Tang Da Wu is one of the most iconic artists in Southeast Asia. Having founded The Artists Village in 1988, which spurred artists to experiment with alternative art-making approaches, Tang’s practice consistently shows deep reflection on everyday sociocultural realities and enduring principle in his practice is for to respond to societal issues beyond aesthetic concerns. This can be seen in the themes of environmental issues and problems related to rapid urbanization in his early works.

These include They Poach the Rhino, Chop Off His Horn and Make This Drink (1989) and Tiger’s Whip (1991), which address the exploitation of endangered species for unproven medicinal and aphrodisiac purposes. His 1979 Earthworks, which was remounted in his 2016 solo exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore, critiqued the pace of urbanization at the expense of nature.

The challenges of artist to produce thought-provoking art, in the climate where the freedom of expression was deemed to be curtailed by the state, is a theme that recurs in his work. In 1995, Tang’s Impromptu performance, Don’t Give Money To The Arts, saw the artist approaching the then-president of Singapore in a jacket embellished with the aforementioned words and giving him a note containing the words, “I am an artist. I am important.”

The artistic struggle with arts policies and state-prescribed agendas is a topic he revisited in his 2013 solo exhibition, “Situationist Bon Gun”. Of note is the words, Banquet, and an accompanying performance, portraying an unsettling atmosphere of celebration, with the performers raising an escalating cacophony. Suggestive of defiance, Tang’s performer-protests marched to his painting Revolution, a reference to Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, but with characters replaced with important figures from Singapore’s key art institutions. As an art educator, Tang is known for his collaborative approaches that foster dialogue and engage with materials in symbolic ways.