Tang Da Wu

Tang Da Wu (, ; born 1943) is a Singaporean artist who works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation art and performance art.

Tang Da Wu was born Thang Kian Hiong in Singapore in 1943, the eldest of four sons.

His second brother Thang Kiang How is himself a visual artist based in Singapore.

His father was a journalist with the Chinese daily newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh He studied at a Chinese-medium school, but disliked English and mathematics and was often scolded by his teachers.

He preferred playing after school with neighbourhood children and learned to speak Malay and Chinese from them.

He also enjoyed drawing, and gained confidence when his secondary school paintings were accepted in art competitions.

In 1968, Tang was awarded a diploma in youth and community works from the National Youth Leadership Institute.

Educated at Birmingham Polytechnic and Goldsmiths' College, University of London, Tang gave his first solo exhibition, consisting of drawings and paintings, in 1970 at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Two years later, in 1970, his first solo exhibition of drawings and paintings sponsored by the Singapore Art Society was staged at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Subsequently, he went to the United Kingdom to study, majoring in sculpture.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), with first class honours, from the School of Fine Art, Birmingham Polytechnic, in 1974.

While abroad he changed his name to Da Wu, which is Mandarin for "big mist".

Tang later returned to the UK and attended advanced courses at the Saint Martins School of Art.

He began engaging in performance art upon returning to Singapore in 1979 following his undergraduate studies.

Returning to Singapore in 1979 after completing his undergraduate studies, Tang engaged in performance art, works of art that are composed of actions performed by the artist at a certain place and time.

The following year, he staged a work of installation art called Earthworks at the National Museum Art Gallery.

This comprised two works, The Product of the Sun and Me and The Product of the Rain and Me, which were made up of dishes of earth, lumps of soil, and pieces of soiled and water-stained linen which he had hung in gullies at Ang Mo Kio, a construction site in the process of being turned into a public housing estate.

Installation art uses sculptural materials, and sometimes other media such as sound, video and performance, to modify the way a particular space is experienced.

He received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 1985 from Goldsmiths' College, University of London, and a doctorate in 1988.

Tang is married to an Englishwoman, Hazel McIntosh.

They have a son, Ben Zai, known professionally as Zai Tang, who is a sound artist living in the UK.

In 1988, Tang founded The Artists Village.

The first art colony to be established in Singapore, it aimed to encourage artists to create experimental art.

Members of the Village were among the first contemporary artists in Singapore, and also among the first to begin practising installation art and performance art.

There, Tang mentored younger artists and informed them about artistic developments in other parts of the world.

In 1988, Tang founded The Artists Village, originally located at 61B Lorong Gambas in rural Ulu Sembawang, in the north part of Singapore.

The first art colony to be established in Singapore, its goal was to inspire artists to create experimental art.

Tang described the Artists Village as:

"... [an] alternative venue dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of experimental and alternative arts in Singapore. It endeavors to establish an open space for artists to mature at their own pace, and to provide a conducive environment which allows them to experiment, experience and exchange ideas."

T.K. Sabapathy noted: "The Village was a beacon, and Da Wu both a catalyst and mentor."

Tang has expressed concern about environmental and social issues through his art, such as the works They Poach the Rhino, Chop Off His Horn and Make This Drink (1989) and Tiger's Whip (1991).

He believes in the potential of the individual and collective to effect social changes, and his art deals with national and cultural identities.

Tang has participated in numerous community and public art projects, workshops and performances.

He also organized exhibitions and symposia at the Village, and arranged for it to collaborate with the National Museum Art Gallery and the National Arts Council's 1992 Singapore Festival of the Arts.

In January 1994, the National Arts Council (NAC) stopped funding unscripted performance art following a controversial performance by Josef Ng that was regarded as obscene by many members of the public.

From that time, Tang and other performance artists mostly practised their art abroad, although some performances were presented in Singapore as dance or theatre.

For his originality and influence in performance art in Southeast Asia, among other things, Tang won the Arts and Culture Prize in 1999 at the 10th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes.

The NAC eventually reversed its no-funding rule on performance art in September 2003.

Tang was one of four artists who represented Singapore at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Tang's work is part of the collection of the Singapore Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.