The 1984 in Disguise: The Project of Resistance

(From left to right) Bansie Vasvani, Philip Tinari, Abdullah M.I. Syed, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Hu Weiyi and Boon Hui Tan.

This discussion contemplated the performances, lecture performances, and talks in the FIELD MEETING section entitled “1984 in Disguise: The Project of Resistance” which tackled themes of repression, censorship, violence and social and environmental depletion. Artist Abdullah M.I. Syed’s (Karachi & Sydney) performance “Flesh and Blood” used the rose, an important element in celebratory and burial ceremonies in South Asian cultures, to directly reflect on the current state of demonization of Islam in America; while Hu Weiyi’s (Shanghai) used the human body as a canvas for projecting dilemmas of facing a world that demands constant processing of information against our will. Artist Nadiah Bamadhaj (Jogjakarta) attempted what many in her local community would consider a taboo, while Philip Tinari (Beijing), having freshly dealt with external pressures that caused the removal of select artworks out of a major China-focused exhibition he co-curated at the Guggenheim Museum, presented a series of cases to demonstrate how China has pioneered a type of censorship that works by stealth.

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FIELD MEETING Take 5: Thinking Project, November 14th at Asia Society.