Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life

by Michael M. J. Fischer

Overview

In Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life Michael M. J. Fischer calls for a new anthropology of the arts that attends to the materialities and technologies of the world as it exists today. Fischer examines the work of key Southeast and East Asian artists within the crucibles of unequal access, geopolitics, reverberating past traumas, and emergent socialities. He outlines the work of artist-theorists—including Entang Wiharso, Sally Smart, Charles Lim, Zai Kuning, and Kiran Kumar—who speculate about changing the world in ways that are attuned to its cultivation, repair, and rethinking in the Anthropocene. Their artistic vocabulary not only undoes Western art models and categories; it probes the unfolding future, addresses past trauma, and creates contested, vibrant, and flourishing spaces. Throughout Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—and from Kumar’s experimental dance to Kuning’s rattan and beeswax ghost ships to Lim’s videography of Singapore from the sea—Fischer argues that these artists’ theoretical discourses should be privileged over those of the curators, historians, critics, and other gatekeepers who protect and claim art worlds for themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478019770
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	05/26/2023
Series:	Experimental Futures
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael M. J. Fischer is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of numerous books, including At the Pivot of East and West: Ethnographic, Literary, and Filmic Arts and Anthropology in the Meantime: Experimental Ethnography, Theory, and Method for the Twenty-First Century, both also published by Duke UniversityPress.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
1. Challenging Art as Cultural Systems  12
2. Synthetic Realism: Postcinema in the Anthropocene  31
3. Feminage, Warang, and the Nervous System (Hauntology and Curation)  71
4. Nomadic Video in Turbulent Sea States: How Art Becomes Critique  100
5. Water Notes on Rattan Strings  132
6. Raw Moves and Layered Communication across the Archipelago Seas  165
Epilogue. Probing Art and Emerging Forms of Life  197
Appendix. The Year 2020 and the Camouflage Painting Series: Conversations with Entang Wiharso  215
Notes  221
References  253
Index  281

What People are Saying About This

Gabriele Schwab

“Michael M. J. Fischer displays a rare gift for grasping epistemological configurations. His analysis is diagnostic and visionary at once. In Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life he straddles the boundaries between anthropology and the study of literature and the arts, demonstrating formidable interdisciplinary sensibilities and a robust grounding in these fields. His grasp of the diverse cultural scenes he considers is superb and, to the best of my knowledge, unique in its breadth.”

Prasenjit Duara

“An ingenious intervention. Michael M. J. Fischer conducts an ethnography of experimental art as itself a ‘para-ethnography’ of life embedded in futuristic technologies that reshape bodies, histories, and ecologies across the hybrid cultures of Southeast Asia.”

Editorial Reviews

"[A] dynamic ethnography of prominent works by contemporary artists in Asia ... Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life goes far beyond introducing innovative artists and describing their artworks. It situates contemporary Asian art within ethnographic and geo-political contexts."

—Robin Visser, Journal of Contemporary Asia

"This book stands as a remarkable contribution to contemporary global art scholarship. Fischer adeptly navigates complex art-related issues, skillfully interweaving anthropological and other theories with his characteristic depth and elegance. The work’s multilayered approach renders it valuable for experts, scholars, and advanced students. . . . Fischer has once again produced a masterpiece, further cementing his reputation in the field. Readers will undoubtedly look forward to his future contributions with great anticipation."—Pamela Karimi, American Ethnologist

“Fischer provides a fascinating insight into some of the most recent and radical contemporary art to emerge onto the global scene from Southeast Asia and the Far East. . . . This volume . . . provides a rich tapestry of fascinating contemporary, globally inflected, and globally impacting art from Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia, providing profound cultural, historical, and social insight.”

—Arnd Schneider, Politics, Religion & Ideology

From the Publisher

"[A] dynamic ethnography of prominent works by contemporary artists in Asia ... Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life goes far beyond introducing innovative artists and describing their artworks. It situates contemporary Asian art within ethnographic and geo-political contexts."

Journal of Contemporary Asia - Robin Visser

"This book stands as a remarkable contribution to contemporary global art scholarship. Fischer adeptly navigates complex art-related issues, skillfully interweaving anthropological and other theories with his characteristic depth and elegance. The work’s multilayered approach renders it valuable for experts, scholars, and advanced students. . . . Fischer has once again produced a masterpiece, further cementing his reputation in the field. Readers will undoubtedly look forward to his future contributions with great anticipation."

Pamela Karimin Ethnologist