Southeast Asian Art Research Articles

Slow art plus: developing and piloting a single session art gallery-based intervention for mental health promotion via a mixed method waitlist randomized control trial.

The current study builds on the expertise of National Gallery Singapore and Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU) in developing and piloting an enhanced version of the Slow Art program, namely "Slow Art Plus" for mental health promotion. A single-site, open-label, waitlist Randomized Control Trial (RCT) design comprising of a treatment group and waitlist control group was adopted (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05803226). Participants (N = 196) completed three online questionnaires at three timepoints: baseline [T1], immediately post-intervention/s baseline [T2], post-intervention follow-up/immediately post-intervention [T3]. Qualitative focus groups were conducted to evaluate program acceptability. A mixed model ANOVA was performed to understand intervention effectiveness between the immediate intervention group and waitlist control group. The analyses revealed a significant interaction effect where intervention group participants reported an improvement in spiritual well-being (p = 0.001), describing their thoughts and experiences (p = 0.02), and nonreacting to inner experiences (p = 0.01) immediately after Slow Art Plus as compared to the control group. Additionally, one-way repeated measure ANOVAs were conducted for the intervention group to evaluate maintenance effects of the intervention. The analyses indicated significant improvements in perceived stress (p < 0.001), mindfulness (p < 0.001) as well as multiple mindfulness subscales, active engagement with the world (p = 0.003), and self-compassion (p = 0.02) 1 day after the completion of Slow Art Plus. Results from framework analysis of focus group data revealed a total of two themes (1: Experiences of Slow Art Plus, 2: Insights to Effective Implementation) and six subthemes (1a: Peaceful relaxation, 1b: Self-Compassion, 1c: Widened Perspective, 2a: Valuable Components, 2b: Execution Requisites, 2c: Suggested Enhancements), providing valuable insights to the overall experience and implementation of the intervention. Slow Art Plus represents a unique approach, offering a standardized, multimodal, single-session program that integrates mindfulness and self-compassion practices, as well as reflective and creative expressions with Southeast Asian art. It demonstrates potential in meeting the mental health needs of a wide range of individuals and could be readily incorporated into social prescribing initiatives for diverse populations.

Haunted Images: Unsettling History and Traumatic Memory in Tintin Wulia's Artmaking

Taking as a point of departure the practice of Chinese-Indonesian Australian artist Tintin Wulia (1972–), the article investigates possibilities for social critique offered by the photographic image as it is co-opted by artists working in post-Reformasi Indonesia. Building on scholarship that aspires toward a more historically informed understanding of contemporary Southeast Asian art, the article connects Wulia's reworkings of photographs to a longer history of image making. This focus on the entanglement of the contemporary and the historical is sustained throughout an analysis of three works by Wulia—Ketok (2002), Invasion (2012), and Great Wallpaper (2012). In highlighting the ways in which Wulia's artmaking responds to, mirrors, and troubles broader structures of seeing, documentation, and representation that have shaped national identity, the article suggests that the reanimation and reproduction of family and identification photographs unsettle forgotten and suppressed histories of trauma unique to the experience of the Chinese ethnic minority in Indonesia.

Cambodia. Early Theravādin Cambodia: Perspectives from art and archaeology Edited by Ashley Thompson Singapore: National University of Singapore Press (with the Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme, SOAS University of London). Pp. xxix + 288. Maps, Images, Bibliography, Index.

Cambodia. Early Theravādin Cambodia: Perspectives from art and archaeology Edited by Ashley Thompson Singapore: National University of Singapore Press (with the Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme, SOAS University of London). Pp. xxix + 288. Maps, Images, Bibliography, Index.

Leaving Javanese Shadow Theatre (Wayang Kulit) Religiously Unlabelled

Wayang Kulit, the shadow theatre tradition on the island of Java, combines ancient Javanese and Indian myths in a Muslim context and therefore poses as a wonderful example of how religious traditions intertwine with works of art. This article explores the religious appropriation and acculturation at work in the history of Javanese shadow theatre. It also grants a behind-the-scenes look at the curatorial challenges involved in preparing a Wayang Kulit exhibition at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, in particular how to convey the complex intermingling of cultures and religions so that audiences can understand it. Finally, we call into question some narratives and concepts traditionally used in Western museums to tell the story of Southeast Asian art.

Towards an End of New Beginnings: A Historiographical Exegesis of T.K. Sabapathy's 'Regionalist Perspectives'

Abstract: T.K. Sabapathy is widely regarded as the pre-eminent art historian in Singapore, and possibly Southeast Asia. In addition to serving as an educator, curator, critic and advisor, Sabapathy is a prolific writer with an unrivalled textual output that spans five decades and a multitude of art historical concerns. Through a close reading of Sabapathy's 1996 paper "Developing Regionalist Perspectives in Southeast Asian Art Historiography", this essay dissects a single representative idea from Sabapathy's extensive corpus, specifically what he designates as 'regionalist perspectives'. Part exegesis, part historiography, this essay investigates the nuances and features of 'regionalist perspectives', the individual motivations and extrinsic forces which contributed to this approach, as well as suggests some reasons for its prominence and enduring association with Sabapathy's work as an art historian. It aims to further historiographical interest in the oeuvre of an art historian who has had an immense and indubitable impact on the disciplinary foundations of modern Southeast Asian art history.

Globality in Teaching Art and Architectural History: A Case Study of the Glossary Assignment

In consideration of the research problem associated with the need for globality and inclusive vision in art and architecture history pedagogy, this research proposes an alternative research framework that entails the globality and inclusion of non-Western content in studying and teaching art and architecture history, as well as the use of interpretive-historical research methodology in conducting cross-cultural and comparative studies for a glossary assignment. This research provides a glossary assignment in which students conduct cross-cultural and comparative investigations of Western and non-Western art and architecture. The study approaches, tactics, and themes employed by students to do cross-cultural comparisons are systematically examined. Common glossary terms from conventional Western art and architecture history, namely, composite image, ziggurat, contrapposto, and still life, are critically used to demonstrate that they are universal and also existent in Southeast Asian art and architecture. Inductive rather than a priori analytical framework reveals new themes derived from cross-cultural comparisons. By juxtaposing original redrawn images of art and architecture from Western traditions and non-Western contexts, this research creates a significant visual impact on the usage of illustrations as tactics that transcend conventional maps and timelines. Application of the alternative study framework reveals the universality of the human desire to create art and architecture that transcends chronology and cultural boundaries.

Shakespeare and Asian Cultural Diversity: Encounters between East Asia and Southeast Asia on Shakespearean Stage

This study discusses the ways that Shakespeare’s stories have captured the imaginations of East Asians and Southeast Asians on stage. Encounters between East Asia and Southeast Asia on Shakespearean stage place an emphasis on relevance and inclusivity within the stories. Their encounters are designed to speak to the extraordinary moments that call for multicultural and multilingual Asian productions. This study presents as exemplary cases two productions: Desdemona (2000) and Lear Dreaming (2012). Their retellings of Othello and King Lear are suggestive of what human beings resort to in order to maintain power over others, but at the same time give prominence to psychological and humane themes. These two Asian versions spring from the interest in stories about powerful families in conflict who are driven by ambitions, loyalties, and vendettas, while making decisions that affect each other. Desdemona and Lear Dreaming reinvent Shakespearean stories being told with new Asian twists and turns. Their stage practice is bound up with the ultimate examination of how Asian performing artists and Shakespearean characters are intertwined. Encounters between East Asian and Southeast Asian art forms have a direct bearing on how Asian cultural diversity is depicted on stage. They value the traditional contents of Asian performance styles, but at the same time go beyond classical values by employing modern technology such as visual and graphic arts. The integration of traditional and modern staging modes is set to redefine what Shakespeare’s stories mean to our own time and how they are relevant to contemporary audiences.

Materialising Markets: The Agency of Auctions in Emergent Art Genres in the Global South

For the last two decades, the international auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been at the forefront of global art market expansion. Their world-wide footprints have enabled auction house specialists to engage with emerging artists and aspiring collectors, most notably in the developing economies of the Global South. By establishing their sales infrastructure in new locales ahead of the traditional mechanisms of primary market commercial galleries, the international auction houses have played a foundational role in the notional construction of new genres of art. However, branding alone is not sufficient to establish these new markets; the auction houses require a network of willing supporters to facilitate and drive marketplace supply and demand, be that trans-locational art market intermediaries, local governments, and/or regional auction businesses. This paper examines emerging art auction markets in three Global South case studies. It elucidates the strategic mechanisms and networks of international and regional art auction houses in the development of specific genres of contemporary art: Hong Kong and ‘Chinese contemporary art’, Singapore and ‘Southeast Asian art’, and Australia and ‘Aboriginal art’. Through examination and comparison of these three markets, this paper draws on research conducted over the past decade to reveal an integral role played by art auctions in the expansion of broader contemporary art world infrastructure in the Global South.

Documentation of Indo-Islamic architecture built along a 16th-century highway

An internationally recognized presence in the documentation of Indic and South East Asian art and architecture, the Center for Art and Archaeology (CA&amp;A) of the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) conducted a documentation project in 2007 that explored an interesting range of built heritage arrayed along a 16th-century highway, the Agra – Lahore route, laid by the Mughal rulers of India. The stretch of the Agra – Lahore highway this project traced, crossed two north Indian states of independent India – Haryana and Punjab, and documented built heritage that survives on that road. The documentation revealed edifices unique to a travel environment including Caravansarai (rest house), Kos-Minars (distance markers), bridges, stepped-wells and Bagh (pleasure gardens) built under the patronage of Mughal elites. The project emphasized the importance of identifying the strands of cultural heritage and the processes of documenting them. A major aim of such documentation was to aid preservation of the monuments themselves by providing critical information for future decisions.

Finding the place for art archives: Reflections from archiving Indonesian and Southeast Asian art

This article is a collection of reflections of art archiving work in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, focusing on building an Indonesian art archive at Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA), 2006-2015, and Southeast Asian art archives at National Gallery Singapore, from 2015 to the present. The article provides insights, learning points, and perspectives on the importance of art archives to support art historical research and the development of art history in Southeast Asia. It sheds light on the challenges, opportunities, and current developments in the field of building archives.

Contributors

Previous article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreCarlos Garrido CastellanoCarlos Garrido Castellano is Lecturer of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork. He has taught widely on Spanish, Lusophone and Latin American visual culture. His research interests focus on visual culture, critical theory, activism and collaborative artistic practices in postcolonial contexts.Daria GhiuDaria Ghiu lives and works in Bucharest. She wrote a book on the history of the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (IDEA Publishing House, 2015) and is an art critic and radio author. Since 2016 she is an associate professor at the University of Bucharest.Vasif KortunVasif Kortun is a curator, writer and teacher in the field of contemporary art – its institutions and spatial practices. He was the founding director of Research and Programs of SALT, Istanbul. A recipient of the Award for Curatorial Excellence from Bard College, he is the chairman of the board of the Foundation for Arts Initiatives.Ana LongoniAna Longoni is a writer, researcher and professor at the University of Buenos Aires and teaches in the Independent Studies Program of the MACBA, Barcelona. She studies the intersections between art and politics in Argentina and Latin America from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Currently, she is the director of public activities for Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.Michael A. MelMichael A. Mel is of the Mogei tribe in the Mt Hagen area in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). He completed a PhD at Flinders University, Adelaide and was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Goroka, PNG. He is currently a manager for Pacific and international collection at the Australian Museum, Sydney.Serubiri MosesSerubiri Moses is an independent writer and curator. His curatorial work, writing and research has been presented internationally in Kampala, Hong Kong, Cali, Nairobi, Accra, Johannesburg and Berlin. He was on the curatorial team for the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, ‘We don’t need another hero’, in 2018.Vijay PrashadVijay Prashad is director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He first wrote about Naeem Mohaiemen’s work for journal TAKE on art (New Delhi) in 2010 and appears in Mohaiemen’s film Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017).Filipa RamosFilipa Ramos is editor-in-chief at art-agenda, and lectures at Kingston University, London and Institut Kunst, Basel. Ramos is co-curator of Vdrome, was associate editor of Manifesta Journal and contributed to dOCUMENTA 13 and documenta 14. She edited Animals (Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press, 2016) and curates ‘Animalisk’ at Bildmuseet Umeå, Sweden in 2019.Jerssi Esperança Restino PauloJerssi Esperança Restino Paulo is an Angolan student in African Studies at Universidade de Lisboa. In the future, she would like to work with NGOs that support Africa’s development or in matters related to African history.Charles StankievechCharles Stankievech is an artist and Director of Visual Studies, Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto. From 1996 to 2004 he worked as a licensed atomic energy technician for the world’s largest materials engineering firm that did forensic analysis on architectural, industrial and military assets. He is a contributing editor to Afterall.Nora A. TaylorNora A. Taylor is Alsdorf Professor of South and Southeast Asian art at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is author of Painters in Hanoi: An Ethnography of Vietnamese Art (Hawaii, 2004/NUS Press, 2009) and numerous articles and co-editor of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art: An Anthology (Southeast Asia Program Publications, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2012) among other edited volumes.Reiko TomiiReiko Tomii is an independent art historian who investigates post-1945 Japanese art in global and local contexts. She is co-director of PoNJA-GenKon (www.ponja-genkon.net), a scholarly listserv. Among her latest publications is Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan (MIT Press, 2016).Clare VealClare Veal is a lecturer in the MA Asian Art Histories programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore where she conducts research on Southeast Asian photography, art and visual culture with a focus on Thailand. She received her PhD in art history from the University of Sydney in 2016.Kaelen Wilson-GoldieKaelen Wilson-Goldie is a writer based in New York and Beirut. She is contributing editor for Bidoun and writes regularly for Artforum, Bookforum, Aperture and Frieze. Her first book, Etel Adnan (Lund Humphries), on the paintings of the Lebanese-American poet Etel Adnan, was published in 2018. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Afterall Volume 47Spring/Summer 2019 Published by Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/704207 © 2019 by Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

동양미술사] 확대되는 지평, 다변화되는 주제: 아시아 미술사 연구

There have been published 137 pieces of books and articles on the art history of Asia from 2013 to 2016. Classifying the papers by its genre, the articles on the history of painting was the most followed by the study on Buddhist sculpture. Among the entire Asia, Chinese art was overwhelmingly popular in research interest and Central Asian art was the next. Considering the art from the Silk Road as the Central Asian art, articles regarding the Central Asian art dramatically increased in its number. Korean researchers think that Korean art is in directly related to Chinese and Central Asian art. Comparing the art of two regions might help the Korean researchers follow the lead to reach the origin of Korean art. However, the interest of art historian is unequally dealt out the region: there was not a single paper published on the Western Asian art, only four papers were about Indian art and three papers were about Southeast Asian art. Subjects and themes were diversified as the researchers started to study the porcelain and bronze ware discovered from the sunken vessel in Southeast Asia, and even the space matter of the temples. Thus, it can be regarded as the researchers broadening their prospects. Based on the attribution of Korean academia, which the speed of their globalization is accelerating, it is certain that the research subjects and the region will be extended even further.

Of Poems in a Recalcitrant Landscape: An Interview with Stanley J. O’Connor

This interview with Cornell University Professor Emeritus Stanley J. O’Connor surveys over half a century of art historical scholarship on the region. In 1964, O’Connor was the first university-level appointment in the USA of a specialist in the field of Southeast Asian art. He discusses his choice of changing his career from government to art history, shares his experience of studying and teaching at Cornell, and describes the political and social circumstances through which an international community of scholars took shape under the aegis of the Southeast Asia Program. Corey and O’Connor discuss past and future orientations for regional researchers of modern and contemporary art.

Early history and distribution of trade ceramics in Southeast Asia

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the history and distribution of trade ceramics in Southeast Asia over a thousand-year period stretching from the ninth to the early nineteenth century CE. Design/methodology/approach The study takes a material culture approach to the writing of marketing history by researching the ceramics trade from the starting point of artifacts and their social context. It draws from literatures on Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics art history and archaeology. It also is informed by first-hand experience inspecting surviving artifacts in shops, talking to dealers and taking in museum displays. Findings After a brief historical overview of the ceramics trade in Southeast Asia, the research further explores topics in physical distribution (transportation routes, hubs and local marketplaces and ships, cargo and packing) and product assortments, adaptation and globalization of consumer culture. Research limitations/implications The art history and archaeological literatures provide a good overview of the ceramics trade and analysis of surviving material artifacts, but only limited information about distribution and consumption. Many questions remain unanswered. Originality/value This study contributes to international business and marketing history by documenting a thousand years of trade among China, mainland and insular Southeast Asia, and a long-standing cultural exchange facilitated by seaborne commerce. It also shares a marketing perspective with the fields of Southeast Asian art history and archaeology. Research in marketing history has neglected this region. To fully understand the development of marketing in the pre-industrial era, accounts from civilizations outside the West must be included.

Southeast Asia. Modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art: An anthology. Edited by Nora A. Taylor and Boreth Ly. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2012. Pp. 280. Plates, Notes.

Southeast Asia. Modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art: An anthology. Edited by Nora A. Taylor and Boreth Ly. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2012. Pp. 280. Plates, Notes. - Volume 44 Issue 2

Supply and demand: exposing the illicit trade in Cambodian antiquities through a study of Sotheby’s auction house

Looters are reducing countless ancient sites to rubble in their search for buried treasures to sell on the international market. The trafficking of these and other stolen cultural objects has developed into a criminal industry that spans the globe. For numerous reasons, the small Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia presents an opportunity to ground this illicit trade in reality. This paper supplements previous studies that have detailed the pillaging of the country’s archaeological sites, and aims to better comprehend the trafficking of its artifacts, through an investigation of their final destination: the international art market. Of course, the global market for Cambodian art is wide, but Sotheby’s Auction House provides an excellent sample. For over 20 years, its Department of Indian and Southeast Asian Art in New York City has held regular sales of Cambodian antiquities, which have been well published in print catalogues and on the web. These records indicate that Sotheby’s has placed 377 Khmer pieces on the block since 1988—when those auctions began—and 2010. An analysis of these sales presents two major findings. Seventy-one percent of the antiquities had no published provenance, or ownership history, meaning they could not be traced to previous collections, exhibitions, sales, or publications. Most of the provenances were weak, such as anonymous private collections, or even prior Sotheby’s sales. None established that any of the artifacts had entered the market legally, that is, that they initially came from archaeological excavations, colonial collections, or the Cambodian state and its institutions. While these statistics are alarming, in and of themselves, fluctuations in the sale of the unprovenanced pieces can also be linked to events that would affect the number of looted antiquities exiting Cambodia and entering the United States. This correlation suggests an illegal origin for much of the Khmer material put on the auction block by Sotheby’s.

Introduction Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

In the past decade, contemporary art has become one of art history's most urgent questions. The question has special urgency in light of art's globalisation, a phenomenon that might be usefully analysed through the works identified as ‘Contemporary Southeast Asian art’. Compared with its East Asian counterparts, Southeast Asian art has been relatively invisible in discussions of contemporaneity, yet the circumstances of this lack of visibility have much to say about contemporary art. Moreover, the sheer complexity of art in this region possesses the capacity to complicate, and even to trouble how contemporary art is generally understood. Finally, this article defends the use of terms like ‘Southeast Asian art’, contending that the ideals embodied within contemporary art's ‘global turn’ can be effectively advanced through modes of regionalism that recognise the contingency of things.

The Southeast Asian Art Historian as Ethnographer?

This article examines the contributions of anthropology to the study of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art history. In looking at a number of studies of Southeast Asian artists by anthropologists, it aims to ask questions about the nature of contemporary art in Southeast Asia in relation to the discipline of anthropology. In particular, it questions the relevance of ethnographic texts in the study of images and how the reliance of ethnography on notions of cultural difference and the ‘other’ impacts on interpretations of living artists' work. Taking Vietnamese performance artists as an example, the article looks at a case where ethnography may act as a substitute for the lack of written art historical sources. The question then is not only of the appropriateness of applying ethnographic methods to Southeast Asian art but also of the appropriateness of Southeast Asian art to the study of ethnography and art history.

On Teaching Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

This article reflects on the author's experience of teaching a course on Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian art at Sotheby's Institute, Singapore, in the summer of 2010. The author uses pedagogy to engage methodological issues of the field – or finds methodological questions emerging in the teaching of this art. Key pedagogical and methodological problems discussed include: teaching modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art via modern and contemporary Euro-American art; dealing with the rift in teaching modern as opposed to contemporary Southeast Asian art (for instance, can one avoid teaching contemporary art in terms of the artist-as-brand?); and the critical value of using aesthetic judgement in the teaching of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art. The demarcation of ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’, and the origin and composition of ‘Southeast Asian’ art are also discussed. In offering possible solutions to these pedagogical/methodological problems, the essay advocates a theory-plus-practice, historical-and-contemporary approach to the teaching of the art of this region.

Market Watch

This article surveys contemporary Southeast Asian art through the lens of the market and, in particular, the role of auction houses and their symbiotic relationship to primary markets. It pays special attention to developments taking place within the past five years and how the auction itself has played an integral role in reifying the idea of a discrete body of contemporary Southeast Asian art. A secondary issue concerns the role and growing relevance of private collectors and collections. Lacking the kind of extensive public artistic infrastructure found in other countries, many Southeast Asian countries tacitly depend on the activities of private collectors to promote the visibility of works which have only recently emerged as a key force within a contemporary art market whose appetite for expansion seems limitless.