Our 2023 Sydney Asian Art Series scholar Melody Rod-ari was recently interviewed on ABC's Art Show.
Anklet(?) with Spiral Decoration, Thailand (Ban Chiang) ca. 300 BCE–200 CE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Daniel Browning from "The Art Show" on ABC recently interviewed our Sydney Asian Art Series Scholar in Residence Melody Rod-ari.
Melody discussed her work (which she pursued and shared while in Sydney) on the Ban Chiang archaelogical site in Thailand, and the extraordinary 3,500 year old objects found there - as well as the equally extraordinary story of theft, FBI raids and undercover art donors that has left these objects in museological limbo.
Follow the link here to listen to Melody's interview!
People
Melody Rod-ari
Melody Rod-ari is Associate Professor and Chair of Art History at Loyola Marymount University. She is also the Southeast Asian Content Editor for Smarthistory as well as an active curator who has organized exhibitions and permanent galleries for the Norton Simon Museum and the University of Southern California, Pacific Asia Museum. Her research investigates Buddhist visual culture in Thailand, and the history of collecting South and Southeast Asian art in America. Her work has been published by various journals and university presses and include topics such as “Returning ‘Home’: The Journey and Afterlife of Repatriated Objects (University of Florida Press, 2019) and “Who Owns Ban Chiang?: The Discovery, Collection and Repatriation of Ban Chiang Artefacts” (NUS Press, 2020).