Living Art: Indonesian artists engage politics, society and history
This book is inspired by the conviction of so many of Indonesia’s Independence-era artists that there is continuing interaction between art and everyday life. In the 1970s, Sanento Yuliman, Indonesia’s foremost art historian of the late twentieth century, further developed that concept, stating: ‘New Indonesian Art cannot wholly be understood without locating it in the context of the larger framework of Indonesian society and culture’ and the ‘whole force of history’.
The essays in this book accept Yuliman’s challenge to analyse the intellectual, sociopolitical and historical landscape that Indonesia’s artists inhabited from the 1930s into the first decades of the new millennium, including their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extensively illustrated, Living Art contributes to the acknowledgement and analysis of the diversity of Indonesia’s contemporary art and offers new insights into Indonesian art history, as well as the contemporary art histories of Southeast Asia and Asia more generally.
The book will be launched by H.E. Dr Siswo Pramono, Indonesian Ambassador for Australia and the Republic of Vanuatu.
Amrih Widodo will discuss the content of the book and Eve Warburton will chair this event.
The event is followed by light refreshments.
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This book launch is co-hosted by the ANU Indonesia Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Canberra.
Event Speakers
HE Ambassador Dr Siswo Pramono
Dr Pramono is the current Indonesian Ambassador for Australia and the Republic of Vanuatu. He completed a PhD in political science from the Australian National University.
Dr Elly (Ellen) Kent
Dr Kent is a lecturer in Indonesian studies at UNSW Canberra. She has worked as researcher, writer, translator, artist, educator and intercultural professional over 20 years in academia and the arts in Indonesia and Australia. Her research focuses on contemporary and historical art, design and cultural practices in Southeast Asia, and especially in Indonesia.
Emeritus Professor Virginia Hooker, AM, FAHA
Professor Hooker is an emeritus professor in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University. Her current research concerns social change and Islam in modern and contemporary art in Indonesia.
Dr Caroline Turner AM, FRSA
Dr Turner is a curator and academic who has written extensively on contemporary Asian art. Her publications include Art and Human Rights: Contemporary Asian Contexts, Manchester University Press 2016, co-authored with Jen Webb. She was the Deputy Director of the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University from 2000-2006.
Amrih Widodo
Amrih Widodo lectured in the universities in Australia and the USA on Indonesian language and cultures, performing arts, media and popular cultures. His current research is on the history and historiography of peasant and environmental movements in Indonesia. He was lured by Australian shiraz to move to Canberra two and a half decades ago.