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This dissertation examines the trace of circumcision in modern Malaysian art. The term ‘Malaysian’ is used in this dissertation to refer to Malaysians of Malay descent with Islamic affiliation.1 This research is premised on the hypothesis that the cultural politics that defines the works produced by artists of Malay-Muslim affiliation is constituted by the discourse of the body. This research takes the task of locating this hypothesis in a selection of paintings by these artists. I argue that circumcision, which in Malaysia is understood as the obligatory and identifying mark of the Malay-Muslim (male and female, to varying degrees), is a significant trope underlying the themes of the graphic mark, the body and social power in the production of personal, ethno-religious and national identities.

Modernity dislocated Malay/sian-Muslims from their rural settings and ethno-religious traditions. This led to a crisis of identity which was resolved by marking the body with signs of Islam - speech, attire and diet – in order to maintain a sense of identity and continuity. Significantly, these embodied practices were also accompanied by the sustained presence of circumcision as an ethno-religious and national index. Given the current status of circumcision in Malaysia as an exclusive mark of Islamic identity, I argue in this dissertation that an analysis of modern Malaysian art through the trope of circumcision would be beneficial to: (1) explore the body as a symbolic object or an artifact in which histories and ideologies are localized; and (2) explore the status of the body as not simply a surface that host marks but is itself a collection of marks from the beginning.

In relation to modern art, this analysis interrogates the figurative-abstract dichotomy in art criticism, in particular as pertains to abstract expressionism, and identifies the possibility of understanding of non-figurative art, i.e. the absenting of the body, as itself a discourse of the body. I argue that this understanding of the body is crucial if one is to address the Malay/sian scenario fully, where the Malay-Muslim body outside the canvas is systematically marked while within the canvases of Malay-Muslim artists, generally speaking, the body is exiled. This is done so that they may be filled with abstract motifs taken from traditional indigenous and/or Arabo-Islamic traditions. In this dissertation I juxtapose these seemingly disparate realms of marking in order to investigate the shaping of Malay-Muslim flesh and canvases into the bodies of the nation. What this study seeks to accomplish ultimately is an understanding of the roles of mark and marking in the formation of the individual and the social body by looking at the relationship between inscription, the inscribed and the inscribing body.

Contents
Supervisory Committee
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1:Modern Malaysian Art: Historical Overview (1930s – 1990s) and the Subject of the Body

Introduction
Modern Malaysian Art: A Historical Overview
The Body in Modern Malay/sian Art
Islamicization of the Body and its Implications on
the Readings of Modern Malaysian Art

Chapter 2: Circumcision and its Vicissitudes

Introduction
Ritual Description
‘Petala Indera’ or Garuda
The Ritual Meal
Incest Symbolisms in Malay Circumcision
Female Circumcision
Conclusion: Circumcision and its Implication
On Modern Malay/sian Art

Chapter 3: The Body Dressed: Textilization of Painting in Modern Malay/sian Art

Introduction
The Body in/of Inscription
Batik as the National Body
The Maternal Batik
Conclusion

Chapter 4: The Body Gestured: Abstract Expressionism in Modern Malay/sian Art

Introduction
The Malaysian Encounter with Abstract Expressionism 144-152
The Expressionist Landscape
Calligraphy, the Body and the Nation
Conclusion

Chapter 5: Conclusion
Bibliography

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