Friends of Hanoi

Cover of Friends of Hanoi
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Reading the entrails: Digesting posthuman entanglement
Feature
Sasha Grbich

Published 01 December 2019
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Eating together online: The ambivalent conviviality of ASMR videos
Feature
Francis Russell

Published 01 December 2019
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Shared food conversations: Jason Phu and Nagesh Seethiah
Feature
In conversation with Sabrina Baker

Published 01 December 2019
Artlink Subs Promo
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A good dinner party: Food as a medium for social change
Feature
Courtney Coombs

Published 01 December 2019
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Eat the problem: MONA's carnivalesque of cuisine
Feature
Ashley Crawford

Published 01 December 2019
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Fair Share Fare
Feature
Jen Rae

Published 01 December 2019
NAVA
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Violent dreams of development: A food bowl in the north‑west of Australia?
Feature
Alana Hunt

Published 01 December 2019
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Mai Contemporary Kaurna Food
Feature
James Tylor

Published 01 December 2019

Efforts to save the ancient city of Hanoi from redevelopment - an Australian businessman raises money and support

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More from this Issue Full Issue Contents

Posturings under the Bodhi Tree: The selling of Pseudo-Religion
Feature
Albert Paravi Wongchirachai

Thai artists of the 'Buddhist Revival' claim to make Buddhist art just because they use the visual conventions of that tradition. The Tantric mandalas have been widely misappropriated. As soon as you take temple art out of the temple you run into difficulties of definition and authenticity. There is still traditional Buddhist art being made in the temples, but there is a great trade in pseudo-Buddhist art which is cheap and damaging.

Published December 1993
David Castle's Journeys into Asia
Feature
Keri Whiteley

David Castle's jewellery has been influenced by over 15 journeys to Indonesia since 1972, particularly the islands between Darwin and Bali. He finds the ceremonial activities of the Balinese attractive and this is evident in his body adornment pieces. He was an artist in residence in Kuala Lumpur in 1991 creating links with the University of Tasmania in his home base Launceston where his current exhibition Journeys was held.

Published December 1993
Images of Women by Women
Feature
Imelda Cajipe-Endaya

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.

Published December 1993
Printmaking in Vietnam: Old and New
Feature
Thuong Phan Cam

There are very few specialised printmakers in Vietnam, partly because of the expense of materials and equipment. Woodcuts, a traditional form, with the use of multiple coloured plates, are in demand but are now rare, engraving in both metal and plaster is growing, lithography dates from the anti-French resistance, and silkscreen was used for socialist posters in the 70s. Graphic arts are moving into the world of advertising where the money is.

Published December 1993
Refocusing the Gaze
Review
Joanna Mendelssohn

Review of the First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Sept - Dec 1993. The rationale for selection, search for different voices from each country, enormous diversity, some common threads eg experience of colonisation; politicisation; role of religion in some countries. Dramatic performances by Dadang Christanto (Indonesia) and S. Chandrasekeran (Singapore). Theme of environmental pollution also appears in several works.

Published December 1993
Role of Galleries in Contemporary Art
Feature
Agus Dermawan T.

Around 1983 art dealers first appeared in Indonesia. By 1990-91 there was an art boom, and galleries were operating in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, and Bali. Owners come from various walks of life, including oil trading. With some notable exceptions, there is a sameness about the offerings in most of these galleries. A brief history 1930 - 1955 describes the establishment of galleries to supply visitors interested in local art.

Published December 1993
Women Achieving Against Great Odds
Feature
Ban Bang Thuc

Women make up 30% of painters in Vietnam yet have received little attention. Women face many obstacles to success. Married women whose husbands do not approve of their practice are the most disadvantaged. A handful of women artists have become known, and one has taken part in exhibitions overseas. Previously there used to be annual group shows of women artists, but now the trend is towards solo shows.

Published December 1993
Modern Art in Thailand: A Glimpse
Feature
Apinan Poshyananda

A concise history of the beginnings of modernism in Thailand from the 1890s. In the 1970s the current Princess established an alternative space for young Thai artists in which the tensions between art for art's sake and art for religious purposes were evident. Politically correct art about Thai-ness was sponsored by banks in the 80s. Later political instability and environmental problems gave rise to a new kind of work challenging cultural consumerism.

Published December 1993
Confess and Conceal: Asia/Australia Exhibition at AGWA
Review
John Mateer

Review of Confess and Conceal a group show of 4 Asian and 7 Australian artists organised by the Art Gallery of WA and touring South East Asia. Catalogue has essay by Apinan Poshyananda discussing Thai women artists but fails to provide background to the other Asian works or whether Australia shares the sense of reorientation being experienced in Asia or whether it can be thought of as part of Asia.

Published December 1993
Australia Asia: Striking Up Conversations
Feature
Stephanie Britton

Collection of items (some by other writers) relating to Asia and Australia: Adelaide Installations, and women in film program both in Adelaide Festival; Aboriginal connections with Indonesia; Australia-Taiwan exchange; art education exchanges throughout the Region; letter from Nguyen Thu of Hanoi College of Art.

Published December 1993
Art of Social Concern
Feature
FX Harsono

A survey of the role played by politics in art and vice versa before during and after Independence from the Dutch. Artists were employed by political parties to promote their ideologies; by 1950 artists rejected this. Some were arrested for depicting social realities. 20 years later a new group took up the baton, and again incurred the displeasure of the government. Humour was adopted as a means of expressing truths.

Published December 1993
Support for Art in Malaysia
Feature
Sim Tan

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.

Published December 1993