrit word for ‘Lion city’).
“The first phase was well received. It was opened by part H.E Allastar Cox, Australian High Commissioner to Singapore, and was part of Singapore Art Week,” See says. “Five of the six Perth/Boorloo artists were funded to travel to Singapore to install their work, attend the opening, and give an artist talk, as well as visit other SAW events.”
Phase two will see five of the Singaporean artists travel to Perth to attend their exhibition at the Old Customs House in Fremantle.
It will feature pieces by Singapore artists Ezzam Rahman, Nhawful Juma’at, Tan Yen Peng, Terry Wee, Xin Xiao Chang and Yeo Chee Kiong, and Aussie artists Deborah Worthy-Collins, Desmond Mah, Di Cubitt, Harrison See, Kelsey Ashe and Sarah Thornton-Smith. Aside from British colonialism, the exhibition also raises interesting questions about the Asian diaspora.
“Records reveal that as early as 1818 – a year before the Swan River Settlement was colonised on the west coast – a man from Guangzhou immigrated to Australia’s east coast, which begs the question, how might Asian diaspora fit into Australia’s attempts at reconciling its colonial history?” See says.
“More recently, it is evident by the Trumpian sinophobic sentiment during covid-19, that in times of crises it is too easy to resort to the problematic simplicity of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ thinking, and a tendency to reinscribe binaries of opposition like East-vs-West that neglect the nuance of forward-thinking contemporary cultural exchange.”
Paper Trails Between Lion and Swan (phase 2) is at the Old Customs House, 8 Phillimore Street in Fremantle from June 9-23. There will be an opening night event on June 8 and an artists talk on June 15. For more details see artsource.net.au.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK