Malaysian Art since the 1990s: Postmodern Situation

SARENA ABDULLAH is a Senior Lecturer at the School of the Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). She was awarded the London, Asia Research Award, by Paul-Mellon Centre, London, and Asian Art Archive, Hong Kong in 2017-2018. She was one of the Field Leader for, “Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art,” a research project led by the Power Institute, The University of Sydney and funded by the Getty Foundation in 2015. She was also the recipient of the 2016 and 2017 CAA-Getty Travel Grant as part of the CAA-Getty International and Reunion Program.

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (First printing, 2018)
225 pages including Index and Bibliography

RM25.00

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Malaysian Art since the 1990s: Postmodern Situation aims to investigate the meanings of Malaysian modern and postmodern art through the understanding of social and political conditions that shape the emerging middle-class in which the artists belong. Malaysian art that is presumed to be postmodern can either be one that evokes a conscious racial or religious identity, art that manifests or highlights class interests, and art that loses its locality and inheres a sense of cosmopolitanism as it crosses borders.

Drawing from the fields of art history, cultural history, sociology and Malaysian Studies, in particular, Malaysian Art Since the 1990s: Postmodern Situation investigates the forms of postmodernity in Malaysian art, discussing the shift from modem to a postmodern outlook in the context of situasi percamoden, or Malaysia’s “postmodern situation”. Central to the author’s argument is that postmodern artistic tendencies in Malaysia generally happen as an indirect result of the cultural and social changes and drastic modernization that Malays had to go through under the modernization drive headed by the New Economic Policy (NEP).

As part of the new Malaysian middle-class, artists are faced with various situations the “postmodern situation” brings and this is inherent in the development of art in Malaysia since 19903.

Malaysian Art since the 1990s: Postmodern Situation aims to explore how Malaysian artists’ preoccupation has shifted from Malay/Islamic-centric artistic tendencies to having a more postmodern outlook. Firstly, this can be seen in postmodern artistic strategies and the proliferation of art, and second, in the thematic approaches and subjects that concern artists being reflective of the changing Malaysian demographics.

Drawing from the fields of art history, cultural history, sociology and Malaysian Studies, in particular, this book investigates the forms of postmodernity in Malaysian art, discussing the shift from modem to a postmodern outlook in the context of percamoden, or Malaysia’s “postmodern situation” that relate to the significantly merging Malaysian new middle class. It explores how Malaysian artists’ preoccupations have shifted from Malay/Islamic centric tendencies to having a more postmodern outlook and employing postmodern artistic strategies.

It also surveys the possible reasons behind these Changes almost two decades after the instigation of Malaysia’s National Cultural Policy. By using the term percamoden, helps to create a sense of periodizing concepts in Malaysian art as well as understanding the structure of feeling relating to the new Malaysian middle-class that the works under discussion reflect.

The author’s argument will establish that works since 19905, especially those posited to be “postmodern” are not just copies of an artistic approach from Euramerica, but must be examined in or out of the context of Malaysian cultural engineering has become the national agenda since 19705. This is because the comparable aspects that frame the background of these artists are their evasion of nationalistic concerns, which previously preoccupied most Malaysian artists. It must be noted that this book will not necessarily be a postmodern critique of the art situation in Malaysia or use its critique in discussing the political and social situations in the country, but it rather traces the discourse in Malaysian art.

This book will eventually provide a further understanding of the Malaysian approach of nation-building and its unexpected consequences. It must be noted that for many postcolonial Societies, the nation as both political projects and lived reality remains a central aspect of life, but this paper will highlight those new possibilities that can occur due to extensive flows in the capital, culture, and people.

It is hoped that this book will contribute to debunking the idea of a single modern Asian art and the one-way flow of influence from the West to Asia in general, and will prove that the persistent complex ebb and flow of information and transformations, of diverse forms of modernisms and postmodernisms, do in fact, interact.

List of Photos
Preface
Acknowledgement

CHAPTER 1 THE ART SITUATION IN MALAYSIA AND ITS POSTMODERN JUNCTURE

The Usage of the Term “Modern Art”
The Writings and Research Context of Malaysian Art
Historical Backdrop of Malaysian Art

CHAPTER 2 THE CONTEXT OF MALAYSIA’S POSTMODERNITY

Finding the Context of Postmodernity in Malaysia
The General Reception of Postmodern Discourse in Malaysia
Literary Postmodern Discourse in Malaysia

CHAPTER 3 POSTMODERN SITUATION

The New Malaysian Middle Class
The New Malaysian Middle Class and its “Postmodern Situation”
The Changing Social, Cultural and Political Identity of the New Malaysian Middle Class

CHAPTER 4 THE MODERN AND POSTMODERN IN ART

Investigating the Postmodern
Postmodern Art in Malaysia
The Early Postmodern Artistic Strategies of Malaysian Art
Abstract Expressionism and the Malay/Islamic-centred Art as Mainstream

CHAPTER 5 POSTMODERN ART STRATEGIES AND THE PROLIFERATION OF ART FORMS SINCE THE 1990s

Postmodern Artistic Strategies
Figuration in Paintings
New Media, Multimedia and Alternative Art Spaces

CHAPTER 6 STRATEGIES OF IDENTITY IN A POSTMODERN CONTEXT

Identity and Cultural Concerns
Social Issues and Cultural Constructions/Deconstructions
The Urban and Environmental Concerns
Beyond the Official Narrative
Contemporary Images and Representations

CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION

Bibliography
Index

Weight0.52 kg
Dimensions26 × 18.6 × 1.4 cm
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