GROUP EXHIBITION

Working across a range of mediums, the artists deconstruct rigid ideologies related to race, identity, tradition and sexuality. Whether it’s confronting historic trauma such as the abuse of Timorese women by the Indonesian military (1975–1999) or exploring contemporary concerns including reframing notions of parenting, their work sheds light on critical issues impacting women across the region and internationally.

At a time when female artists from countries such as Burma, Timor-Leste and Vietnam remain underrepresented on the global stage, this exhibition shines a much-needed spotlight on talent from Southeast Asia.

STATEMENT BY THE CURATOR

Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her is a project by women about women. Yet it is not a feminist manifesto, but a bridge to foster dialogue between patriarchal social expectations and self-ownership. As such the show hinges on the idea of disobedience from a cultural and physical perspective, on one hand questioning social myths based on gender and race stereotypes, and on the other challenging the idea of the transforming female body from motherhood to objectification, and how body parts are understood as signifiers that define and precede female identity. To do so, Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her brings together eight female artists of different generations from Asia, each presenting newly commissioned and existing works spanning painting, photography, sculpture and video installation to examine narratives of emancipation and autonomy. While some of the works acutely emphasise the inherent condition of the female body as the beginning of all things—the vessel, the giver, the fighter—other works challenge traditional social order to explore gender diversity and the right to subjective choices over our own body.

From exploring the trope of woman as motherland and presenting works equally invested in the essence of motherhood, to questioning intimate and social narratives of survival, all featured works in the exhibition share the same impetus of Reclaiming Her, gently but firmly, even at the cost of disobeying entrenched rules. At a time of seemingly progressive social equality, hierarchy of gender persists. This exhibition hinges on the significance of and the struggle to deconstruct gender narratives, including means of circulation and censorship, which define or prevent public debate. As such Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her is curatorially intended as an audience-centred exhibition, where the works function as instigators of reflection.

—Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani