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  5. Volume 10, Issue 2, 2021

Journal of Curatorial Studies - Social Justice, Oct 2021

Social Justice

Social Justice, Oct 2021

Language: English
  • Articles

      • Art, Life and Capitalist Social Reproduction: Curating Social Practice

        https://doi.org/10.1386/jcs_00041_1

        Addressing the latest encounter between feminist politics and art, this article identifies a curatorially driven turn towards social reproduction processes and infrastructures across the contemporary art field. It analyses the curatorial mediation of social practice through two UK-based projects that foreground social and economic justice issues, specifically through the politics and economies of food: Effy Harle and Finbar Prior’s (2018), commissioned by Manual Labours for Nottingham Contemporary, and WochenKlausur’s (2013), initiated through Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts as part of the exhibition project. The central argument is that a rigorous engagement with social reproduction perspectives and theoretical vectors is vital to the analysis and critique of feminist curatorial work within the contemporary art institution.

    • Social Justice and Work in Art Institutions

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jcs_00042_1

      Even though social justice struggles are often thematized in curatorial practice and discourse, their demands are rarely implemented in art-institutional policies and infrastructure. In investigating the anatomy of this conundrum, politically incisive redefinitions of institutional usership and participation, and analysis of their close relation to (issues of) work, would benefit strategies around diversity in the context of art-institutional participation. The theory of ‘instituent praxis’ and its insistence on inventive and cooperative rule-making can contribute to addressing curatorially absent/unjust regulation and its ensuing ethical/affective gaps in relation to under-represented or non-represented subjectivities or constituencies, such as ethnic minorities and displaced asylum seekers.

    • Decolonizing the Colony: Challenges to Systemic Change in the American Art Museum

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jcs_00043_1

      This article seeks to identify impediments to, as well as opportunities for, change in American art museums in the face of demands for social justice and greater inclusivity. Focusing specifically on the representation of American art in well-established encyclopaedic museums, I argue that inherited collections and taxonomies, mapped onto the physical spaces of museums, limit the speed and degree to which aesthetic priorities, values and narratives may adapt in order to meet shifting demographics and visitor expectations. In effect, the challenge for many museums is to confront and navigate an institutionalized form of white supremacy baked into their intellectual and material foundations. I end by analysing several recent strategies that have aimed at dismantling conventions and complicating the canon.

  • Curatorial Reflections

      • : Curating Social Justice

        https://doi.org/10.1386/jcs_00044_7

        Focusing on the activist exhibition (2019), this article examines my methodology of curating for social action and justice using international collaboration and participatory arts-as-research. The exhibition responded to the ongoing campaign for justice for the victims and survivors of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, as well as sought to support women’s creative resistance and voice. was co-created with artist Mei Yuk Wong, the 64 Museum (Hong Kong), and artists participating in the Centre for International Women Artists (Manchester). The context for the exhibition is the city of Manchester, which has one of the highest Chinese populations in England, along with a diverse international demographic with over 200 languages spoken. Through this case study, curating is presented as a creative and critical tool by which to respond to the range of justice and activist concerns of international and diasporic communities.

    • Community-Driven Curating in

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jcs_00045_7

      The exhibition (2019) developed community-driven and co-productive curatorial practices through a partnership with directly impacted stakeholders. This article presents three characteristics that made the partnership between the Newcomb Art Museum and consultants from a community of formerly incarcerated women and activists in New Orleans a success: an understanding of the politics of both the issue and the site, a sharing and collective building of power, and a polyvocal exhibition format. Within the context of the role of curating in struggles for social justice, this article outlines the importance of working with external actors, such as movement leaders and activists, to ensure accountability, equity and reciprocity in exhibitions that address social issues.

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