Eggplants in National Gallery Singapore work by Suzann Victor stolen by visitors
SINGAPORE – The 200 eggplants that form Singapore artist Suzann Victor's National Gallery Singapore (NGS) commission, Still Life, have been disappearing – not because the fruits are rotting, but because visitors have been stealing them.
NGS on Aug 1 did not say how many of the purplish fruits have been pilfered, but said in response to The Straits Times' queries that clear signages have been erected to warn visitors against touching the installation.
Gallery staff conduct regular inspections of the work to maintain its integrity, NGS said. Its statement also acknowledged that the wall-mounted work, which makes tangible the futile performance of patriarchy in social spaces, has aroused unusual curiosity and enthusiasm.
'We've observed that many visitors enjoy engaging with Still Life by taking photos and experiencing it up close, and we hope this interest continues in a respectful way,' it said. 'We kindly seek the public's cooperation in preserving the artwork so that everyone can enjoy it in its intended form.'
Still Life, part of NGS' revamped Singapore art history exhibition, Singapore Stories: Pathways And Detours In Art, has been a lightning rod for public debate since its installation in July, jutting out into the walkway outside DBS Singapore Gallery three on the museum's second floor.
Part of curators' efforts to make better use of 'transitional spaces', its siting in the extra-gallery space is also a nod to the work's original context in 1992, when Victor stuck 100 brinjals onto three black walls outside Parkway Parade to get workers trudging to the office in the morning to 'wake up'.
Since its launch, it has attracted widespread attention, with online debate particularly focused on the perceived food wastage, with the brinjals meant to be regularly replaced after their organic decomposition throughout the exhibition period for the next couple of years.
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NGS has since said that all eggplants will go to non-profit organisation Ground-Up Initiative for composting in their community farm.
Victor on Aug 1 told ST that she hoped the public would go beyond this 'essentialising way' of viewing art 'that is ignorant'.
Still Life's genesis in 1992 is pre-eggplant emoji, and pre-Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's now infamous but provocative work Comedian, of a fresh banana duct-taped to a wall.
'The eggplants are composed in a very deliberate way. It was the beginning of my interest in kinetics and performance,' Victor , considered one of Singapore's most important performance art pioneers and co-founder of 1990s art space 5th Passage, told ST. 'They try to defy gravity, but ultimately, gravity gets them. They are failing in a very profound sense.'
She also said the eggplants are each hand-painted with meticulous attention paid to their colour and glossiness. 'The thinking behind the work is also very much about their materiality. One of the most beautiful responses to the eggplant was when (performance artist) Tang Da Wu came and did this dance to articulate the spaces between the plants. '
There have been other instances in Singapore where art has been vandalised , though this usually happens with public art outside galleries . In 2014, Casey Chen's Prosperity Tunnel along the underground linkway between Jurong Point and Boon Lay Bus Interchange, comprising wallpaper and stickers printed with images of currency notes, had a 30cm by 30cm portion extracted by a member of the public.
In 2000, Felicia Low's Dragon outside Chinatown Complex went entirely missing and parts of it was discovered in a rubbish dump a block away. There was likewise a misunderstanding of value: Cheap epoxy parts forming the dragon's body were stolen while the costlier acrylic mirror panels were left behind.
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