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SINGAPORE: Can artists having coffee be treated as a kind of performance art?
If so, the next few weekends are bound to get interesting with a series of contemporary art events lined up courtesy of two events.
This year's Fetterfield Singapore Performance Art Event kicks off on Friday night with an art exhibition and performances at the Singapore Management University Gallery.
This will be the first in a series of art performances by 13 artists that will take place over two weekends at various venues such as the Singapore Art Museum, Hong Lim Park, the Padang, Post Museum and Fort Canning Park.
The event began in 2005 as an all-Singapore or rather, Singapore-based showcase of performance art organised by the husband-and-wife artist duo of Jeremy Hiah and Lina Adam.
If you're one of those who still shirk away from the term "performance art", this edition of Fetterfield is going to be more accessible, said Lina.
"I don't think it's become mainstream yet, but I think as artists, we are getting much better (at knowing) how to showcase performance art in a manner that's maybe more acceptable to the status quo rather than just doing things guerrilla-style," she laughed.
Performing outdoors has also given them more public attention as well as new audiences, they said.
"You are actually showcasing your work to the unsuspecting public.
We do get all kinds of audiences, including passers-by who have no idea what's going on!"
Artists Marienne Yang and Sabrina Koh, for example, will be staging their piece, Coffee (In) Conversation.
Inspired by the sight of two ladies at a food court who kept pouring creamer on their coffee, the half-an-hour piece will reenact this by having Marienne nonchalantly pouring creamer unto her coffee while trying to strike up a conversation with Sabrina.
Marienne only got into performance art recently - it's her fifth showpiece, she previously did one on an MRT ride from Buangkok to Dhoby Ghaut - and for her, it's a love-hate relationship.
"I have a fear of public space, so I am actually quite scared of putting myself up on a platform. It's exhilarating at that point of time but there's the fear of doing it," she said.
Fetterfield runs until November 1 over the weekends. Coffee (In) Conversation happens this Friday, 2.30pm, at 12 Queen Street. For more details, visit www.fetterfield.blogspot.com.
- TODAY/yb
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