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Introduction to Tropical
Tropical is the world’s first major museum exhibition to compare Southeast Asia and Latin America, both sharing the same history of struggles against colonialism. The large-scale exhibition consists of over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, performances and sensorial installations from Southeast Asian and Latin American artists in the 20th century. It showcases how artists from both regions rebelled against convention, promoted solidarity, and reclaimed their rightful place in art history. The curatorial rationale is to shed light on the resilience of the Southeast Asian and Latin American artists who contributed to the growth of their countries and offer new perspectives on the development of modern art. The exhibition consists of 3 galleries which names are based on books:
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The Myth of the Lazy Native by Syed Hussein Alatas
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This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
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The Subversive by José Rizal
The Myth of the Lazy Native
Syed Hussein Alatas's The Myth of the Lazy Native is a well-known critique of the colonial portrayal of indigenous Malay, Filipino, and Javanese people from the 1600s to the 1900s. The book delves into the ways in which these myths came to be as a result of colonial ideology and capitalism. The intention of Alatas, a Malaysian sociologist and politician, was to set out to rectify a biassed colonial view of Asia and its indigenous people.
Drawing inspiration from the book and using its name, the first gallery of Tropical seeks to challenge the myth of natives being “lazy” postcolonialism. Colonialism persisted till around the mid-twentieth century. Upon freedom and gaining independence, native voices started to emerge in their art, poetry and literature. Rather than the westernised idea of a tranquil and exotic tropical region, the native artists sought to display a more truthful representation of their land, one that showcases the labourers, farmers, freedom fighters and even their own mothers.
One artist that the gallery focused on and whose painting is the first to welcome visitors into the gallery was Paul Gauguin. Known for his expedition to “exotic” destinations, the French painter and Peruvian descent introduced not just the tranquil side of his destinations, but also the struggles these countries faced postcolonialism. While Gauguin’s legacy has divided the art world due to many of his paintings reflecting his sexual and racial fantasies of Tahitian women, the paintings displayed at Tropical have been carefully selected and curated to feed the main purpose of the exhibition - displaying the struggles Latin American and Southeast Asian countries faced.
This Earth of Mankind
This Earth of Mankind was written by Indonesian Pramoedya Ananta Toer while imprisoned in Buru island during the Dutch colonial rule. The fictional book follows Minke, a Javanese boy of royal descent, who faces racial and gender oppression in his society when he is invited to live with a very unconventional family. Through his eye-opening journey, he eventually rebelled against the Dutch colonial power.
In this second gallery of Tropical, the curator showcases artists breaking free from colonialism and in search of their own identities. Navigating their way to represent truthfulness and share their heritage of mankind, self-portraits of artists are exhibited, including one by the one and only Frida Kahlo. As time moves forward from colonialism, innovations and progress start to emerge in these regions as well. More batik, weaving and sculptures are seen as the artists grew an eagerness to pioneer. These techniques thus propelled them forward in their search for a shared earth of mankind.
The Subversive by José Rizal
The Subversive is a classic political novel about the last days of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines and is hailed by the nation as their gospel. The author, José Rizal, was a highly respected man in Philippine history whose political writings led to the Philippine revolution and ultimately his execution by the Spanish colony. His book revolves around a serious theme of colonialism that provokes readers to think about timeless questions like whether a colony should aim at assimilation or independence.
The third and final gallery of the exhibition portrays Southeast Asian and Latin American artists as advocates for the underprivileged and heroes of reclaiming what was left in the shadows of the dissipating colonialism. The artists steered away from the common style of European art and took charge of creating their own styles using techniques like painting and sculpting. They boldly invented new styles of art to claim their own identities as artists. This act led them to be half-rebels and half-lovers who loved what they did and did it to dissipate the colonial remains.
Lina Bo Bardi
As a way to showcase the Southeast Asian and Latin American artists’ spirits to challenge conventions and pave the way for change, the curators of Tropical adopted a unique style for displaying artworks. Instead of the conventional method of mounting paintings on walls, they are mounted on “crystal easels” and locally-sourced wood in a grid system, which was invented by Lina Bo Bardi, an Italian-born Brazilian architect whose designs are heavily engaged with for this exhibition.
Bo Bardi was a major figure in Brazilian architecture in the twentieth century and a very expressive architect who contributed to the modernisation of Brazilian art. Her highly innovative designs consist of the Glass House, which was almost entirely filled with glass windows that allowed the occupant to connect with the nature outside, and Museum of Art Sao Paulo, where she suspended a building above a 70-metre-long square. Glass is a common material in her designs. It was no surprise that she came up with “glass easels” for artworks to be exhibited. It was a “radical” approach at that time to mount artworks on glass panels supported by concrete cubes. All of Bo Bardi’s designs sought characteristics like transparency, lightness, and suspension without room divides. The same idea applied to the design of the easels. It creates a wide, open, transparent, fluid, and permeable space where objects are made highly accessible to viewers. This “crystal easel” method was adopted in the first gallery.
Another exhibition design Bo Bardi created was the grid system using locally sourced wood to display paintings. Like the inspiration for “crystal easels”, this style of exhibition allows multiple artworks to be viewed from various vantage points of the room that would otherwise be impossible with conventional walls. The grid system is adopted in the second gallery of Tropical.
Both the “crystal easels” and the grid system forces viewers to look at the artwork before reading the label. A study has shown that the average visitor spends 2 seconds looking at an artwork compared to 10 seconds for the label, in which they will take glances at the artwork to verify what they have just read and move on. Thus, Bo Bardi’s method for exhibition is effective in forcing viewers to spend more time with the artwork and connect with it before reading the labels that are mounted at the back.
For Tropical, NGS collaborated with WOHA, a Singapore-based architecture firm to adopt Bo Bardia’s methods for exhibiting artworks. Like Bo Bardi, WOHA’s innovative designs seek to bring elements of nature into futuristic buildings. Some of their works include Pan Pacific Orchard and Design Orchard in Singapore, and 443 Queen Street in Brisbane, Australia.
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Art Review
More Than Palm Trees and Warm Beaches: Tropical
When you think of the word “tropical”, what comes to mind? The typical response would be summer, palm trees, warm beaches, vibrant colours and so on. However, is that really the case? As I stepped into the exhibition Tropical: Stories from Southeast Asia and Latin America in National Gallery Singapore, I was told otherwise. Tropical, which is currently ongoing till 24 March 2024, seeks to uncover more than just vibrant colours and warm beaches. I must say, I have never been to an exhibition like this one before - and in a good way. Words cannot describe how amazed I was by the layout and structure of how the artworks were displayed. It felt groundbreaking and it is probably the first of such displays in Singapore. Just as I thought it couldn't get more interesting, it proved me wrong as I made my way through the second and the third galleries. As I moved from one gallery to the other, I could feel a distinct yet smooth transition in the storytelling that the curators intended to bring us through. On top of their unique way of displaying artworks, the exhibition also incorporated many interactive artworks that visitors could hold in their hands and play with, or even wear - something I found to be very rare in museum exhibitions.
One thing that Latin America and Southeast Asia share in common is the history of colonialism in their country and their resistance to it. The exhibition displays over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, performances and sensorial installations from Latin American and Southeast Asian artists from the 20th century, showcasing their truths and resilience during a tough period of time and their progress through the end of the century. The curatorial rationale is to shed light on the resilience of the Southeast Asian and Latin American artists who contributed to the growth of their countries and offer new perspectives on the development of modern art. The exhibition consists of 3 galleries which are inspired by and named after books: The Myth of the Lazy Native by Syed Hussein Alatas, This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer and The Subversive by José Rizal.
As a way to showcase the Southeast Asian and Latin American artists’ spirits to challenge conventions and pave the way for change, the curators of Tropical collaborated with Singapore-based architecture firm WOHA to engage with innovative designs by the well-renowned twentieth century Brazilian architect, Lina Bo Bardi. Instead of the conventional method of mounting paintings on walls, they are mounted on “crystal easels” and locally-sourced wood in a grid system, both invented by Bo Bardi. I think her designs are more obviously adopted in the first and second galleries, though the idea of creating space and accessibility is also reflected in the third gallery.
A common thought for Latin American and Southeast Asian countries is that they are developing countries. However, as I stepped foot into the first gallery of the exhibition, The Myth of the Lazy Native, my first thought was “grand”. Long scrolls with quotes by artists draped down from the high ceiling, giving them a strong sense of importance in their words. Paintings were each framed and individually mounted on special glass panels, each of its own size held by identical cement cubes, giving each artwork its own stage. That also made it seamless and easy to navigate my way through. It was nothing like other exhibitions I’ve been to, where paintings were usually pushed to the 4 walls of the room, leaving the space in the middle empty. The first artwork that invites guests in was Paul Gauguin’s The Poor Fisherman (1896). Now, one who knows Gauguin and his controversy in the art world might wonder: Why Gauguin? It is supposedly an exhibition displaying artworks by Latin American and Southeast Asian artists, but he is French. On top of that, he has sparked controversy due to some of his works being dappled by his sexual and racist fantasies of women in the native countries he had travelled to. As someone who advocates for feminism and social rights, it did not feel right to me to have his artworks there. However, I realised that NGS has carefully selected and curated the artworks by Gauguin. Tying back to the gallery’s title, The Myth of the Lazy Native, each artwork in the exhibition challenges the myth and displays the realities and hardships of the natives, similar to The Poor Fisherman (1896). Additionally, Gauguin’s artwork was displayed first, perhaps to give viewers a brief introduction to how a foreigner, like us, viewed tropical countries in the twentieth century. For that, I was able to push aside the controversy surrounding Gauguin and focused on the stories the curators had to share in the exhibition. I am impressed and I applaud them for it.
Source: Sydney Tay
Making my way through the aisle of artworks felt like I was flowing with the river, a clear path with trees neatly but staggered on both sides. It was a very smooth and easy flow. As I progressed through the rows, the artworks went from serene to chaos. I like how smooth the flow and transition is. The first gallery also introduced us to works by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, a very suitable artist for this exhibition as he was famous for using art to bring attention to the struggles of the poor in his country.
At the end of each row, I turned back out of curiosity and noted how we could see the labels of other galleries that the artworks have been loaned to on the back of the canvases. It was like viewing the passport of a painting. I found that to be very exciting for an art enthusiast like myself. I also realised how effective Bo Bardi’s design of the crystal easel is. As the labels were pasted on the back of the crystal easels, it forces viewers to connect and ponder on a painting first before reading off the labels. This was extremely beneficial for me as, perhaps like the majority of others, I tend to stare at a painting for only a few seconds before moving on to spend a longer time reading the label. I enjoyed how the concept forced me to resist the urge of immediately turning to a label for answers.
The next part of the gallery was lined with purple carpets in some areas, inviting me to interact with the artworks and some books on Southeast Asia and Latin America. After having an introduction to the realities of Tropical countries via the paintings, the library of books presented were mostly written from a foreigner’s perspective. It created this strong contrast of how outsiders viewed the region as an exotic and tranquil getaway that was so far flung from what locals experienced. Moving on to the interactive artworks and perhaps due to the nature of past exhibitions that only allowed us to view, something ignited sparks in my inner child self. To see rows of artworks lined up to be held in my own hands and played with, that definitely unlocked the child in me. Luckily, I was not the only one. As I went with a friend, I saw her also getting excited over the interactive artworks. The purple carpet also drew the interest of young children, teenagers all the way to elderly. It was a very heartwarming sight to see people unlocking their child selves to be curious enough to play with the artworks. This followed through the rest of the exhibition, covering the three galleries and even outside the gallery. One word I would use to describe the exhibition is unique.
Moving on, the second gallery This Earth of Mankind welcomes us with the artist who everyone knows and perhaps looks forward to the most in the exhibition, Frida Kahlo. Rightfully, Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Monkey (1945) seemed to me to receive the brightest spotlight, literally, in that entire row of paintings. Sitting beside her painting was another self-portrait by Patrick Ng (1958), a Chinese Malaysian artist, who painted himself as a Malay woman. What the two paintings had in common was empowerment - one for women and one for gender fluidity. This gave me a clear introduction into the second gallery’s narrative saying “I am here”, asserting dominance and progress using art.
Source: Sydney Tay
If gallery one was a river, gallery two was a forest. The wooden grid system designed by Bo Bardi suspends paintings on wooden planks that create a very naturistic imagery of forest trees. When I turned around, I found my face amidst the forest of self-portraits in the mirror. For the first time, as cheesy as it sounds, I felt like I was one of the artworks. The curatorial choice was impressive as it was able to connect us with the artworks in so many ways, giving us a sense of shared mankind.
Source: Sydney Tay
As I entered into the third and final gallery, The Subversive, crackling noises paired with the dimly lit room gave me a spooky feeling. The room was nearly pitch-black. All I could see were the artworks and round tables with arrows and descriptions for the artworks that appeared like constellations. Again, the setting of the gallery had elements of nature. This one felt like I was floating through space, dimly lit and all I could see were stars and constellations. However, the artworks themselves have a very different vibe. They felt more tribal and scary, in my opinion. Perhaps, it is because the artists steered away from the usual European art style we are more comfortable with, in an effort to dissipate the colonial remains. Indeed, the artworks displayed in this gallery were subversive.
As if the dim atmosphere and crackling noises were not enough, the first thing I saw looked like corpses attached to wooden poles. That scared me. It was a 2007 artwork titled Ang Retablo ng Bantaoay done by Filipino artist, Roberto Feleo, highlighting the Basi Revolt in 1807. To me, this was the highlight of the third gallery and it ties deeply into the title of the gallery, The Subversive.
Leaving the exhibition, the last painting I saw, Villa Indah (1984) by Semsar Siahaan, was a more modern take on “exotic places” where westerners visit for a vacation while the locals do the hard labour. It was a very smooth transition to bring us back to the current time and wrap up the exhibition as we left.
From start to finish, each gallery strongly reflected its name and the curatorial rationale. It transported us from a lazy river to a forest and to a galaxy, all encapsulating the essence of nature - something that is key in tropical regions. My understanding of Southeast Asian and Latin American artists deepened as I learned the struggles they went through while feeling deeply connected to them thanks to the innovative exhibition layout. Placing the artworks from the two regions side by side, one can easily see the similarities they shared. The only difference that stood out to me was the subject which informs us of where it's from. This ties back to the shared mankind gallery two intended to promote. Tropical showed that Southeast Asia and Latin America are more than just palm trees and sunny beaches. They share a history of struggles against colonialism that we usually will not think of when we hear the word “tropical”, and the exhibition is here to remind us of that and to pay respect to those artists.
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Art Review by Sydney Tay
25 Nov 2023