Diary of an NUS Museum Intern: Lee Chong Ming
Note: Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Working alongside their mentors, our interns have waded through tons of historical research, assisted in curatorial work, pitched in during exhibition installations and organised outreach events! If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information!
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Lee Chong Ming is a fourth-year English Literature student at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. As our Exhibitions Intern, Chong Ming has worked closely with our curator Sidd Perez in conducting research for an upcoming symposium.
“I was very taken with the idea that you could do symposia and somehow it would still be art, that art actions could be as viable as art objects.” – Carlos Villa (1936-2013)
During my brief stint at the NUS Museum, I worked with my supervisor, Siddharta Perez, on the Worlds in Collision project (sometimes referred to as “Sources of a Distinct Majority”) that is conceived by Carlos Villa in 1988; a symposium or “multicultural art-history course” that urges the need “to get back to the idea of ‘sources’” (Theordore Gonzalves 40). This was in preparation for the upcoming symposium that NUS Museum is organizing, titled “New Curriculum for Old Questions” – a symposium that explores how knowledge is produced and imparted critically, and which was influenced by the archives of Carlos Villa’s Worlds in Collision.
I was very excited to take on this project because the themes spoke to me: multiculturalism, decolonization, ethnopoetics, and new ways of creating, teaching, and looking at art. Carlos Villa was an Asian-American artist in the Bay Area who was interested in teaching art that reconciles cultural differences. He also pushed for interest and commitment to the work and art of artists of color, and championed a new vocabulary of discovery apart from the Euro-American culture. There were stacks of panel discussions, readings from the symposium, interview transcripts, and curriculum materials to pour through, which greatly enriched my understanding of Villa’s methodology and vision. I was intrigued to learn that art could also be a form of action, that the symposium itself was a form of art, which was radically different from my usual perception of art as objects (paintings, sculptures, installation etc.).
Coincidentally, his work was also showing at the Singapore Biennale 2019, so I went to see some of his artworks at the National Gallery. I was struck by how different his artworks were compared to mainstream, western art; the use of materials to distort symbolic realities and his emphasis on a multicultural, multi-religious art form were unique and compelling.
Besides my project with Siddharta Perez, I was also involved with the rest of the interns in investigating the new museum definition. We went to the NUS Baba House, the Asian Civilization Museum, the Golden Mile Complex and the Singapore Science Centre to study how these sites relate to the museum definition. We had numerous insightful and thought-provoking discussions, such as how the Golden Mile Complex could potentially be a museum because it safeguarded memories and arguably artefacts and specimens (the Thai diasporic community in Singapore and their spaces) and the role of play in the Singapore Science Centre. Through this process, I’ve learnt how the museum definition could have an impact on funding in the arts, legislation, and the future of museums – it is important that we constantly question the role and function of the museum and allow for growth and possibilities.
I also bonded with the fellow interns and the five weeks at the NUS Museum were equally as amusing and enjoyable as they were serious and productive. Some of the things we got up to consisted of watching the solar eclipse (Melia actually made a pinhole cardboard box for this), dressing up for the Christmas party (kudos to Wei Ai’s outstanding efforts!), and having our personal photoshoot on museum trips (just me and Liz).
It was a memorable and enriching five weeks and I have to thank Siddharta Perez for engaging me with this project and Michelle for her supervision.
“I was very taken with the idea that you could do symposia and somehow it would still be art, that art actions could be as viable as art objects.” – Carlos Villa (1936-2013)
During my brief stint at the NUS Museum, I worked with my supervisor, Siddharta Perez, on the Worlds in Collision project (sometimes referred to as “Sources of a Distinct Majority”) that is conceived by Carlos Villa in 1988; a symposium or “multicultural art-history course” that urges the need “to get back to the idea of ‘sources’” (Theordore Gonzalves 40). This was in preparation for the upcoming symposium that NUS Museum is organizing, titled “New Curriculum for Old Questions” – a symposium that explores how knowledge is produced and imparted critically, and which was influenced by the archives of Carlos Villa’s Worlds in Collision.
I was very excited to take on this project because the themes spoke to me: multiculturalism, decolonization, ethnopoetics, and new ways of creating, teaching, and looking at art. Carlos Villa was an Asian-American artist in the Bay Area who was interested in teaching art that reconciles cultural differences. He also pushed for interest and commitment to the work and art of artists of color, and championed a new vocabulary of discovery apart from the Euro-American culture. There were stacks of panel discussions, readings from the symposium, interview transcripts, and curriculum materials to pour through, which greatly enriched my understanding of Villa’s methodology and vision. I was intrigued to learn that art could also be a form of action, that the symposium itself was a form of art, which was radically different from my usual perception of art as objects (paintings, sculptures, installation etc.).
Coincidentally, his work was also showing at the Singapore Biennale 2019, so I went to see some of his artworks at the National Gallery. I was struck by how different his artworks were compared to mainstream, western art; the use of materials to distort symbolic realities and his emphasis on a multicultural, multi-religious art form were unique and compelling.
Besides my project with Siddharta Perez, I was also involved with the rest of the interns in investigating the new museum definition. We went to the NUS Baba House, the Asian Civilization Museum, the Golden Mile Complex and the Singapore Science Centre to study how these sites relate to the museum definition. We had numerous insightful and thought-provoking discussions, such as how the Golden Mile Complex could potentially be a museum because it safeguarded memories and arguably artefacts and specimens (the Thai diasporic community in Singapore and their spaces) and the role of play in the Singapore Science Centre. Through this process, I’ve learnt how the museum definition could have an impact on funding in the arts, legislation, and the future of museums – it is important that we constantly question the role and function of the museum and allow for growth and possibilities.
I also bonded with the fellow interns and the five weeks at the NUS Museum were equally as amusing and enjoyable as they were serious and productive. Some of the things we got up to consisted of watching the solar eclipse (Melia actually made a pinhole cardboard box for this), dressing up for the Christmas party (kudos to Wei Ai’s outstanding efforts!), and having our personal photoshoot on museum trips (just me and Liz).
It was a memorable and enriching five weeks and I have to thank Siddharta Perez for engaging me with this project and Michelle for her supervision.
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