Curtin University Connects with Singapore

Cover of Curtin University Connects with Singapore
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Melanie Jame Wolf's Pop-Cultural Drag: The Chronopolitics of Labour, Libido and Image
Feature
Daniel Mudie Cunningham

Published April 2021
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Apprehending the Multiverse: A Costumed Allegory for Four Percussionists Michaela Gleave's Cosmic Time
Feature
Ann Finegan

Published April 2021
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Michaela Stark: On Control and Beauty
Feature
Alison Kubler

Published April 2021
Australian Dance Theatre
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Cigdem Ayedemir
Feature
Sumaiya Muyeen

Published April 2021
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On art, fashion, purpose and more: Peggy Griffiths-Madij and Jan Griffiths in conversation with Alana Hunt
Feature

Published April 2021
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From the clothes rack to the body of the wearer: Circumnavigate Kandos in our clothes
Feature
Ann Finegan

Published April 2021
Ballarat Foto Biennale
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Sarah Rodigari: Redressing the vernacular
Feature
Abigail Moncrieff

Published April 2021
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The Mangkaja x Gorman Collection: A new wave of Indigenous art and fashion collaboration
Feature
Belinda Cook

Published April 2021

Curtin University developed ties with Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand since its foundation in the sixties, initially through Engineering and Business and then through the Design School spearheaded by artist-lecturers Nola Farman, Paum Gaunt and Head of Design John Teschendorff. Frequent visits and exchanges and enrolling Asian students have all helped the School of Art there to identify as a South East Asian art school.

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More from this Issue Full Issue Contents

Pink Herrings and Tasmanian Tigers
Feature
Gregory Kwok-Keung Leong

The artist as a gay Asian male who migrated to Tasmania to escape persecution in Hong Kong, has "copped it swee" a lot of the time. Undeterred he has produced work which addresses this theme and worked quietly towards reform of the laws against homosexuality in Tasmania.

Published December 1993
Refugees Confronting Memory
Feature
Michael and Susan Schnorr and Yamagata

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.

Published December 1993
Introduction to Art in Vietnam
Feature
Nguyen Quan

Vietnam has a long and diverse cultural history with strong sculptural traditions of Dong Son and Cham ethnic groups. At various times artists went to Europe to study and French art was a strong influence. In the north a socialist realist mode flowered in the 60s and 'formalism' was repudiated. Printmaking and political posters were strong during the war. Now painting flourishes; in Hanoi 'the village' is an inspiration, in Saigon various western styles are seen.

Published December 1993
Learning About Difference
Feature
Joan Grounds

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.

Published December 1993
Streams of Indonesian Art and Perceptions of Paradise
Book Review
Brita Miklouho-Maklai

'Streams of Indonesian Art from Pre-historic to Contemporary'
Published by the Committee of the Festival of Indonesia, Jakarta, 1991.
A series of essays by Indonesian writers.
'Perceptions of Paradise: Images of Bali in the Arts'
By a US scholar Garrett Kam,
Publishedby the Museum Neka, Bali, 1993.
Both publications help to fill the gaps in written art history. 'Streams' tries to sanitise the history of the oppression of artists by political forces and ongoing social inequities.

Published December 1993
Looking to Origins: Mastura Abdul Rahman
Feature
Sim Tan

Mastura Abdul Rahman is a Malaysian Islamic woman artist and draws on the tradition of SE Asian woven textiles in the very precise ordering of her compositions which depict the arrangement of traditional Malay houses seen from above. Traditional head and breast cloths are ritual objects of great potency with the power to kill the weaver who makes a mistake in the design. To the initiated the paintings embody some of the same aura.

Published December 1993
"Current Issues" in Singaporean Art
Feature
Cheo Chai Hiang

A brief history of 20th Century art movements in Singapore and the state of art and art debate in the 1990s. In terms of how non-Singaporeans view and understand current art, the politically motivated performance art of Tang Da Wu and Amanda Heng in 1991-2 appears very similar to performance art in other countries but due to different cultural background it can be misread and those elements which are different are often ignored.

Published December 1993
Women Breaking Taboos
Feature
Lida Geh

Women artists in Malaysia have a lot to deal with - pressures to give priority to family duties over art practice, and oppression of women while the Islamic prescription against representation makes it hard to make political statements. Hamidah Rahman, Shu-Li, Norma Abba, Eng Hwee Chu and Mastura Abdul Rahman are breaking taboos including that of including sexual content in their work. However the price they pay is marginalisation.

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
An Australian Creates Space in Manila
Feature
Neil Roberts

From 1989 - 1991 artist Neil Roberts found himself engaged on a series of working visits to the Philippines. He decided to use only local materials, striking a welcome chord with his hosts. His tendency towards sparse presentation was in sharp contrast to the overload of the installations and paintings of local artists, echoing the contrast between Australian and Filipino attitudes to space. At ARX in Perth he collaborated with Cesare Syjuco who has the ART-LAB space in Manila.

Published December 1993
Vietnamese Lacquer, Silk Painting and Modern Vietnamese Art
Feature
Ba Van Thai

1. Lacquer painting is a very old medium which was adapted by 20thC painters including Nguyen Gia Tri. 2. The most famous exponent of Silk painting was Nguyen Phan Chanh (1892-1984) who painted villagers and country life. 3. After 1925 artists adopted oil paint and after absorbing French influences, by the 90s formed a new Vietnamese identity typified by a group of 3 senior artsits. In 1989 a group show of young artists was a turning point.

Published December 1993
The Power of Yogyakartan Surrealism
Feature
Dwi Marianto

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.

Published December 1993
 
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