Performance video documentation by Lim Teck Siang

Cane (2012) – Performance

19 February 2012, 8pm
The Substation Theatre, Singapore

Presented by The Necessary Stage as a Fringe Highlight for M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2012: Art and Faith.

In 1993, Singaporean artist Josef Ng’s performance of Brother Cane resulted in a public debate over obscenity in performance art and led to a ten-year restriction of the licensing and funding of performance art in Singapore from 1994 to 2004. Josef Ng was charged in a court of law for committing an obscene act and he pleaded guilty, he was fined SGD $1,000.

Cane consisted of six testimonials of Josef Ng’s performance which seeks to re-construct and fragment the memory of the event. These six accounts are namely:

  1. The media's account - the artist read excerpts from 12 newspaper articles covering the performance and its aftermath
  2. The eyewitness account - the artist invited Dr. Ray Langenbach to read his eyewitness account of the performance which was used in Josef Ng's trial as an affidavit.
  3. The re-enacted account - a screening of video documentation of a re-enactment in Chicago based on Dr. Ray Langenbach's eyewitness account.
  4. The re-enacted, re-enacted - a 'live' re-enactment of the performance in cadence with the screening of the re-enactment video documentation.
  5. The video document - a screening of documentation of Josef Ng's Brother Cane (1994) documented by Dr. Ray Langenbach.
  6. The post-performance dialogue - 'Brother Cane' was invited to moderate the discussion.

Production Manager and Lighting Designer - Kimberly Kwa

Download the performance score for Cane (2012) here.