ASAN 310 is a multidisciplinary examination of literature, philosophy, and religion shaping Asian beliefs and values. We use film, video, novels, short stories, lectures, discussion and student writing to access cultures, histories and peoples of selected societies in East, South and Southeast Asia. Students will read novels about Indonesia (by Pramoedya Ananta Toer), China (by Wang Shuo), and India) by Farahad Zamar). We will also engage shorter works by writers from the Philippines, Okinawa and other countries. Students will write short weekly papers. Semester activities include a field trip to the Honolulu Academy of Arts. ASAN 310 will be valuable for students in any major or professional field who wish to gain a deeper understanding of—and empathy with—a range of Asian cultures.

Course information: Summer Session I: 24 May – 2 July 2010, M-F 10:30 – 11:45am, 3 credits

Vincent K. Pollard earned his graduate degrees at The University of Chicago and the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa. He has also been affiliated with the former Kansai Gaidai Hawaii College, the University of the Philippines-Diliman, and East China Normal University. To learn more about Pollard’s teaching, research and other professional activities, visit his website.

Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art at Shangri La
Honolulu, HI
Deadline: 7 June 2010

CURATOR OF ISLAMIC ARTS
DORIS DUKE FOUNDATION FOR ISLAMIC ART at SHANGRI LA
The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art is to promote the study and understanding of Islamic arts and cultures. Shangri La is the Foundation’s center for Islamic arts and cultures, which is housed in the former Honolulu residence of philanthropist and collector Doris Duke (1912 – 1993).

The Collection
Shangri La was built between 1936 – 1938 as Doris Duke’s private estate and to house her growing collection of Islamic art. The collection is comprised of approximately 3,500 objects ranging from pre-Islamic material to early 20th century commissions, in a wide variety of media. The collection is particularly strong in material from the 17th through 20th centuries, and in ceramic tiles and vessels. It additionally includes household furnishings, clothing, archives, and a small working library. A significant portion of the collection is integrated into the historic architecture.

The Position
The Curator of Islamic Arts has primary responsibility for the research and interpretation of the collection, and will provide the vision for and manage collections-based activities that support the organization’s mission, including:
On-site, travelling and Web-based exhibitions
Print and Web-based publications
Collections-based public programs and symposia
Visiting scholar and artist programs
Conservation of Shangri La’s art and architecture

The Curator will work closely with the Programs Manager and Collections Manager, conservators and a variety of consultants; participate in meetings of the DDFIA Board and Advisory Council; and develop strong relationships with other museums and academic institutions. S/he will be active in the field of Islamic arts and culture, represent the Foundation at conferences and symposia, and stay abreast of and contribute to current research and developments in the field.

Qualifications
The successful candidate will hold a PhD in Islamic Art, or have equivalent work experience. S/he will exhibit the capacity to employ an interdisciplinary approach to his/her work and to develop innovative programs that reflect current research and engage diverse audiences. Proven success at providing leadership, building supportive relationships and working as a team player is essential. S/he must demonstrate curatorial and conservation knowledge as well as advanced research and computer skills; familiarity with The Museum System (TMS) is desired. A working knowledge of Arabic and/or Persian is also desired.

Candidates at various levels of experience and expertise will be considered; compensation will be commensurate with experience.

While the position is envisioned as full-time, more flexible part-time or seasonal schedules may be feasible.

The Curator will report to the Executive Director of Shangri La and be a member of the leadership team charged with implementing the strategic plan to strengthen Shangri La as a center for Islamic arts and cultures.

For further information on Shangri La and its Collections, visit: www.shangrilahawaii.org.

How to Apply
To be considered for this position, forward your resume and cover letter via e-mail to SLCurator.hr@ddcf.org. Indicate your interest in this position, your salary requirements, and whether or not you are currently eligible to work in the United States.

Applications will be accepted beginning May 1, 2010, and ending June 7, 2010.
All candidates will receive a response.

No Phone Calls Please
Do Not Apply in Person

Curated by Michael Schuster, Ph.D., assisted by Anna Reynolds
Installation design by Lynne Najita
East-West Center Gallery, Burns Hall, 1601 East-West Rd., Honolulu, HI, USA

11 April 2010 – 13 June 2010

Weddings are the pinnacle of celebration, festivity, and happiness throughout Asia. People place a huge emphasis on the rituals, processions, feasts, and gatherings associated with these felicitous events in the human life cycle. More than an event uniting two individuals, weddings are a social enactment reinforcing community, family, and continuity. Imbued with both spiritual and practical implications, the wedding events are central to the social fabric and are intended to encourage the couple’s fertility.

This EWC exhibition focuses on garments/costumes, ritual objects, theatrical and artistics representations of wedding events, and dowry items including textiles and jewelry. Due to the enormity of the region with its wide diversity of ethnicities, religions, and sub-cultures, a few representative cultures have been selected to represent East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. In all regions, people devote extraordinary resources, energy, and time to creating memorable wedding celebrations.

This exhibition was created in honor of the East-West Center’s golden 50th anniversary celebration. Likewise, many of the weddings found in Asia are festooned with golden textiles, jewelery, and accoutrements.

The exhibited artifacts and photographs depict wedding traditions from China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam, Burma/Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan.

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Asia Society Museum, New York, NY
2 February – 2 May 2010

As long as two thousand years ago, a maritime trade route extended from southern China to Roman-controlled ports in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, via ports in what is now northern Vietnam, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Iran. As a result of this exchange, Vietnam developed unique art objects with connections to China, India, and other cultures of Southeast Asia. The exhibition includes approximately 115 spectacular examples selected from Vietnamese museums conveying the country’s impressive artistic developments and attesting to its importance in the cultural development of Southeast Asia. Objects range from early burial goods and large bronze ritual drums to gold jewelry with precious stones, Hindu and Buddhist stone sculptures, and beautifully decorated ceramics. Watch part of Curator Nancy Tingley’s exhibition introduction here:

Arts of Ancient Viet Nam is co-organized with Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

more info | purchase Exhibition Catalogue | watch complete lecture

Curated by Theresa Papanikolas, Curator of European and American Art
28 January – 6 June 2010, John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery, Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, HI

Concluding the Academy’s year-long celebration of the life and work of Charles Bartlett, this special installation focuses on the artist’s travels in Java and Ceylon. Bartlett toured Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1913 as part of his first sea voyage to Asia; his last trip abroad, in 1921, included a stop in Java. In both regions, Bartlett filled sketchbooks and conceptualized paintings, drawings, and etchings of daily life: the people, their colorful dress and rituals, their commerce and catamarans, and the landscape and ancient monuments that surrounded them. Indeed, always a spectator and rarely a participant, Bartlett maximized his expertise as a colorist and draftsman to record with great sympathy his observations and perceptions, and to capture the essence of the exotic locales he visited. (Source: Honolulu Academy of Art)

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November 13, 12:00 p.m., Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)
Presented by Paul Lavey, Assistant Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art History, University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Prasat Andet Harihara and its eponymous artistic style have long been lauded as high-points of Preangkorian (7th – 8th cent.) Khmer sculpture and indeed of Southeast Asian art in general. Given the praise that this piece has continuously attracted, it is of considerable interest that during the past thirty years numerous additional, previously unknown, and unprovenanced sculptures of Harihara in the Prasat Andet style have come to light on the art market, including some that scholars have argued to be “copies”-whether ancient or modern – of the Prasat Andet Harihara.

Several of the recently revealed images, however, share unusual traits exclusively among themselves that distinguish them from previously known and unimpeachable examples and which place them outside the stylistic development of Preangkorian sculpture as it is currently understood. Through formal analysis of the various Prasat Andet style Hariharas and related images, the speaker argues that stylistic inconsistencies raise questions not only about the nature of “copying” in early Southeast Asian art and the way scholars classify Khmer sculpture, but also about the authenticity of many of the recently revealed images.

Paul Lavy, assistant professor of South and Southeast Asian Art History, University of Hawaii at Manoa, joined the art department in August, 2008. Professor Lavy has taught Art and Architecture of Maritime and Mainland Southeast Asia, Art and Architecture of Pre-Colonial South Asia, Monuments and Nationalism in Southeast Asia, and Hindu Visual Culture.

He has conducted field research in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Laos and Malaysia. Professor Lavy received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004, where he did his dissertation on Visnus and Harihara in the Art and Politics if Early Historic Southeast Asia.

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March 18, 12:00 p.m.
Presented by Professor Jerome Feldman, Hawaii Pacific University

In the Danish National Museum, there are many unique remnants of a once great chief’s house from Nias, Indonesia. These are some truly fine works of art from a vanishing tradition on a remote island. The visitor however would never suspect the incredible story behind these now scattered but extraordinary artifacts. It is a narrative of high art and high achievement with a heavy overlay of criminality and debauchery.

Jerome Feldman teaches art history at Hawaii Pacific University. His specialization is in the arts of tribal Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. He received his Ph.D. in tribal art history from Columbia University and has conducted field studies in remote islands of Indonesia and Polynesia. He has studied museum collections in Europe and America and has aided in several important exhibitions including The Eloquent Dead at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Nias Tribal Treasures at the Volkenkundig Meumeu Nusantara in Delft, and Beyond the Java Sea a Smithsonian sponsored traveling exhibition. He has also written books and articles and lectured extensively on tribal Southeast Asian, Micronesian and Polynesian art and architecture. In fall 2004, he was the Slade Visiting Professor at Cambridge University, England. between distribution patterns of human knowledge of biodiversity and actual biodiversity.

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February 29, 12:00 p.m.
Presented by Professor Surapone Virulrak, Chulalongkorn University

This research aims at studying the status of performing arts in this reign, starting from the first year of his Accession to the Throne in 1946 until the Celebration of His Majesty the King’s 72nd Birthday in 1999. The research focuses on all kinds of theatre and dance seen in Thailand during this period. All information is gleaned from documentaries, observations, interviews, and the researcher’s own experiences.

Surapone Virulrak is a Professor in Performing Arts, a Professor Emeritus in Communication Arts and a Member of the Royal Institute of Thailand. He has written three plays for the stage in Thailand and published extensively on the performing arts under the reign of Kings Rama V and Rama IX, in addition to authoring works on the performing arts in Indonesia and Thailand. Virulrak earned a Ph.D. in Drama and Theatre (Asian Theatre) from the University of Hawaii in 1980.

The world of international cinema suffered a great loss last year with the passing of the talented Yasmin Ahmad. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies would like to celebrate Yasmin’s life and work by regularly featuring postings from her blogs – Yasmin the Storyteller (2004 to 2008) and Yasmin the Filmmaker (2008 to 2009). Yasmin’s blogs provide a unique cultural commentary as she muses about film, politics, religion, love, and much more. Taking into consideration the sociopolitical context of her self-documented writing and filmmaking, Yasmin’s perspective offers a refreshing and very nuanced take on living and working in Southeast Asia – as well as key insights on the contemporary film industry during the shift to the digital era as she traveled the world with her internationally-acclaimed and widely exhibited films. Beginning with the anniversary of her passing, we will feature re-postings from Yasmin’s blogs and we hope that Southeast Asia scholars, filmmakers and cinephiles will find these rich resources as fascinating as we do.

Re-posted from: Yasmin the Storyteller
Tuesday, August 03, 2004

The story begins on the 3rd of August 2004.

at 46, i have directed only eleven halfway decent tv commercials, made one tv movie, and one feature film.

i might call myself an artist if i only knew what art was. i cringe when someone says they like art films, or worse, that they want to MAKE art films.

i watch anything that tickles my fancy. my all-time favourites so far include ken loach’s “kes”, billy wilder’s “the apartment“, satyajit ray’s “charulata“, neil jordan’s “mona lisa“, and raj kapoor’s “bobby“. i reckon they’re my favourite because i keep going back to them from time to time, over and over again, and they move me every time.

the two living directors whose new works i feel compelled to watch as soon as i can are pedro almodovar and yoji yamada.

if what little i’ve said so far piques your interest even a little, i’d like to chat about film with you. and if you’re malaysian, i’d like to hear how you think we can make better films, because we’re presently making some pretty dire ones, and it gets embarrassing for me sometimes to talk about films with my friends from japan, india, china, indonesia, france, and thailand.

welcome to the storyteller.

Age: 52 | Gender: Female | Location: kuala lumpur : Malaysia
Astrological Sign: Capricorn | Zodiac Year: Rooster
Industry: Advertising | Occupation: writer & film director

I am optimistic and sentimental to the point of being annoying, especially to people who think that being cynical and cold is cool. Everyday, I thank Allah for everyday things like the ability to breathe, the ability to love, the ability to laugh, and the ability to eat and drink.

If you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner?
a frown.

Interests
* film
* watching my parents tease each other like children

Favorite Movies
* tora-san our lovable tramp
* kes
* charulata
* mona lisa
* bobby
* the apartment
* city lights
* hable con ella
* apu sansar
* violent cop
* sonatine.

Favorite Music
* sangkala “sabilulungan”
* mozart’s clarinet concerto in “a”.

Favorite Books
* the koran
* tao te ching
* j.m. barrie’s peter pan
* pablo neruda’s “elemental odes”
* wislawa szymborska’s “people on the bridge”
* octavio paz’s “a tree within”
* and rabindranath tagore’s “the gardener”
* douglas adams’ “the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy”

Yasmin the Storyteller (August 2004 – November 2008) | Yasmin the Filmmaker (November 2008 – July 2009) | Book – Amir Muhammad’s Yasmin Ahmad’s Films (Matahari, 2009)