Talk | Witness To A Collection

Witness to a Collection
Talk by Adrian Jones of the Witness Collection

Date: Thursday, January 12, 2017

Time: 7.00pm - 8.00pm 

Venue: NUS Museum 

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In this talk, Adrian Jones of the Witness Collection will share insights on the origins of his collecting and why research-led conservation and art history documentation have been a major focus of the Witness Collection. Jones will also touch on how wartime materials are contextualised in the collection, and how different approaches by Vietnamese institutions and collectors have affected the collection and the presentation of art history.

This talk is organised in conjunction with the exhibitions “Who wants to remember a war?” and LINES: War Drawings and Posters from the Ambassador Dato’ N. Parameswaran Collection, which features posters,woodcuts and drawings from the French phase of the
Indochina war of resistance against the Americans, and drawings and sketches of life and people at the frontlines.

About the speaker
Adrian Jones is the founder of the Witness Collection comprising nearly 2,000 Vietnamese modern and contemporary art pieces, which aims to act as a platform to showcase Vietnam’s historical narrative through visual works by Vietnamese artists. The collection stemmed from a vision Jones had in the late 1980s to produce a book and documentary on postwar Vietnam which led to a first chance encounter with artists at the Hanoi Fine Arts Association. In 2002, the collection was officially formalised with works that range from the colonial period to the post Doi Moi era.

Image: Adrian Jones in the tunnels of Cu Chi in Saigon. Image courtesy of Adrian Jones.