As the world progressively evolves, so does the artist in response to the changes in their surroundings. This essay aims to analyse how issues in an artists’ environment spur them to challenge the conventional creative boundaries of art through adaptation and innovation. I will be discussing this with respect to three different parameters, namely societal issues, political issues and identity issues like gender and culture.
History has told of how art movements emerge from concerted efforts to tear away from the degradation of societal systems, collective conformity, and hegemony. The Enlightenment can be understood as an attempt to break asunder its shackles from the repressive doctrinal legacy of churches and outmoded political structures such as the aristocracy (McGrath, 1997), prompting mankind to comprehend the natural world base on logic instead of religious faith. Artists like Rembrandt defied obedience to tradition by painting subject matters that deviated from the norm of religious figures at that time like in The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632) (although Rembrandt still did paint religious content). The age of societal and political fraught, the peril of the aristocracy, and the growing bourgeoisie permitted artists to attain creative autonomy by breaking free from doctrinal control. The birth of science out of alchemy begun to replace religious subject matter. Artists started to focus on the depiction of high points in scientific inquiry that undermine the power of religion in Western societies, as seen in artworks like An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768) by Joseph Wright of Derby. Moreover, the separation of state and churches carved the path for artistic freedom in the 19th century where modern artists, composers, and writers reinvented conventional modes of representation and expression by engaging in radical experimentation in their mediums (Rothenberg, 2014).
Marshall McLuhan once said that the medium is the message, citing Cubist art as a clear example as Cubism demanded the instant sensory awareness of the whole rather than perspective alone, where one could not probe about the content of the artwork alone, but instead, comprehend it in its entirety. An increasing number of artists started to question the traditional boundaries of art, endorsing the idea of the concept over the artwork. Dadaism was a pioneer conceptual art movement where artists start to challenge the traditional accepted definitions and boundaries of art (“Dada Movement, Artists and Major Works”, n.d.). Dadaism was born out of revulsion of the repressive social structures, deterioration of social values and the conformity of culture and thought that spur on World War I (MoMA Learning, n.d.). It was not only the war but also the influence of modern media and the budding industrial age of science and technology that triggered the Dada artists. Usage of ready-mades as art was an unconventional move by dada artists such as Marcel Duchamp, where he shocked art critics by presenting a urinal signed off with a pseudonym, R Mutt, entitled Fountain (1917). This, of course, was never done before. Despite being rejected as an artwork and disposed of by the art committee for the art exhibition it was submitted to, Fountain became a piece that revolutionised the art world and confronted the orthodox understanding of art by presenting art as a concept and not the artwork itself (Mann, 2017). This spawned a whole generation of conceptual artists that followed in Duchamp’s footsteps, prioritising the concept over the aesthetic of the finished artwork. Simultaneously, this gave birth to a new genre of art: New Media Representation, where artists utilise mediums and materials previously untapped and unacknowledged as art (Hoetzlein, 2010), such as in the case of ready-mades. This encouraged future artists to be progressively experimental and provocative, allowing them to reimagine what art and art-making could be. Damien Hirst’s usage of “ready-made” animal carcasses in his artwork was a highly controversial and bold move that pushed the creative parameters of what art encompasses. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) consists of a dead tiger shark carcasses suspended in a tank of formaldehyde. Like Duchamp and his urinal, no one could have imagined carcasses to be art, that is until Hirst reframed it and presented it as an expression of the transgenerational and impermanence of art where art is trying to transcend and outlive human death. At the same time, Hirst challenges the expectations of what can be exhibited and seen at an art gallery.
Art expression through street art and graffiti was an integral element and symbolism of contemporary art (“What is Street Art and How Can We Define it?”, n.d.). Artists use street art to bring awareness to messages, usually social and political ones to a broader audience as it has the capacity as an agent for mass communication, to reach more people than other styles or galleries. Traditionally, art was distributed and displayed through systems and personnel in the art world (Becker, 2012) and usually censorship through a board of directors who selectively chose the artwork to be exhibited. With street art and graffiti art, the artist could freely create artwork and project messages into the public sphere without going through the said bureaucracy. Moreover, artwork with social and political messages would often be censored or simply not selected for display which is a major barrier for artists who want to be heard and seen by the public. With street art, it gives artists a platform, although most of the time illegal, to spontaneously express repressed sentiments without being repressed. Street art has also become a tool for communication between artists and audience through the discussion of the artwork pertaining to social issues and the human condition. Banksy, a British street artist used street art as a medium for humorous social and political commentary while keeping his identity anonymous to continue expressing whatever he wants to without being caught by the law (“The Story Behind Banksy”, 2013). Banksy rose to prominence by being selected as a part of Time magazine’s list of top 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 (Fairey, 2010), gaining exposure at an unprecedented speed with the proliferation of his works being virally spread and distributed on social media platforms. This allows the intentions of Banksy’s artwork and the issues being raised to be transcended beyond the actual site of the artwork (Lynch, 2017), where social issues are can be magnified and debated on a global scope, that is on the internet. “Flying Balloons Girl” created on Israel’s West Bank barrier in objection to the wall’s existence in 2005, depicted the image of a little girl attempting to float over it. The wall separates the Palestinian territories from Israel is a site of extreme controversy, and Banksy’s political medium in situ inflated awareness and discussion about the matter (“Banksy and the Wall”, n.d.). Street art is also used as a tool for political discourse as a means of protest and expression of the marginalised, acting as a platform for communication and a prospective backdrop for revolution. This is the case in countries such as Malaysia, where street art expresses the frustrations of its citizens and displeasure with the government. Rat creates provoking spray-painted and stencilled work around the city of Kuala Lumpur, stressing issues of poverty, capitalism, rape that plagues Malaysia’s society (McGovern, 2013). The function of street art as a vital mouthpiece to amplify social messages and grassroots’ protests is effective as societal issues are presented in a way that is difficult to with the scale, vibrancy and visual loudness of the street art.
It is psychologically proven that constraints force our brains to see the world differently (Stokes, 2006). This alteration in perspective is what drives artists to test limits and push boundaries. The physical scarcity of space and stringent resource allocation to the arts is a contentious issue that plagues artists that practice in a relatively small country with limited resources such as Singapore (Chang & Lee, 2003). Although the Singapore government does allocate specific land use for the Arts, they are slammed with political and society pressure about the use of space and art. Moreover, one may argue that political and economic stability should take precedence over support for the arts industry that yields intangible qualities like creativity (Chia, 2017). Amidst these qualms, Singaporean artists manage to cleverly come up with innovative ways to overcome space constraints. This results in whole new dimension and form that art can uptake. In the face of adversity where their permanent creating space of Lorong Gambus in Sembawang was taken away from them, artists from The Artist Village sought to find alternatives (Singapore Art Museum, 2008). The Art Bus was one of such proposals as a creative mobile art gallery that was conceived under resource constraints. Every pattern of availability reflects the workings of some kind of social organization and becomes part of the pattern of constraints and possibilities that shapes the art produced (Becker, 2012). Artists selectively work around the resources that are available and by playing around with what is not available to them. This directly affects artworks and the final product which may be steered in a different direction than primarily envisioned, creating and conceiving innovative artworks under these constraints.
Identity is another parameter that is constantly being explored by artists. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected and globalised, heterogeneity is created while cultural identity starts to be blurred (Rafael & Sternberg, 2002). While some feel displaced, others find a way to innovate and adopt a hybrid of identity. Cultural identity is an issue frequently being explored by artists, especially in the multi-cultural context of Singapore.
The Singapore Pioneer Artists’ artworks were created as part of the effort in the region’s claim of identity and pursuit of a new one during an epoch where many of the Southeast Asian countries were reclaiming independence from their European colonial masters. These artists came to be known as the Nanyang Artists where their Nanyang style was a synthesis of influences from both European and Oriental styles and painting traditions (“History of Singaporean Art”, n.d.). The Nanyang style was representative of how these artists relate to their cultures given the European sensitivities and education they attained. Many of their artworks were experimentation of incorporating European concepts and artistic techniques incorporated into documentations of cultures native to Southeast Asia. The Nanyang Artists would integrate Western art concepts and techniques from old Masters such as Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh with Chinese brush painting techniques and batik techniques. Easel painting of three-dimensional figures, a European technique, was composed on ambiguous backgrounds, where undefined space was a characteristic of Chinese art. Chinese scroll-painting was also done on a canvas instead of the traditional method of rice paper. A clear example of the blend of European and Oriental Art was in Chen Wen Hsi’s artworks where he used western techniques of composition, harmony, balance, and construction of lines which were elements of Cubism to supplement traditional Chinese art. His later paintings such as Herons (1990) was a radical approach to painting animals in Chinese ink, utilising the abstraction of forms to produce a flattening of the picture surface while still maintaining elements of ink painting but in the process creating a uniquely original style.
Social Realism in art developed as a reaction against Idealism and the exaggerated ego encouraged by Romanticism, focusing on the ugly realities of contemporary life and social consciousness (Bown, 1998). They recorded what they saw, as it existed in a dispassionate manner without embellishment nor enhancement. In response to the social issues at that time in flourishing Singapore, such as the plight of the working-class, Georgette Chen, a Nanyang Artist who was a social realistic painter, created a fresh perception of social realist art with the use of her Nanyang style. Having trained in the West, Chen adopted the painting approaches of artists like Paul Cezanne and the other Post-Impressionists and Fauvists for her works which studied the forms and appearances of localized objects, scenery and people. Painting for her was meant to reflect the life and actual events and people that she had encountered. The use of Western techniques mixed with Asian subject and imagery served to help viewers from both sides to come together and appreciate the artwork for what it is. Eugene Chen (1940) was a portrait of her husband, which was done in her unique Nanyang style, resembling Post-Impressionist artworks but completed with the Oriental influence of lush colours of the tropics with thinly painted elegant colours and graceful lines, serving to help us identify the character and life of the man she was trying to portray – full of seriousness and regal even when he is at rest, without the attempt at embellishing him, which was common for portraits.
The clash of Eastern and Western cultures in countries like Singapore also brings about the issue of gender identity. Traditions, gender roles and social status in a rapidly-changing, multi-ethnic Singapore are constantly being changed and questioned. Having to reject or embrace one culture for the other was a rising concern. After colonization, the prominence of English and Western ideas against traditional Chinese values grew and thus, blurring the role of the Modern women in an Asian, conservative society. The patriarchal construct that emphasises the expected domesticated housewife role of women in Asian society acts as a limitation to the experiences, expressions, and expectations of women. On the other hand, Western culture encouraged individualist ideas and the freedom of expression. Amanda Heng is a female Singaporean artist who explores how culture impacts the conscious and subconscious decisions on self-identity, touching on relations between women of different social roles. Heng introduced a critical feminist agenda into the Singapore art scene (Fernández, Wilding & Wright, 2002) through addressing issues of the social and cultural position of Singaporean women in her works and her artistic practice that draws from a strong sense of history. Another Woman (1996-1997) was a series of three photographs of Heng and her mother, exploring gender issues through the domestic relationship between a mother and daughter in a traditional household (“Another Woman”, n.d.). In traditional Asian households, it was generally uncomfortable to display physical intimacy such as hugging between mother and daughter (Georgiopoulos & Rosenbaum, 2005). Whereas in Western culture, it was common and accepted for children to kiss their parents. Heng’s work explores this position of women through Another Woman as the photographs encompassed Heng embracing her mother, standing naked in front of each other, that showed high levels of intimacy which did not prevail in conservative Asian households. Through the clash of Western and Eastern cultural identity about female roles, arises a new topic for artists to unravel, such as Heng, breathing life into feminism in Singapore.
Art is a vehicle for storytelling and women wanted their stories to be told – Art was a platform for women to express and be heard and fight against gender discrimination. Throughout history, women artists have been involved in art making, yet are discriminated against and not given the same level of acknowledgement and recognition for their works as their male counterparts. Women were forbidden to enter the art guilds or art academies, and their artwork was dismissed simply as “women’s craft” (Mosley, n.d.). A magnitude of feminist authors has documented this unfairness towards women such as in notable books like Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence by Jane Fortune. Until the 20th century, women were almost exclusively the subjects rather than the practitioners of fine art. Feminist artist rise in protest of the objectification of women and attempting to reveal the origins of people’s ideas of femininity and womanhood (Tate, n.d.). This created a new wave of Feminist Art that pursued the idea of femininity as a masquerade that forces women to conform to social expectations of womanhood. Artists such as Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman brings awareness to these gender discrimination and societal issues by exploring and pushing the tradition boundaries of art where female artists were previously oppressed.
In an era of intense consumerism and image proliferation, Cindy Sherman utilised photography as a medium to relate her work to the theme of identity and relationship while exploring the stereotypes of femininity and female representation found in popular culture. She makes us aware that these are not just images of women but signs of difference, markers or templates of masculinity (“Cindy Sherman”, n.d.). Sherman’s photographs stressed the function in American society of images remembered from films as components in a language which almost everyone shares – far more so than images taken from mythology or religion. This shows the audience how they perceive the clichés presented in her photographs based on learned conventions in cultural codes. Sherman’s work would serve to challenge the traditional male view of women’s roles in art and society by making herself the subject as well as the author of the work. Innovative use of past imagery is a critique of contemporary events in the art world, making the past relevant to the present, and provoking many inner explorations by the viewer. Through portraying a female protagonist, Sherman highlights female representation in art and the stereotypes that it engenders by showing the vulnerability of women and how mass media portrays them, encouraging the modern viewer to critically look at of the role and significance of women in art history.
To say the least, boundaries and constraints are an artist’s best friend for creation. What may seem counterintuitive are ingredients for the birth of new ideas that challenges the norms and what is accepted in art. As I have explained, issues in society, politics, and identity can act as constraints to art making and what art is, but with the right tools and capabilities of artists, these issues become triggers to brewing brand new categories of art as well as pushing the boundaries of art.