Mirrored Interrogations

This article, published on ArtsEquator, is a comparison of art-making in a politically charged environment in Singapore and in the Philippines. At the time this was written, Singapore detained a performance artist in what was charged as a one-man procession. Public demonstrations are illegal in Singapore. In the Philippines, cultural producers who are critical of the government were red-tagged. These blacklisted artists were labelled as terrorists and communists which lets the government subject them to extrajudicial harassment. How do artists negotiate their art practice in such an oppressive environment?