Rebordering the Archipelago: Asia-Pacific Exchanges takes the late Tongan scholar Epeli Hau'ofa's vision of the Pacific as a "Sea of Islands" as its departure point, assembling voices across the Asia-Pacific into a dialogue that refuses Western academic frameworks and postnational borders.
About This Book
Emerging from a symposium convened by the Asia Pacific Artistic Research Network (APARN) during the COVID-19 pandemic, this collection brings together essays, artworks, and discussions that map art practice, knowledge production, and cultural exchange across the Asia-Pacific. The second volume in the Postnational Art Histories series — a collaborative publishing program between the Centre of Visual Art at the University of Melbourne and Perimeter Editions — it foregrounds intergenerational and Indigenous knowledges alongside new modes of resistance and inquiry. Rather than drawing conclusions, the book positions itself as a site of embarkation: generative, lateral, and deliberately incomplete. A Bahasa Indonesia translation is included, signalling its commitment to multilingual, non-Eurocentric discourse.
Key Features
- 208 pages of essays, artworks, and cross-disciplinary discussions spanning art practice and postnational scholarship
- Edited by Danny Butt and Kurniawan Adi Saputro; designed by Beaziyt Worcou
- Contributions by Raqs Media Collective, Moonis Ahmad, Léuli Eshrāghi, Victoria Hunt, Natalie King, Yuki Kihara, Helly Minarti, Tamarra, Yedija Awom, Ginoe, and Mark Teh
- Published by Perimeter Editions, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How Hau'ofa's concept of a vast oceanic continent — defined by movement and exchange rather than fixed state boundaries — reframes Asia-Pacific cultural identity
- The tensions and resonances between Indigenous, diasporic, postcolonial, and transcultural art practices operating outside Western institutional frameworks
- How the act of "rebordering" functions as a generative, postnational methodology rather than a territorial or political declaration
- What new modes of listening, reading, and sharing emerge when scholarly research is refracted through a multiplicity of regional and intergenerational perspectives
About the Author
Danny Butt and Kurniawan Adi Saputro edited this volume as part of the Asia Pacific Artistic Research Network (APARN). The collection is published through CoVA x Perimeter, a collaborative program initiated by the Centre of Visual Art (2018–2023) at the University of Melbourne and independent publishing house Perimeter Editions.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 208
- Dimensions: 19.5 x 12.5 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781922545398
- Publisher: Perimeter Editions
- Publication Date: 2023
Perfect For: Curators, researchers, and practitioners working across Asia-Pacific contemporary art, postcolonial theory, transcultural studies, and postnational art histories.