Alternative Title
Exhibiting Transnationalism after Vietnam
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
9-2022
Abstract
This essay examines how the Alpha Gallery, an independent artists cooperative established by Malaysians and Singaporeans, curated and staged art shows in the 1970s that advanced its project to unearth and promote an intrinsically Southeast Asian aesthetic. The cooperative pursuit a transnational vision of inter-regional connections between the Bengali Art Renaissance of the early twentieth century and Balinese folk art. It also harbored ambitions of sparking a cultural renaissance in Southeast Asia, though these were ultimately unfulfilled. Importantly, as this essay shows, the cooperative’s transnational vision mirrored the racist thinking and paternalism of Euro-American colonial discourses about civilizing the region’s indigenous peoples. These colonial discourses persisted in large part because Southeast Asian states such as Malaysia and Singapore transitioned smoothly from a European-dominated colonial order to informal U.S. empire. This process, facilitated by the decisions of west-friendly regional elites to align with the United States during the Vietnam War, also meant the Alpha Gallery’s key members derived much of their worldview from institutions and thinkers in Britain and the United States, thereby reinvigorating old colonial mindsets. The civilizing mission sprung from such colonial discourses likely inspired the cooperative’s transnational vision in the first place.
Keywords
Vietnam War, Southeast Asia, regionalism, culture, colonialism, U.S. empire
Discipline
Asian Studies | Civic and Community Engagement | Fine Arts | South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Journal of American-East Asian Relations
Volume
29
Issue
3
First Page
271
Last Page
299
ISSN
1058-3947
Identifier
10.1163/18765610-29030004
Publisher
Brill Academic Publishers: 12 months
Citation
NGOEI, Wen-Qing (WEI Wenqing).(2022). Exhibiting transnationalism after Vietnam: The Alpha Gallery in pursuit of an authentic Southeast Asian art form. Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 29(3), 271-299.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3643
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-29030004
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Fine Arts Commons, South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons