Intervention, Engagement and Transition: The New Artistic and Creative Practices in East Asia

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

In the past decade, socially engaged artistic and creative practices have become a major trend in East Asia, embraced not only by contemporary art circles but also urban and rural communities. Individual artists, art collectives and average citizens have initiated various approaches and projects to challenge problems such as social exclusion, corruption, or negligence bred by capitalist urbanization and to tackle complex postcolonial issues brought about by the legacy of colonialism and accelerating cross-border globalization. This panel calls for in-depth research on these novel artistic and creative practices, as well as on the transnational networks of support that have been established. We posit that the socially oriented practices in East Asia renegotiate the autonomy of art and the conventional norms of the global/local art worlds—including the definitions of socially engaged art deriving from Euro-American scholarship. The panel seeks to facilitate multifaceted and comparative discussions by investigating the discursive practices of socially engaged artistic and creative practices in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea through a variety of case studies ranging from “community art” to “urban creativity.” We ask: What are the specific sociopolitical, cultural, historical, or spatial factors in the different East Asian countries and regions that have propelled the rising interest and efforts in socially engaged artistic and creative works? How do artists, art collectives or average citizens choose a particular community or site for engagement and intervention? What kind of role does art or creativity play in such undertakings and can the results become sustainable?

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Meiqin Wang, California State University, Northridge

Chair

• Meiqin Wang, California State University, Northridge

Individual Presentations

• Art as Method toward Deimperialization: Against Imperialist Cultural and Historical Imaginary - Hiroki Yamamoto, University of the Arts London

• Artistic Intervention for Environmental Awakening and Revival: Case Studies in Taiwan - Wei Hsiu Tung, National University of Tainan

• Engagement with Urban Public Space: From Unauthorized Interventions to Institutional Commissions - Minna Valjakka, International Institute for Asian Studies

• Rural Reconstruction through Art: The Social Intervention of the Artists - Meiqin Wang, California State University, Northridge

Discussant

• Christina Yu Yu, USC Pacific Asia Museum