4 - 5 August 2022

Nanyang academy of fine arts

We seek knowledge and history;
but we also desire what is new and inspirational.

Following on from the inaugural Southeast Asian Arts Forum, the School of Art conceptually challenged: In contemporary times, what happens to an art graduate after they leave school? Where do they go and how do they evolve their practice assimilating what they learnt, and how they may apply it to their 'career' and place in their society? The forum illuminated renewed perspectives on the teaching and learning of the arts, addressed and demonstrated through cultural difference, contentious rubrics, infrastructural limitations, (political) policy realities and intense self-reflections.

Modern Southeast Asia inhabits a fractal domain. We toggle between the necessities of professions, the economic loads of trades and industries, and what we deem culture and art. Our regional world is still about the natural landscape and environmental preservation as it relates to communities, as much as it is about tall buildings, networked roads and the internet. Time and again, we have leveraged information, knowledge and paradigms from the West, to enhance our growth engines and professional education. The formal enterprise of learning and evolving in human societies follow a predictable path: the establishment of basic training, thinking processes at university levels, the formation of associations and bodies, recommendations of guidelines, standards and behaviours, and finally it follows, legally binding terms and licensing to affirm and authorise.

Yet, the arts appear to lie on the invisible margins, occupying the persistent state of transition, homing to find a place amongst the living and the thriving.

IMPERISHABLE:
Sustainability.Arts.Together

Inspiration

Following long periods of involuntary isolation imposed on the arts community during the pandemic, many came to the realization that the creative practice feeds off its relationship with the others; the community of which we create and the larger ecosystem of which it exists. Borrowing the words of English poet John Donne; "….No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…"

Some questions may arise. What is the essence of why one creates and for whom? What does it mean to create with integrity and give back to those we have taken from? What is the lifespan of something (a work, a project), what is its legacy? How do we utilize resources without compromising the future generation’s access to it? Do we consider the concept of regeneration in the process of creating? In thinking about future generations, are we willing to challenge the current definitions of reality and conventions?

The Southeast Asian Arts Forum 2022 aims to explore practices which are imperishable in nature; to shed light on active choice-making participants whose work focuses on seeking possible futures and designing alternate ways of living. We seek creative practices which represent a continuous process of inquiry, and those which transform uncertainty into a catalyst for regeneration and empowerment.

Theme of discussion

The forum will focus on the concept of sustainability and highlight some of the ways where art can be at the heart of sustainable practices in Southeast Asia, as well as contribute to building responsible global citizenship. This includes practices which focuses on developing awareness on social and environmental issues, cultural heritage preservation, resource management and accessibility in creative production, and are deliberate in maintaining ecological and social integrity.

Artists, researchers, and creative professionals from around Southeast Asia who take part in the Forum can share their experiences of working on long term, community-based projects and project-based artworks, as well as research projects which provoke a wider conversation on the subject matter. The projects may be one which is recently completed or is still ongoing

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

80 Bencoolen Street Singapore 189655