Feminisms and Art History in Southeast Asia: Exploring Feminist Writings (Circa 1900-2020)

poster — Poster designed by: Sakarit Jankeo

Artists: Flaudette May Datuin, Roger Nelson, Maung Day, Huong Ngo, Patrick Flores, Mary Pansanga, Brigitta Isabella, Chairat Polmuk, Nurul Kaiyisah bte Mohd Latip, Grace Samboh, Yvonne Low, Simon Soon, Varsha Nair, and Nitaya Ueareeworakut

Workshop convenors: Roger Nelson and Yvonne Low

Hosts: Womanifesto

This project is generously supported by: The University of Sydney, Sydney Southeast Asia Centre

This research is partly funded by a Start-Up Grant (03INS001578C420) and Tier 1 Seed Funding (RS05/22) from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Date: Friday, December 6, 2024 @ 08:00AM - Sunday, December 8, 2024 @ 04:00PM

Place: 181, Moo19, Baanphue, Phandorn, Kumpawapi, Udonthani, Thailand

About Feminisms and Art History in Southeast Asia: Exploring Feminist Writings (Circa 1900-2020)

FEMINISMS AND ART HISTORY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: EXPLORING FEMINIST WRITINGS 2024

Project Background and Aims

By gathering for this workshop, we aim for all invited researchers to learn from each other in an environment that is nurturing and inspiring.

At the workshop, all invited researchers will be asked to introduce a small number of key texts, related to feminisms and art in Southeast Asia, broadly conceived, which have not previously been translated to English. On the basis of these discussions, together we will identify texts to be translated and published in a special issue of the peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Art in Translation, to be guest-edited by Yvonne Low and Roger Nelson. By making this publication, we aim to make key vernacular feminist writings in Southeast Asian art accessible in the English language.

Much research on women in the arts in this region has taken the form of single-artist monographs or single-nation surveys, and frequently relies on Anglophone sources. The translation of key feminist texts from Southeast Asia aims to expand current knowledge and scholarship on the subject of feminisms in the visual production and reception of the region. We hope that this may facilitate increased interdisciplinary collaborations, and contribute to the continuing decolonising of research on women artists in Southeast Asia. We recognise that English is the lingua franca of the region, and hope that by translating texts to English, we can facilitate new insights on and in Southeast Asia, by Southeast Asians.
Responding to the critical call to do more than encircle "the old conundrum about the politics of disciplinary frame of reference" (May Adadol Ingawanji,

2019), by organising this workshop and special issue, we aim to approach decolonising as a process grounded in concrete efforts to diversify research and resources, specifically by foregrounding the contributions made by women and their allies writing in Southeast Asian languages.

Table Talk V at end of workshop... to draw and to reflect

Table Talk V (2024) invited participants and volunteers of the workshop, Feminisms and Art History in Southeast Asia: Exploring Feminist Writing (circa 1900-2020) organised by Yvonne Low and Roger Nelson, to reflect on the time spent together at Baan Womanifesto.

Since 2019, Lena Eriksson and Varsha Nair have set up a series of Table Talks at various gatherings inviting people to draw, write, doodle, share a meal, and articulate onto paper stretched as a tablecloth. The resulting record – a transcript of the proceedings – is transferred onto fabric and sent to all participants to bring the stories into the world, into everyday life.

We offer you this cloth - our collaboration at Table Talk V….

Table Talk V drawing printed on mulmul in Baroda, India. Photo: Varsha Nair

Thank you

Flaudette May Datuin, Maung Day, Patrick Flores, Brigitta Isabella, Nurul Kaiyisah bte Mohd Latip, Yvonne Low, Varsha Nair, Roger Nelson, Huong Ngo, Mary Pansanga, Chairat Polmuk, Grace Samboh, Simon Soon, Nitaya Ueareeworakul, and, Virginia Hilyard, Surasit Mankhong, Jamilah Preenun Nana, Ananya Patel, Adisak Phupa

Table talk as a method of resonating with the world with artistic methodologies was first created in 2016 by Elia Malevez and Lena Eriksson.