Haffendi Anuar – A Life Beyond Boundaries (The Geography of Belonging)

Photo courtesy of JWD ART SPACE, Bangkok, Thailand

A Life Beyond Boundaries (The Geography of Belonging) was conceptualized as a large group visual art exhibition to discuss national belonging in the context of Southeast Asia. Curated by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, artists of different generations, including Richard Koh Fine Art’s Haffendi Anuar, were invited to consider the conceptions of identity and belonging beyond straightforward geographical perspectives premised in their observations on the meaning of nationality as an individual or as a community.

Borrowing its exhibition title from leading Southeast Asianist Benedict Anderson’s book A Life Beyond Boundaries in which the author reflects on nationalism, the exhibition offers an examination of the way these works question national identity by incorporating, dismantling and rejecting its symbols and connotations. While some stem from familiar icons or materials such as traditional textiles, symbols and techniques, other works draw inspiration from personal or communal concerns of national belonging, whose concept is further challenged by the pandemic-induced policing of national borders and by military repressions that are gravely mining democracy in specific Southeast Asian locations.

Taking place in the newly established JWD Art Space in Bangkok,A Life Beyond Boundaries (The Geography of Belonging) invites reflection on the framing of national representation, away from its connotation as a geopolitical construct to instead switch the emphasis to one’s placement in history and society from a regional, non-national perspective.