What might the contemporary performing body look like when it seeks to communicate and to cultivate the need to live well within the natural environment, whether the context of that living well is framed and set upon either by long-standing cultural traditions or by diverse modernizing forces over time? The Singapore performance and visual artist Tang Da Wu has engaged with a present and a region fractured by the predations of unacceptable cultural norms – the consequences of colonial modernity or the modern nation state taking on imperial pretensions – and the subsumption of Singapore society under capitalist modernization. Tang's performing body both refuses the diminution of time to the present, as is the wont of the forces he engages with, and undertakes interventions by sometimes elusive and ironic means – unlike some overdetermined contemporary performance art – that reject the image of the modernist ‘artist as hero’. Part of the cause for this distinctive art committed to historicity and a deliberate ordinariness is that artistic communication to him means provoking self-reflexive thought rather than immediate action. Over the years this has resulted in collaborative artistic workshops, in which he has imaginatively transferred art making from his body to the realm of ordinary people. These workshops become his particular extension of the neo-avant-garde's breaching of art's infrastructures.

中文翻译：

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身体与交流：唐大武的“普通”艺术

当代表演团体在寻求交流和培养在自然环境中良好生活的需要时会是什么样子，无论这种生活良好的背景是由长期的文化传统还是由各种现代化力量构成和设定的随着时间的推移？新加坡表演和视觉艺术家唐大武参与了一个被不可接受的文化规范的掠夺——殖民现代性或现代民族国家承担帝国主义自负的后果——以及新加坡社会在资本主义现代化下的包容的现在和一个地区. 唐的表演体既拒绝时间的流逝，也拒绝时间的流逝，就像他所参与的力量的习惯一样，并通过有时难以捉摸和讽刺的方式进行干预——不像一些过度确定的当代行为艺术——拒绝现代主义“艺术家作为英雄”的形象。这种致力于历史性和刻意平凡的独特艺术的部分原因是，对他而言，艺术交流意味着激发自我反思的思想，而不是立即采取行动。多年来，这导致了合作艺术工作坊，在这些工作坊中，他富有想象力地将艺术创作从他的身体转移到了普通人的领域。这些工作坊成为他对新前卫艺术对艺术基础设施的破坏的特殊延伸。这种致力于历史性和刻意平凡的独特艺术的部分原因是，对他而言，艺术交流意味着激发自我反思的思想，而不是立即采取行动。多年来，这导致了合作艺术工作坊，在这些工作坊中，他富有想象力地将艺术创作从他的身体转移到了普通人的领域。这些工作坊成为他对新前卫艺术对艺术基础设施的破坏的特殊延伸。这种致力于历史性和刻意平凡的独特艺术的部分原因是，对他而言，艺术交流意味着激发自我反思的思想，而不是立即采取行动。多年来，这导致了合作艺术工作坊，在这些工作坊中，他富有想象力地将艺术创作从他的身体转移到了普通人的领域。这些工作坊成为他对新前卫艺术对艺术基础设施的破坏的特殊延伸。