This dissertation explores performances in Singapore as indicators of divergent visions of the nation-state. To understand the ways in which the government and artists contested (or, in some cases, agreed to not contest) the cultural ground requires an examination of performance as a semiotic mode in public life, a genre in art, and an instrument of cultural politics. A study of performance alone cannot sufficiently reveal the subtleties of governmental and artistic agency. The government and artists have mobilized specific figures of speech from a repertoire developed over centuries.These tropes are analysed for their uses, their performative instrumentality, and their discursive power. Tropes and performances coalesce and disseminate prevailing national, regional,and global ideologies. This study examines the power of aesthetic forms, and the aesthetics of power. Competing notions of performance in Singapore led to a cultural crisis in 1993-94. That historical punctum and its ramifications constitutes the primary object of this research, and is presented as a significant indicator of the state of the Singapore state at that time. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)