Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Art History
Advisor
Claire Bishop
Committee Members
Mona Hadler
Siona Wilson
An-Yi Pan
Subject Categories
Contemporary Art
Keywords
globalism, Taiwanese contemporary art, post-national contemporary, Asian American
Abstract
Taiwanese contemporary art emerged in the 1980s and rapidly flourished in the 1990s, nourished by the process of democratization and the construction of Taiwanese consciousness prompted by the lifting of martial law in 1987. This dissertation makes two claims. Firstly, that Taiwanese contemporary art after 2000 can be understood as “post-national,” due to the country’s marginal position in the world and contentious status as a nation-state. Secondly, that Taiwanese post-national art differentiates itself from postcolonial/post-martial law art of the late 1980s and 1990s on the basis of its globalism. The three artists surveyed by the dissertation each exemplify different strategies of globalism: perpetual exile (Tehching Hsieh), an aesthetics of the multitude (Chen Chieh-Jen), and cosmopolitan hospitality (Lee Mingwei). Respectively, their works disavow, critique, and transcend the nation-state. The final chapter offers an analysis of two major biennial institutions organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum: the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1995 onwards) and the Taipei Biennial (1992 onwards). The changes in curatorial themes of both institutions from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s manifests the dialectic between the national and the global that characterizes Taiwanese post-nationality. By postulating Taiwanese contemporary art as post-national, I argue that its significance lies in its counter-hegemonic role as a troublemaker, complicating and critiquing the concept of nation that continues to be dominant and ubiquitous in both curatorial practice and art history.
Recommended Citation
Wei, Chu-Chiun, "Globalism and Identity in Taiwanese Contemporary Art, 1978–2009" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5014
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