All in Issues

The Artivism of Incantations in Isan

Artivism is not necessarily a harmonious intersection between art and activism—it may also result from a head-on collision. This article explores the art of Patiwat “Molam Bank” Saraiyaem, a Thai folk poet-singer and former student activist who has shied away from the label “activist.” How does one soldier on doing activism with a wounded soul? My answer: through the power of ritual poetry and performance in restoring wholeness as well as acknowledging brokenness. This argument is constructed through description, comparison, and analysis of the words, the emoting, and the reception in two incantatory poems by Patiwat. Isan, the term meaning the Northeast as well as the hybrid Lao vernacular of the region, unlocks an understanding of how Patiwat’s art both serves Thai pro-democracy activism and resists its dominant language and emotional regimen, sparking new activist possibilities in and beyond Isan.

2020 Special Issue: Translocality as Connections that Disrupt

This Special Issue explores the theme of translocality as connections that disrupt. The pieces in this issue vary in the degree to which they explicate ‘religion’. Yet, the uniting thread is how they invoke connections, and conceptual and physical flows across borders, both imagined and real. Simultaneously, this issue indicates that flows take place in fields of uneven power relations with (challenges to) hegemonic systems of being and thinking that are regarded as being self-evidently ‘in place’. Translocality, thus, also works against essentializing representations that support or authenticate the virtues and values of dominant religions and cultures.

2020 Summer Issue, Part 2, Innovation and Material Religion - Editorial

Our Summer 2020 issue on the theme of Innovation is the second of a two-part series that explores instances of creativity and change drawn from various parts of the globe – India, Thailand, and the Western world. Our offerings include a photo essay on jugaad practices among costumers in the Indian film industry, a photo essay on sensory and community aesthetics in a South Indian flower market, a photo essay on care practices and questions of change in Thailand, and an article by Aimee Hinds on how color (or its absence) perpetuates false racial narratives in modern classical reception of the Greco-Roman past.

2019-20 Winter Issue, Part 1, Innovation and Material Religion - Editorial

Our Winter 2019-20 Issue, Innovation, Part 1, explores different aspects of innovation with examples drawn from various parts of the world – India, South East Asia (Singapore and Cambodia), and the US. Our offerings include an article on worship in multicultural Singapore, a think-piece on innovation, an essay on how traditional rituals are being adapted for new publics in Cambodia, and a discussion with an Indian anthropologist about craft and heritage.

2019 Fall Issue, Landscapes and Material Religion - Editorial

Our Inaugural Issue on the theme of “Landscapes and Material Religion” deals with land and its representation as vital to life and identity. The Fall publications deal with ‘land’ and ‘scapes’ via a performance artwork in interior Java, Indonesia, the creation of a batik style called buketan in coastal Java, and the materializing of sacred landscapes in Pompeii, Italy.