Archiving Womanifesto

In 1995 an informal gathering of women artists, writers and activists in Bangkok put together a feminist art exhibition, Tradisexion. Calling itself Womanifesto, this collective went on to organize biennale events that aimed to increase women's visibility. It was the first feminist collective of its kind in the region, seeking to strengthen links between women artists regionally and internationally. Among its many projects include art residencies held in rural Thailand and online curations in cyberspace. Archiving Womanifesto presents this history, with issues raised to be discussed in an open symposium.

The Power Institute, together with the School of Literature, Arts and Media and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, presents the symposium 'Art, Digitality and Canon-making?' as part of the Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories project. This symposium continues conversations first initiated in Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok in April this year entitled 'Art, Design and Canon-making?'. By harnessing the potential of digital tools and methodologies in academic research and digital humanities, the symposium aspires to form a bridge between tools and ideas in the hope of providing a platform for the presentation of new research on gender broadly, and for the rethinking of frameworks, approaches and methodologies in the writing of feminist and area art histories.

This symposium offers the opportunity to explore the potential of digital approaches in discourses of gender in Southeast Asian art histories as well as to come to terms with the critical and scholarly issues that may arise.

The exhibition Archiving Womanifesto will then shift attention to art and artists, and their own agential role in constructing and resisting the canon, including their use of digital tools.