Born in 1955 in Singapore, Tang Mun Kit was a member, from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, of the original Artists Village that introduced conceptual, installation and performance art into Singapore. Producing works that are socially relevant, be they paintings that reflect on environmental issues, or exhibitions that are built around themes derived from current issues, the self-taught artist is known to create large installations from found objects.‘White Elephant Expostulation’ is Tang’s response to the Buangkok White Elephant Affair where cutouts of white elephants were placed outside the Buangkok station in 2005. Despite the launch of the new subway line of which the station was part of, it had remained unopened for two years, leading to the public notion that it was a white elephant. From the incident Tang appropriated the image of the Buangkok elephants to question the out-of-bounds markers pertaining to topics that were permitted to be discussed publicly.
