Exhibiting Transnationalism after Vietnam
The Alpha Gallery’s Vision of an Artistic Renaissance in Southeast Asia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12408570 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wen-Qing Ngoei (Assistant Professor of History, College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Republic of Singapore, [email protected], corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 271-299 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American-East Asian Relations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1058-3947 • E-ISSN: 1876-5610 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/18765610-29030004 |
| OpenAlex | W4296826963 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
This essay examines the Alpha Gallery, an independent artists’ cooperative that Malaysians and Singaporeans established, which staged art shows during the 1970s to spark an artistic renaissance in Southeast Asia. The cooperative’s transnational vision involved showcasing Balinese folk art as a primitive and, therefore, intrinsically Southeast Asian aesthetic, while asserting that it shared cultural connections with the Bengali Renaissance of the early 20th Century. Alpha’s leaders believed these actions might awaken indigenous artistic traditions across Southeast Asia. Their project underscores the lasting cultural impact of colonialism on Southeast Asia and the contested character of the region. Alpha’s condescending view of Balinese folk art echoed the paternalism of Euro-American colonial discourses about civilizing indigenous peoples that persisted because its key members received much of their education or training in Britain and the United States, a by-product of their countries’ pro-U.S. trajectory during the Vietnam War. Equally, Alpha’s transnationalism ran counter to Southeast Asian political elites’ fixation with pressing art toward nation-building. Indeed, the coalescing of nation-states does not define the region’s history during and after the Vietnam War. Rather, non-state actors like Alpha’s members, in imagining and pursuing their versions of Southeast Asia, contributed to the persistent contingency of the region
Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Indigenous · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Transnationalism · Asian Studies and History · Gender Studies · History · Law · Legal and cultural studies analysis · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia
Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia
Thinking Small
The American Historical Review
International Relations in Southeast Asia
[Re]Negotiating East and Southeast Asia
Humane Literacy and Southeast Asian Art
Being Modern in Bali
Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |