Postmodernism in Malaysian Art
This dissertation aims to investigate the meanings of Malaysian modern and postmodern art through the understanding of social and political conditions that shapes the emerging middle class in which the artists belongs. Malaysian art that is presumed to be postmodern can either be one that evokes a conscious racial or religious identity, art that manifests or highlights class interests, and art that loses its locality and inheres a sense of cosmopolitanism as it crosses borders. Drawing from the fields of art history, cultural history, sociology and Malaysian Studies in particular, this dissertation investigates the forms of postmodernity in Malaysian art, discussing the shift from modern to a postmodern outlook in the context of situasi percamoden, or Malaysia’s ‘postmodern situation.’ Central to my argument is that postmodern artistic tendencies in Malaysia generally happen as an indirect result of the cultural and social changes and drastic modernization that Malays had to go thorough under the modernization drive headed by New Economic Policy (NEP). As part of the new Malaysian middle class, artists are faced with various situations the ‘postmodern situation’ brings and this is inherent in development of art in Malaysia since the 1990s. This dissertation aims to explore how Malaysian artists’ preoccupation has shifted from Malay/Islamic-centric artistic tendencies to having a more postmodern outlook. Firstly, this can be seen in postmodern artistic strategies and the proliferation of art, and second, in the thematic approaches and subjects that concern artists being reflective of the changing Malaysian demographics.
