Eve Tan
Picture: Name of work: I’m Every Woman (2014), The Spare Room (1 hour 30 minutes)1
For Wu Wei Performance Art Series
Title:
Still I Rise
Media:
Wedding gown, tin cans and flowers
Location:
From Hindoo Road to Rowell Road
Description:
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.
(Eve Tan, 2018)
Notes to Text
-
Eve started exploring performance art in school in 1993. She participated in the exhibition Personae 1 in 1994 with seven women artists.
After that, Eve took a break from performance art for 20 years to work in theatre, film industry and community arts, a journey that she has questioned and reflected about practising 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.