Every Day Art (Asynchronous)
Featured Can We Design Freedom? : Textiles, Steganography, and Acts of Resistance View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kelsey Leib
Throughout history, everyday things have held hidden messages in order to help populations survive, resist, and thrive. This paper focuses on the textile arts and how they have been used to communicate in various cultures. I introduce textiles through the perspectives of material culture and thing theory, then discuss historical examples of cloth being used as a method of secret communication. The kanga cloth of East Africa, quilts in the colonial-era United States, and Aripilleras in Chile are considered through the lens of textiles as communication channels. I conclude that these historical narratives are essential to the development of strong, resilient communities pushing for social change.
My Voice from Perth View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Layli Rakhsha
Andrew Stables (2019) suggests that “we live in isolated bubbles, either as individuals or as communities” (5). While social and global interactions are rapidly changing and increasing, local communications and reflections remain unchanged in art communities and cultural institutions. In this paper, I consider ideas about non-verbal and professional communications in the local art context and the influence of cultural institutions on the recognition for the local artists in Perth. As a local artist in Perth, Western Australia, I keep asking myself, why do I still make art, and how do my projects get recognised? To develop my discussion on these questions, I will look at my personal experiences as an artist and academic – specifically, from my position as an Iranian migrant, and my artistic investigations and developments in Perth. I will also look at how the professional connection between artists and institutions can impact the artist’s careers in Perth. I will examine some of my art projects, such as A long letter to home (2015-20) and Indian ocean ceremony (2020-21), to extend my discussion on the above points and to consider possible ways of sharing my voice with the local communities. Stables, Andrew. 2019. New Localism: Living in the Here and Now. London: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21579-8.
Black Trauma and White Viewers: The Work of Art in Claudia Rankine's "The White Card" View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christina Tourino
Art is central to Claudia Rankine's recent play, "The White Card," (2018). Rankine's stage is a kind of museum which houses works of painting and photography that represent police violence against Blacks. A white art-collecting couple invites a Black female artist to their home in the hopes of commissioning work from her. However, she comes to understand that whiteness, not blackness ought to be the subject of her work. In this paper, I explore Rankine's effort to redirect white "help" from consumer and spectator of black victims to something else. I especially look at the way Rankine's inclusion of Marshall's "Heirlooms and Accessories" inflects the final tableau of the play, which is a revision of a scene of a female slave at auction. Rankine shows us that in order to have art that has any chance of expressing something like a Black point of view, we need to reframe the entire enterprise.
Beyond the Guggenheim-Bilbao: Cultural Districts of Museums and Heritage Landscapes View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jesús Pedro Lorente
Urban development has always been marked by the dialectics of ideals projected from the top down or build up from the bottom up: our present fascination for cultural districts derives from the glamour of some historic precedents and contemporary paradigms. Compared to successful international models, such as the so-called 'Bilbao effect', other specific examples in Spain and abroad appear rather controversial. The debates and the academic production on this topic are always growing, especially after the publications by Richard Florida about the impact of the `creative class'. But the success or failure of the creative sector should not be analysed only from its economic paybacks; it seems obvious that the study of arts-led urban revitalization must be researched as well taking into account intrinsic elements within the arts sector. Drawing on case studies and arguments developed in the framework of an ongoing research project, it is intended to produce a redefinition of a 'cultural district' as a specific urban area with a high density of cultural agents and activities, where the arts can play a key role.
Art Saudization: Saudi Creative Practice and the Social System View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fatemah Alqahtani
This paper is part of a current doctoral project that explores the impact of Saudi socio-cultural norms on visual art, with a special focus on Saudi female artists. It considers how these socio-cultural norms, including local mindsets, influence the creative experience of contemporary Saudi art. I am investigating the nature of Saudi society from within, by exploring how Saudi citizens interact with contemporary visual art, according to their local, social, and learnt perspectives. Importantly, I am analysing the intellectual and influential factors that have shaped the collective behaviour of Saudi people in relation to the arts, incorporating significant events within Saudi history, and their impact on the arts. The outcomes of the observations of my culture are important as ethnographic information; they articulate both personal experiences and broader cultural changes. The acknowledgment of current weaknesses in public Saudi visual art is the first step to overcome any problems, and to assist in developing a more mature Saudi art experience in a Global and National context.
The Roles of Art in Everyday Life: Socially Engaged Art and Community Development View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Satomi Tozawa
This research examines the function of art in establishing equal relationships between residents in multi-cultural communities. Global international migration has resulted in diverse racial, cultural and socio-economic disparities requiring effective methods of securing equality within such communities. Community development research demonstrates that mutual-approval is a key factor for social inclusion. This research focuses on art as a tool for that purpose. Drawing from theories of Socially Engaged Art, qualitative data analysis utilized an observer/interviewer method at Art City, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Participants were observed and interviews conducted with the founder and full-time staff. Analysis identified that participants should be encouraged to express themselves freely with a focus on process rather than completion of products as the preferred approach to revitalizing communities with multiple inequalities. The locale includes a large indigenous population. Art City provides residents with opportunities to feel part of the community through creative activities. By inserting art in the public sphere, the boundaries between residents as audience and participants as artists blur. This brings a sense of equality to the community. Further work should include in-depth interviews with residents to reveal their alternation of consciousness through art.
Artistic Co-creation at Liceu Opera House: Collaboration Across the Raval Neighbourhood View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anna Matamala, Eva Garcia, Irene Calvis
Liceu Opera House is a 174-year-old institution in Barcelona and has an active inclusion and accessibility policy. As part of the TRACTION project (https://www.traction-project.eu/), the opera house aims to co-create an opera with participants from Raval neighbourhood, a challenging project which aims to have an impact on the neighbourhood and on the institution itself. Technology for co-creation developed as part of the project will have an important role in the process, as it will facilitate participation and communication. In this paper we focus on the first group of co-creation workshops carried out at Liceu with Sínia occupational center, which involves persons with disabilities, and Massana arts school. The study describes the process of co-creation of the graphic design of the opera poster and of the images to be included in the opera hand programme. We show the results obtained so far, and discuss how the impact of the co-creation process on the different agents involved is being evaluated.
Mapping the Agency of Trash: How Contemporary Indian Artists and Their Materials Co-construct a Work of Art View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tanvi Jain, Shatarupa Thakurta Roy
In view of the growing concerns and innate creative potential of waste, reconsidering the role of waste materials and materiality as active components in the conception, making, and interpretation of art becomes imperative. Dialogues related to re-contextualization and recuperation of trash in the art are no longer radical, at least considering the early twentieth century’s preoccupation with trash, which profoundly impacted the evolution of art. However, dominant scholarships paying heed to the representational and conceptual analysis of waste in art calls for equally nuanced attention to think of material (trash in this case) as an active agent in a work of art. The intention is to understand the works of art as the result of multiple factors involved, including human and non-human, from a new materialist perspective. The study offers a re-reading of the art practice of twenty-first-century Indian artists by exploring all facets of how trash operates conceptually and physically. It intends to do so by discussing the position of trash in Indian contemporary art within the context of three approaches, namely Relics, Metaphor/symbol, and Substance/physical matter. The qualitative method of case studies is implemented to analyze the practice of selected artists and consequently deduce general principles. Multiple sources of evidence support each case study, including personal interviews, concept notes, and artist statements from artists’ blogs and websites, research papers, printed interviews, art magazine essays, and exhibition catalogs. The study offers an extended interpretation of materials and objects in art where meaning and material are mutually constructive.
