Decolonising Curating and the Museum in Southeast Asia

Key information
- Date
- to
- Time
-
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
- Venue
- Virtual Event
- Event type
- Lecture
About this event
Jointly organised by the Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme, SOAS University of London, and the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.
This lecture series will explore what it means to decolonise the museum and curatorial practice in a Southeast Asian context. The speakers cover a range of topics, including the display of Buddhist and Hindu sculpture, ethnographic and colonial collections, curating contemporary art, and the use and exhibition of Southeast Asian material in western museums.
The series seeks to problematise the idea of decolonisation and emphasise the need for specificity when applying this concept and process in Southeast Asian contexts. The region is culturally diverse, and its experience of colonialism uneven. Given this, do all museums need to decolonise equally or even at all? What form would a decolonial curatorial practice take? What initiatives have institutions or individual practitioners carried out so far and how successful have they been? These are just some of the pertinent questions that the speakers will address.
Programme
Thursday 7 October 2021
12:00pm London 7:00pm Singapore |
What does decolonial curatorial practice look like in a Global and Southeast Asian context?
Speaker: Stephen Murphy, Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology of Asian Art, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS University of London Discussant: M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Professor, Asian Art History and Curatorial Studies, California State University, Sacramento Video Recording | Abstract and Biographies |
Thursday 14 October 2021
12:00pm London 7:00pm Singapore |
Mining the Museum: Contemporary Art and Decolonial Practice in Southeast Asia
Speakers: Pamela N. Corey, Assistant Professor, Art and Media Studies, Fulbright University Vietnam; and Vera Mey, PhD Candidate, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS University of London Discussant: Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Senior Curator, National Gallery Singapore Video Recording | Abstract and Biographies |
Thursday 21 October 2021
12:00pm London 7:00pm Singapore |
Must We Decolonise the Museum? Sacred and Ritual Art and the Raffles Collection in Singapore
Speakers: Conan Cheong and Faisal Husni, Assistant Curators for Southeast Asia, Asian Civilisations Museum Discussant: Sujatha Arundathi Meegama, Assistant professor of art history, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Video Recording | Abstract and Biographies |
Thursday 28 October 2021
12:00pm London 7:00pm Singapore |
(Re)contextualising the Dong Duong Buddhist Art Gallery at the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture
Speaker: Duyen Nguyen, PhD Candidate, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS University of London Discussant: Rie Nakamura, Visiting Researcher, Asian Cultures Research Institute, Toyo University, Japan Video Recording | Abstract and Biographies |
Thursday 4 November 2021
11:00am London 7:00pm Singapore |
Decolonisation in Colonial Institutions: Reparative Approaches to Philippine Collections in a U.S. University
Speaker: Ricky Punzalan, Associate Professor of Information, University of Michigan Discussant: Cristina Martinez-Juan, Senior Teaching and Research Fellow, project head for Philippine Studies at SOAS University of London Video Recording | Abstract and Biographies |
Thursday 11 November 2021
11:00am London 7:00pm Singapore |
The Politics of Greater India and Indonesian Collections in Museums of ‘Asian Art’
Speakers: Marieke Bloembergen, Senior Researcher, KITLV - Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, and Professor in Archival and Postcolonial Studies, Institute for History, Leiden University; and Mathilde Mechling, Independent Researcher Discussant: Panggah Ardiyansyah, PhD Candidate, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS University of London Video Recording | Abstract and Biographies |
Organiser: SOAS Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme and the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore