- Monash University, Greater Melbourne/Naarm (Caulfield campus), Australia
- See https://www.monash.edu/mada/art/people/michelle-antoinetteedit
Reworlding Art History highlights the significance of contemporary Southeast Asian art and artists, and their place in the globalized art world and the internationalizing field of ‘contemporary art’. In the light of the region’s modern... more
Reworlding Art History highlights the significance of contemporary Southeast Asian art and artists, and their place in the globalized art world and the internationalizing field of ‘contemporary art’. In the light of the region’s modern art history, the book surveys this relatively under-examined area of contemporary art which first found broad international recognition in the 1990s. Richly illustrated and incorporating cross-cultural and interdisciplinary methods, Reworlding Art History is a foundational reference work for those interested in Southeast Asia’s contemporary art, including scholars of art history, Asian studies, curatorship, museology, visual culture, and anthropology, as well as professionals working in art and museum contexts.
Research Interests: Southeast Asian Studies, Contemporary Art, Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, Contemporary Asian Art, Art and Globalization, Post-Colonialism, Worlding, Asian art history, and 6 moreAsian Art, Southeast Asian Art History, Worldmaking, CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIAN ART, Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, and Southeast Asian contemporary art
Edited by Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner, this volume draws together essays by leading art experts observing the dramatic developments in Asian art and exhibitions in the last two decades. The authors explore new regional and... more
Edited by Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner, this volume draws together essays by leading art experts observing the dramatic developments in Asian art and exhibitions in the last two decades. The authors explore new regional and global connections and new ways of understanding contemporary Asian art in the twenty-first century.
The essays coalesce around four key themes: world-making; intra-Asian regional connections; art’s affective capacity in cross-cultural engagement; and Australia’s cultural connections with Asia. In exploring these themes, the essays adopt a diversity of approaches and encompass art history, art theory, visual culture and museum studies, as well as curatorial and artistic practice.
With introductory and concluding essays by editors Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner this volume features contributions from key writers on the region and on contemporary art: Patrick D Flores, John Clark, Chaitanya Sambrani, Pat Hoffie, Charles Merewether, Marsha Meskimmon, Francis Maravillas, Oscar Ho, Alison Carroll and Jacqueline Lo.
Richly illustrated with artworks by leading contemporary Asian artists, Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making will be essential reading for those interested in recent developments in contemporary Asian art, including students and scholars of art history, Asian studies, museum studies, visual and cultural studies.
The essays coalesce around four key themes: world-making; intra-Asian regional connections; art’s affective capacity in cross-cultural engagement; and Australia’s cultural connections with Asia. In exploring these themes, the essays adopt a diversity of approaches and encompass art history, art theory, visual culture and museum studies, as well as curatorial and artistic practice.
With introductory and concluding essays by editors Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner this volume features contributions from key writers on the region and on contemporary art: Patrick D Flores, John Clark, Chaitanya Sambrani, Pat Hoffie, Charles Merewether, Marsha Meskimmon, Francis Maravillas, Oscar Ho, Alison Carroll and Jacqueline Lo.
Richly illustrated with artworks by leading contemporary Asian artists, Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making will be essential reading for those interested in recent developments in contemporary Asian art, including students and scholars of art history, Asian studies, museum studies, visual and cultural studies.
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A new version of this essay focused on artist Melati Suryodarmo (originally published in the journal Southeast of Now (2017) under the same title), published to accompany the solo exhibition of Melati Suryodarmo 'I am a Ghost in My Own... more
A new version of this essay focused on artist Melati Suryodarmo (originally published in the journal Southeast of Now (2017) under the same title), published to accompany the solo exhibition of Melati Suryodarmo 'I am a Ghost in My Own House' held at the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, the Netherlands 12th June - 30th October 2022, alongside essays by Philippe Pirotte, Hendro Wiyanto and Catherine Wood. English & Dutch dual-language publication.
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I invited Hong Kong locals Oscar Ho and Clara Cheung to provide their perspectives on the shifting practices and changed significance of public art in Hong Kong. Our conversation took place online—between Hong Kong and Melbourne—in late... more
I invited Hong Kong locals Oscar Ho and Clara Cheung to provide their perspectives on the shifting practices and changed significance of public art in Hong Kong. Our conversation took place online—between Hong Kong and Melbourne—in late November 2020, and an edited version of that conversation follows here. [upload to Academia.edu is an extract of the text]
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"A visit to one of the many new art museums that have sprouted in China over the last two decades offers a window into some of the incredible changes in China's art and design scene. At a rapid pace, countless, often spectacular new... more
"A visit to one of the many new art museums that have sprouted in China over the last two decades offers a window into some of the incredible changes in China's art and design scene. At a rapid pace, countless, often spectacular new private museums have been established from the wealth of Chinese and other Asian private collectors; major international art exhibitions are now regularly shown in partnership with renowned institutions around the world, such as the Tate and Centre Pompidou; and a mass art public has suddenly come into being in this short time. This scene offers a vastly different, and in many ways unprecedented, set of conditions for encountering art, museums and their publics in China that encompasses a hugely expanded art museum context in China, the generation of new local and global publics for China's contemporary urban art and design cultures, and a fundamentally changed relationship between China and the global art world." Excerpt from Michelle Antoinette, 'Culture Boom: China's Artscape Now, and the Making of a New Art Public’, pp.152-53
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"With the vital emergence of contemporary Southeast Asian art on the international landscape at the close of the 20th century, two long-standing t impasses are finally surmounted: first, that locales " such as Southeast Asia, once... more
"With the vital emergence of contemporary Southeast Asian art on the international landscape at the close of the 20th century, two long-standing t impasses are finally surmounted: first, that locales " such as Southeast Asia, once imagined as peripheral to the project of modernity and thus perpetually and exclusively marked by supposedly unchanging c practices of tradition, are finally recognized as " significant contexts of modern and contemporary art production; and, second, recognition that culturally cognate, and similar but different, processes and practices of modernization, occurring in the West and elsewhere, activate different manifestations of modern and contemporary art. By this reckoning, the notion of "tradition" can no longer be regarded simply as antithetical to modernity but must be seen, rather, as a constitutive part of what forges c such modernity. In this vein, "contemporary art" must acknowledge the plural and manifold artistic practices of people the world over and recognize that the "traditional" may exist contiguously and even find presence in contemporary art and life.Thus, contemporary Southeast Asian art offers the potential for pushing the parameters of contemporary art more generally (the means by which we define it, including its modes, media, styles and conditions of reception, among other formalist and affective considerations of aesthetics) so as to encompass those kinds of living "folk"or traditional" art that are less readily translatable to pre-existing frames of "internationalist" avant-garde art practices with their Euro-American inheritances and biases." Excerpt from Michelle Antoinette, "The Shifting Art-Historical Field for Southeast Asia: Tradition, Modernity and "The Contemporary'", Japan Foundation Asia Center Art Studies #03, 2017, pp.92-93 (originally published in Michelle Antoinette, Reworlding Art History: Contemporary Southeast Asian Art after 1990, Rodopi/Brill 2014).
Part of an anthology of texts produced by the Japan Foundation Asia Centre and edited by Patrick D. Flores and Kajiya Kenji relating to the development of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, published in both English and Japanese. “Covering a period of over 30 years, the 15 texts assembled here were written by figures who have been deeply involved in regional art trends. In their commentary on the texts, guest editors Patrick D. Flores and Kajiya Kenji thoughtfully assess the texts and communicate their significance to readers. It is our hope that in addition to contributing to art historical research, this anthology will be of reference to future leaders in the field.” (The Japan Foundation Asia Center, March 2017).
Part of an anthology of texts produced by the Japan Foundation Asia Centre and edited by Patrick D. Flores and Kajiya Kenji relating to the development of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, published in both English and Japanese. “Covering a period of over 30 years, the 15 texts assembled here were written by figures who have been deeply involved in regional art trends. In their commentary on the texts, guest editors Patrick D. Flores and Kajiya Kenji thoughtfully assess the texts and communicate their significance to readers. It is our hope that in addition to contributing to art historical research, this anthology will be of reference to future leaders in the field.” (The Japan Foundation Asia Center, March 2017).
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Translated title of the contribution: Different Visions: Contemporary Malaysian Art and Exhibition in the 1990s and Beyond
Antoinette, M.
Antoinette, M.
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This paper traces major developments in contemporary Malaysia art and exhibitions in the 1990s to early 2000s. It is a revised version of a chapter previously published in the book "Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the... more
This paper traces major developments in contemporary Malaysia art and exhibitions in the 1990s to early 2000s. It is a revised version of a chapter previously published in the book "Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the Pacific", edited by Caroline Turner (Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2005): 229-252.
Also includes Malaysian translation.
Also includes Malaysian translation.
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Antoinette, M 2009, 'Contending with Present Pasts: On Developing Southeast Asian Art Histories', in J.Anderson (ed.), Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration and Convergence. Proceedings of the 32nd International Congress of the History of Art (The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne Australia): 870-874.more
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Antoinette, M 2009, 'The Art of Race: rethinking Malaysian identity through the art of Wong Hoy Cheong', in Daniel P.S. Goh, Mathilda Gabrielpillai, Philip Holden, Gaik Cheng Khoo (ed.), Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon & New York: Routledge): 191-212.more
On the art of Malaysian artist Wong Hoy Cheong
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Co-authored with Francis Maravillas. Published as part of the special issue "Contemporary Art Worlds and Art Publics in Southeast Asia" for World Art, coedited by Michelle Antoinette and Francis Maravillas. This essay positions the... more
Co-authored with Francis Maravillas. Published as part of the special issue "Contemporary Art Worlds and Art Publics in Southeast Asia" for World Art, coedited by Michelle Antoinette and Francis Maravillas.
This essay positions the rapidly changing field of contemporary art in Southeast Asia, and the shifting structure, dynamics and influence of the region's contemporary ‘art worlds' and ‘art publics’. It seeks to open up new horizons and frameworks for understanding the particular character of art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia by being especially attuned to the local contexts and histories of contemporary art in the region and their particular ecologies. We contend that while contemporary art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia might bear similar structures and dynamics to contemporary art worlds and publics elsewhere, they are nevertheless indicative of culturally specific and localised developments. Indeed, the various past and present practices and mediation of art and its publics in the region are suggestive of the ways in which art worlds take on nuanced character and meaning in Southeast Asia, are diversely configured and imagined, and are multiply located and complexly interconnected. The worldliness of these practices are, moreover, indicative of the ways in which Southeast Asian artists continue to respond to the exigencies of the everyday and the political economy of survival in an increasingly challenging world.
Keywords: Southeast Asian art, contemporary art, art worlds, art publics, regionalism, world-making
This essay positions the rapidly changing field of contemporary art in Southeast Asia, and the shifting structure, dynamics and influence of the region's contemporary ‘art worlds' and ‘art publics’. It seeks to open up new horizons and frameworks for understanding the particular character of art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia by being especially attuned to the local contexts and histories of contemporary art in the region and their particular ecologies. We contend that while contemporary art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia might bear similar structures and dynamics to contemporary art worlds and publics elsewhere, they are nevertheless indicative of culturally specific and localised developments. Indeed, the various past and present practices and mediation of art and its publics in the region are suggestive of the ways in which art worlds take on nuanced character and meaning in Southeast Asia, are diversely configured and imagined, and are multiply located and complexly interconnected. The worldliness of these practices are, moreover, indicative of the ways in which Southeast Asian artists continue to respond to the exigencies of the everyday and the political economy of survival in an increasingly challenging world.
Keywords: Southeast Asian art, contemporary art, art worlds, art publics, regionalism, world-making
Research Interests:
Co-authored with Michelle Antoinette This essay positions the rapidly changing field of contemporary art in Southeast Asia, and the shifting structure, dynamics and influence of the region's contemporary ‘art worlds' and ‘art publics’.... more
Co-authored with Michelle Antoinette
This essay positions the rapidly changing field of contemporary art in Southeast Asia, and the shifting structure, dynamics and influence of the region's contemporary ‘art worlds' and ‘art publics’. It seeks to open up new horizons and frameworks for understanding the particular character of art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia by being especially attuned to the local contexts and histories of contemporary art in the region and their particular ecologies. We contend that while contemporary art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia might bear similar structures and dynamics to contemporary art worlds and publics elsewhere, they are nevertheless indicative of culturally specific and localised developments. Indeed, the various past and present practices and mediation of art and its publics in the region are suggestive of the ways in which art worlds take on nuanced character and meaning in Southeast Asia, are diversely configured and imagined, and are multiply located and complexly interconnected. The worldliness of these practices are, moreover, indicative of the ways in which Southeast Asian artists continue to respond to the exigencies of the everyday and the political economy of survival in an increasingly challenging world.
This essay positions the rapidly changing field of contemporary art in Southeast Asia, and the shifting structure, dynamics and influence of the region's contemporary ‘art worlds' and ‘art publics’. It seeks to open up new horizons and frameworks for understanding the particular character of art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia by being especially attuned to the local contexts and histories of contemporary art in the region and their particular ecologies. We contend that while contemporary art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia might bear similar structures and dynamics to contemporary art worlds and publics elsewhere, they are nevertheless indicative of culturally specific and localised developments. Indeed, the various past and present practices and mediation of art and its publics in the region are suggestive of the ways in which art worlds take on nuanced character and meaning in Southeast Asia, are diversely configured and imagined, and are multiply located and complexly interconnected. The worldliness of these practices are, moreover, indicative of the ways in which Southeast Asian artists continue to respond to the exigencies of the everyday and the political economy of survival in an increasingly challenging world.
This paper examines the significance of 5th Passage to Singapore’s contemporary art histories. This short-lived yet groundbreaking artist-run initiative operated from 1991 to 1996 at a time of momentous development for Singapore’s... more
This paper examines the significance of 5th Passage to Singapore’s contemporary art histories. This short-lived yet groundbreaking artist-run initiative operated from 1991 to 1996 at a time of momentous development for Singapore’s contemporary art scene. Yet compared to other art developments documented for this period, there is conspicuously little critical examination of the significance of 5th Passage. This article seeks to explore the array of reasons for the relative invisibility of 5th Passage in Singapore’s art history. Not merely a passive omission or forgetting, such invisibility includes conscious and unconscious suppression and censoring.
Keywords: 5th Passage, Singapore, alternative spaces, artist collectives, contemporary art, art history, exhibition histories, art publics
Keywords: 5th Passage, Singapore, alternative spaces, artist collectives, contemporary art, art history, exhibition histories, art publics
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ABSTRACT "How does contemporary art function as cultural activism in Asia today? What is the contribution of contemporary art in affecting political transformation in Asia’s public spheres? This article considers such questions in view... more
ABSTRACT
"How does contemporary art function as cultural activism in Asia today? What is the contribution of contemporary art in affecting political transformation in Asia’s public spheres? This article considers such questions in view of the intensified public visibility of contemporary art in Asia in the twenty-first century and newly defined public significance for art, artists, and art audiences in directly affecting contemporary Asian societies and their futures. One significant demonstration of this is the prevalence of contemporary Asian artists directly engaging and relating pressing socio-political issues in Asia through relational, participatory and collaborative art practices with publics, underlined by a socially transformative, activist aesthetics.
This larger context forms the backdrop for my focused discussion of a multi-phase, socially-engaged contemporary art project – the ‘public interventions’ comprising Trade/Trace/Transit – initiated in Hong Kong in 2014 by the Indonesian, Brisbane-based artist Tintin Wulia. Initially manifesting as a public street art project, Trade/Trace/Transit is a series of subversive public interventions that revolves around the situation of the Filipino migrant community in Hong Kong and their participation in local and global economies of cardboard trade. Highlighting the social life of objects and their webs of socio-economic connection within and across geopolitical borders, Wulia’s interventionist “aesthetics of resistance” provokes the strategic disclosure, collision and relation of different publics in a “redistribution of the sensible” in Hong Kong, harnessing the subversive and transformative possibilities of art to renegotiate the public sphere under the imbalanced conditions of globalisation."
"How does contemporary art function as cultural activism in Asia today? What is the contribution of contemporary art in affecting political transformation in Asia’s public spheres? This article considers such questions in view of the intensified public visibility of contemporary art in Asia in the twenty-first century and newly defined public significance for art, artists, and art audiences in directly affecting contemporary Asian societies and their futures. One significant demonstration of this is the prevalence of contemporary Asian artists directly engaging and relating pressing socio-political issues in Asia through relational, participatory and collaborative art practices with publics, underlined by a socially transformative, activist aesthetics.
This larger context forms the backdrop for my focused discussion of a multi-phase, socially-engaged contemporary art project – the ‘public interventions’ comprising Trade/Trace/Transit – initiated in Hong Kong in 2014 by the Indonesian, Brisbane-based artist Tintin Wulia. Initially manifesting as a public street art project, Trade/Trace/Transit is a series of subversive public interventions that revolves around the situation of the Filipino migrant community in Hong Kong and their participation in local and global economies of cardboard trade. Highlighting the social life of objects and their webs of socio-economic connection within and across geopolitical borders, Wulia’s interventionist “aesthetics of resistance” provokes the strategic disclosure, collision and relation of different publics in a “redistribution of the sensible” in Hong Kong, harnessing the subversive and transformative possibilities of art to renegotiate the public sphere under the imbalanced conditions of globalisation."
Research Interests: Contemporary Art, Art, Globalization and Resistance, Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, Contemporary Asian Art, Art and Globalization, Post-Colonialism, Art in public space, Art and Globalization, and 6 moreIndonesian contemporary art, Global Art History, Public Art in Public Spaces, Socially Engaged Art, Hong Kong Contemporary Art, and Hong Kong community art
In this article, I propose alternative art historical approaches for comparisons of Southeast Asian art. I discuss the art of Amron Omar (b. 1957) who, since the 1980s, is widely regarded as one of Malaysia’s most accomplished figurative... more
In this article, I propose alternative art historical approaches for comparisons of Southeast Asian art. I discuss the art of Amron Omar (b. 1957) who, since the 1980s, is widely regarded as one of Malaysia’s most accomplished figurative artists, and Indonesia-born performance artist Melati Suryodarmo (b. 1969), who came to international prominence in the early 2000s. Through the unlikely coupling of Amron’s and Suryodarmo’s art, I explore how each artist – differently, but also similarly – negotiates the discomforting tension between the body and the self. In connecting the two artists, I also attend to unexplored methodological discomfort in developing contemporary Southeast Asian art history. This article challenges such epistemic discomfort, purposely invoking uncommon alignments to explore their generative potential for new readings of Southeast Asian art history and, therefore, help expand existing approaches and methods for engaging with Southeast Asian art, regionally.
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For the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (apt) (2015–16), Sydney-based artists Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra collaborated to present Ex Nilalang, a series of filmic and live portraits exploring Philippine mythology and... more
For the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (apt) (2015–16), Sydney-based artists Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra collaborated to present Ex Nilalang, a series of filmic and live portraits exploring Philippine mythology and marginalized identities. The artists’ shared Filipino ancestry, attachments to the Filipino diasporic community, and investigations into “Philippine-ness” offer obvious cultural connections to the “Asia Pacific” concerns of the apt. However, their aesthetic interests in inhabiting fictional spaces marked by the “fantastic” and the “monstrous”—alongside the lived reality of their critical queer positions and life politics—complicate any straightforward identification. If the Philippine archipelago and island continent of Australia are intersecting cultural contexts for their art, the artists’ queering of identity in art and life emphasizes a range of cultural orientations informing subjectivities, always under negotiation and transformation, and at once both the product of and in excess of these (island) territories.
Research Interests: Queer Studies, Contemporary Art, Queer Theory, Visual Culture, Asian American Studies, and 10 moreAsia Pacific Region, Philippine Studies, Visual Arts, Australian art, Visual Cultures, Asian Australian Studies, Asian Diaspora, Contemporary Australian Art, Philippine art and culture, and Asia-Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art
For the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (apt) (2015–16), Sydney-based artists Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra collaborated to present Ex Nilalang, a series of filmic and live portraits exploring Philippine mythology and... more
For the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (apt) (2015–16), Sydney-based artists Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra collaborated to present Ex Nilalang, a series of filmic and live portraits exploring Philippine mythology and marginalized identities. The artists’ shared Filipino ancestry, attachments to the Filipino diasporic community, and investigations into “Philippine-ness” offer obvious cultural connections to the “Asia Pacific” concerns of the apt. However, their aesthetic interests in inhabiting fictional spaces marked by the “fantastic” and the “monstrous”—alongside the lived reality of their critical queer positions and life politics—complicate any straightforward identification. If the Philippine archipelago and island continent of Australia are intersecting cultural contexts for their art, the artists’ queering of identity in art and life emphasizes a range of cultural orientations informing subjectivities, always under negotiation and transformation, and at once b...
This special issue of Humanities Research offers a selection of papers presented at the international conference ‘The World and World-Making in Art: Connectivities and Differences’ held at The Australian National... more
This special issue of Humanities Research offers a selection of papers presented at the international conference ‘The World and World-Making in Art: Connectivities and Differences’ held at The Australian National University (ANU) from 11–13 August 2011. The conference inspired significant interest nationally and internationally and attracted scholars from the United States, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and South America. It formed part of the program organised by the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) at ANU under the overarching theme: ‘The World and World-Making in the Humanities and the Arts’ and complemented other conferences relating to the concept of ‘world-making’ in history and literature.
Research Interests: Art History, Art Theory, Chinese Studies, Contemporary Art, Italian art, and 22 moreCosmopolitanism, World Art History, Chinese contemporary art, Biennales, Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, Contemporary Asian Art, Art and Globalization, Post-Colonialism, Art Worlds, Sydney Biennale, World Making, Asian art history, Participatory and Relational Arts, Chinese art history, Contemporary art history, Arts and Humanities, Globalization and Contemporary Art, Global Art, Global Art History, World Art Studies, Socially Engaged Art, Italian Painting, Australian art history, Indigenous Art History, and Biennale of sydney
This contribution summarises the proceedings and emergent debates of world-making, especially through art and writing, from a multi-disciplinary conference held in Canberra, Australia.
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On the art of Philippine artist Jose Legaspi
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Abstract Since the late 1990s, Gallery 4A at The Asia-Australia Arts Centre has offered a space for the creative development and exhibition of Asian-Australian artists. The careers of a number of artists have been nurtured not only... more
Abstract Since the late 1990s, Gallery 4A at The Asia-Australia Arts Centre has offered a space for the creative development and exhibition of Asian-Australian artists. The careers of a number of artists have been nurtured not only through the physical space of the Gallery, but also through its broader cultural networks. A decade later, the future of Gallery 4A has been challenged and questioned. Are the reasons for this part of the ordinary course of any alternative art space dedicated to such a specific community of artists and/or a reflection of Australia's changing interests in Asian-Australian art and Asian-Australian matters more broadly? This paper considers the two major historical phases of direction in the Gallery's life thus far in relation to ‘Asian-Australian’ identity. It asks how has the meaning of ‘Asian-Australian’ changed in the life of Gallery 4A, especially against prevailing cultural currents in Australia? How has this ‘independent’, ‘alternative’ art space functioned within the mainstream of Australian multicultural policies, Australian art, and Australian communities of both Asian-Australian and other affiliations? In what ways have the policies of its various Directors tapped into Asian-Australian communities differently? How has this brought to bear on the current situation of Gallery 4A and its art community?
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"For Shapes of Knowledge, AAA has been invited by MUMA to participate not in its more expected role as a co-curator, informant or facilitator, but as a project participant alongside artists and collectives, acknowledging its contributions... more
"For Shapes of Knowledge, AAA has been invited by MUMA to participate not in its more expected role as a co-curator, informant or facilitator, but as a project participant alongside artists and collectives, acknowledging its contributions as a creative agent and actor in the generation, mediation and shaping of Asian art knowledge. In line with its recent work, AAA has proposed to explore the pedagogical models of experimental art schools in Asia and their influence on recent histories of Asian art. AAA has been particularly interested in the relationship between artistic practice and pedagogic lineages, including where artist–teachers have influenced the shape of art curricula and subsequent art histories, and where artists have established alternative schools outside the mainstream, in order to expand the curriculum or to teach art differently, using more experimental pedagogic approaches. For Shapes of Knowledge, AAA will focus on three art schools that shaped art education in the postwar years: the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India; Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China; and Gendaishicho-sha Bigakkō, Tokyo, Japan." Excerpt from Michelle Antoinette, ‘Collaging Asia: Asia Art Archive as Shaper of Knowledge’, p.76
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On Mella Jaarsma's, The Landscaper 2013. Featured in the National Gallery of Australia exhibition, "Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia". Wood, paint, iron and leather (installation); single-channel video. "The landscaper 2013 is a two-part... more
On Mella Jaarsma's, The Landscaper 2013. Featured in the National Gallery of Australia exhibition, "Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia".
Wood, paint, iron and leather (installation); single-channel video.
"The landscaper 2013 is a two-part work comprising a costume and single-channel video. Jaarsma takes inspiration from the billowing skirts worn by Sufis, and the ritual dance of Sufi whirling, to invoke parallel histories of beauty and violence in the Dutch colonial project of 'Landscaping' Indonesia. In the video, a lone Sufi dancer appears atop a cliff, overlooking the tranquil waters of a seaside town. He is a striking presence in this otherwise unpeopled natural landscape. In place of his traditional flowing skirt, he wears a tiered hoop skirt made from a collection of kitsch Landscape paintings. A bell begins to chime and the dancer starts to spin in repetitive circles, as if in rhythmic meditation. As he spins, the camera zooms in on the painted landscapes displayed on his whirling body, and we watch them blur into the surrounding environment. The dancer responds to the quickening bell sounds until, finally, he collapses." Excerpt from Michelle Antoinette, 'Mella Jaarsma', in Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, p. 85
"The landscaper 2013 adalah karya dua bagian yang terdiri dari sebuah kostum dan video berformat single-channel. lVlella mengambil inspirasi dari rok lebar yang dikenakan para Sufi, dan ritual tarian Sufi yang berputar-putar, untuk melambangkan sejarah paralel keindahan dan kekerasan upaya kolonialisme Belanda untuk 'menata' Indonesia. Dalam video, seorang penari Sufi muncul di atas tebing di sebuah kota kecil di tepi Laut, di bawahnya air Laut tak berombak. Keberadaan sang penari begitu mencolok di tengah-tengah bentangan a lam yang luas dan tak berpenghuni. Tapi sang penari tidak mengenakan rok lebar yang biasanya dikenakan penari Sufi, dalam video ini ia mengenakan rok simpai berlapis yang terbuat dari tumpukan lukisan-lukisan pemandangan a lam murahan. Terdengar lonceng berbunyi, dan sang penari mulai berputar-putar dalam lingkaran dan terus berputar, seolah berada dalam meditasi yang ritmis. Saat ia berputar, kamera menyoroti lukisan-lukisan pemandangan di tubuh penari dari dekat, dan kita menyaksikan lukisan-lukisan tersebut melebur dengan lingkungan sekitar. Sang penari lantas mempercepat putarannya sejalan dengan ritme bunyi lonceng, hingga akhirnya ia jatuh ambruk." Kutipan dari Michelle Antoinette, 'Mella Jaarsma', in Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, p. 85
Wood, paint, iron and leather (installation); single-channel video.
"The landscaper 2013 is a two-part work comprising a costume and single-channel video. Jaarsma takes inspiration from the billowing skirts worn by Sufis, and the ritual dance of Sufi whirling, to invoke parallel histories of beauty and violence in the Dutch colonial project of 'Landscaping' Indonesia. In the video, a lone Sufi dancer appears atop a cliff, overlooking the tranquil waters of a seaside town. He is a striking presence in this otherwise unpeopled natural landscape. In place of his traditional flowing skirt, he wears a tiered hoop skirt made from a collection of kitsch Landscape paintings. A bell begins to chime and the dancer starts to spin in repetitive circles, as if in rhythmic meditation. As he spins, the camera zooms in on the painted landscapes displayed on his whirling body, and we watch them blur into the surrounding environment. The dancer responds to the quickening bell sounds until, finally, he collapses." Excerpt from Michelle Antoinette, 'Mella Jaarsma', in Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, p. 85
"The landscaper 2013 adalah karya dua bagian yang terdiri dari sebuah kostum dan video berformat single-channel. lVlella mengambil inspirasi dari rok lebar yang dikenakan para Sufi, dan ritual tarian Sufi yang berputar-putar, untuk melambangkan sejarah paralel keindahan dan kekerasan upaya kolonialisme Belanda untuk 'menata' Indonesia. Dalam video, seorang penari Sufi muncul di atas tebing di sebuah kota kecil di tepi Laut, di bawahnya air Laut tak berombak. Keberadaan sang penari begitu mencolok di tengah-tengah bentangan a lam yang luas dan tak berpenghuni. Tapi sang penari tidak mengenakan rok lebar yang biasanya dikenakan penari Sufi, dalam video ini ia mengenakan rok simpai berlapis yang terbuat dari tumpukan lukisan-lukisan pemandangan a lam murahan. Terdengar lonceng berbunyi, dan sang penari mulai berputar-putar dalam lingkaran dan terus berputar, seolah berada dalam meditasi yang ritmis. Saat ia berputar, kamera menyoroti lukisan-lukisan pemandangan di tubuh penari dari dekat, dan kita menyaksikan lukisan-lukisan tersebut melebur dengan lingkungan sekitar. Sang penari lantas mempercepat putarannya sejalan dengan ritme bunyi lonceng, hingga akhirnya ia jatuh ambruk." Kutipan dari Michelle Antoinette, 'Mella Jaarsma', in Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, p. 85
Research Interests: Art History, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Asian art, Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, Contemporary Asian Art, Art and Globalization, Post-Colonialism, Southeast Asian Art, and 8 moreIndonesian contemporary art, Indonesian Art History, Art and Art History, Southeast Asia Contemporary Art, Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, Diasporic and Transcultural Art, Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, and Indonesian Visual Art
Co-curators' essay, to accompany the exhibition 'Shaping Geographies: Art | Woman | Southeast Asia', held at Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 2019-2020. Featuring ten contemporary women artists and one contemporary women’s artist collective, all... more
Co-curators' essay, to accompany the exhibition 'Shaping Geographies: Art | Woman | Southeast Asia', held at Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 2019-2020. Featuring ten contemporary women artists and one contemporary women’s artist collective, all with links to Southeast Asia: Suzann Victor, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Geraldine Javier, Nguyen Trinh Thi, I-Lann Yee, Anida Yoeu Ali, Tintin Wulia, Kayleigh Goh, Muslimah Collective, IGAK Murniasih, and Fika Ria Santika.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Southeast Asia, Feminist Geography, Contemporary Asian art, and 9 moreFeminist Geographies, Art and Gender, Feminist Geography, Critical Geography, Space, CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIAN ART, Gender, Space and Feminist Geography, Women's Art, Gender Issues In Art History, Women's Studies; Feminist Art History, and southeast asian women artists
Published exhibition catalogue essay to accompany the solo exhibition by Suzann Victor at Gajah Gallery, Singapore: See Like a Heretic: On Vision and Belief, 11 May - 10 June 2018.
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's art practice has been motivated by an ongoing interest in probing the human body as a medium and site for identity construction and deconstruction, exchange and transformation. Moving between photography, film, and sculpture, his... more
's art practice has been motivated by an ongoing interest in probing the human body as a medium and site for identity construction and deconstruction, exchange and transformation. Moving between photography, film, and sculpture, his potent imagery often invites us into an unsettling corporeal zone which lies in that liminal space between seduction and repulsion, detachment and obsession, the familiar and the strange. It is through this field of seemingly contradictory relations that the artist is able to subvert our usual relationship to the corporeal and the socialised identities associated with it. Strongly informed by the philosophies of critical theory, Leong's art harnesses our affective response to the 'abject', that which unsettles conventional concepts of identity and culture. In relation to the body, the abject represents socially-defined 'taboo' elements of the self that are symbolically separated from the subject. Through the use of 'leaky' substances such as blood, milk and honey, Leong's images of the body reinstate the inherent significance of abject elements to the corporeal order. In so doing, he disarticulates our established ideas concerning identity, in particular questioning accepted notions of 'race', 'gender' and 'colour'. He points to the ways in which these socially-defined concepts are sited in and on the body and negotiated via the body's socialised relations with other bodies. In tackling stereotypes of identity, Leong's art is also a critique of fixed and totalising categories of identity, pointing instead to the more complex reality of identity as a fluid and shifting practice encompassing multiple and flexible ways of cultural belonging and being in the world. Within his native Australian cultural landscape, Leong's art has been intimately concerned with explorations of 'Asian-Australian' identity in particular and often based on his personal experiences negotiating hegemonic frames of Australian 'whiteness'. The artist cites early childhood experiences where despite 'feeling Australian' his corporeal difference from the hegemonic white culture would often betray his sense of cultural belonging. In many ways, Leong's art may be understood as means for negotiating a political space for more fluid identities within the spectrum of 'Australian' cultural experience.
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Phuong Ngo is known for his research-based practice and for collaborative projects that examine histories of colonisation and racial intolerance. (His series ‘The Vietnam project’ 2010–ongoing comprises thousands of found objects, images... more
Phuong Ngo is known for his research-based practice and for collaborative projects that examine histories of colonisation and racial intolerance. (His series ‘The Vietnam project’ 2010–ongoing comprises thousands of found objects, images and documents, and considers how historical narratives are created and perpetuated. For Article 14.1 2019, a durational performance inspired by a clause in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Ngo folded thousands of paper boats from Hell banknotes in homage to the perilous sea journey his family made from Vietnam to Australia in 1981. As the artist has explained, these works ‘come out of a need to make sense of my personal and collective history’).
Ngo’s artwork for APT10 was made in collaboration with more than 100 individuals from his social network, who personalised diptychs that he had painted in shades from a well-known manufacturer’s 'Oriental' paint range. The work comments on the complex cultural inferences and biases embedded, often unwittingly, within language. Participants were asked to personalise their painting with images or objects relating to ‘race, racism or colonisation’, with the collaborator retaining ownership of the finished artwork. Brought back together for APT10, the 100 diptychs represent the residue of much larger conversations about the complex cultural inferences and biases embedded, often unwittingly, within language ... Through this collaborative approach, procedures that usually govern artist selection for the APT have been somewhat bypassed. At the forefront of the project, however, lies an impulse that, as Ngo describes, is ‘predicated on sharing, generosity, dialogue and negotiation’.”
Ngo’s artwork for APT10 was made in collaboration with more than 100 individuals from his social network, who personalised diptychs that he had painted in shades from a well-known manufacturer’s 'Oriental' paint range. The work comments on the complex cultural inferences and biases embedded, often unwittingly, within language. Participants were asked to personalise their painting with images or objects relating to ‘race, racism or colonisation’, with the collaborator retaining ownership of the finished artwork. Brought back together for APT10, the 100 diptychs represent the residue of much larger conversations about the complex cultural inferences and biases embedded, often unwittingly, within language ... Through this collaborative approach, procedures that usually govern artist selection for the APT have been somewhat bypassed. At the forefront of the project, however, lies an impulse that, as Ngo describes, is ‘predicated on sharing, generosity, dialogue and negotiation’.”
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STUDIES OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART have flourished in Australia over the last few decades. Since the 1990s Australian cultural and educational institutions have helped to foster significant streams of Asian art scholarship, especially in... more
STUDIES OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART have flourished in
Australia over the last few decades. Since the 1990s Australian cultural and educational institutions have helped to foster significant streams of Asian art scholarship, especially in tandem with major Australia-based art exhibitions and collections of Asian art and the burgeoning contemporary Asian art scene.
Australia over the last few decades. Since the 1990s Australian cultural and educational institutions have helped to foster significant streams of Asian art scholarship, especially in tandem with major Australia-based art exhibitions and collections of Asian art and the burgeoning contemporary Asian art scene.
Research Interests: Asian Studies, Contemporary Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, Contemporary Asian art, Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, Contemporary Asian Art, Art and Globalization, Post-Colonialism, and 5 moreAsian Art, Asian modern art, Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, Modern Asian Art, and Asian Modern and Contemporary Art
A roundtable discussion on regional discourses of art, including my own perspectives on contemporary Southeast Asian art history
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Savanhdary Vongpoothorn's Viriya (2013) presents the painted canvas as a reverberating field of energy. Its twisting, meandering tracks evoke a trembling beauty that registers that dynamic state between solidity and impermanence. The... more
Savanhdary Vongpoothorn's Viriya (2013) presents the painted canvas as a reverberating field of energy. Its twisting, meandering tracks evoke a trembling beauty that registers that dynamic state between solidity and impermanence. The exquisite line patterns which adorn this painted canvas appear to rise and swirl through currents of blue, invoking the movement of air, even breath, as a force of physical and spiritual energy. The seemingly unending, repeating sequences reference the cyclical, organic flows of life, and with this, the transient and changing nature of all things. Viriya is inspired by dual sources of beauty. The name of the artwork is a spiritual reference to Theravada Buddhism, and in particular, the Lao-Pali term for 'energy' and 'vigor', especially that which is essential for and returned through meditative life practices and rituals. A further inspiration is the remarkable 'scribbly' pattern found on the smooth white trunk of the Australian 'scribbly gum' tree, an icon of the Australian bush landscape.
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Exhibition review
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Heresy
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THIS CHAPTER PROVIDES ADDITIONAL CONTEXT for the motivations and arguments underpinning Reworlding Art History. In particular, I further explain the significance of the Southeast Asian regional frame as an overarching narrative before... more
THIS CHAPTER PROVIDES ADDITIONAL CONTEXT for the motivations and arguments underpinning Reworlding Art History. In particular, I further explain the significance of the Southeast Asian regional frame as an overarching narrative before briefly outlining the historical context for the emergence of contemporary art within Southeast Asia itself. I then explore some of the key theories and perspectives on the developing notion of 'contemporary art' in the globalizing field of contemporary art history. This is followed by preliminary tracings of the relationship of contemporary art to ethnographic practice, highlighting the relative absence of attention to the aesthetic. Finally, I take up examples of contemporary Southeast Asian art itself in order to set out the key methodological and interpretative issues that inform Reworlding Art History, especially in their oscillations between the cultural and the aesthetic.Why 'Southeast Asian' Contemporary Art?The rationale for my...
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Translated title of the contribution: Different Visions: Contemporary Malaysian Art and Exhibition in the 1990s and Beyond Antoinette, M.
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the body is that "pre-post-erous space," the site of a corporeography that conjoins the dynamic political economy of signification - its written surface and writing surface.1CONTINUING MY EXAMINATION of alternative themes of art... more
the body is that "pre-post-erous space," the site of a corporeography that conjoins the dynamic political economy of signification - its written surface and writing surface.1CONTINUING MY EXAMINATION of alternative themes of art expression beyond the exclusively racialized lens, this chapter explores the theme of corporeality in contemporary Southeast Asian art. It traces how contemporary Southeast Asian artists have explored corporeal representation in art beyond mere significations of race, presenting the body as a complex sign and form for myriad identifications and aesthetic purposes.In exploring such artworks, I posit the body as a kind of critical geography of identification - a "corporeography"2 that has been regularly 'fleshed out' by artists in their contemporary art practice. As a corporeography, the bodyin-art represents a discursively produced site and space offering multiple embodied identifications. In particular, I consider how the body fea...
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Research Interests: Art and Visual Arts
List of contributors. Preface. List of abbreviations. Introduction: Postcoloniality, Race and Multiculturalism - Daniel P.S. Goh and Philip Holden Part I: Postcolony and Cosmopolis 1. A literary history of race: reading Singapore... more
List of contributors. Preface. List of abbreviations. Introduction: Postcoloniality, Race and Multiculturalism - Daniel P.S. Goh and Philip Holden Part I: Postcolony and Cosmopolis 1. A literary history of race: reading Singapore literature in English in an historical frame - Philip Holden 2. Malaysian history textbooks and the discourse of ketuanan Melayu - Helen Ting 3. Eyes turned towards china: postcolonial mimicry, transcultural elitism and Singapore chineseness - Daniel P.S. Goh 4. Pick and mix for a global city: race and cosmopolitanism in Singapore - Angelia Poon 5. Makkal Sakti: The Hindraf Effect, Race and Postcolonial Democracy in Malaysia - Vijay Devadas Part II: Representing Race, Performing Multiculturalism 6. Reading the films of independent filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad: cosmopolitanism, Sufi Islam and Malay subjectivity - Gaik Cheng Khoo 7. Racial stereotypes in Singapore films: Commercial value and critical possibilities - Kenneth Paul Tan 8. The Singapore Indian woman: a...
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Research Interests: Art History, Southeast Asian Studies, Contemporary Art, Political Science, Southeast Asia, and 9 moreWorld Art, Art Worlds, Southeast Asian Art, Art and publics, Publics, Southeast Asian Art History, South and Southeast Asian Art History, Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, and Southeast Asian contemporary art
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Now in its twenty-third year, the groundbreaking independent art space Cemeti Art House, or Rumah Seni Cemeti, was established in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 1988 by the artist-couple Nindityo Adipurnomo and Mella Jaarsma (Dutch-born,... more
Now in its twenty-third year, the groundbreaking independent art space Cemeti Art House, or Rumah Seni Cemeti, was established in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 1988 by the artist-couple Nindityo Adipurnomo and Mella Jaarsma (Dutch-born, long-time resident of Indonesia). The two are now internationally renowned for their art practice - Jaarsma, for her series of striking body cloaks or 'skins' which investigate identities of all kinds, and Adipurnomo for his ongoing explorations of 'Javaneseness' through the motif of the konde, a traditional Javanese hairpiece. As the artists began their own careers in the late 1980s, they were spurred to establish an art space that would address the vacuum of support for contemporary art in the Indonesian art scene of the time. The artists launched Cemeti Gallery, as it was then known, as a small-scale operation with a very basic set-up and with its core mission 'focused on promoting and discovering [Indonesian] artists (actively working artists)'.
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... his steadfast rise to an impressive international promi-nence has been acknowledged in the affectionate title of Donosaurus (Wiyanto and Wardani). ... this freedom to the kinds of motifs of mobility that Dono engages with in his... more
... his steadfast rise to an impressive international promi-nence has been acknowledged in the affectionate title of Donosaurus (Wiyanto and Wardani). ... this freedom to the kinds of motifs of mobility that Dono engages with in his art, Indonesian art historian Astri Wright comments ...
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This contribution summarises the proceedings and emergent debates of world-making, especially through art and writing, from a multi-disciplinary conference held in Canberra, Australia.
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Reworlding Art History highlights the significance of contemporary Southeast Asian art and artists, and their place in the globalized art world and the internationalizing field of ‘contemporary art’. In the light of the region’s modern... more
Reworlding Art History highlights the significance of contemporary Southeast Asian art and artists, and their place in the globalized art world and the internationalizing field of ‘contemporary art’. In the light of the region’s modern art history, the book surveys this relatively under-examined area of contemporary art which first found broad international recognition in the 1990s. Richly illustrated and incorporating cross-cultural and interdisciplinary methods, Reworlding Art History is a foundational reference work for those interested in Southeast Asia’s contemporary art, including scholars of art history, Asian studies, curatorship, museology, visual culture, and anthropology, as well as professionals working in art and museum contexts.