Book Launch: Ambitious Alignments 

The University of Sydney'sPower Institutebrings art, ideas, scholarship and people together in joyous and productive collision!

The Power Institute

<H2>Power Publications and National Gallery Singapore invite you to join us for the launch of Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art, 1945 to 1990. </H2>
 
The book will be launched by Adrian Vickers, Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and co-author of The Pearl Frontier, winner of the University of Southern Queensland History Book Award at the 2016 Queensland Literary Awards and the 2016 Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Book Award.
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<H3>25% book discount for attendees</H3>
Those attending the book launch receive a 25% discount off RRP, available for preorder here and to be picked up at the event. 
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<H3>About the publication</H3>
How does one define the art of a region without losing sight of cultural specificity? This question has often plagued art historical studies of the “global,” but this exceptional collaborative research effort, conceived through archival research, extensive fieldwork and new theoretical perspectives, succeeds where others have failed: in presenting transnational perspectives on post-war artistic practices and the processes of de-colonisation in Southeast Asia without losing sight of national singularities. —Nora A. Taylor, Alsdorf Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
  
This new volume, co-published by <A HREF="http://www.powerpublications.com.au" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="Power Publications" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Power Publications</A> and <A HREF="https://www.nationalgallery.sg/" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="National Gallery Singapore" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">National Gallery Singapore</A>, explores the art and architecture of Southeast Asia in the postwar period. Ten essays by emerging scholars draw upon unexplored archives and works of art, bearing witness to rich local histories and uncovering complex artistic exchanges across Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and beyond. 
The collection sheds new light on the significance of architecture, painting, installation, photography, and sculpture in the historical narratives of this period and offers fresh insights into artistic production and reception within the cultural and political contexts of postcolonialism and the Cold War, the legacies of which continue to shape the region today.
• Histories of art, architecture, monuments and exhibitions based on fieldwork and archival research • Research from Thailand, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines • More than 100 colour images 
This book will appeal to readers interested in intersections of art history and the histories of modernism, postcolonialism, and the Cold War; the disciplines of architecture, photography, installation; and the histories and cultures of Southeast Asia.
 
<H3 CLASS="p1">Contents</H3>
Introduction
Aligning New Histories of Southeast Asian Art by Phoebe Scott, Yvonne Low, Sarena Abdullah, and Stephen H Whiteman
Part 1: Art for the Nation
‘The Work the Nation Depends On’: Landscapes and Women in the Paintings of Nhek Dim by Roger Nelson
Strategic Modernism: The Architecture of HSH Prince Vodhyakara Varavarn and Modern Thailand in Transition, 1950s–1960s by Chomchon Fusinpaiboon
Part 2: Circulation and Internationalism
The Politics of Friendship: Modern Art in Indonesia’s Cultural Diplomacy, 1950–65 by Brigitta Isabella
Circulating Abstraction: Exhibiting Hong Kong in Manila, 1961–82 by Michelle Wong
Part 3: Contested Topographies
Place of Learning: The Contested Cultural Topographies of Nanyang University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong by Simon S Y Soon
Re-Establishing the Kingdom: Anti-Communist Monuments in the Thai Highlands by Thanavi Chotpradit
Part 4: Trauma and Affect
Aesthetics of Silence: Exploring Trauma and Indonesian Paintings After 1965 by Wulan Dirgantoro
Embodied Subjectivities: Accounts of Affect in Lani Maestro’s Site-Specific Work, 1970s–1990s by Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez
Part 5: Defining ‘Art’ in Southeast Asia
Beyond Reality: Locating the Sur-Real in Thai Photography by Clare Veal
Painting Through the Cheroot Haze: Censorship of Female Artists in Socialist Burma, 1962–88 by Melissa Carlson
 
<H3 CLASS="p1">Key features</H3>
Paperback RRP $39.99 AUD ISBN 978-0-909952-92-1 100 illustrations 356 pp
 
<H4 CLASS="p1">Can't make it? Preorder a copy of Ambitious Alignments <A HREF="https://shop.powerpublications.com.au/products/ambitious-alignments-new-histories-of-southeast-asian-art-1945-1990" TARGET="_self" TITLE="Ambitious Alignments product page" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</H4>

Refectory, Level 5, Abercrombie Building, University of Sydney

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