Dr Alexander Supartono's Outputs (41)

« L’attente silencieuse »: Antiquités javanaises et photographie au xixe siècle dans les Indes orientales néerlandaises (2024)
Journal Article
Supartono, A. (2024). « L’attente silencieuse »: Antiquités javanaises et photographie au xixe siècle dans les Indes orientales néerlandaises. Photographica, 9, 62-80. https://doi.org/10.4000/12paq

This essay discusses the significant role of archaeological expeditions in the early development of photography in the Dutch East Indies (colonial Indonesia). In the wake of competitive archaeological treasure hunts in the 19th century, the camera wa... Read More about « L’attente silencieuse »: Antiquités javanaises et photographie au xixe siècle dans les Indes orientales néerlandaises.

Customised Postures, (De)colonising Gestures (2024)
Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2024). Customised Postures, (De)colonising Gestures. [Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Video and Installation]. 19 January 2024 - 18 April 2025

This exhibition aims to establish an interconnectivity between pictorial and thematic commonplaces of photography practice in colonial Southeast Asia and the contemporary art practice from the region. It intends to showcase how colonial photographic... Read More about Customised Postures, (De)colonising Gestures.

Contesting colonial (hi)stories: (Post)colonial imaginings of South East Asia (2020)
Journal Article
Supartono, A., & Moschovi, A. (2020). Contesting colonial (hi)stories: (Post)colonial imaginings of South East Asia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 51(3), 343-371. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463420000508

This article seeks to explore the impact of digital technologies upon the material, conceptual and ideological premises of the colonial archive in the digital era. This analysis is pursued though a discussion of creative work produced during an inter... Read More about Contesting colonial (hi)stories: (Post)colonial imaginings of South East Asia.

Between recolonisation and decolonisation: Documenta 15 and the political decontextualisation of art (2025)
Journal Article
Bräuchler, B., & Supartono, A. (2025). Between recolonisation and decolonisation: Documenta 15 and the political decontextualisation of art. Cultural Dynamics, 37(1-2), 88 - 105. https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740251323341

Documenta 15, a global exhibition of contemporary art that took place in 2022 in Germany, over a period of 100 days, stands out for two reasons: (1) for the first time documenta was under artistic directorship of an art collective, and (2) it was sca... Read More about Between recolonisation and decolonisation: Documenta 15 and the political decontextualisation of art.

Original Copy: Political Character of Woodcut Work (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2024, December). Original Copy: Political Character of Woodcut Work. Presented at Symposium on Graphic Printmaking: Examining Character in Graphic Printmaking, University of Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

In 2019, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan hosted a ground-breaking survey exhibition featuring 400 woodcuts created across Asia from the 1930s to the 2010s. Titled "Blaze Carved in the Darkness: Woodcut Movements in Asia," it was the largest and... Read More about Original Copy: Political Character of Woodcut Work.

Othering Studio Portraiture Tradition in Colonial Southeast Asia (2024)
Book Chapter
Supartono, A. (in press). Othering Studio Portraiture Tradition in Colonial Southeast Asia. In Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape. San José Museum of Art, California

The well-established colonial photography industry in Southeast Asia collapsed following the region’s long decolonisation process from mid 1940s to 1970s. Western (and a few Japanese) photographers and photo studios closed, and the majority of their... Read More about Othering Studio Portraiture Tradition in Colonial Southeast Asia.

Accommodating Photography in Southeast Asian Museums (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2024, July). Accommodating Photography in Southeast Asian Museums. Presented at International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 13), Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia

Owing to the ubiquity, multifaceted uses, and vast volume of photographs that exist in physical and online worlds, photography presents itself as a challenging practice for 21st-century art institutions. Indeed, what is museum photography and its cul... Read More about Accommodating Photography in Southeast Asian Museums.

Sculpture and Activism: Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso (2024)
Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2024). Sculpture and Activism: Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso. 19 July 2024 - 7 November 2024

Sculpture and Activism of Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso is an exhibition of two sculptors, Dolorosa Sinaga and Budi Santoso who come from two different generations and cultural traditions. They met for the first time in 2000 when Dolorosa opened her... Read More about Sculpture and Activism: Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso.

Taring Padi Reader: Tanah Tumpah Darah (2024)
Book Chapter
Supartono, A., Goddard, A., Seroussi, B., Laurente, D., Framed, F., proppaNOW, & Padi, T. (2024). Taring Padi Reader: Tanah Tumpah Darah. . Griffith University Art Museum

There is no adequate translation in English for the Indonesian tanah tumpah darah, the phrase Taring Padi employ as the title of their exhibition at the Griffith Univeristy Art Museum in Brisbane, Australia. It literally means ‘land of spilled blood’... Read More about Taring Padi Reader: Tanah Tumpah Darah.

Tanah Tumpah Darah (2024)
Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2024). Tanah Tumpah Darah. [Banner, Cardboard Puppets, Woodcut Prints]. 29 February 2024 - 25 May 2024

Taring Padi are a leading Indonesian collective of art workers with a mission to understand the cultural and social history of Indonesia through a contemporary lens. Based in Yogyakarta, they use art as a tool to explore issues of sovereignty to over... Read More about Tanah Tumpah Darah.

Tanah Merdeka (2023)
Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2023). Tanah Merdeka. [Banner, Cardboard Puppets, Woodcut poster]. 25 June 2023 - 10 September 2023

Taring Padi’s works in utilising art as political tools in the past 25 years demonstrate that it has been and it will be colonialism, its continuous impacts and metamorphosis are responsible for the worsening injustice in the world. This is not a nai... Read More about Tanah Merdeka.

Tanah Merdeka (2023)
Book Chapter
Supartono, A. (2023). Tanah Merdeka. . Framer Framed

In 2011, Taring Padi published the book Art Smashing Tyranny. The publication recorded and contextualised the collective’s politically engaged practice against the ills of militarism and neoliberalism and its social commitment to gender equality, the... Read More about Tanah Merdeka.

Photo Albums and the Social Life of 19th century Javanese Antiquity Photographs (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2023, June). Photo Albums and the Social Life of 19th century Javanese Antiquity Photographs. Paper presented at Photo Monde, The Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris, France

As part of their ongoing exhibition "An Early Album of the World (1842-1911)" from 4 April to 2 July 2023, Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris has organized a symposium in the museum on 15 and 16 June 2023.
With researchers, photo-historia... Read More about Photo Albums and the Social Life of 19th century Javanese Antiquity Photographs.

“The Silent Waiting”: Javanese Antiquity and 19th Century Photography in the Dutch East Indies (2022)
Book Chapter
Supartono, A. (2022). “The Silent Waiting”: Javanese Antiquity and 19th Century Photography in the Dutch East Indies. In Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia (307-311). National Gallery of Singapore

In assessing a cropped photograph of a Hindu goddess from the second base relief of the Shiva temple of Parambanan published in De versierende kunsten in Nederlandsch Oost-Indië. Eenige Hindoemonumenten op Midden-Java (the Decorative Arts in the Dutc... Read More about “The Silent Waiting”: Javanese Antiquity and 19th Century Photography in the Dutch East Indies.

Travel Albums and the Formulation of 19th Southeast Asian Photographic Traditions (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2022, November). Travel Albums and the Formulation of 19th Southeast Asian Photographic Traditions. Paper presented at The Makings of Art from Southeast Asia and the Problem of Colonial Legacies, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

Photographers in 19th Southeast Asian operated in a complex regional network of partnership, competition and apprenticeship beyond the spatial boundaries of colonial states. This paper will look at their role in formulating the thematic (views and ty... Read More about Travel Albums and the Formulation of 19th Southeast Asian Photographic Traditions.

Walter B. Woodbury: Portrait of Javanese People (2022)
Book Chapter
Supartono, A. (2022). Walter B. Woodbury: Portrait of Javanese People. In P. Prodger (Ed.), An Alternative History of Photography (88-89). Prestel

“We shall visit the Princes’ Lands where all the native princes live, and all the magnificent ancient temples are,” wrote Walter Bentley Woodbury (Manchester, 1834-Margate, 1885) to his mother in England in September 1857. The Manchurian photographer... Read More about Walter B. Woodbury: Portrait of Javanese People.

Flame of Solidarity (2022)
Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2022). Flame of Solidarity. [Banner, cardboard puppet, woodcut poster]. 18 June 2022 - 25 September 2022

The acclaimed international art festival Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany, summer 2022 centres around an artistic, social and economic model of collectivity and communal resource sharing. Taring Padi accepted the invitation to participate in Documen... Read More about Flame of Solidarity.

Vom Eigentum zur Autorschaft: Koloniale Archive neu lessen. Ein Gespräch (2021)
Journal Article
Junge, S., Ouwehand, L., & Supartono, A. (2021). Vom Eigentum zur Autorschaft: Koloniale Archive neu lessen. Ein Gespräch. Fotogeschichte: Beitrage zur Geschicte und Asthetik der Fotografie, 162(41), 5-12

A conversation on issues of ownership and authorship of colonial photographic material of Indonesia

The archive as producer: Abednego Trianto’s postcolonial appropriation (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2021, November). The archive as producer: Abednego Trianto’s postcolonial appropriation. Presented at Photography Education in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition, University of Zhejiang, China

This paper will discuss three body of works by the Indonesian photographer Abednego Trianto: Sugar Lords in Java (2012), 1883 (2014), and What Am I Going to Be When I Grow Up? Raden Ayu of Course (2015). Exhibited in the Noorderlicht festival (the N... Read More about The archive as producer: Abednego Trianto’s postcolonial appropriation.

Dolorosa Sinaga: Body, Form, Matter - Analysis, Artistic Geneology, and Archive (2020)
Book
Supartono, A., & Karsono, S. (Eds.). (2020). Dolorosa Sinaga: Body, Form, Matter - Analysis, Artistic Geneology, and Archive. Jakarta Art Institute Press

Dolorosa Sinaga: Body, Form, Matter brings together 40 years of work explored through inter-disciplinary readings. Dolorosa Sinaga (b. 1953) is one of the most accomplished, celebrated and intriguing figures in Indonesian contemporary art scene. Dolo... Read More about Dolorosa Sinaga: Body, Form, Matter - Analysis, Artistic Geneology, and Archive.