BOOK REVIEW: ART AND HUMAN RIGHTS: CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CONTEXTS Melanie Eastburn – TAASA Review September 2017

Witnessing to silence featured exhibitions, presentations and performances by artists from Australia and far beyond including Fiona Foley, Guan Wei, William Kentridge, Nalini Malani and Australia-based Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto. practices and histories of three or four artists whose work relates to the overall subject of the chapter.

For instance `The artist as cultural and political activist’ delves into the work of Wong Hoy Cheong from Malaysia, Dadang Christanto and Thailand’s Vassan Sitthiket. Art and human rights: Contemporary Asian contexts Caroline Turner and Jen Webb Manchester University Press, 2016 RRP: $75 hardcover, $22 paperback; 232 pages Caroline Turner and Jen Webb’s Art and human rights: Contemporary Asian contexts brings together over 30 years of work in this significant area for research.

Webb, a cultural theorist and writer, is Distinguished Professor in Creative Practice and Director of the Centre for Creative and Collaborative Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra while Turner is a senior research fellow at the Australian National University’s Humanities Research Centre. As co-founder and project director, Turner was instrumental to the development of the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art project at the Queensland Art Gallery and was actively involved in the 1993, 1996 and 1999 exhibitions...