Our Bachelor of Art History and Curating students recently did a study tour in Southeast Asia, with stops in Singapore and Indonesia. Travelling with staff and fellow students in small groups, our students visited partner institutions and learnt from foremost scholars, artists and lecturers. Here’s some of the highlights.

Singapore

National Gallery Singapore

At the National Gallery of Singapore, students had a guided tour with Phoebe Scott, Senior Curator and Curator of Research Publications, including learning about the famous painting by Raden Salleh, Boschbrand (Forest Fire), 1849 (two images below).

The tour continued with paintings from the 1970s to the present day with late Thai artist Montien Boonma's installation The Pleasure of Being, Crying, Dying and Eating, 1993, partially in view on the left, and the Malaysian artist Tan Chi Kuan's painting Tragic of Blue Night, 1991 in view at centre-right (see image below).

Students are taken through a full guided curatorial walk through the National Gallery of Singapore collections.

Indonesia

The trip continues to Indonesia.

Bandung Institute of Technology

At the Bandung Institute of Technology, or Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), students participated in a joint seminar hosted by the Visual Art and Design department. Dr Michelle Antionette, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Art History and Theory and Director of the Art History and Curatorial program at Monash Art, Design and Architecture, gave a lecture on contemporary Indonesian art and artists, and Australia, alongside a lecture by ITB lecturer and independent curator Agung Hujatnikajennong. Students also got to tour the ITB studios and campus following the seminar.

Singapore Art Museum

Students visited the Singapore Art Museum residency spaces, with talks by artists-in-residence, Phen Guan Lee (above) and curator and writer-in-residence, Winnie Li (left)

Yogyakarta Biennale

Students got to go on a guided tour with Alia Swastika, a curator and writer who has been working as director of the Biennale Jogja Foundation since 2015.

Indonesia Visual Art Archive

Students explored the Indonesia Visual Art Archive (IVAA) in Yogyakarta. The IVAA is a not-for-profit organisation which actively collects art archives through documentation and exploration and facilitates research through its online archive and physical space in Yogyakarta. It documents the growth of alternative (art) practices in cities that may have otherwise been left unrecognised by the government.

Jogja National Museum

Students listening to a talk by the artist at Capturing Silence, a solo exhibition by Albert Yonathan Setyawan at Jogja National Museum (JNM), Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Gudskul Art Collective

Here, students show their certificates from participating in a Gudskul learning workshop at the Gudskul Art Collective's art school space in South Jakarta. Gudskul is an educational knowledge-sharing platform formed in 2018 by three Jakarta-based collectives ruangrupa, Serrum, and Grafis Huru Hara.

Bandung Photography Month

Here, students tour the Bandung Photography Month 2023 outdoor exhibition, led by Indeks collective. Students also got to see the new space of Indeks collective and hear a presentation by and about Indeks collective. Indeks collective is a curatorial platform to cultivate dialogues and promote knowledge exchange and runs a project space and a library in Bandung, Indonesia.

Museum MACAN

At the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, or Museum MACAN, students hear from Aaron Seeto, the museum’s Director. Located in Jakarta, it’s the first museum in Indonesia to have a collection of modern and contemporary Indonesian and international art.

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