Southeast Asia’s Art Histories Postgraduate Symposium: “The Merry Sounds of Hammers”

Latiff Mohidin, Floating Form, 1970. Oil on canvas, 68 x 85cm. Collection of NUS Museum.

Writing in 1903, the Javanese writer Kartini (1879–1904) described a “little village behind the hill where the great family of artists lives,” in which could be heard “the merry sounds of hammers and the ringing of metal… it is the welcome greeting of the woodworkers.”

This symposium aims to facilitate dialogue and exchange between graduate students working on different periods, places, and/or forms of art, as well as between students and senior scholars in the field.

The symposium is co-convened by Roger Nelson (Art History, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) and Simon Soon (Art History and Curatorship, School of Culture and Communications, University of Melbourne).

The symposium is presented by the School of Humanities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The symposium is presented in collaboration with the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, and Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia.