Queer communities in Southeast Asia and its diaspora have long been and will continue to be, actively reclaiming and reimagining historical narratives, memory work, and heritage-making in the face of growing political and social opposition. This chapter highlights their efforts to redefine traditional narratives and assert self-determination through reimagining the past. Central to this effort is the insistence on queer ancientness: that queer ways of life in Southeast Asia are far from being a recent Western influence. They represent a long-standing heritage that have always belonged to them, just as it did to their ancestors.
Driven by the waning enthusiasm for Ludruk, an oral-based performance art tradition with roots in 19th-century East Java, and the imperative to preserve the history of non-binary ancestors in Indonesia, the work of Tamarra’s (Yogyakarta) takes shape. Utilizing mixed mediums in painting, Suriya Sam-Khuth (Minnesota) a Cambodian-American artist, maps out the journey of shapeshifting, digging into dreams of connectivity with older Khmer parents and grandparents via practice of growing her hair. In his photo-video essay, Hoo Fan Chon (Penang) documents the journey of childhood friends Anita and Ava as they explore their gender identity through photography. This work offers insight into the intertwined history of Malaysia’s transgender community life in the 1950s and 1960s, a period marked by a more playful relationship between gender non-conformity and urban development.
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Bongkar Pasang (Overhaul)
Tamarra
2024
Sculpture from raffia crochet, wooden mask, strings of bell
Courtesy of the artist\
Uri-uri Ludruk (Preserving Ludruk)
Tamarra
2024
Self-portrait series printed on fabrics
Courtesy of the artist
Dream-Messenger
Suriya Sam-Khuth
2023
Mixed media: cotton linter, indigo fabric dye, Bombay ink, acrylic ink
Courtesy of the artist
Notes on Body-Wandering
Suriya Sam-Khuth
2023
Mixed media: cotton linter, indigo fabric dye, Bombay ink, acrylic ink
I Enjoy Being a Girl
Hoo Fan Chon
2022
Single-channel video, 37.15 min, archive photos in an album
Courtesy of the artist