Empathic Ecologies
Contemporary Southeast Asian Video Works
Screening / Book Launch / Discussion
Curated by Brianne Cohen
Films by Khvay Samnang, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Zarina Muhammad, Zachary Chan, and Joel Tan
Empathic Ecologies
Join us tonight for a book launch and screening of video works by, Khvay Samnang, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Zarina Muhammad, Zachary Chan, and Joel Tan. After the screening, there will be a short Q&A with Brianne Cohen, associate professor of contemporary art history at the University of Colorado Boulder, for her book launch of The Empathic Lens: Art, Animism, and Ecology in Contemporary Southeast Asia (University of Minnesota, 2026), moderated by Lauren Collins, director of the Center for Asian Studies program at CU Boulder. Refreshments will be provided.
Brianne Cohen is an art historian and Associate Professor at CU Boulder, specializing in contemporary art and visual culture in the public sphere, with a particular focus on Europe and Southeast Asia. Her research and teaching explore issues of empire and decolonization, violence prevention, ecology and the environment, and health and medical issues. Her first book Don’t Look Away: Art, Nonviolence, and Preventive Publics in Contemporary Europe (Duke University Press, 2023, open access) examines contemporary art that grapples with cross-cultural affiliation and the active imagining of nonviolence in 21st-century Europe. Her second book, The Empathic Lens: Art, Animism, and Ecology in Contemporary Southeast Asia (forthcoming fall 2026, University of Minnesota Press, open access), continues investigations into histories of imperial violence and artistic-public resistance to such aggression. Brianne has co-edited an open-access volume Deep Horizons: A Multi-sensory Archive of Ecological Affects and Prospects (Amherst College Press, 2023), which traverses multiple disciplines and diverse forms (essays, poems, multimedia artworks) as an “archive of feelings” in response to the climate crisis. Additionally, Brianne co-edited The Photofilmic: Entangled Images in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture (Leuven University Press and Cornell University Press, 2016), which explores the different ways that art, cinema, and other forms of visual culture respond to a digitized, networked world, where traditional discourses of medium specificity, developed in distinct disciplines, fail to provide an adequate description of the transformations that photography and film have undergone. Before arriving at CU Boulder in 2017, she also held Visiting Assistant Professor positions at Amherst College and Brown University. Read more about Brianne’s forthcoming bookThe Empathic Lens: Art, Animism, and Ecology in Contemporary Southeast Asia HERE.
Lauren Collins is a scholar whose work explores memory politics in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. At Colorado University, Boulder, she oversees the curricular aspects of the Asian Studies program, teaching lecture courses that introduce students to this incredibly diverse region and in-depth seminars that explore topics such as urbanization, U.S. China relations, and the politics of memory. Lauren also enthusiastically advises students interested in conducting their own research on various aspects of culture, history, and politics in Asia, broadly construed.
Khvay Samnang is one of Cambodia's most prominent and internationally recognized contemporary artists. His multidisciplinary practice spans performance, photography, video, sculpture, and installation art. His work frequently tackles the humanitarian and ecological impacts of colonialism, globalization, and rapid environmental degradation in Cambodia. Khvay lives and works in Phnom Penh, but his work is exhibited globally. He has participated in major international exhibitions, including Documenta 14 and 15 in Kassel, Germany, the Biennale of Sydney, the Taipei Biennial, and the Asia Pacific Triennial. He has also held solo exhibitions at the Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Haus der Kunst in Munich. He is a founding member of Stiev Selapak (Art Rebels), a collective established in 2007 to revive visual arts after decades of war. Through this collective, he co-founded pioneering spaces like Sa Sa Art Projects—a community-based, knowledge-sharing platform and residency program supporting emerging Cambodian artists.
Nguyen Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based independent filmmaker and video/media artist. Her diverse practice has consistently investigated the role of memory in the necessary unveiling of hidden, displaced or misinterpreted histories; and examined the position of artists in the Vietnamese society. Nguyen studied journalism, photography, international relations and ethnographic film in the United States. Her films and video art works have been shown at festivals and art exhibitions including the Jeu de Paume, Paris; CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux; the Lyon Biennale 2015; Asian Art Biennial 2015, Taiwan; Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial 2014; Singapore Biennale 2013; Jakarta Biennale 2013; Oberhausen International Film Festival; Bangkok Experimental FilmFestival; Artist Films International; DEN FRIE Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen; and Kuandu Biennale, Taipei. Nguyen is founder and director of Hanoi DOCLAB, an independent center for documentary film and the moving image art in Hanoi since 2009.
Zarina Muhammad is an artist, educator, and researcher whose practice interweaves text, sound, moving image, ritual performance, installation and participatory cartographies to explore spectral ecologies, ancestral technologies and the politics of place. Her ongoing research delves into subterranean water systems, shipwreck cosmologies, geo-spirited terrains and transcultural knowledge systems across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Engaging with notions of ecological witnessing and decolonial memory, her work has been widely presented at international biennales and institutions, most recently a solo presentation at the Singapore Pavilion—curated by Shubigi Rao—within the ASEAN pavilions of the 15th Gwangju Biennale.Zarina is the recipient of the 2022 IMPART Art Prize. She is currently part of Actions for the Earth, a travelling exhibition produced by Independent Curators International and is developing new site-responsive installations across transregional coastal and riverine landscapes.
Zachary Chan is a Singaporean multidisciplinary artist whose practice bridges the worlds of sonic arts, visual communications, and graphic design. His diverse body of work explores the intersections of sound and space, frequently unfolding through collaborative projects that span experimental films, theatre plays, video games, storytelling, and immersive art installations. Chan’s unique sonic vocabulary is deeply informed by his background as a gamelan musician. He performs regularly with notable ensembles such as Gamelan Singa Nglaras and Gamelan Singamurti. A highly sought-after collaborator within the Southeast Asian contemporary arts scene, Chan has worked alongside prominent experimental music groups, visual artists, and performance companies, including The Observatory, Bhaskar’s Arts Academy, and Tini Aliman. In addition to his collaborative productions, Chan maintains an active solo practice, most recently developing his ongoing project Second Heaven Revelations (2023–present).
Joel Tan is an acclaimed Singaporean playwright and screenwriter whose work interrogates Singapore's politics, society, and identity. He completed hisundergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and went on to earn a Master's in Dramatic Writing from Central Saint Martins in London. He has staged high-profile productions across Singapore and the UK, including Scenes from a Repatriation (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2025), No Particular Order (Theatre 503, 2022), Tango (Pangdemonium, 2017), and G*D IS A WOMAN (2023). His early plays are compiled in Joel Tan: Plays Volume.
Installation runs through November 2, 2026
This show was generously funded by the Division of Arts and Humanities at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Boulder County Commissioners Community Event Fund