This book approaches the subject of contemporary art by exploring the social embeddedness and identities of Singaporean artists. Linking artistic processes and production to both personal worlds and wider issues, the book examines how artists negotiate their relationships - between self and society, between artistic freedom and social responsibility. It is based on original research into the discourses and artistic practices of local artists, with a special focus on emerging artists and artists whose work and perspectives engage with questions of identity. Reimagining contemporary Singapore and their place within it, artists are asserting their multiple and heterogeneous self-identities and contesting hegemonic norms and notions, as they negotiate and adapt to the world around them. Relevant to art and cultural scholars interested in the relationships between self and society, between artistic freedom and social responsibility, this book also presents a new means of understanding contemporary Singapore and Singaporean identity through the lens of its artists.
About the Author:

Chee-Hoo Lum is an associate professor of music education with the Visual and Performing Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the coordinator of the NIE Centre for Arts Research in Education (CARE). CARE is also a member of the UNESCO UNITWIN: Arts Education Research for Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development. Chee-Hoo's research interests include issues towards identity, cultural diversity and multiculturalism, technology and globalization in music education; children's musical cultures; creativity and improvisation; and elementary music methods. He is currently on the editorial board of Research Studies in Music Education (RSME) and International Journal of Music in Early Childhood (IJMEC). He is a board member of Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research (APSMER) and was on the board of International Society for Music Education (ISME) from 2016 to 2018. He has previously been on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), the co-editor of International Journal of Music Education (IJME) from 2014 to 2020 and an associate editor with the International Journal of Education and the Arts (IJEA). Chee-Hoo has published four edited books: (1) Contextualized Practices in Arts Education: An International Dialogue on Singapore; 2) Musical Childhoods of Asia and The Pacific); 3) Arts Education and Cultural Diversity: Policies, Research, Practices and Critical Perspectives; 4) The Artground Ecology: Engaging Children in Arts and Play Experiences, three co-authored academic books: 1) Teaching Living Legends: Professional development and lessons for the twenty-first century music educator; 2) Semionauts of Tradition: Music, Culture and Identity in Singapore; 3) World Music Pedagogy: School-Community Intersections, school textbooks, academic book chapters, referred journal articles and made numerous conference presentations at local and international settings. He has also successfully garnered a number of grant funding research projects (Tier 1 and Tier 2) through NIE OER, NIE AcRF, the National Arts Council and Mendaki of Singapore.

Based between Singapore and New York City, Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray has been conducting research on the arts for the National Institute of Education (NIE) since 2016. She is a co-author (along with Chee-Hoo Lum) of the book Semionauts of Tradition: Music, Culture and Identity in Contemporary Singapore, published by Springer in 2019. In 2021, she curated Dialogues with the Unseen at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC, an exhibition featuring experimental and documentary films by artists in Southeast Asia. Before researching the arts, Juliette worked in international development and the humanitarian field. She has conducted anthropological field research in Aceh, Indonesia; Brazil; Havana's Barrio Chino; and among immigrant communities in Buenos Aires and Boston. As a filmmaker, she has shown her work in over 40 countries.

Twardzik Ching Chor Leng is currently a senior lecturer at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and served as a member in the NIE Permanent Collection Committee from 2013 to 2018. As a contemporary artist and art educator, Chor Leng believes in developing local talent and resources in the arts. As such, she has served at the National Arts Council (NAC) Scholarship Committee, Lasalle College of the Arts Faculty of Fine Arts Industry Advisory Board, Ministry of Education (MOE) Art Syllabus Development Committee, and MOE Special Education Branch's Curriculum Advisory Group, and was recently invited to give a keynote address at the SZTU (Shenzhen Technology University, China) International Exhibition and Art Forum 2020. As a curator, she has overseen many exhibitions including international exhibitions such as Secrets in Life and Death (2017), an exhibition of paintings and prints by renowned Cheyenne and Arapaho artist Edgar Heap of Birds. She has served as a judge and curator in the Singapore Youth Festival 2011 and 2014, as well as SAM's President's Young Talent Curatorial Committee (2014/15). She has also co-curated a multi-national travelling exhibition known as the Field Trip Project Asia (2015-present) that has travelled to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Myanmar. Twardzik Ching Chor Leng has exhibited internationally, at the Jakarta Biennale #14, Indonesia, Ahrengsburg, Germany, Tokyo, Japan and Calgary and Regina in Canada. Corporate collectors of her work include Crown Life Canada and the University of Regina, Canada. In Singapore, public commissions of Chor Leng's works include the Istana, the Esplanade, the Singapore Art Show, Singapore Management University, NIE, National Museum of Singapore and Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Her recent commissions include the National Gallery Singapore (2015), Google Asia-Pacific office (2017), Roppongi Art Night, Tokyo, Japan (2018), the 5 Stones public art commission by the NAC in commemoration of the Singapore Bicentennial (2019/20), and the Land Transport Authority for the Thomson Line MRT station due to open in 2021.