SOAS International Academic Conference 'Making the Subject of Portraiture in a Trans-Asian Context'

The symposium focused on the portraiture of Asia with two specific purposes in mind.

First, to decentre studies of Asian portraiture from Eurocentric conceptions of subjecthood and thus to expand the field of portraiture studies; second, to foreground the connections, transfers and tensions articulated by portraiture within trans-Asian contexts. It was completely hybrid allowing both online and in person presenters and attendees with panels distributed across three days to allow participation from people based in different time zones.

Twenty three scholars from European, UK and USA institutions presented their research in seven panels that covered contemporary and historical topics, dealing with issues related to gendered subjectivities, the role of ethnicity in the configuration of the self, how technology employs portraiture as a medium of both creation and surveillance, and the different ways in which text interacts with images in portraiture to construct identity, amongst other topics.

'Making the Subject of Portraiture in a Trans-Asian Context' was attended by scholars and students from abroad and from SOAS who contributed with their ideas, allowing important conversations about a largely under researched topic. The conference's aims of exploring how subjectivities were and are portrayed in the cultural context of Asia and its diasporas has been largely fulfilled by their questions during the 30 minute long Q&A sessions. The interest on this event marks the interest on the topic and the beginning of a more prolonged discussion into the field of portraiture studies of Asia and its diasporas.

Main image; Pha Ouan Aphakaro (right) poses with a wax portrait statue he has commissioned of his preceptor Somdet Pha Sangkhalat Dhammayana Maha Thela, Supreme Patriarch of Laos, in a workshop in Nong Khai or Bangkok, Thailand, 1990. Collection of Vat Saen Sukharam, Luang Prabang. Buddhist Archive No. B8958R.