“The Politics and Optics of How the Sultans of Java ‘Accidentally’ Became Colonial Brides”
4:45 PM on Wednesday, February 6th, 2024
Goldwin Smith Hall G22
Abstract:
Black and white photographs from the Dutch colonial eras captured the Sultans of Java and the Dutch governor residents standing side by side comparable to a bride and groom in a wedding photograph. This talk looks both closely and broadly at these “Happy Marriage” photographs of the Sultans of Java and the Dutch Resident Governors and considers the cultural and political legibility of these photographs within historical and postcolonial contexts.
Biography:
Born in the cosmopolitan village of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Boreth Ly is an associate professor of Southeast Asian art history and visual culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She co-edited with Nora A. Taylor, Modern and Contemporary Art of Southeast Asia (2012). In addition, she has written numerous articles and essays on the arts and films of Southeast Asia and its diaspora. Academically trained as an art historian, Ly employs multidisciplinary methods and theories in her writings and analysis, depending on the subject matter. Ly’s research focuses on the intersection between memory and historical trauma. She authored, Traces of Trauma: Cambodian Visual Culture and National Identity in the Aftermath of Genocide (University of Hawai’i Press, 2022).
