This workshop sought to critically evaluate the ways in which Southeast Asian nations are imagined by artists and other cultural agents such as art critics, gallerists, collectors, independent curators or museums, and the state. It comes at a time when ‘national art’ is being redefined while more public and private institutions in the region are erected to re-imagine the narratives of nationhood. Whether through modern or contemporary art which interrogates the consequences of global capitalism, scholars at this workshop explored how art is deployed either as a coalescing force for the imagination of the nation or a critical expression of its flaws and strains.
The seminar analysed why the interaction between capitalism, globalization, and technology no longer delivers high economic growth and featured the newly published book “The Veil of Circumstance – Technology, Values, Dehumanization and the Future of Economics and Politics” authored by Joergen Oerstroem Moeller.
This was the seventh seminar in the Arts in Southeast Asia Seminar Series. ISEAS warmly welcomed Dr Phoebe Scott, curator at the National Gallery Singapore (NGS) for a presentation titled “Colonials or Cosmopolitans? Vietnamese Artists in Paris in the 1930s-1940s”. More than 20 participants from local museums, universities, and the public attended the talk.
In this seminar, Dato’ Dr Mujahid pointed out that Malaysia is the only country in the world where one finds a constitutionally-defined ethnicity. Click on to read more.
In this seminar, Dr Teren Sevea, Visiting Fellow at Nalanda–Sriwijaya Centre, delivers a lecture on the vital roles of Muslim miracle-workers within the socio-economic fabric of 18th – 9th century Malaya. His research is based on Malay-Jawi manuscripts pertaining to the esoteric practices of these miracle-workers or “pawang”, which are replete with relevant socio-economic information of the contemporaneous world that the pawang lived and practised his/her art and profession.