Support for Art in Malaysia

A critique of a culture of self-congratulation where there is no place for critical feedback, institutions are not scrutinised and standards are low, where criticism is greeted with hostility. The major art school is lavishly funded but authoritarian and there are no checks and balances on lecturing staff. Art museum shows are poor, corruption is evident in some places. Artists suffer from neglect and have little support for their practice.

More from this Issue

Refugees Confronting Memory

The US/Mexico based Border Workshop group worked on a collaborative shopfront installation in 1992 with the Cabramatta community of western Sydney where many Indo-Chinese refugee populations settled in the 70s. A large installation representing a refugee boat and a walk-in temple containing video monitors playing back student interviews with local people.

Michael Schnorr, Susan Schnorr and Yamagata

Australian Studios Hanoi (Part of Australia/Asia, Striking Up Conversations)

The efforts on the part of the author and others to set up a studio for Australian artists, writers, historians and others within the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. Support being sought from the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and the art education institutions in Australia.

Ian Howard

Making Asian Art Accessible to Westerners

Review of book 'Modern Art in Thailand, 19th and 20th Centuries' By Apinan Poshyananda Published by OUP, Singapore, 1992. An exemplary study of this period tracing traditional practice, regional categories, ethnic divisions, foreign arrivals, and the advent of modernism and westernisation in art and life. The reader gains insight into Buddhism and social structures including kingship in the course of looking at this complex history.

Alison Carroll

Images of Women by Women

Women are producing some of the most challenging art in the Philippines by using feminist themes and achieving a synthesis of art and feminism. These are drawings, paintings, 3D works in all media from papier machŽ to stone, and performance art. The work is confronting, emotive, full of vitality. Images are drawn from the kitchen, childcare, main domination, domestic surroundings and the natural world.

Imelda Cajipe-Endaya

Learning About Difference

Artist Joan Grounds describes the experience of her first residency in Thailand in 1989. Her lack of knowledge of Thai culture and language and having to operate in a climate where open critical debate about art or other topics was not possible were some of the challenges she faced. Since then she has returned four times to make art works in Thailand and witnessed the rapid changes which occurred over the period including a greater willingness to discuss issues.

Joan Grounds

The Power of Yogyakartan Surrealism

Why has Yogyakarta produced a school of surrealist painters and what do they paint about? Life perhaps offers strange encounters, especially in the meeting of eastern and western elements,but the clue is in traditional attitudes to the ghostly or uncanny. These are transposed into scenes of modern life which are richly varied and powerful. They include one of Indonesia's only woman artists, Lucia Hartini.

Dwi Marianto

The Gordon Darling Foundation

Background to the Foundation and its support for the Artlink special issue on South East Asia. The personal interest on the part of benefactors Gordon and Marilyn Darling in the traditional cultures of South East Asia. Their mission to start the first national portrait gallery in Australia.

Marilyn Darling

Indigenous Statements Now

From early 80s artists began to search for local identity - the use of local indigenous materials was part of this. One 70s pioneer was Junyee who used living plant material in performance art. Roberto Villanueva and Santiago Bose work in mixed media to explore ideas of being Philipino in a modern world. Imelda Cajipe-Endaya's paintings deal with 3rd world citizens, women, migrant workers, poverty. Roberto Feleo uses mythic narrative in a playful idiom.

Jeannie E. Javelosa

Struggle in Baguio: The Arts Guide Makes a Difference

In the 80s artists working abroad began to return to the Philippines; the author established the Baguio Arts Guild with a group of other artists in the highlands 5 hours from Manila. In 1989 the first Festival was held and has established itself as a vital proving ground for new artists as well as being part of the local community. An Arts Centre was set up in 1992. However a devastating earthquake in 1990 is just one of the many obstacles for artists in this 3rd world situation.

Santiago Bose

Unpredictable Repercussions

The massacre of pro-democracy students in May 1992 was a watershed for Thai artists who began to identify with change, formed associations and took part in rallies, and called for public monuments to the tragedy. The City Art League was formed to present performance art in public places and the Concrete House to draw attention to AIDS through art activities. This brought social and political issues into the realm of art.

Chumpon Apisuk

New Models for Survival

Problems of survival of new art without subsidy have created two groups: The Artists' Village, a loose collective of artists who occupied two buildings scheduled for redevelopment, ending up in the Substation near the National Art Gallery. 5th Passage was allowed to occupy an area in a shopping centre where they made performances on environmental themes and ran very popular school holiday art programs for children.

Stephanie Britton

Exploring the Potential of Printmaking

Indonesian printmaking emerged around the time of Independence in 1945. It began to be taught in colleges in Bandung, Yogyakarta and Jakarta and became a way of showing Indonesian art abroad. Prints are now seen in offices, banks, hotels and homes. Indonesian printmakers have participated in international print exhibitions in Norway, Taiwan, and Japan.

Setiawan Sabana

View all articles in this issue