Research publications by LASALLE Academics

Journal & Book Publications

A collection of publications by LASALLE staff are accessible through the Ngee Ann Kongsi Library on our McNally campus. The wide-ranging subjects include unique recordings of practice-based art projects. Online access is available only through library membership.

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2018

Presenting Culture and Nationhood: The Singapore Arts Festival

Dr Venka Purushothaman

Abstract:

This book chapter studies the Singapore Arts Festival which remains festival par excellence in the Singaporean arts calendar with a complex history dating back to the 1950s. While it remains the "most important artery of cultural production in Singapore" (Purushothaman, 2007), it has become an institution that continues to provide a critical platform for the development of discourse and an expression of cultural self-representation at both the national and international level....

It is against this backdrop that this chapter commences a study of the development of the Arts Festival from the 1959 to 2017. It frames the development of the Arts Festival as it becomes a critical institution through which the state fosters policy directives for nation-building and socialising a migrant society into a community.

Citation:
Purushothaman, Venka. "Presenting Culture and Nationhood: The Singapore Arts Festival." The State and the Arts in Singapore. Edited by Terence Chong. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2018, pp. 67-107.

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2018

Stigma Stains: The Somaesthetics of Institutional Abjection

Dr Natasha Lushetich

Abstract:

Diverse art practices have, since time immemorial, sought to establish a visceral link with the viewer's insides in order to problematise order and disorder, normativity and aberration, totem and taboo, as even a cursory glance at Ghirlandaio's portraits of decay, Bruegel's depictions of disease, the Viennese Actionists' performances with animal carcasses or Athey's ritualistic work with HIV-positive blood, shows....

In all these works, the defilement, the disgust, and the horror are intentional, strategic - even ideological. But what of the unintentional, even decidedly unwanted, yet ceaselessly produced abjection? With its beautiful gardens, highly aesthetised yet functional architecture, and exceptionally rich occupational content, the Bethlem Royal Hospital, London, is the epitome of applied ("ethical") aesthetics. The politics of egalitarianism is here inscribed in all regulations, daily routines, and the individually tailored approaches to psychiatric care. And yet, this (utopian) construct is corroded by the greasy fingerprints on the glass separating the nursing station from the ward; deep cuts in armchairs and sofas; and dents in the woodwork that act as reminders of the more violent attacks, as do, indeed, bruises on patients' faces, necks, and arms. Fusing Nagatomo's notion of the body as an actional-humoural process with Kristeva's abjectness and Rozin's theories of disgust, this essay queries the relation between applied aesthetics, politicised sociality, and (covert) stigmatisation. It argues that stigmatisation occurs behind the scenes, in looped somaesthetic processes, as a byproduct of sensorial, behavioural, and environmental ugliness. In acknowledging this state of affairs, the essay also articulates the relationship between the (vulnerable) somatic body and the vulnerability of the (neoliberal) institutions of care.

Citation:
Lushetich, Natasha. "Stigma Stains: The Somaesthetics of Institutional Abjection." On the Politics of Ugliness, edited by Sara Rodrigues and Ela Przybylo, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

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2018

Beyond Reality: Locating the Sur-Real in Thai Photography

Dr Clare Veal

Abstract:

The inclusion of Sur (soē เซอร์) reality as one of nine key themes in the 2012 exhibition Thai Trends: From Localism to Internationalism, curated by Apinan Poshyananda อภินันท์ โปษยานนท์ (b. 1956), reinforced the inclusion of 'surrealistic' works as a part of conventional histories of Thai artistic modernism....

While the phonetic resonances between Sur and its English counterpart 'surrealism' might suggest European origination, Apinan's framework hinged on the nationalist premise of the uniqueness of Sur within the Thai context. By way of contrast, one may point to the dismissal by the French surrealist André Breton (1896-1966) of the limitations of language and cultural difference as an impediment to his internationalist goal of promoting surrealist practices in 'the four corners of the earth [as] a fairly extensive scheme of resistance and experiment'. In fact, this distinction between Breton's and Apinan's frameworks points to a central problematic of Southeast Asian modern art history: determining the particularities of relationships between exogenous and endogenous artistic discourses and the ideological weight of prioritising one over the other. In this chapter I offer another entry point, one that accounts for the deployment of photographic techniques associated with surrealism in the work of Thai photographers, without deferring to nationalist narratives of cultural exceptionalism or Eurocentric frameworks of belatedness and provincialism. Instead, I am concerned with locating the specific points where Thai Sur and European surrealism intersect and diverge, found here in the resonances between photography and notions of realism. Against the apparent incommensurability between the ease with which Thai artistic institutions accepted Sur and the avant-garde fervour of European surrealism, this approach maintains the relevance of conceptual linkages between the two while also reaffirming their distinctiveness. In doing so, the aim of this enquiry is transformed from an evaluation of how faithfully Sur photographic practices adopted European surrealist techniques and principles, to what the 'sur-real' connoted in a context where the relationship between photography, truth and reality was something quite different. For photography, this is revealed through a discussion of two major functions of Sur. First, as a means to overcome the medium's exclusion from discourses of fine art, and second as a replication of the dharmic vision encountered in photographic icons of highly regarded monks and monarchs.

Citation:
Veal, Clare Elisabeth. "Beyond Reality: Locating the Sur-Real in Thai Photography." Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art, 1945-1990, edited by Stephen H. Whiteman et al., Power Publications & National Gallery Singapore, 2018. 

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2018

Entries on 3 Thai Films

Prof Adam Knee

Abstract:

These entries discuss three recent Thai films centered on the legendary Thai ghost Mae Nak, the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth, but returns to the world of the living to be with her husband. Nang Nak (1999), Nak (2008), and Pee Mak (2013) are each described with reference to their thematic resonances and their importance to Thai film history....

Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide is the first English-language book to be devoted solely to the topic of Thai cinema, which has revived and gained new world-wide recognition since the late 1990s.
Citation:
Knee, Adam. Entries on 3 Thai Films. Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide, edited by Mary J. Ainslie and Katarzyna Ancuta, I.B.Tauris, 2018.

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2018

Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up

Circe Henestrosa (co-editor and author)

Abstract:

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), as an artist and a woman, has a unique international appeal. Her instantly recognizable work draws extensively on her life and her extraordinarily personal reflections upon it. On Kahlo's death, her husband, Diego Rivera (1886-1957), ordered that her most private possessions be locked away until 15 years after his death. The bathroom in which her belongings were stored in fact remained unopened until 2004....

Through this incredible archive, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up gives readers a unique window into Kahlo's life. It will focus on the personal, combining her prosthetics, jewellery, and clothes with self-portraits, diary entries, and letters to build an intimate portrait of the artist through her possessions, setting this in the context of her political and social beliefs.

Citation:
Wilcox, Claire and Circe Henestrosa, editors. Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up. V & A Publishing, 2018.

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2018

The Lion and the Breath: Combining Kalaripayattu and Fitzmaurice Voicework Techniques Towards a New Cross- Cultural Methodology for Actor Training

Elizabeth de Roza
Budi Miller

Abstract:

This research looks at the effects of Kalaripayattu and Fitzmaurice Voicework techniques as a training methodology for the contemporary actor, redefining the fundamental principles that already exist within the two forms and placing its emphasis on the articulation of the imagination through their combination....

Fitzmaurice Voicework was inspired by yoga, shiatsu, and bioenergetic psychotherapy, and its methods include releasing patterns of habitual holding within the viscera causing an autonomic response known as a tremor. Training in Kalaripayattu, an ancient South Indian martial art, is a preparatory tool for the body to develop a kinesthetic awareness: an organic ability to be in the optimal state of readiness. In the process of defining our research findings, we created a systematic methodology that consisted of four stages: 1) Studio training combining Kalaripayattu and Fitzmaurice Voicework; 2) Training with Kalaripayattu masters in Kerala, India; 3) Experimentation and exploration of the two forms of collaborative training; and 4) Analysis and dissemination of findings at a conference of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association London Conference. This systematic approach provided us with the framework to answer our research questions: 1) Can combining techniques from Kalaripayattu and Fitzmaurice Voicework lead to an effective new cross-cultural methodology for professional actor training? 2) What kinds of psychophysical and somatic affect can arise from the combination of these two forms?

Citation:
Roza, Elizabeth de and Budi Miller. "The Lion and the Breath: Combining Kalaripayattu and Fitzmaurice Voicework Techniques Towards a New Cross- Cultural Methodology for Actor Training." Journal of Embodied Research, vol. 1, no. 1, 2018.

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2017

Scraping Off the Velvet

Dr Darryl Whetter

Abstract:

A 5000-word excerpt of a novel-in-progress devoted to global climate change and its concentration in Canada's contentious Alberta tar sands.

Citation:
Whetter, Darryl. "Scraping Off the Velvet." The Fiddlehead, no. 270 Winter 2017, 2017, pp. 72-82.

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2017

How Visual and Kinaesthetic Imagery Shape Movement Improvisation: A Pilot Study

Susan Sentler (co-author)

Abstract:

Western contemporary dance has long benefited from mental imagery practice for enhancing choreography, somatic embodiment and performance. Although science supports many psychophysical benefits of mental imagery practice, less is known about its effects on dance creation. Here, two dance educators report the results of a pilot study using two contrasting imagery modes in teaching improvisation. Four conservatory dance students engaged in two weeks of improvisation....

In week one, Glenna used tactile-kinaesthetic imagery as verbal prompts. During week two, Susan emphasized visual prompts. Each mode gave rise to unique movement patterns and reflections on embodiment, bearing on future research questions. The authors aim to situate the study within the conversation on imagery specificity in teaching improvisation. In addition, the study supports the ongoing evolution of an articulate scientific-somatic discourse on tactile-kinaesthetic and visual phenomena within dance. 

Citation:
Batson, Glenna and Susan Sentler. "How Visual and Kinaesthetic Imagery Shape Movement Improvisation: A Pilot Study." Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, vol. 9, no. 2, 2017, pp. 195-212.

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