Alexander Supartono
Alexander Supartono

Dr Alexander Supartono

Lecturer

 0131 455 3520

  A.Supartono@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

I am an art historian, curator, and educator committed to situating colonial and postcolonial visual culture—particularly photography—within an inclusive, decolonised global history of art. My work engages with collective art activism, interdisciplinary research, and the broader field of Southeast Asian Studies. I am member of Indonesian collective of art workers Taring Padi. I hold a BA in Social Philosophy from Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Jakarta, Indonesia (2001), an MA in Southeast Asian Study with an Art History specialisation from Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA (2010) and a PhD in Photography History from School of Art History, University of St Andrews, Scotland (2015). My training in Western Art and photography history and my curatorial practice in contemporary Southeast Asian art and photography have equipped me with the range of methodological tools and research skills necessary in linking Art History, Photography History and Critical Theory with art and photographic practice from the global south perspective.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Prix Pictet Photography Prize nominator, UK
  • 2021 Fineman New Photography Award judge, Australia
  • Reviewer Carnegie Trust Vacation Scholarship, UK
  • Scholar Advisory Group of PHAROS project, USA
  • Juror Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Photography, Singapore
  • Noorderlicht Associate Curator, the Netherlands

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editorial Advisory Board member "Photographies" journal
  • Editor journal "Southeast Asia Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia"
  • Guest Editor "Ojodepez" Photography Magazine
  • Advisory Board photography journal "Punctum: A Pan-Asian Point of View"
  • Editorial Board member "Trans-Asia Photography Review" journal

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Ground-Breaking Subject Matter Accolade for Dissertations in the Humanities, International Convention of Asia Scholars
  • Ford Foundation New York Researh Grant
  • Scottish Overseas Research Student Awards Scheme

 

Invited Speaker

  • The banner has been raised: The fabric of Taring Padi’s art as political tools, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Keynote on Art Collective and Social Realism in the 21st Century, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
  • Toxic Philantrophy vs. Autonomy and Unconditional Funding: Taring Padi experience, Calle del Morion, Venice, Italy
  • Educate, Agitate, Organise! Taring Padi and Art as Political Tools, University of the Philippines Diliman, Manila, the Philippines
  • Educate, Agitate, Organise! Taring Padi Collective and Art as Political Tools, KASK & Conservatorium, Ghent, Belgium
  • Taring Padi Collective and Art as Direct Political Practice, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
  • Collective Politic and Non-Align Art Movement, Tate Modern London, UK
  • What to do with People’s Justice banner, National Gallery Singapore
  • Qua vadis Documenta”, Roundtable discussion Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde, online event
  • Oops!... Petruk did it again: A Conversation about Mobilising Image and Image Mobilisation, documenta 15, Kassel, Germany
  • Taring Padi’s People’s Justice Banner in documenta fifteen: Colonial Legacies and Entangled Histories, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Banner People’s Justice: Geneologi Artistik Taring Padi dan Praktek Seni sebagai Alat Politik, Survive garage, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Native Vision, Photography in Southeast Asia, National Gallery Singapore
  • Industrial Craze: Photography and the 19th century Southeast Asian Cosmopolis, National Gallery Singapore
  • Lumbung dalam praktek: documenta fifteen, pengalaman ruangrupa dan Taring Padi, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Learning from Lumbung : a journey beyond Documenta fifteen, House of Indonesian Culture, Berlin, Germany
  • Styling the Colonial: The New Approach in Indonesian Colonial Photography, Harvard University Art Museum, USA
  • Appropriating the Colonial Past: A Case Study of Southeast Asian Artists, National Trust of Scotland, Edinburgh
  • Treasure Spots: Travel Albums and the Formulation of 19th century Southeast Asian Photographic Traditions, John Thomson: Reframing Material, Images and Archives symposium, SOAS London, UK
  • Constructing the Portrait of Southeast Asia: Pictorial and Thematic Commonplaces of 19th Century Southeast Asian Photography, Leiden University, The Netherlands
  • A Literate and Informed Practice: Historical and Theoretical Knowledge in Photography Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Shifting Powers: Digitality, Modularity and (Im)materiality in the 21st century Post-colonial Archive, Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies, Casco, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Revisiting Colonial Narratives: Contemporary Photography from Southeast Asia, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
  • From the Colonial Era to Contemporary Indonesian Photography, Borobudur to Bali: Past and Present of Photographic Art in Indonesia symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia

 

Media Activity

  • The Indonesian People Inspire Taring Padi to Create, Tricontinental Art Bulletin
  • Political self-portraits and Afro-Asian poetics: six must-see shows in Singapore, Art Basel, Belgium
  • Statues and Activism: Maestro Dolorosa Sinaga and Her Protege Illumintae Indonesia's Dark Past, Jakarta Post, Indonesia
  • Taring Padi: Tanah Tumpah Darah, Artlink, Australia
  • Taring Padi: 'Moslimfundamentalisted zien ons als bedreiging omdat we punk zijn', NRC, the Netherlands
  • Censure à la documenta 15, Diacritik, France
  • ‘We Take Ownership and Responsibility’: Indonesian Collective Taring Padi Reflects on the Controversy Over Their Art That Paralyzed Documenta, Artnet News, USA
  • Unser Theme ist Klasse, nicht Rasse, Die Zeit, Germany
  • A Radical Collective Takes Over One of the World's Biggest Art Shows, New York Time, USA
  • Reflecting on documenta fifteen: On the threshold of revolution? Metropolis, the Netherlands
  • 'Shaken to the core': the Indonesian art collective at the cenre of the Documenta 15 controversy, ABC Radio National, Australia

 

Visiting Positions

  • Tutor Lumbung Practice temporary master, Sandberg Instituut, in collaboration with de Appel (Amsterdam), and Gudskul (Jakarta)

 

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Date


40 results

Between recolonisation and decolonisation: Documenta 15 and the political decontextualisation of art

Journal Article
Bräuchler, B., & Supartono, A. (2025)
Between recolonisation and decolonisation: Documenta 15 and the political decontextualisation of art. Cultural Dynamics, 37(1-2), 88 - 105. https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740251323341
Documenta 15, a global exhibition of contemporary art that took place in 2022 in Germany, over a period of 100 days, stands out for two reasons: (1) for the first time documen...

Original Copy: Political Character of Woodcut Work

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2024, December)
Original Copy: Political Character of Woodcut Work. Presented at Symposium on Graphic Printmaking: Examining Character in Graphic Printmaking, University of Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
In 2019, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan hosted a ground-breaking survey exhibition featuring 400 woodcuts created across Asia from the 1930s to the 2010s. Titled "Blaze...

Othering Studio Portraiture Tradition in Colonial Southeast Asia

Book Chapter
Supartono, A. (in press)
Othering Studio Portraiture Tradition in Colonial Southeast Asia. In Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape. San José Museum of Art, California
The well-established colonial photography industry in Southeast Asia collapsed following the region’s long decolonisation process from mid 1940s to 1970s. Western (and a few J...

Accommodating Photography in Southeast Asian Museums

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Supartono, A. (2024, July)
Accommodating Photography in Southeast Asian Museums. Presented at International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 13), Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia
Owing to the ubiquity, multifaceted uses, and vast volume of photographs that exist in physical and online worlds, photography presents itself as a challenging practice for 21...

Sculpture and Activism: Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso

Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. Sculpture and Activism: Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso. 19 July 2024 - 7 November 2024

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Supartono, A. Sculpture and Activism: Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso. 19 July 2024 - 7 November 2024
Sculpture and Activism of Dolorosa Sinaga & Budi Santoso is an exhibition of two sculptors, Dolorosa Sinaga and Budi Santoso who come from two different generations and cultur...

Taring Padi Reader: Tanah Tumpah Darah

Book Chapter
Supartono, A., Goddard, A., Seroussi, B., Laurente, D., Framed, F., proppaNOW, & Padi, T. (2024)
Taring Padi Reader: Tanah Tumpah Darah. . Griffith University Art Museum
There is no adequate translation in English for the Indonesian tanah tumpah darah, the phrase Taring Padi employ as the title of their exhibition at the Griffith Univeristy Ar...

Tanah Tumpah Darah

Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2024)
Tanah Tumpah Darah. [Banner, Cardboard Puppets, Woodcut Prints]. 29 February 2024 - 25 May 2024
Taring Padi are a leading Indonesian collective of art workers with a mission to understand the cultural and social history of Indonesia through a contemporary lens. Based in ...

Customised Postures, (De)colonising Gestures

Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2024)
Customised Postures, (De)colonising Gestures. [Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Video and Installation]. 19 January 2024 - 18 April 2025
This exhibition aims to establish an interconnectivity between pictorial and thematic commonplaces of photography practice in colonial Southeast Asia and the contemporary art ...

Tanah Merdeka

Book Chapter
Supartono, A. (2023)
Tanah Merdeka. . Framer Framed
In 2011, Taring Padi published the book Art Smashing Tyranny. The publication recorded and contextualised the collective’s politically engaged practice against the ills of mil...

Tanah Merdeka

Exhibition / Performance
Supartono, A. (2023)
Tanah Merdeka. [Banner, Cardboard Puppets, Woodcut poster]. 25 June 2023 - 10 September 2023
Taring Padi’s works in utilising art as political tools in the past 25 years demonstrate that it has been and it will be colonialism, its continuous impacts and metamorphosis ...

Current Post Grad projects