Expressions of resistance: social realist artworks of the Yiyanhui and the equator art society
During the 1950s, a social realist art movement emerged in Singapore featuring themes such as over-population, unemployment, exploitation of labour and various social ills. I argue that these social realist artworks may be read as expressions of resistance against a colonial discourse which represen...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
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2016
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/16607/ http://eprints.um.edu.my/16607/1/Emelia_Ong_Ian_Li_Abstract_ASEASUK_2016_(1).pdf |
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| Summary: | During the 1950s, a social realist art movement emerged in Singapore featuring themes such as over-population, unemployment, exploitation of labour and various social ills. I argue that these social realist artworks may be read as expressions of resistance against a colonial discourse which represented Chinese identity in Malaya as opportunistic, untrustworthy, materialistic and susceptible to communist tendencies. The artworks may be viewed as a conjunctural response to the crisis within British Malaya after the war. These artists highlighted the inequalities of the colonial regime at a time when it was vulnerable and saw a possible path towards transformation that would lead to independence. Their anti-colonial stance and alignment with the other ethnic communities was consistently demonstrated through the repeating of non-communal themes in subject matter based on the working classes. As counter narratives, these artworks can thus be seen as strategies employed by a diasporic community to gain political agency and reconstruct Chinese identity within the Malayan nationalistic discourse. |
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