Soyoon Ryu

This dissertation weaves the histories of four collectives that mobilized artistic collectivization to engage with the processes of settlement, occupation, and administration of the land they inhabited. Focusing on nonmetropolitan and rural regions throughout East and Southeast Asia, it forges an interregional network of artists in contrast with the nation-state and city-centered approaches dominant in narratives of contemporary art. With an eye to a more equitable history of artistic collectivization, the project further devises a bottom-up, feminist archival practice to document histories of members and collaborators in addition to the founders. Lastly, the project introduces a hybrid format of publication – one that blends written dissertation with a multi-channel video installation of non-linear narrative films – to reflect its geopoetic approach that binds East and Southeast Asia into a new critical and imaginative regionality.