Tilting the World: Histories of Modern and Contemporary Asian Art
A Symposium in Honour of Professor John Clark
Organised by the Power Institute, University of Sydney, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Friday 29 November, 2013 | University of Sydney
Saturday 30 November, 2013 | Art Gallery of New South Wales
Website: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/power/about/symposiums.shtml
The Power Institute in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is proud to present Tilting the World: Histories of Modern and Contemporary Asian Art. Tilting the World is an ambitious symposium, which will bring to Sydney international experts and emerging scholars to discuss the past, present and future of Asian art. Collectively, this symposium asks: what is at stake in the study of modern and contemporary Asian art cultures today, particularly as we head into what is being styled “the Asian Century”?
This significant event has been organised to honour the career of Professor John Clark, who retires this year from the department. For over twenty years Professor Clark has pioneered, and indeed shaped, the field of modern and contemporary Asian art history. This has been achieved particularly through the production of influential, globally recognized reference texts such as Modern Asian Art (1998), and by his direct nurturing and encouragement of several generations of scholars and curators who are now at the forefront of this burgeoning field. True to this spirit, the symposium looks to the future, highlighting the vital current research being developed by early career scholars, both in Australia and from around the world, active as researchers, curators and critics. Tilting the World signals the belief that new approaches to these vital aspects of Asian cultural histories are central to understanding our world.
Reflecting an understanding of the cultural richness and complexity of Asian modernities, the symposium features cross-disciplinary approaches, encompassing art history, sociology, anthropology, media and visual cultural studies, which highlight the layered richness of cultural experience within, between and beyond nations. Keynote speakers who have worked with Professor Clark over the years have been invited to indicate the breadth of his research legacy. Tilting the World is a free event, and a full list of speakers including keynote, can be found below. Registration will open in early September. A selection of papers will also be published after the symposium as a peer-reviewed volume by Power Publications.
DAY ONE: FRIDAY, 29 NOVEMBER
Venue: University of Sydney, New Law School Auditorium 101
8:45–9:15 REGISTRATION
9:15–9:30 WELCOME – Prof. Mark Ledbury, Director of the Power Institute
9:30–10:50 Session 1 – Negotiations
Sarena Abdullah | Universiti Sains Malaysia
Contesting the narrative: modern Malaysian art in the early 20th century
Clare Veal | University of Sydney
Relativisation in Asian Photographies: the Siamese case
Yvonne Low | University of Sydney
Circumventing gender: women artists in the early art academies of modern Indonesia
10:50–11:15 MORNING TEA
11:15–12:55 Session 2 – Formations
Nozomi Naoi | Harvard University
Beyond the ‘bijin’: Takehisa Yumeji at the intersection of the popular and avant-garde
Cai Heng | National Art Gallery, Singapore
Modern and contemporary transformations of Chinese ink painting
Michelle Wong | Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Riding the new waves: ‘Meishu Sichao’ (1984-1987) as platform of self-definition and self-instruction
Natalie Seiz | Art Gallery of NSW
Artistic types across generations: descriptors of difference amongst contemporary women artists in Taiwan
12:55–14:15 LUNCH
14:15–16:05 Session 3 – Visions
Simon Soon | University of Sydney
Along other historical sightlines: landscapes as condition of being
Kedar Vishvanathan | University of Sydney
Indian nationalism: the Bengal School and Chittoprasad Bhattacharya
William Ray Langenbach | Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia; Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
Standing still is advancing forward: nationalist teleology and self-reliance in Singaporean and North Korean art and performance
Sophie McIntyre | Australian National University
The rise of China and cross-Strait relations in art from Taiwan
16:05–16:30 AFTERNOON TEA
16:30–17:15 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Mizusawa Tsutomu | Museum of Modern Art Hayama, Kamakura, Japan
Depicting the City: Fragmented Memory, Reality and Future – the example of modern Japanese art
17:30 RECEPTION
DAY 2: SATURDAY, 30 NOVEMBER
Venue morning: Old Law School Assembly Hall, Sydney CBD
Venue afternoon: Art Gallery of New South Wales main lecture theatre
9:15–11:00 Session 4 – Challenging Traditions
Rhiannon Paget | University of Sydney
Being old fashioned in modern Japan: the making of a platform and an audience for literati painting (‘nanga’) in the early 20th century
Dr. Hsieh Shih-ying | National Museum of History, Taipei
The negotiation with modernity: Taiwanese temple painter Pan Chunyuan of the Japanese period
Phoebe Scott | National Art Gallery, Singapore
Representing worlds in transition: on two early examples of modern Vietnamese art
Changkyu Lee | State University of New York
Sacred possession and eternal consumption: the spiritual reconciliation of Islamic painting in Southeast Asia
11:00–11:15 MORNING TEA
11:15–12:15 Special Session – Asia-Australia artistic engagement in practice
John Young, visual artist, Melbourne
Kim Machan, curator and director of Media Art Asia Pacific, Brisbane
12:15–13:30 LUNCH
13.30 Move to Art Gallery of New South Wales, main lecture theatre
13:30–13:40
13:40–15:30 Session 5 – Contemporaries
Reiko Tomii | Independent scholar, New York
When Martians came to Tokyo: an origin of Gutai
Anne Kirker | Queensland College of Art and Griffith University
Counterpointing the ‘hanga’ (prints) of Noda Tetsuya and Shimada Yoshiko
Juliane Noth | Freie Universität Berlin
Schizophrenic convergence: art, science and biography in Shi Lu’s works of 1969/70
Eva Bentcheva | School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Escaping the na(rra)tive in 1960s’ Britain: David Medalla’s fusion of Asian iconography and performance art
15:30–15:45 Afternoon Tea
15:45–16:30 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Werner Kraus | Professor, Passau University; director, Centre for Southeast Asian Art, Germany
Aesthetic colonisation: how Western images entered Javanese minds – tracing the evidence
16:30 SUMMA
Prof. John Clark remarks
17:30 RECEPTION
PROGRAM + ABSTRACTS
Please download the symposium program here.
Please download the program with abstracts here.
REGISTRATION
IMPORTANT – PLEASE NOTE: to register for BOTH DAYS of the symposium, please ensure you complete both the online forms for the respective days.
Please follow the links to register online via the University events calendar:
To register for DAY ONE Friday 29 November, please click here.
To register for DAY TWO Saturday 30 November, please click here.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further enquiries should be directed to Dr Olivier Krischer E: olivier.krischer@anu.edu.au with “Asian Art Symposium” in the e-mail subject line.
The symposium is proudly presented by the Power Institute in partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW.
Image (detail): Wadachi Tomo-o, Self-portrait with Spectacles, 1923, oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama.
