Asian and Asian Diasporic Art in Comparative Perspectives

In the 21^st century, war, labor, capital flow and the rise of authoritarianism have once again engendered migrant and refugee relocation to various continents around the world. As diasporic communities continue - in some cases - to emerge and - in others - to grow, their relationship to supposed homelands is supplemented by increasing accessibility and affordability made possible by digital technologies. Yet, the theoretical framework of diasporic studies has come under critical scrutiny as diasporic communities find themselves, over time, becoming localized and folded into host nations. In a world characterized as a “global digital village,” does the homeland/diaspora dichotomy continue to hold salience? How might contemporary art hold the potential for a heteroglossia, to draw from Mikael Bakhtin, of the Asian art world? We invite submissions that examine contemporary art created by Asian and Asian Diasporic artists for a comparative perspective of how homeland/diaspora/host nation intertwine, overlap, or otherwise merge into one another. We seek to interrogate the efficacy and usability of the term diaspora as location, as theory, and as lived experience to better understand and negotiate the realities of diasporic artists and to probe at both the assumed and real intimacies between “Asia” as a concept and a continent and its various diasporas.