Staying with the Trouble

Presented by S.E.A. FOCUS

Staying with the Trouble takes its title from Donna Haraway’s 2016 book, which calls for a reconfiguration of our relationship to the Earth and its many inhabitants. The phrase also emphasises the potential of individual and collective agency, of sitting with the discomfort and lesser known, as gestures towards more hopeful futures. In this panel, we bring together artists Arahmaiani, Shubigi Rao and Kristian Marc-James Paul to explore how they navigate these tensions in their various roles and expansive practices, and consider what forms of agency can be activated through artistic, curatorial, and collective practices.

Speakers:
Arahmaiani – Artist, Indonesia
Shubigi Rao – Artist, Writer, Curator, Singapore
Kristian Marc-James Paul – Activist, Writer, Singapore

Moderated by:
Zoe Butt – Artistic Director, deCentral and Founder, in-tangible institute

Arahmaiani | Artist, Indonesia

Arahmaiani Is an artist, activist, poet and writer.She has long been internationally recognized for her powerful commentaries on social, political, cultural and environmental issues. And has been working as a guest lecture in Passau University, Germany in the last 12 years (teaching every summer semester). She also used to teach in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (2006-2008). Her own identity as Muslim mediates between Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and animist beliefs. She has been working with communities dealing with environmental, sosial-political and cultural issue in Indonesia and abroad. Creating a long term community base art project called “Flag Project” since 2006 (since then she has been working with Islamic boarding school community in Yogyakarta). Then working with various community in Indonesia and abroad. And since 2010 she has been working with Tibetan monks & the lay people in Tibet Plateau dealing with environmental issue till today.

Shubigi Rao | Artist, Writer, Curator, Singapore

Shubigi Rao’s films, art, and books critically, wittily, and poetically scrutinise histories and lies, literature and violence, ecologies and natural history, libraries and knowledge death. Her long-term ‘Pulp’ project has won the 2018 APB Signature Prize Juror’s Choice Award and twice the Singapore Literature Prize for nonfiction (2020 and 2024). Recent solos include exhibitions at Tensta Konsthall, and Bildmuseet, Sweden; Ngutu Kaka Gallery, New Zealand, and Rockbund Art Museum, China. Rao represented Singapore at the National Pavilion in the Venice Biennale in 2022 and was the Artistic Director for the 2022 Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

Kristian Marc-James Paul | Activist, Writer, Singapore

Kristian (he/him) is an activist and writer. He is the co-editor of Brown is Redacted: Reflecting on Race in Singapore (2022), an anthology on minority race narratives in Singapore. He has written for Channel News Asia, Jom, and Mekong Review and was a contributing author to We Are Not The Enemy: The Practice of Advocacy in Singapore (2024). Kristian is also a Learning & Development professional, facilitating intergroup dialogues and partnering with various organisations to run community discussions on masculinity and male allyship.

Zoe Butt | Artistic Director, deCentral and Founder, in-tangible institute

A curator, writer and educator. In 2025, she was appointed Artistic Director of ‘deCentral’, a forthcoming social enterprise for the arts, opening in Thailand in 2027. Zoe is the founder of ‘in-tangible institute’, a curatorial platform in Chiang Mai (established 2022), nurturing locally-responsive infrastructure for the arts across Southeast Asia. Possessing an extensive exhibition, publishing and public-speaking history globally, previously leading artist-driven initiatives for over 15 years in China and Vietnam; Zoe holds a PhD by Published Works, University of Westminster, London and is currently Lead Advisor, Kadist Art Foundation.