Thesis abstract:

«p style="text-align:justify"»This research project explores the cultural politics centring on the production and reception of Contemporary Tibetan Art. In this thesis, I will employ a metaphor of porousness to understand Tibet as a political entity where it functions like a sponge-like medium with empty holes on its surface for dynamic powers to pass through whilst absorbing them within. Although the depiction of Tibetan culture has continually been determined and imagined by “colonial” forces, primarily Britain and China, there has been an increase in contemporary artworks (produced by artists inside and outside of Tibet) seeking to challenge these Orientalist and nationalist agendas. How has the Orientalist/Shangri-la-ist perception of Tibet, closely linked to its unique geographical location, been challenged by Tibetan artists? How has Tibet now appeared beyond its geographical confines, in multiple locations and various forms? How has Tibet, once exploited by the outsiders, again become a medium for non-Tibetan artists in their creative works? Envisioning this cross-cultural communication of contemporary Tibetan/Tibetan-themed art, this research will investigate the spaces of Tibetan culture in a more fluid and reflexive manner, through the employment of a relational geography framework. I argue that the signifiers and locales of Tibetan culture can be constructed, reconstructed, and deconstructed by artists from different backgrounds and then deployed variously to interrogate a range of socio-cultural and political objectives across Tibet, China, and the wider world. I will explore the art and practices of Tibetan artists, including those residing in Tibet and in exile, such as Gonkar Gyatso, Gade, Karma Phunstok, Nyema Froma, and Chinese artists Pei Zhuangxin and Ba Huang, Australian artist Tim Johnson, and Indonesian artist Arahmaiani as case studies. These artists will be grouped together in specific sections to illuminate the reinvention of Tibetan culture, the internationalisation of Tibet and how the internal transformation and external presentations contemporise Tibet and concern the world. This examination will help us to identify the underlying logic governing their imaginations on a spectrum that spans from positive to prejudical, and to transcendental.«/p»