A project exploring the history and politics of gender in Southeast Asian art, with a special focus on of Womanifesto, the first feminist Southeast Asia-based international art biennial founded by Varsha Nair, Phaptawan Suwannukudt and Nitaya Tuk.
Studies focused on gender in Southeast Asian societies have emerged, in recent decades, in approximate concurrence with the development of regionally focused Southeast Asian art histories. This project seeks to investigate the intersection of two fields, via symposia, exhibitions and publications.
A key focus of the project is the history of Womanifesto, a significant but understudied feminist artistic residency and exhibition project that has been held biannually in various locations in Thailand since 1995, and later on online platform. Over the years Womanifesto has since brought together more than 150 contemporary women artists across 45 countries.
The project aims to begin telling the history of this expansive project. In the spirit of the "Womanifesto way", this process of history making aims to be collaborative and experimental, and will take the form of a digital publication, alongside exhibitions, symposia and other forms of publication.
Events
Past
Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories I
A symposium examining the intersection of gender and art history in Southeast Asian societies.
Figuring the Buddha
A lecture examining the historical unfolding of the Buddha’s story in Cambodia.
People
Ashley Thompson
Ashley Thompson is Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She is a specialist in Southeast Asian cultural histories, with particular expertise on Cambodia. Thompson is co-founder and editor (with Ang Choulean) of Udaya, a tri-lingual journal of Khmer Studies. Her publications include Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor (2016); Angkor: A Manual for the Past, Present and Future (with E. Prenowitz and Ang Choulean, 2006); Calling the Souls: A Cambodian Ritual Text (2005); and Dance in Cambodia (with T. Shapiro-Phim, 1999). Thompson was Historical and Linguistic Director for the Khmer language production of Hélène Cixous’ epic ‘Cambodia’ play, The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, first staged in Europe in 2013, by a 32-member Cambodian troupe from Phare Ponleu Selpak (Battambang) directed by Georges Bigot and Delphine Cottu under the aegis of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil, Paris.
Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories II: Art, Digitality and Canon-Making?
A symposium on new research on gender and art in Southeast Asia.
The Wind in the Trees: From Tradisexion to Womanifesto
Flaudette May Datuin looks back on more than 30 years of research, curation and teaching in the field of feminist art criticism and art historiography, with focus on Womanifesto.
People
Flaudette May Dautin
Flaudette May Datuin, PhD is Professor, Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters at the University of the Phillipines. Aside from graduate and undergraduate courses on art and society, art theory and aesthetics, art history and art criticism, she teaches an interdisciplinary course on Disaster Risk Mitigation, Adaptation and Preparedness Strategies (DRMAPS) based at the College of Engineering. Her current research interests include gender issues in the arts, art and ecology and art and healing.
Datuin has written numerous publications in national and international publications. Her latest co-publication—Contemporary Philippine Art From the Regions—is a textbook for a K12 core subject (2018). Her first book, Home Body Memory: Filipina Artists in the Visual Arts, 19th Century to the Present, emerged from her engagement with women artists in the Philippines and Asia. From her research on women artists in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan (through grants from the Asian Public Intellectuals and the Asian Scholarship Foundation, Japan Foundation Asia Center, among others), she curated and organized exhibitions and forums, among them Women Imaging Women (Manila, 1996-1997), REMAP ASIA (EWHA University, South Korea, 2005) trauma, interrupted(Manila, 2006-2007), and Nothing to Declare(multiple venues in Manila, 2010-2011).
The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers
A hybrid digital and in-person exhibition and publication project exploring the histories and collective ethos of Womanifesto, at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
People
Yvonne Low
Yvonne Low is an art historian in Asian Art. She is a lecturer at the University of Sydney, teaching Art History and Curating in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate programs. She researches on modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art, with an interest in Chinese diasporic cultures, women’s history, and digital methods. As editorial committee to Southeast of Now Journal (NUS Press), Yvonne is committed to advancing scholarship in the region. She is currently an advisory committee member for The Flow of History (AWARE/Asia Art Archive), The Womanifesto Way Digital Anthology (Power Institute, DFAT, 4A) and co-developer of digital tool, Artists Trajectories Map.
Marni Williams
Marni WIlliams is the Publications Manager at the Power Institute. She is editor, writer and arts administrator with experience spanning visual arts, trade, narrative non-fiction, careers and education publishing, and currently completing at PhD at the Australian National University.
Phaptawan Suwannakudt
Phaptawan Suwannakudt (born in Thailand, 1959), trained as a mural painter with her late father Paiboon Suwannakudt and led a team of painters that worked in Buddhist temples throughout Thailand during the 1980s-1990s. She was also involved in the women artists group exhibition Tradisexion in 1995 and in Womanifesto. She relocated to Australia in 1996 and completed MVA degree at Sydney College of the Arts, The Sydney University. She has exhibited extensively in Australia, Thailand and internationally including Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia, Museum of Anthropology, UBC, Vancouver, Canada (2017) Retold-Untold Stories, Chiang Mai (2014) and Sydney (2016), Thresholds: Contemporary Thai Art, New York (2013) and the18th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations (2012). she is selected to participate in Beyond Bliss the Inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale, Thailand (2018-9) Most recently her work is included in Asia TOPA 2020, Art Centre Melbourne and The National 2021, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Her works are in public collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Bank Sydney, the National Art Gallery of Thailand and the National Gallery Singapore. www.phaptawansuwannakudt.com
Con Gerakaris
Con Gerakaris is a curator, arts administrator and writer and currently is the Curatorial Program Manager at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Con has curated James Jirat Patradoon: ULTRA (2021); Holding Patterns (2020); DARK FANTASY (2019) and Chris Yee: HI MEDUSA! (2019) for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Independently, he curated the exhibitions D A R K S E A – Lynn Nguyen and J.S.D. Andrews (2019), goodspace, Chippendale; CITIZENS OF NO PLACE (2018), Down/Under Space, Chippendale; and IT’S PRONOUNCED “GIF” NOT “GIF” (2017), goodspace, Chippendale. Con programmed the inaugural Club 4A for Sydney’s Chinese New Year Festival 2018 and instigated, curated and produced for 4A Digital throughout 2020 and 2021. He has published articles for 4A Papers, un. extended, Runway Conversations and Art Collector. Con completed a Bachelor of Arts (HONS) in 2013 and a Master of Art Curating in 2016 at the University of Sydney.