[UAAC 2021] Complicated Politics in Contexts: Participation in Art in Asia

Ji Eun Sung Discussion
Type: 
Call for Papers
Date: 
May 16, 2021
Location: 
Canada
Subject Fields: 
Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Asian History / Studies, Colonial and Post-Colonial History / Studies, Cultural History / Studies

Art historians and performance art scholars have discussed participation as a radical method generating political power in art, particularly against capitalism, the institutionalization of art, and patriarchy. While this discourse grew primarily from Euro-North American contexts, artworks in Asia, from the East to the South, show different conceptions and materializations of participation within the experiences of colonialism and decolonization and the disparate temporalities of contemporaneity, modernization, and economic development. Participation in these examples, thus, takes various subjects —artist, audience, or art—, diverse forms—painting, theatre, popular culture, and theory—and contrasting ends—art’s social engagement, the advanced avant-garde art, and the material and intellectual development of the nation. As such, they complicate and sometimes object to the presumed politics of participation. Focusing on the variegated kinds of participation in art in Asia, this session welcomes presentations from art historians, artists, and scholars, whose investigation and practices would expand the geographical, historical, and political topography of participation.

(The conference will take place online.)

Please submit your abstract (max. 300 words) and bio to Camille Sung at the University of British Columbia (camille.j.sung@gmail.com), using this form: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1grIE8AwmDPCBGZcFethsqzY0l66NcidW/view

Contact Info: 

If you have questions or would like to submit an abstract, please contact the chair of the session, Ji Eun (Camille) Sung.

Contact Email: