Singaporean curator, arts administrator and festival organiser Tan Boon Hui, who died on July 7 at the age of 53, was a tireless champion for Asian artists and a visionary leader who recently returned home with ambitious plans for the organisation that ran Singapore’s main arts festival and a range of historic venues. Internationally, Tan is best remembered as director.
As you step off the elevator into this much-anticipated solo show by Lubaina Himid, who won the 2017 Turner Prize, a medley of colorful flags wave as if in welcome. Yellow, blue, and oxblood red, they are emblazoned with messages such as there could be an endless ocean and why are you looking. These seven double-sided banners, which comprise the installation How Do You Spell Change, 2018, resemble kanga, a type of cloth worn especially by women in East Africa. Symbolizing fashion and freedom, kanga in the 1880s became identified with Swahili culture and burgeoning national pride. Yet kanga, as