Art Asia Pacific 141 November December 2024

Mandy El-Sayegh
Pratchaya Phinthong
Anicka Yi
Wu Jiaru
Chan Hau Chun
15th Gwangju Biennale

Amid the hustle and bustle of the post-pandemic economy, we find ourselves contending with the multilayered, complex madness of the world today. We live in an era of deepfakes, echo chambers, rabbit holes, and disappearing histories. To what degree then might art serve as a conduit, a vehicle, or even a mouthpiece for our collective desires, or as a way to understand, or even escape, the chaos, and find elements of reality that we can grasp?

For the cover feature this issue, ArtAsiaPacific scrapes back the myriad layers of political engagement and deep historical resonances that are built up—both literally and figuratively—on the large canvases of painter and performance artist Mandy El-Sayegh. By way of the late sociopolitical theorist Frantz Fanon’s notion of “violence which is just under the skin,” assistant editor Anna Lentchner sees a connection between El-Sayegh’s own health struggles and her efforts to tie together the philosophies that underscore the continued repression of the powerless.