Art as Voice: political art in Southeast Asia at the turn of the twenty-first century

Category - essays and articles
by Iola Lenzi - In Southeast Asia, art has traditionally been connected intimately with life. Wayang kulit, wood-block prints, sacred murals and architecture, and more recently twentieth century social realism, have directly and indirectly described society and its ills. In the late twentieth century however, visual art in the region moves beyond commentary to adopt a more activist stance. Read more....

The Primacy of Exhibitionary Discourses: Contemporaneity in Southeast Asian Art, 1992 – 2002

Category - essays and articles
by Seng Yu Jin - Attempts to locate contemporary art within historical frames have gained urgency in the past decade. This is especially so as we behold contemporary art making its way into institutions such as museums and their collections, auction houses, and the academia as a subject of study. Yet our understanding of what contemporary art is, when aligned along historical perspectives propelled Read more....

The Legacy of the Indonesian Avant-Garde in the Global

Category - essays and articles
by Paul Khoo - I begin my essay with this rather extended quote from one of Indonesia’s most thoughtful curators, Enin Supriyanto. 2011 has been a great year for Indonesian art, especially on the global front. Not since the AWAS! (BEWARE!) show traveled the world in the late nineties has Indonesian art found such a large audience abroad outsides the niches of the Asian biennale circuit. But celebrity Read more....