GROUP EXHIBITION

How can we acknowledge the unique contributions of women artists to Southeast Asian contemporary art history, whilst at the same time not be beholden to or overdetermined by the categorisation ‘woman artists’? Shaping Geographies: Art | Woman | Southeast Asia poses an answer to this question by illuminating the unique and individual experiences of women made different by intersectional communal axes; multiple generations of artists are represented, highlighting the expanding and constantly evolving course of women’s art practice in Southeast Asia, and recognising each individual artist’s distinct cultural basis and connections which propels their contribution to art history.

Here, ‘geography’ does not only refer to a fixed location or delineated border, but an ever-shifting political, cultural, and social arena, with the idea and sense of place being relentlessly contested. We have invited each artist to respond, explore, and challenge these notions of space and placenatural and socially-constructed - as shaped and framed by their position as women of artistic significance.

Navigating each artist’s practice on their own terms, the exhibition considers how each has played a part in crafting the landscape of contemporary art, Southeast Asian art, and women’s art practices: women shaping geographies of space, place, and environment.

Curated by Dr. Michelle Antoinette & Dr. Wulan Dirgantoro. Press release courtesy Gajah Gallery.