Writing and Curating Art, a lunchtime seminar by Dr Sophie McIntyre, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS University of London jointly organised by Taiwan Studies Programme and the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Studies, the University of Nottingham
Speaker abstract
Taiwan’s quest for identity and international recognition have been the most important and fiercely contested issues for nearly half century, both nationally and internationally. In this special lecture, Sophie McIntyre, will introduce her new book, Imagining Taiwan: the Role of Art in Taiwan’s Quest for Identity (Brill, 2018) which explores the pivotal role played by the visual arts in Taiwan’s quest for identity. Focusing on the post-martial law period, McIntyre analyses the ways in which identity narratives have been imagined, interpreted and transmitted, locally and globally, through the production, selection, display and reception of Taiwan art, as a vehicle for identity formation and cultural diplomacy.
This book is the culmination of more than 25 years of academic and curatorial research in Taiwan. In addition to introducing the book, in this lecture Sophie McIntyre will also discuss a selection of exhibitions she curated that were an outcome of this research. These exhibitions include: Ink Remix: contemporary art from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong (2015-17-touring); Penumbra: New Media Art from Taiwan (2007); Islanded: contemporary art from New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan (2005-06 – touring and co-curated with Eugene Tan and Lee Weng Choy), and Face to Face: contemporary art from Taiwan (1999-2000).
Speaker biography
Dr Sophie McIntyre is an independent curator, art writer and lecturer in the Faculty of Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. She obtained her PhD from the Australian National University, and has published widely on Taiwan and Asian art in periodicals, catalogues, books and other arts publications. She has worked in university and public art museums for more than 20 years, in Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand, and curated over 30 exhibitions, including several from Taiwan and mainland China.