Let's just jump right in shall we?

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1. Tang Da Wu was in Documenta. Yes, even as we anxiously wait for news about Singapore’s participation in next year’s Venice Biennale, our favourite elusive artist was spotted in Kassel. Last June. Thanks to Koh Nguang How for the tip—after he found out from some participants at this year’s Future Of Imagination festival. How come you never told your fans, Mr Tang? Sniff. Anyways, he was apparently there for an artist congress—where he reenacted (?) his intervention back in 1995 when, during the Singapore Art exhibition, he went up to the late President Ong Teng Cheong and gave him a note saying “I am an artist. I am important.” He was, of course, wearing that jacket with the words “Don’t give money to the arts”. (He was referring to bad commercial art.) In Kassel, he wore a similar jacket and faced a drawing of Prez Ong. Or at least that’s what we inferred from the blog post Koh had dug up.

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2. Future Of Imagination 8’s just warming up. As Lee Wen mentioned in his FOI 8 catalogue essay, this year’s line-up coincidentally includes artists from China, Poland and Vietnam. If you don’t see the connection among these three, better brush up on your world history. Heh. Anyways, seems like an intriguing incentive if you haven’t made plans yet. Unfortunately, won’t be able to do a blow-by-blow nightly account this time around (so much culture going on this week!) but I hope it picks up because tonight’s batch of performers didn’t quite do it for me. Water seemed like a running thread among the three of the four performances I caught. One saw four peeps (apparently participants of a workshop by Poland’s Waldemar Tatarczuk) taking turns having a go at it: sipping water dripping from the edge of a table, pouring water into a glass until it overflowed, blowing into the glass, drinking from it. While I applaud the idea of encouraging the presence of workshoppers in the programme proper, it felt more like exercises than a fully conceptualised performance, to be honest. The last piece of the night, by Vietnamese performers Song, An and Toan of Appendix, had one person sitting down with his back to the audience continuously throwing something against the wall (turned out to be rice grains painted black); a guy holding up a bucket full of water with his teeth walking across the space; and another one lying supine with a lit cigarette sticking out from his belly. Ouch. While it was admittedly an interesting tableau to look at, it didn’t seem to go anywhere—especially after the initial perverse fascination with the cigarette bit died down (along with the cigarette). Jason Lee’s performance did get me thinking, although it had more to do with how he was saying what he was trying to say—which was a bit too much. It was a piece that involved a rather complicated setup with lots of props that included a baby mobile, some pictures of unrecognizable landscapes, Chinese characters playing on different permutations of “Singapore”, bamboo poles, an army jacket, a red piece of cloth, muddy water in a bucket. All of which were used, arranged, assembled in a methodical, sequential manner. Admittedly, my inability to read Chinese was perhaps the main reason why I thought it was an impenetrable work. I only found out about the significance of the Chinese bits post-performance, but surely there are other aspects to latch on to? An impact of a performance, I would think, doesn’t rest solely on “getting” it. Like theatre or any live art, the simple act of a creating a moment before our eyes can offer something. In this case, small gestures, layers of symbolisms, pile up one after the other in such a private way, seemingly forgetting in the construction of a performance one important thing—forging a connection with an audience through, for example, heightened expectations or creating tensions in the unfolding. Of course, it takes time and experience. And I’m hoping this bit of criticism is taken constructively. Wink. By the way, don't forget to drop by the brand new Chan Hampe Galleries space at Raffles Hotel Arcade. There's a nice FOI exhibition, Reliquarium, of relics of past performances. Amanda Heng's shoe and mirror from Let's Walk, an orange dustpan from Lee Wen's Journey Of A Yellow Man No. 3: Desire, Koh Nguang How's dust-filled plastic water bottles from cleaning up the Hong Bee Warehouse, as well as more recent performances. FOI 8 runs until Aug 5. Details here.

*** 3. Curating Lab makes me smile. Yeah, yeah, cheesy, I know. But it’s true. I didn’t stay too long at the Curating Lab 2012’s roundtable discussion (which was just upstairs from the FOI performances at Goodman Arts Centre) but just the thought of all these young students, etc. going through an intensive six-month programme with the thought of someday being a curator is awesome. They get to tour the museums (earlier in the day, I spotted them at SAM), talk to international curators (Para/Site’s Cosmin Costinas, Heman Chong, Pauline Yao, etc), intern at museums, go to Bandung on a field trip and set up an exhibition. Definitely good for the local arts scene. NAC and NUS Museum, don’t stop organising this okay? You can keep tabs on what's happening (including writings from the participants) in the official blog here.

*** 4. I regret missing Pang + Kanako’s installation. I’ve seen the photos of  the young duo's Departing The Departed at The Substation and it looked wonderful. Was told it had moved to Sculpture Square so I went to check it out. It’s a small version and doesn’t quite have the same impact, but still has that quiet beauty to it. Don’t forget to take home a flower—they want you to.