Photography in the Art Museum: Historical Shifts and Contemporary Challenges, introduction to round table discussion Collecting Photography in Southeast Asian Museums
Moschovi, Alexandra (2024) Photography in the Art Museum: Historical Shifts and Contemporary Challenges, introduction to round table discussion Collecting Photography in Southeast Asian Museums. In: ICAS 13, Crossways of Knowledge, The 13th International Convention of Asia Scholars, Conference and Festival, 28 Jul-1 Aug 2024, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture) |
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Abstract
The presentation explores the different positions that photography occupied in the art museum, particularly following the novel currency it acquired in postmodern practices in the late 1970s. It discusses the paradigm shift from the “photograph” to the “photographic image,” driven by digitisation and digital imaging in the 1990s. It also examines the emergence of “networked images” and “algorithmic photography”, which led to broader institutional definitions of photography’s expanded field as a “postmedia” category. This account of ontological and institutional shifts in various museums in Europe and North America offers a useful international context to discuss the accommodation of photography in art institutions in Southeast Asia as it rapidly evolved in the new millennium.
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PDF (ICAS 13 Programme book)
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More Information
| Additional Information: Collecting Photography in Southeast Asian Museums Roundtable Discussion The ubiquity, multifaceted uses, and vast volume of photographs that exist in physical and online worlds complicate the accommodation of photography in 21st-century museums. Indeed, what is museum photography and its cultural value now that "we are all photographers" and online platforms question the function of the traditional museum? How can museums strategically collect analogue and digital-born photography to create relevant and sustainable photographic collections for the future? Photography as an independent contemporary art was fully institutionalized in North America and Europe by the late twentieth century. Yet, its official accommodation in Southeast Asian museums has been slower, beginning at the dawn of the millennium. Recent large-scale curatorial initiatives, such as Amek Gambar: Peranakan and Photography at the Peranakan Museum, Singapore (May 2018-February 2019), Bayangan Timbul Tenggelam at Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur (May-July 2021), and Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia at the National Gallery Singapore (December 2022-August 2023)—arguably the most comprehensive survey of photographic practice in Southeast Asia to date—confirm the institutional legitimization of the medium in the region. The collecting activities of historical photographs and contemporary photographic works in Southeast Asia are closely interconnected between museums, galleries, and private initiatives. The accommodation of photographs as historical artifacts and contemporary art, as well as artists’ responses to varying photographic cultures (particularly colonial photographic materials), take place simultaneously in regional museums and galleries. This relatively new and vibrant dynamic creates a unique ecosystem of photography in Southeast Asia, in which accommodating photographs in museums does not merely signify the changing status of photography in art, culture, and society, nor is it singularly a rebranding exercise of institutions as cultural and societal sites. More importantly, it is the process of defining cultural and national/regional identities. This panel seeks to explore issues pertinent to collecting photographic works in Southeast Asian institutions, not just in terms of acquisition, conservation, documentation, and dissemination, but also in relation to the ways photography can be used as a vehicle to consider wider social and political issues and processes, including identity, postcoloniality/decolonization, nation-ness, and economic and social injustice. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: photography, museums, exhibitions, collections |
| Depositing User: Alexandra Moschovi |
Identifiers
| Item ID: 18138 |
| URI: http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/18138 | Official URL: https://icas.asia/icas-13 |
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Catalogue record
| Date Deposited: 18 Sep 2024 08:11 |
| Last Modified: 18 Sep 2024 08:15 |
| Author: |
Alexandra Moschovi
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| ["contributor_type_typename_" not defined]: | Alexander Supartono |
| ["contributor_type_typename_" not defined]: | Peter Lee |
| ["contributor_type_typename_" not defined]: | Simon Soon |
| ["contributor_type_typename_" not defined]: | Budi ND Dharmawan |
| ["contributor_type_typename_" not defined]: | Sze Ying Goh |
University Divisions
Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries > School of Art and DesignSubjects
Fine Art > CuratingFine Art > Art in Context
Photography > Digital Imaging
Photography > Photography
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