It's not every day that an artist gets to take a sword and kill a live pig in the name of art. But, as British-born, Hong Kong-based artist Simon Birch points out, having carte blanche to fill a 50-metre-long exhibition space any way you like also isn't an everyday happening. So when the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore gave him the opportunity to do just that - and to push well beyond his comfort zone - he seized the offer.
The fact that some of the content of the installation led to an outcry was, he says, unintentional.
'I've seen people do a lot of disgusting things in the name of art, and I'm not interested in controversy,' he says emphatically.
Birch's imposing installation is entitled Azhanti High Lightning - the name of a spaceship in a popular sci-fi war game - and it is, without doubt, quirky and audacious. Despite - or perhaps because of - the controversy, it's likely to become another milestone in the Lion City's quest to position itself as a culturally sophisticated arts hub.
Birch - who built his reputation doing portrait paintings - says Azhanti High Lightning is his first attempt at 'a proper museum-type non-commercial installation' - and already feels his efforts have been vindicated by the high traffic of visitors it has attracted.
Bridget Tracy Tan, Nanyang's director of art and corporate knowledge, says Azhanti High Lightning is 'a multimedia installation that assimilates art objects from paintings and sculpture to photography, film and video, and in so doing reinforces