Water: Art and Politics in Southeast Asia

Catalog description

This seminar will focus on the significance of water –economic, religious, political, social –and its role in the art and architecture of Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, with particular focus on Cambodia and Indonesia. While India and China can be seen to provide aquatic themes and patterns for transformation, the emphasis in this course will focus on local ingenuity, how technologies of water use and control at ancient sites in Southeast Asia can be seen to shape vivid symbologies, performing past and present. The course will be taught at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum.