Black Cube: The Stage for Performance in Singapore, 1995–96

Abstract:This article proposes the term 'black cube' to describe some forms of performance art in Singapore in the mid-1990s. While Claire Bishop had persuasively theorised the "gray zone" for theatrically-influenced performance art being presented in American art institutions, her gray zone does not describe the situation in Singapore. The gray zone presupposed a history of suspicion between the fields of visual art and theatre, a history that existed in New York through the writings of Michael Fried. This lineage does not properly exist in Singapore, as there has been a close relationship between visual art and theatre. This relationship deepened especially after 1994, when an incident with the Singapore state threw practitioners of both art and theatre toward a united front. This article will discuss events such as THE CUTTING EDGE [no, not the arts festival …] (29 February–30 March 1996), an experimental theatre festival by TheatreWorks (renamed T:>Works in 2020), which presented work that hovered on the precipice of art while determinedly declaring themselves as theatre. Jailani "Zai" Kuning's Growing Madness: The Day After (7–9 March 1996), Lee Wen's Hand-Made Tales (14–16 March 1996) were two works from this festival that demonstrate the character of the black cube. By discussing these case studies, the article expands upon Bishop's theorisation of performance space from a Singaporean lens. Unlike gray zone works, which were habituated to the white cube, black cube works continued to antagonise the categories of visual art and theatre through denying objective distance in the work.