Caring through art: Reimagining value as political practice | Intellect Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Art & the Public Sphere
  4. Volume 8, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 8, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2042-793X
  • E-ISSN: 2042-7948

Abstract

Recent feminist critiques of neo-liberalism have argued for care as an alternative structuring principle for political systems in crisis and have proposed that the transformation of the existing capitalist order demands the abolition of the (gendered) hierarchy between ‘care’ – the activities of social reproduction that nurture individuals and sustain social bonds – and economic production. Key to answering what it might mean for care to become the central concern or core process of politics is outside deeply ingrained and guarded conventions. It is in this imagining that artists have much to contribute, more so still because for many artists, maintaining a practice in neo-liberal contexts demands nurturing collectivities, sensitivities and resourcefulness – essential aspects of care. By focusing on recent Australian examples, this article examines what role artists can play in engaging with, interpreting or enacting care in practices – such as works of self-care, care for country and the environment, care for material culture and heritage, care for institutions and processes, and care for others – which might help forge an alternative ethics in the age of neo-liberalism. This exploration is driven by the need for a contemporary values revolution as we – as a species, as a planet – face existential threats including climate emergency and terminal inequality. Can art be a generative site to work towards alternative ethics that privilege trans-subjective relations predicated on attentiveness and tending, on spending time, on holding space?

© 2019 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/aps_00014_1
2019-12-01
2024-05-01
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Barad, Karen. ( 2003;), ‘ Posthumanist performativity: Towards an understanding of how matter comes to matter. ’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28:3, pp. 801–31.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Blakey, Sharon, and Mitchell, Liz. ( 2017;), ‘ Unfolding: A multisensorial dialogue in “material time”. ’, Studies in Material Thinking, 17, pp. 1–19.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Butler, Judith. ( 2016;), ‘ Rethinking vulnerability and resistance. ’, in J. Butler,, Z. Gambetti, and L. Sabsay. (eds), Vulnerability in Resistance, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;, pp. 165–75.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Fisher, Berenice, and Tronto, Joan. ( 1990;), ‘ Toward a feminist theory of caring. ’, in E. Abel, and M. Nelson. (eds), Circles of Care, New York:: SUNY Press;, pp. 36–54.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Gilligan, Carol. ( 2014;), ‘ Moral injury and the ethic of care: Reframing the conversation about differences. ’, Journal of Social Philosophy, 45:1, pp. 89–106.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Hamington, Maurice. ( 2004), Embodied Care, Champaign, IL:: University of Illinois Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Hamington, Maurice. ( 2010;), ‘ The will to care: Performance, expectation and imagination. ’, Hypatia, 25:3, pp. 675–95.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Haraway, Donna. ( 2016), Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Durham, NC and London:: Duke University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Held, Virginia. ( 2014;), ‘ The ethics of care as normative guidance: Comment on Gilligan. ’, Journal of Social Philosophy, 45:1, pp. 107–15.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Kelly, Miriam. ( 2018;), ‘ The sustaining stitch. ’, Care: Forging an Alternative Ethics through Contemporary Art Panel, AAANZ Conference, Melbourne, 5–7 December.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Klein, Naomi. ( 2019), On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, New York:: Simon and Schuster;.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Klein, Naomi. ( 2020;), ‘ Care and repair: Left politics in the age of climate change. ’, Dissent, 67:1, Winter, pp. 97–108.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Lorde, Audre. ( 1988), A Burst of Light: And Other Essays, New York:: Firebrand Books;.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Mathews, Freya. ( 2005), Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture, Suny Series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics , New York:: State University of New York Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Mayo, Rebecca. ( 2018;), ‘ Matters of care: Art practice and Urban ecologies. ’, Care: Forging an Alternative Ethics through Contemporary Art Panel, AAANZ Conference, Melbourne, 5–7 December.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. McDonald, James. ( 2016;), ‘ The world according to Terry. ’, in J. McDonald. (ed.), Terry Williams: Rhythms of the Handmade, Melbourne:: Arts Project Australia;, n.pag.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. McFarlane, Kyla. ( 2018;), ‘ A robust vulnerability. ’, in I Hope You Get This, Melbourne and Shepparton:: National Exhibitions Touring Support Victoria and Shepparton Art Museum;.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Moore, Catriona. (ed.) ( 1994), Dissonance: Feminism and the Arts 1970–1990, Sydney:: Allen and Unwin and Artspace;.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Parker, Roszika. ( 2010), The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, London and New York:: I.B. Tauris;.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Robinson, Fiona. ( 2011), The Ethics of Care: A Feminist Approach to Human Security, Philadelphia, PA:: Philadelphia Temple University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Rubuntja, Marlene,, Sharpe, Dulcie,, Wallace, Sophie, and Sheedy, Leonie. ( 2015;), ‘ Yarrenty Arltere artists. ’, Cultural Studies Review, 21:1, March, pp. 219–29.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Sevenhuijsen, Selma. ( [1998] 2003), Citizenship and the Ethics of Care: Feminist Considerations on Justice, Morality and Politics, London:: Routledge;.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Storr, Robert. ( 2016), Intimate Geometries: The Art and Life of Louise Bourgeois, London:: Monacelli Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Swallow, Ricky. ( 2015), Terry Williams – Soft Sculpture, exhibition catalogue essay , Melbourne:: Arts Project Australia;.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Tronto, Joan. ( 1993), Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care, New York and London:: Routledge;.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Tronto, Joan. ( 2015), Who Cares? How to Reshape Democratic Politics, Berlin and Boston, MA:: Cornell University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Waters, Sera. ( 2018;), ‘ A care-full remembering of Australian settler colonial home-making traditions. ’, Care: Forging an Alternative Ethics through Contemporary Art Panel, AAANZ Conference, Melbourne, 5–7 December.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. West, Katie. ( 2016;), ‘ My art is a personal antidote for the effects of colonisation. ’, The Guardian, 18 May, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/18/my-art-is-a-personal-antidote-for-the-effects-of-colonisation. Accessed 22 May 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/aps_00014_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): care ethics; feminism; feminist art; social practice; socially engaged art; textile art

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error