Eve Tan

Eve Tan started exploring sculpture, installation and performance art in school (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts). She participated in the exhibition Personae 1 in 1994 with seven women artists.

By the end of 1996, Eve took a break from exhibition and performance art to work in theatre, film industry and community arts, a journey that she has questioned and reflected about practicing arts in Singapore. What is the purpose of doing art? Who will you be reaching out to? An artwork in a gallery could only reach a certain number of audiences. It is very different from forms such as Forum Theatre, or even a documentary, where they could reach a wider audience.

She curated an exhibition entitled A Little Bit of Oomph! in 2014. It was an exhibition which brought women in a community to the arts. She did a performance art piece entitled I’m Every Woman to celebrate the life of women during the opening of the exhibition. As an artist, she works primarily in watercolour and ink. Her sketches were featured at Your Mother Gallery, National Museum and 791 Art Museum at Nanchang, China. Eve sees creative projects as connected to the dirt and champagne of everyday life.

Still I Rise

First Series + 16 Jun 2018 From Hindoo Road to Rowell Road

Rowell Road is commonly seen as a red light district. The women working in these unlicensed brothels (facing Rowell Road) are subjected to ‘illegal working’ despite them working indoors.

What are the fundamental rights of sex worker? Are sex workers ‘evil’, ‘whore’ or ‘hooker’ in moral standards? The country’s fervent pursuit of a clean state has created stigma around their work.

As Maya Angelou wrote in one of her most famous poems, “You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

Her poem goes to show that sex workers come from all sorts of backgrounds and hold all sorts of futures. They could become powerful and independent women while working, if so they chose. They are not victims, showing the fundamental human rights of equality, diversity and acceptance.

This performance is a continuation of my exploration on the role of women as a series.

Trashy Queen

Second Series + 9 Mar 2019 Stamford Arts Centre

The term Trashy is associated with uselessness or worthlessness. A trashy person has been referred to as people lacking a meaningful purpose in life. They are seen to be not very concerned with academic achievements, and heritage and culture, but into banal activities such as celebrity gossip, shopping for useless merchandise, glueing to the screen to escape from discontentment in life. Mankind’s seeking satisfaction and happiness through addiction and obtaining objects of desire plague our materialistic society.

Have we become a trashy society?

Is there a place for barter trade? Is there a place for chasing one’s dream? Is there a place to give and share?

Armed with the basic concept of creativity before consumption, Eve utilises recycled trash as part of her performance. This work is a continuation of a series of performances exploring the role of women in society.

This performance takes place at the same time as 思你我她; Thinking Block with each of them in dialogue with the other.