Post Scriptum

My previous posting should not be taken as a criticism of art in Singapore. In fact the Biennale is not about art in Singapore. None of the artists whose works I saw is Singaporean.

No, my comments are on the state of contemporary art in general. And that state, from my point of view, is dismal. Much of contemporary "art" is not art at all; it is often a pretentious, pedestrian, uninformed, political statement or, simply, some "happening" or "installation" mixing various media without any aesthetic concern.

This trend feeds on the uneducated tastes of snobbish yuppies who have too much money but never got the educational background in the humanities necessary to develop an aesthetic sense. They are ready to follow whatever is presented as art, with a seemingly profound but unintelligible philosophical commentary.

I wonder what will happen to these installations I saw in and around the Containart Pavilion. Perhaps spme of them will find their way in a museum, although they do take a lot of space ... They certainly are not collectible by private art collectors.

They are, for the most part, temporary happenings making an ephemeral statement or no statement at all, a testimony of the emptiness of the modern soul.