Name: Alison Marrinan
Thesis Title: Water and Society through the Eco-aesthetics of Contemporary Art in the Mekong Region
Thesis Abstract
This thesis investigates, through a political ecology lens, how contemporary artists Lim Sokchanlina, Khvay Samnang, Bounpaul Phothyzan and Korakrit Arunanondchai variously question three prominent realms of power – neoliberalism, anthropogenic climate change and spiritual symbolism – relating to contested waterscapes in the Mekong region. This study determines the roles and entanglements of these artists’ artistic strategies, ranging from documentary-based to spiritually-based approaches. The artists interrogate the dynamics of water and power through aesthetics that are conceptually engaging, visually compelling and intellectually stimulating. They align with Nathaniel Stern’s eco-aesthetic framework for an artistic approach of mindful being-with, thinking-with and feeling-with, people, ideas and things, creating stylised narratives on cross-sections of humans, nature and politics, that ask us to think, with the world. As such, their eco-aesthetics also often relate to Rob Nixon’s concepts of ‘slow violence’ and ‘environmentalism of the poor’ in the Global South.

Name: Dorit Ginat
Thesis Title: An “Archive of Feelings”: Reading Trauma in Vandy Rattana’s Films Through Psychoanalysis, Theravada Buddhism and Animism
Thesis Abstract
Psychoanalytical theory has been widely utilized to evaluate the effects of trauma in different parts of the world, under the assumption that its application on the human psyche is universal. However, this Eurocentric gaze ignores the influence that local cultures, religious beliefs and linguistic idioms might have on the way people comprehend, react, and heal from traumatic experiences. Looking specifically at Vandy Rattana’s trilogy of films responding to the Cambodian genocide, this thesis problematizes the hegemony of Western theoretical approaches while at the same time rejecting a singular reliance on specific cultural epistemology to rectify an East-West imbalance. Analyzing his body of works through the lens of both psychoanalytical theory and local Theravada Buddhism and animism, this thesis will highlight both the limitations of Western models and the invaluable role of local concepts in reading and understanding traumatic effects in Cambodian art. It will also demonstrate how visual art can affect audiences by addressing their feelings and provide a complex language for communicating the different dimensions of trauma.

Name: Krystina Lyon
Thesis Title: Kasibulan and Womanifesto – The Role of Women’s Art Collectives in The Philippines and Thailand in Mediating the Gendered Nature of Contemporary Art
Thesis Abstract
This thesis addresses the issue of how women’s art collectives were able to mediate this lingering patriarchy in the Philippines and Thailand with special attention to the Filipino women’s collective Kasibulan and the transnational collective based in Thailand, Womanifesto. Specifically, in my research project, I will be looking at archival material from the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writing and the Asia Art Archives, as well as interviewing the co-founders of each collective in order to show the strategies they used to navigate their way through the masculinised contemporary art worlds in both countries. This thesis will argue that the format of a single gender collective contributed to the agency women artists needed in these predominantly patriarchal societies by providing physical and metaphorical spaces for women to continue their art practice and that this labour merits inclusion in the art history of each country. This study found that the collectives took different approaches to achieve their aims such as Kasibulan’s more activist approach and Womanifesto’s more flexible format. In conclusion, by closely examining two Southeast Asian women’s artists’ collectives this project will shed light on the neglected and rarely acknowledged issue of marginalised women’s art practice in a male- dominated contemporary art environment in Southeast Asia.

Name: Nyan Lin Htet
Thesis Title: Performing Transition: A Critical Study of Embodied Subjectivities in Performance Art and Youth Political Activism in Transitional Burma/Myanmar
Thesis Abstract
This study questions how performance art and youth political activism embody different types of subjectivities and what they signify during the turbulent transitional period in Burma/Myanmar. More importantly, this study attempts to argue that although the practice of performance art has long been considered a legitimate artistic mode of political dissent in Burma/Myanmar for the past 20 years or so, it is in fact based on the Bur/Myanmarnized Buddhist ethno-nationalist paradigm and thus perpetuates the status quo maintained by successive military regimes and the incumbent quasi-civilian government led by its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Name: Manu Sharma
Thesis Title: National Imaginings: Articulations of Nationhood through the Lenses of Sunil Janah and Homai Vyarawalla
Thesis Abstract
This thesis will compare and analyse the works of two Indian photojournalists who were prolific during India’s period of transition from a British colony to an independent nation. The photojournalists in question are Sunil Janah and Homai Vyarawalla, and the paper will contextualize their works according to their gender, social backgrounds, professional associations and political leanings, in an attempt to highlight their radically divergent viewpoints with regards to what the socio-political landscape of independent India should constitute. It is the thesis’s firm belief that Indian art-historical explorations must widen their perspectives with regards to both, the manner in which works by the nation’s numerous exemplary artists are read, as well as the multifaceted historical contexts that defined their careers. This thesis, then, constitutes not an attempt at manifesting simplistic placements for its selected photographers, but rather, a deeper search for historicity with regards to the ideologies contained within their works as well as the transitioning nation that shaped their practice.

Name: Nurdiana Rahmat
Thesis Title: Singapore Women Artists and Their Art Making Experiences
Thesis Abstract
The scholarship of the artistic practices of Malay artists in Singapore has been limited, which makes the study on the artistic practices of Singapore Malay women artists scarce. Beginning with a series of observations that demonstrate how the art ecosystem has overlooked the artistic contributions of Malay artists, this study explores the art making experiences of eight Singapore Malay women artists Rohani Ismail, Hamidah Suhaimi, Rosma Mahyuddin Guha, Maisara (Sara) Dariat, Lina Adam, Juliana Yasin, Norah Lea, Hamidah Jalil to examine how their experiences inform challenges and barriers they face in their practices. The experiences encountered by these artists offer insights to the extent of limitations they face due to the systemised exclusion of their contributions to Singapore art history, as well as the support given towards their artistic development through exhibition opportunities. By focusing solely on the art making experiences of Malay women artists, this study provides a broader understanding on the artistic practices of Malay artists which has been primarily focused on Malay male artists. This study also injects an intersectional and therefore, more inclusive, approach to the current scholarship of women artists in Singapore. Findings from this study will offer further scope of research on underrepresented voices in Singapore art history.

Name: Lee Kok Cheong
Thesis Title: Burmese Dancer: A Critical Study of the Evolution of the Burmese Dancer in Painting
Thesis Abstract
The Burmese dancer is a dominant trope in Burmese painting, and has been depicted and portrayed from monarchical Burma to independent Burma, and even till today. To date, there has not been much significant research and writings done on the motif of the dancer in Burmese painting even though the Burmese dancer has great historical importance in Burma. The objective of this study is to trace the evolution of the Burmese dancer in painting as a specific genre, its formal elements and cultural significance from the period of the monarchy, through the colonial era, to the independent period of Burma and the present time. They are essential to the study of the changing cultural and social dynamics of Burmese visual art discourse. The thesis concludes by arguing that Myanmar artists are going to find their horizons expanding, and that will offer enormous scope for expressions, in style and technique to interact with the socio-political environments that they are in. As this trend continues, how the evolution of Burmese dancer painting, its formal elements and cultural significance change and continue in this twenty-first century will be well worth waiting to see.