Published weekly 2014 – 2020 and monthly 2022 onwards, Tuesday in the Tropics are short illustrated reports on what Tony Godfrey saw in South-east Asia and its art world. All, or nearly all, Tuesday in the Tropics will eventually be placed on this website – with an index. See No. 1 for why I write them.

Tuesday in the Tropics 175
13th March 2023

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 175

31st December 2023

Dear friends and colleagues

Alas, it is the last Tuesday of the month, not the first when you should have received the missive, but I have been ill. Or perhaps I should say “I realised I was ill.” I was...

Tuesday in the Tropics 174
13th March 2023

6th December 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

I may be 71 now but I am still trying to educate myself. The last two years I have been working hard to better understand music and those who make it. I bought a brilliant biography of Beethoven by Jan Swafford and as I read that, I listened to all the music that Beethoven...

Tuesday in the Tropics 173
13th March 2023

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 173

8th November 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

To continue where I left off last week:

South-east Asian artists at Venice

Tuesday in the Tropics 172
13th March 2023

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 172

1st November 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

Many apologies for my silence in October: I was away in the UK seeing children, grandchildren, other family and friends. Also, as I shall write about soon, I went to Venice,...

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 171
25th February 2023

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 171

6th September 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

The butterflies of Ibabao

It’s the rainy season here. During it, every year, flying termites emerge from...

Tuesday in the Tropics 170
7th August 2022

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 170

2nd August

Dear friends and colleagues

On “reading” exhibitions

How curious it is that after two and more years of pandemic to be getting back in the groove –...

Tuesday in the Tropics 169
7th August 2022

5th July 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

People have been asking me, “You spent a lot of time in Indonesia. Do you know Ade Darmawan, the most prominent of the artists in Ruangrupa who curated Dokumenta” “No,” is the answer, “but I worked with him briefly in a project I initiated eleven years ago. Ruangrupa are...

Tuesday in the Tropics 168
23rd June 2022

TUESDAY IN THE TROPICS 168

14th June 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

The intriguing exhibition by Pio Abad in the three rooms at the top of the Ateneo Art gallery that I mentioned last week may be termed an election special as it was all about the...

Tuesday in the Tropics 167
23rd June 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

Why?

Once again, we ask why did the lower classes vote for a Marcos rather than for a candidate who would have improved their lot by attacking corruption and making government more responsive to their needs.

Why, as more than one...

Tuesday in the Tropics 166
20th May 2022

Remembering John Milton (1608-1674)

As a dog returneth to its vomit

So a fool returneth to his folly. (Proverbs 26:11)

The dog is turned to its vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in her mire. (2 Peter...