This anthology explores artistic practices and works from a diverse and vibrant region. Scholars, critics, and curators offer their perspectives on Southeast Asian art and artists, aiming not to define the field but to illuminate its changing nature and its interactions with creative endeavors and histories originating elsewhere. These essays examine a range of new and modern work, from sculptures that invoke post-conflict trauma in Cambodia to Thai art installations that invite audience participation and thereby challenge traditional definitions of the “art object.” In this way, the authors not only provide a lively study of regional art, but challenge and expand broad debates about international and transnational art.

For years, contemporary art in Southeast Asia was defined by Western standards during periods of Western colonialism, through comparisons of Eastern and Western artworks. This collection interrogates those definitions, as the writers consider how the works under study are related to place and how contemporary art frequently transects the boundaries established by nation-states. The studies in this volume are marked by vivid portraits of modern and contemporary regional artists and curators, whose paintings, sculptures, textiles, films, and exhibits variously reflect the influences of gender, diaspora, memory, trauma, politics, and colonialism.