Narratives and displays: a critical examination of cultural frames in exhibiting ‘Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s’
This thesis explores how the presentation of the exhibition Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s was adapted to its specific context between each iteration. Awakenings was jointly organized by National Gallery Singapore, The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea, the N...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis-Master by Coursework |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nanyang Technological University
2022
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/157126 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | This thesis explores how the presentation of the exhibition Awakenings: Art in Society in
Asia 1960s-1990s was adapted to its specific context between each iteration. Awakenings
was jointly organized by National Gallery Singapore, The National Museum of Modern
and Contemporary Art in Korea, the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo and the
Japan Asia Foundation Centre. One of the curator’s goals was to decentre art histories.
This was achieved through a symposium in early development and by focusing on the
thematic similarities in art and social movements across in Asia and building a
methodology independent from the western cannon and Euro-American art history.
However, in this exhibition the local context remains relevant pertaining to the display and
narrative exhibited in each location as they were slightly altered to suit context-specific
values, expectations and agendas. This thesis asks: how did the specific cultural contexts
play a role in shaping the exhibition narrative and presentation between the three
locations; Singapore, Japan and Korea? It draws on press and academic reviews, archival
material including catalogues, as well as interviews with the head curators of the
Awakenings exhibition. The results were explored through Geert Hofstede’s Cultural
Dimension’s Theory to compare and contrast how different audiences, agendas and social
norms played a role in specifying the exhibition. Due to time and availability limitations,
sufficient data for discussion was only gathered for the National Gallery Singapore
iteration. The results show how curators negotiate agendas, connect with their audience
interests and the curator’s hopes for the extending the life of Awakenings through travel to
Euro-America and extensive archives. This thesis contributes to the discourse around
curatorial narratives and methodologies in non-western contexts as well as engages with
the nuances and challenges of curating art within Singaporean institutions |
|---|