Flow into the SEA that transforms into a wave
Ong Jo-Lene
Lee Wen, Strange Fruit, 2003
In Maritime Southeast Asia (SEA), many cultures conceive of a sense of self in relation to the flows of the South China Sea and beyond. In Malay and Indonesian the term for the place where one is born is ‘tanah-air’. It is akin to the concept of homeland but connects with notions of both land (tanah) and water (air), thus suggesting a more elemental and fluid conception of belonging. What are the aesthetical, philosophical, and fictional possibilities with sea perspectives on cosmology, temporality, and embodiment?
Let’s wade into writing world oceanic histories, swim with the Tilapia from wishing pond to fish farm, take a flower bath while reciting a letter to Ghost, paddle with the first canoe of the Saramaka Maroons; and sail into a new geological epoch of the Mapalucene; with materials by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Natasha Tontey, TK Sabapathy, S. Sivasundram, Astrida Neimanis, Richard Price, Marjet Zwaans, and others.*
(the title of the reading group is borrowed from Chapter One of The Wave film series directed by Mahaneela, produced by Patta and Nike)
17:00 – 19:00 Wednesday 19 January, 2 February, 9 February, 16 February, 2 March, 9 March and 16 March
In principle, participation in a group concerns the entire series.
Sign up by sending an email to: studiumgenerale@rietveldacademie.nl
JO-LENE ONG is currently co-curator at the Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund 2020-21, and teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam and the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague. She got her start in the field at the intersection of arts and social activism in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her interests are in extending boundaries, shifting epistemic paradigms, as well as more embodied ways of knowing. Past roles that she is most hyped about include being co-curator of visual arts and theory at Other Futures, co-editor of Practice Space, a volume around locally embedded art initiatives; and co-curator of SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia from 1980s – Now (2017) at the National Art Centre, Tokyo and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.