Dr Thomas Berghuis

PhD Art History and Theory, University of Sydney
Advanced Masters Diploma, CNWS Research School, Leiden, The Netherlands
MA Sinology, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Dr Thomas J. Berghuis is a lecturer in Asian Art at the Department of Art History & Film Studies at the University of Sydney, Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Asian Art and Archeology (ACAAA), and a Member of the China Studies Centre with the University of Sydney – leading a research group on Cultural Polocy and Heritage . Berghuis is a former Faculty Member and Consultant Lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Arts in Singapore (2008-2010), and a member of the Advisory Committee of Gallery 4A/Asia-Austrian Arts Center, Sydney. From 2007 until 2008 Berghuis was a Visiting Fellow with the Centre of Contemporary Art & Politics, University of New South Wales, Sydney and in November 2010 Berghuis was a Visiting Scholar/ Teaching Fellow at Leiden University, the Netherlands. From Mach to June 2011 Berghuis will be a Visiting Fellow with the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University, conducting research on modern and contemporary art in Indonesia.

Berghuis completed his PhD dissertation on Performance Art in China at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2006, following an MA in Sinology at Leiden University in 1999, and an Advanced Masters Degree at the CNWS Research School for Asian, Amerindian and African Studies in Leiden (The Netherlands) in 2000. During the past 10 years he has traveled extensively to China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for his research, and from 2003 to 2004 he was a visiting scholar at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Next to his studies Berghuis has also been involved in several curatorial projects. Starting in 2009 Berghuis is working as an Associate Curator for ‘Edge of Elsewhere’, a three-year project with the Sydney Festival, Campbelltown Art Centre and Gallery 4A, which brings together leading contemporary artists from across Australia, Asia and the Pacific to develop new artworks in partnership with Sydney communities. From June 2007 to July 2008 Berghuis worked as Senior Research Curator with the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics, College of Fine Arts/ UNSW in Sydney. Besides his curatorial work in Sydney, Berghuis has also been working as Associate Curator for the 6th Sharjah International Biennale, U.A.E (2003), Curator for the 1st Dashanzi International Arts Festival at the 798 Factory in Beijing (2004), and Associate Curator for the 3rd Israel Video Art Biennial in Tel Aviv (2006).

His writings have been published in various magazines and art publications, including in The Art Newpaper, The Australian, Art Review UK, Art Asia Pacific, Artlink, Broadsheet, C-Arts, Mesh, positions and RealTime. His book, Performance Art in China, has been published in 2006 with Timezone 8, Hong Kong. Since 2006 he has been actively involved with research and curatorial projects on modern and contemporary art in Southeast Asia, with special attention to art from Indonesia. This has led to a co-edited book marking the 10 year anniversary of the Jakarta-based artist’s collective ruangrupa, titled Siasat: Expanding the Space and the Public (Jakarta, forthcoming 2011), comprising of 38 essays from writers across Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.

Research Interests

• Pre-modern, Modern, and Contemporary Chinese Art
• Modern and Contemporary Asian Art
• Performance Art
• Curatorial Studies in relation to Asia
• Theories of Global Art

Grants and Scholarships

• 2011 Symposium Travel Grant, Jakarta, HIVOS, the Netherlands
• 2010 Symposium Travel Grant, Asia Art Archive Hong Kong
• 2010 Conference Travel Grant, Beijing, School of Languages Art and Media, University of Sydney
• 2009 Travel Grant 13th Jakarta Biennale, Jakarta Arts Council
• 2007 Research Travel Grant, Australian Research Council, through Associate
  Professor Jill Bennett
• 2006 Workshop Travel Grant, ASEF and Goethe Foundation in Jakarta, Indonesia
• 2006 Exhibition Travel Grant, Australian Embassy Beijing
• 2006 Exhibition Travel Grant, Dutch Embassy Jakarta
• 2005 Conference Travel Grant, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
• 2004 Conference Travel Grant, Asia Research Institute, National University Singapore
• 2003 Travel Grant for the 6th Sharjah Biennale, Ministry of Culture, United Arab Emirates
• 2003 Associate Researcher Travel Grant, Australian Research Council through Prof John Clark
• 2003 Post Graduate Research Support Scheme/ PhD Research Travel Grant, Australian Government
• 2001 Faculty Scholarship, University of Sydney (Duration 4 Years)
• 2001 PhD Research Support Grant, Power Institute, Sydney (Duration 3 Years)
• 2001 Post Graduate Research Support Scheme (PRRS), Australian Government
• 1999 Research Grant Hulsewé-Wazniewski Foundation (HWS) for the advancement of Teaching and Research at Leiden University in the Archaeology, Art and Material Culture of China

Membership

• Member of the China Studies Centre, University of Sydney (since 2010)
• Deputy Director Australian Centre for Asian Art & Archaeology (since 2009)
• Faculty Member, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Singapore (2008-2010)
• Advisory Committee Member, Gallery 4A/Asian-Australian Arts Centre (since 2008)
• Affiliated Member Australian Centre for Asian Art & Archaeology (2006-2009)
• Member of AICA, International Association of Art Critics (since 2007)

Publications

Books

• [CO_EDITOR] Siasat: Expanding the Space and the Public: Ruangrupa 10 Years, Jakarta (forthcoming, 2011)
  [AUTHOR] Performance Art in China (Hong Kong: Timezone 8, December, 2006)

Chapters in Books

• ‘China and the World: The Official Positioning of China Contemporary Art Now’ in Negotiating Difference (Berlin: House of World Cultures and Freie Universitat Berlin, Forthcoming 2011)
• '(Re-)imagining the City: Shanghai Dream-Theatre and the New Shanghai Surreal' in Anderson, Jaynie, ed., Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration and Convergence (Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing – Miegunyah Press, 2009)
• 'Chinese Contemporary Art ‘After’ Performance Art' in Wallace, Keith, ed., Action-Camera - Beijing Performance Photography (Vancouver: Morris and Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia, 2009), 81–91
• 'The ‘art’ of Chinese performance art' in Chinese avant-garde, Exhibition Catalogue, Gronginger Museum, the Netherlands (Rotterdam: Nai Publishers, 2008)
• 'Performance Art and its Constraints' in John Clark, ed., The Eye of the Beholder (Sydney: Wild Peony Press, December 2006)

Catalogues - Peer reviewed

• [CO-AUTHOR] Edge of Elsewhere (Sydney: Campbelltown Art Centre, January 2010)
• 'Performance Art in China' in Wear, Ian, ed., The China Project (Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, 2009), 35–47
• 'Islands and the Archipelago: Cultural Remembering, Community Belonging, and the Infinite Locale of the Post-nation' in Armstrong, Claire, ed., News From the Islands (Sydney: Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2007), 100–104

Catalogues - General

• Tracing Ghosts: Tony Schwensen and André Stitt, Catalogue (Sydney: Campbelltown Arts Centre, Forthcoming 2008)
• 'André Stitt: Performance Beyond Action' in Blair French, ed. André Stitt: Dingo, A treatment towards a new communionism (Sydney: Artspace, Forthcoming 2008)
• 'Islands and the Archipelago: Cultural remembering, community belonging, and the infinite locale of the post-nation' in News From the Islands (Sydney: Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2007)
• 'Trees of Remembrance, Echoes of Solace, and the Genealogy of Counting: The work of Dadang Christanto' in News From the Islands (Sydney: Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2007)
• 'The Event of Performance: A Discourse of Performance Art Festivals in Asia' in The Future of Imagination 4 (Singapore, 2007)
• 'Video-REAL: Recent Chinese Video Art' in VideoZone 3 – The 3rd International Video Art Biennial in Israel (Tel Aviv: Centre for Contemporary Art, 2006)
• '’Bubble’: Birth, Death and Creation in the Work of Zhu Ming', Republished in Julia Coleman, ed., Critical Mass (London: Chinese Contemporary, 2004)
• '’Bulle’ – naissance, ort et creation dans l’oevre de Zhu Ming' in Julia Coleman, ed., Les scents fleurs, Republished in French for the ‘Year of China in France, 2003/2004’ (London: Chinese Contemporary, 2004)
• 'Close Encounters – Performance art practices in China', Peter Lewis and Hoor Al-Qasimi, ed., Sharjah International Biennial 6 (United Arab Emirates: Sharjah International Biennial, 2003), 034-038
• 'Changing spectacles: Tracing patterns of historical coherence in Chinese contemporary art practices amidst the featureless models of global conduct', 6th Sharjah Biennial International Symposium Catalogue, Art in a Changing Horizon: Globalisation and New Aesthetic Practice, 9-11 April 2003 (Publication in Arabic)
• Accréditation in exhibition catalogue Alors, la Chine? Paris: Centre Pompidou (2003)

Journals Articles - Refereed

• 'Art to Come' Through the Collective in Third Text, Special Issue, Guest
  Editor Joan Kee and Patrick Flores (forthcoming 2011)
• 'Shanghai Dream-Theater: (Re-)imagining the City, the Conditions of Existence, and the New Shanghai Surreal' in TAASA Review, Vol. 16, No, 3 (September 2007)
• 'Considering Huanjing: Positioning Experimental Art in China' in positions: east asian cultures critique, volume 12, number 3 (Winter 2004)

Journal Articles - Non-Refereed

• 'Art into Action: Performance Art Festivals in Asia' in DiAAAlogue Perspectives (October 2010) published online with the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong http://www.aaa.org.hk/newsletter_list.aspx?newslettertype=archive
• 'Founding Principles – The Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation' in C-Arts: Journal of Contemporary Art, Vol. 06 (December 2008)
• 'Ai Weiwei – China’s Social Consciousness' in C-Arts: Journal of Contemporary Art, Vol. 02 (August 2008)
• Review: ‘Parallel Conversions – Asian art histories in the 20th and 21st centuries' in C-Arts: Journal of Contemporary Art, Vol. 04 (March 2008)
• 'China, We Love You! Responds to the ‘China Now’ Survey' in Journal of Contemporary Art (2008)
• '’Picture Perfect’- Performance and Conceptual Photograph in China' in C-Arts: Journal of Contemporary Art, Vol. 01 (January 2008)
• 'Performance Art and the Art of Performance' in Broadsheet, Vol. 36, No.3 (September 2007)
• 'Pride and Prejudice' in Art Review 11, Digital Digest (UK: May 2007)
• 'Mediated Subjects and Acting Bodies' in NY Arts Magazine (November – December 2006)
• 'Diyu Guanxi' ('Relating the Region'), Review of the Biennale of Sydney 2006 in Yishi Dangdai (Art China), No. 5 (December 2006)
• 'Performance and Beyond – Documenting Performance Art in Asia' in Archiving and Beyond, online publication of workshop proceedings by the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, 2006 (http://www.aaa.org.hk/onlineprojects/webproceeding/index.html)
• 'Savage Bodies and Barbaric Displays' in East West Arts, Issue 01 (September – November 2004)
• 'Flesh Art: Body and Performance Art in Post-Mao China' in Chinese Type Contemporary Art Magazine, Vol. 4, Issue 5 (November, 2001), published online at: http://www.chinese-art.com/Contemporary/volumefourissue5/flesh.htm (seized publication in 2003)
• 'Well then, [what about] China?', Exhibition Review 'Alors, La Chine?' in Art Asia Pacific, New York (October 2003)
• 'Broadening the Scope of Chinese Experimental Art', in Artlink: The China Phenomenon, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2003
• 'Savage Bodies and Barbaric Displays' in East West Arts, Issue 1 (2004)
• 'Transcending Media and the Role of Contemporary Art Practices in China' in Mesh, online Journal on New Media Art, 2004 (www.experimenta.org/mesh/mesh17/berghuis.htm)
• 'Transcending Media and the Role of Contemporary Art Practices in China', republished in [[i||broadsheet], Vol. 33, No. 4 (December 2004 – February 2004), Adelaide

Reference

• Book review of Performance Art in China by Dr Adam Geczy in Eyeline, No. 65 (January 2008)
• Book review of Performance Art in China by Adam Jasper Smith in Frieze, Issue 109 (September 2007)
• Accreditation Gao Minglu, The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art (Buffalo, New York and Beijing: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, and the Millennium Art Museum, 2005)
• Accreditation in Bruno Racine, et.al, eds., Alors, la Chine? (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2003)
• Accreditation in Grady T. Turner, 'Report from the U.A.E' in Art in America (November 2003)