THE POLITICS OF VISUAL ART PRACTICES WITH SUBALTERN COMMUNITIES IN SINGAPORE: AN AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL STUDIES

Abstract

This thesis examines the significance of visual art practices with subaltern communities in Singapore through the method of auto-ethnography. Three participatory art attempts, with the incarcerated in a prison school, with a Non-Governmental Organization that supports sex workers and with three young women in an independent art project, were carried out, documented and examined by the artist-researcher to determine the political conjuncture of visual art practices with these respective subaltern communities. Following an auto-ethnographic account of the three participatory art projects, a conjectural analysis is made to reveal possible political strategies for significant speech to take place through the presentation of autogenous cultural practices, and through the presence of the fighting phoenix. The conclusion of this thesis firmly locates the form of the fighting phoenix in `the political? and its own modes and practices of commensuration as necessary for the maintenance of active political citizenship and democracy