Abstract

Conceptualizing TRANS-ASIA

Editors: Alpesh Kantilal Patel and Jane Chin Davidson

Conceptualizing TRANS-ASIA is a challenge to the essentialist geography identified as "Asia," the name and recognition of a place, discourse, visuality, and, most of all, of an identity of humans. In the field of visual arts, the subject of Asia serves a specific function in global capitalism, representing different nation-states, cultural heritages, and traditions, all of which continue to be promoted by museum collections and the art market. It is here that Asian art constitutes a monolith of national identities under the rubric of "Asia." In contrast, TRANS-ASIA reflects migration, diaspora, and transnational flows that have reshaped this nationalist norm of normative citizenship in art. To conceptualize TRANS-ASIA, we convened a group of researchers working on disparate studies of art and art histories that illustrate the diversity of the aesthetic field.