Returning to Bali, forty-nine years later四十九年后，重新走进巴厘岛的图像

In 2001, members of The Artists Village returned to Bali, forty-nine years after the 1952 journey of Singapore’s pioneer painters. The Bali Project approached that inheritance through staged photographs, parody and improvisation. In Two by the Waterfall, the performers wear sarongs and pose within a recognisable tropical setting.

Placed beside documents of the earlier journey, the photograph asks who can inherit—and alter—a national art history. The return makes the artists’ own bodies part of the image. Humour becomes a way of examining the picturesque scenes and assumptions that had helped establish an influential account of Nanyang art.

2001年，艺术家村成员重返巴厘岛，距离新加坡先驱画家1952年的行旅已有四十九年。“巴厘岛计划”通过摄影、戏仿与即兴创作，重新面对这段历史。《瀑布旁的两人》中，表演者身着纱笼，把自身放进人们熟悉的热带景观。

与早期行旅的文献并置之后，这张照片提出了一个关于艺术史继承的问题：谁能够进入既有的国家艺术叙事，又怎样改写它？艺术家的身体成为图像的一部分，幽默则使那些曾帮助建构“南洋艺术”的如画景象与观看习惯，重新成为可以审视的对象。