Ken George

The Australian National University, School of Culture, History and Language, Faculty Member

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kmgeorge cv 2023

Ken George CV, 2023

CV - 2023 June

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Papers by Ken George

The theopolitics of art

Political theologies and development in Asia

Spirited Politics: Religion and Public Life in Contemporary Southeast Asia

... In Craig Calhoun&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s formulation, nationalism accomplishes two things ... more ... In Craig Calhoun&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s formulation, nationalism accomplishes two things of special interest to us:16 First, it potentially obscures recognition of subnational discourses and diverse counterpublics through its emphasis on the discourse of the national whole and the national ...

Felling a Song with a New Ax: Writing and the Reshaping of Ritual Song Performance in Upland Sulawesi

The Journal of American Folklore, 1990

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After All: In Place of an Afterword

Indonesia

Unsur[e] Kaligrafi: On Aceh, Islamic Art, and the Terrain of Indonesian Multiculturalism

Antropologi Indonesia

Tulisan ini melukiskan beberapa kecemasan yang menimpa pelukis Aceh, A.D. Pirous dan publik yang ... more Tulisan ini melukiskan beberapa kecemasan yang menimpa pelukis Aceh, A.D. Pirous dan publik yang dibayangkannya, menjelang pameran besar-yang dimaksudkan sebagai sebuah retrospeksi-pada bulan Maret 2002, di Galeri Nasional, Jakarta. Kecemasan ini berakar dalam beragam bahasa, ortografi dan wacana yang belum baku. Keadaan 'goyah' ini tampak ketika 'Kesenian Islam Indonesia Kontemporer' dipertunjukkan, dipromosikan, dan didiskusikan secara publik. Ini semua berpuncak pada dorongan akan sensor terhadap diri sendiri dan pada berbagai perubahan yang dilakukan pada menit terakhir pada lukisanlukisan, katalog, dan kaos oblong untuk promosi, dan pada catatan-catatan etnografis yang disusun penulis, tentang karier pelukis. Jelas bahwa perilaku seperti ini merupakan bahagian budaya politik yang memungkinkan bertemunya Islam, Indonesia, Arab, Aceh dan seni itu sendiri dalam publik kesenian Islam kontemporer di Jakarta, dan sekaligus juga menjadi respons terhadap negara dan terhadap kekerasan gerakan separatis di Aceh. Dalam semua ini akan tampak jangkauan global dari kebudayaan visual Islam dan sirkulasinya dalam dan melalui bahasa publik negara Indonesia.

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Felling a Song with a New Ax: Writing and the Reshaping of Ritual Song Performance in Upland Sulawesi

The Journal of American Folklore

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No Ethics Without Things

Journal of Religious Ethics

Just as recognition and pursuit of the human good take place in language and action, so too do th... more Just as recognition and pursuit of the human good take place in language and action, so too do they unfold in encounter with the material and visual. The ethical crises, projects, and striving we see in everyday religious life are worked out not just in the intersubjective play and politics of language but also in encounter with, in dwelling with, material and visual substances and forms. This essay considers the material conditions that make possible the "ethical pleasures" sought by Indonesian painter A. D. Pirous in making and displaying contemporary works of "Islamic art," most especially works that make "visual recitation" of passages from the Qur'an.

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Art and Identity Politics: Nation, Religion, Ethnicity, Elsewhere

Asian and Pacific Cosmopolitans, 2007

Revelations and Compulsions

This chapter contains sections titled: Self and the Spectre of ComparisonMaking Spirit MatterThe ... more

Politik Kebudayaan Di Dunia Seni Rupa Kontemporer

Conclusion: A Retrospective

Afterword: Choosing a Frame

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Becoming a Muslim Citizen and Artist

This chapter contains sections titled: BeginningsBecoming an Artist-CitizenThe Darkening SkyBegin... more

The Art of Secularism: The Cultural Politics of Modernist Art in Contemporary India (Zitzewitz)

Museum Anthropology Review, 2015

Reviewed by Kenneth M. George Karin Zitzewitz's smart, discerning, and welcome new book, The Art ... more Reviewed by Kenneth M. George Karin Zitzewitz's smart, discerning, and welcome new book, The Art of Secularism, is a study of Indian modernism and modern art in a time of crisis. The crisis is a broadly political one-the rise of Hindu nationalism and religious communal politics since the 1980s and with them the continued erosion of a Nehruvian secular nation-state dedicated to religious pluralism and tolerance. It is Zitzewitz's view that "art is one of the most publicly prominent domains of secular cultural expression in India" and a "uniquely important site from which to explore the thickness of the epistemic category of the secular in India, including its constraints and productivities" (154-55). Given the relatively limited scale and reach of India's art public (mentioned or hinted at a few times in the book), I wonder if other fields of sociopolitical or intellectual activity (e.g., jurisprudence, feminism) go somewhat farther than the art world in setting the terms of debate about secularism (and its defense) in that country. More soundly persuasive, I think, is Zitzewitz's success in showing the special vulnerability of India's modernist art world to communalist and sectarian sentiments, especially in its handling of Hindu and Muslim religious iconographies. So, too, her demonstration of the ways modernist art practices, art ideologies, and art institutions have contributed to the field of Indian secularism. Readers will come away from the book firmly convinced of art's role in the formation of the secular, and secularism's role in the formation of art.

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Spiritual Notes in the Social World

Picturing Islam, 2010