SUNSHOWER
Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts and Mori Art Museum are proud to collaboratively present the SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, focusing on the most striking contemporary art in Southeast Asia. Since the 1980s, the development of contemporary art in respective countries has reflected the changes and complexities of ethnical, political, economics, cultural, and historical issues of the region. The “sunshower” in the title refers to a meteorological phenomenon often seen in Southeast Asia, while also serving as a poetic metaphor for its complex, tortuous history and the vicissitudes of the region. The post-WWII decolonization throughout the world led the countries in the region to democratization and internationalization. They have undergone periods of colonization, of autocratic or military dictatorship, of economic growth and collapses. Despite the tumultuous past, the rapid economic and urban development in more recent years came truly drastic changes.

 

The team selected artworks by 47 artists from 10 ASEAN member countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. Combined with artworks from collections of Mori Art Museum and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, the exhibition seeks to explore diverse practices of contemporary art since 1980s from 6 different perspectives: Passion and Revolution, Fluid Histories and Memories, Diverse Identities, Between Development and Inheritance, Medium as Meditation, and Archiving. These themes capture the multifaceted dynamics of Southeast Asian contemporary art that cross waves of time. SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, the most comprehensive Southeast Asian contemporary art exhibition to date, is presented for the first time in Taiwan. The exhibition showcases the inconceivable dynamism of Southeast Asia through the medium of contemporary art at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.