Abstract
In this paper, a cis-gendered, white female artist/researcher employs “jarring” as a speculative adventure (Rousell, 2021) into social engaged art (Helguera, 2011) as a participatory process. Drawing from affect theory (Manning & Massumi, 2014; Stewart, 2002; 2010) and titled the Jarring Affects of Participatory Practice, the installation, which is comprised of over 150 jars, offers a critical reappraisal of participatory art through the creation of a material register of natural, manufactured, and hand-crafted items, loosely and directly related to the Linnentown Mosaic Project (LMP). The LMP was a year and half long effort to create a participatory tile and mirror mosaic to honor Linnentown, a mostly Black neighborhood in Athens, Georgia which was erased in the 1960’s through urban renewal. Backed by funding from the US Housing Renewal Act the destruction of Linnentown was not unlike efforts occurring nationwide at that time, in what Baldwin (2015) referred to as UniverCities (Kahler & Harrison, 2019). Just one of countless acts of violence committed in the U.S. against Blacks in what Christina Sharpe (2016) refers to as the wake of chattel slavery, Linnentown’s erasure represents how the wealth of Black families was taken, impacting families and communities drastically. The interactive display invites the creation of jars and participatory arrangement by viewers as a contemplative gesture related to aesthetic/political/institutional challenges associated with art designed with social justice aims. Iterations related to display as well as multiple sites continues to offer new perspectives about social practice.
Presenters
Lynn Sanders-BustleAssociate Professor of Art Education, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Georgia, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—-New Aesthetic Expressions: The Social Role of Art
KEYWORDS
Socially Engaged Art, Art Activism, Social Justice, Race
