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Asian Traffic Conference at COFA, June 25 - 26 2004

Article released: Wednesday, 23 June, 2004

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The Asian Traffic conference brings together artists, art historians, curators, cultural theorists and critics from Asia, Europe, North America and Australia to explore the movement of Asian art and artists throughout the world.

Its principal aim is to advance critical analysis of the effects of 'Asian diaspora', and of the phenomenon of "global itinerancy", in relation to art production and exhibition practice.

Much of the contemporary theoretical writing on diasporic identity has evolved from studies in pan-African culture, or else from research on European-based immigrant communities from the sub-continent. It remains very much an open question whether the insights of scholars such as Gilroy, Young, Spivak and Bhabha have useful application beyond the field from which they were developed. The various Asian diasporas remain relatively under-theorised and under-represented in cultural theory. At the same time it is equally clear that the issues of global diaspora, itinerancy and 'cosmopolitics' are central to the practice of so many contemporary artists with an Asian background.

Many questions arise from this. For example:
What is the relationship between 'home' culture and global culture for an artist in the international artworld?
What can be said of instances of resentment and conflict between 'those who leave' and 'those who stay'?
How can artists present sophisticated and nuanced regional perspectives to an international audience that may have only prejudiced or partial knowledge of the culture that informs the work?
How do time and distance transform the representation of an imagined 'home' culture?

Asian Traffic will include panel discussion and papers by prominent academics, artists and curators who have an interest in the unique problems associated with the construction or presentation of cultural identities 'at a distance'. There will also be performances by artists from Thailand and China.

The Conference coincides with a major exhibition project at the Asia-Australia Arts Centre. 
    
Speakers: Leng Lin, Hou Hanru, Marion Pastor-Roces, Mee Ping Leung, Alice Ming Wai, John Clark, Binghui Huangfu, Suzann Victor, Chaitanya Sambrani, David McNeill, Olivia Khoo

Panelists: Ien Ang, Lindy Lee, Owen Leong, Renee So, Aaron Seeto 

Performances by: Vasan Sitthikit and Jiang Jie

Asian Traffic is convened by the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW in association with the Asia-Australia Art Centre.

Location: COFA Main Lecture Theatre, EGO2, COFA Campus, Crn Greens Road and Oxford Street, Paddington