CAA News Today
Affiliated Society News for January 2020
posted by CAA — January 07, 2020
Happy New Year! Affiliated Society News shares the new and exciting things CAA’s affiliated organizations are working on including activities, awards, publications, conferences, and exhibitions. See January’s news below.
Interested in becoming an Affiliated Society? Learn more here.
Community College Professors of Art and Art History
Please join the Community College Professors of Art and Art History at this year’s CAA Conference in Chicago for two events on Wednesday, February 12, 2020.
From 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM in the Lobby Level Continental B room, join us for our annual Business meeting and project share. Bring an idea or project to share with your community college colleagues. Following our business meeting (in the same room) is our session, Taking a New Look: Creating Change in the Studio and Art History Classrooms. Co-Chaired by Susan Altman and Monica Anke Hahn, hear Richard J. Moninski, Tyrus R. Clutter, Rachael Bower and Ross McClain talk about creating meaningful change in their studio and art history programs.
Women’s Caucus for Art
Thursday, February 13, 12:30pm: book presentation and discussion of Inappropriate Bodies: Art, Design, and Maternity, with editors Rachel Epp Buller and Charles Reeve and contributor Niku Kashef
Thursday, February 13, 6:00pm: WCA/CAA panel on Amplifying Inclusion: Intersectional Feminism in Contemporary Curatorial Practice, with presenters Tanya Augsburg, Priscilla Otani, Karen Gutfreund, and Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, with discussant Maria Buszek.
CAA members are also invited to attend WCA exhibitions in Chicago. The Young Women’s Caucus organized Intersectional History at WomanMade Gallery and the National WCA exhibition, Collectively Shifting, is hosted by The Bridgeport Art Center.
New Media Caucus
The New Media Caucus is happy to welcome the following continuing and new board members following a successful 2019-2020 Election Cycle.
Chair of Communication Committee
KT Duffy
Assistant Professor of Art, Northeastern Illinois University
Board Members
Farhad Bayram
Assistant Professor, Indiana State University
Victoria Bradbury
Assistant Professor, The University of North Carolina – Asheville
Meredith Drum
Assistant Professor, School of Visual Arts, Virginia Tech
Zach Duer
Assistant Professor, School of Visual Arts, Virginia Tech
Sue Huang
Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut
Chelsea Thompo
Visiting Professor, Grand Valley State University
The New Media Caucus (NMC) is a 501c3 dedicated to supporting artists and scholars engaged in new media art. More information about the NMC and our mission can be found at newmediacaucus.org.
Society for the History of Collecting
We are looking forward to our debut sessions at CAA in February and will be using our inaugural business meeting to host a conversation about opportunities for research and funding in the field (the Friday lunchtime slot).
We are also excited to announce that the Americas chapter is expanding with Sophia McCabe spearheading a West Coast initiative.
In NY our upcoming events include a curatorial walk-through with Inés Katzenstein of Sur moderno at MoMA (January 8) and a collaboration with Master Drawings New York on Saturday, January 25. Talking Drawings—a conversation amongst four women collectors of works on paper will be moderated by Dr Jennifer Tonkovich of The Morgan Library & Museum. More information can be found here.
Society of Architectural Historians
Are you planning to attend the College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago? If so, please join SAH’s conversation about two of our most exciting current initiatives, SAH Archipedia and the SAH Data Project, at the SAH Business Meeting on Wednesday, February 12, 12:30–1:30 pm. Pauline Saliga, SAH Executive Director, will discuss the recent launch of SAH Archipedia. This growing, open-access, mobile-friendly online resource will soon provide new opportunities to publish interpretive research about the history of the built environment. Sarah M. Dreller, SAH Postdoctoral Researcher in the Humanities, will answer questions about the purpose, scope, and timeline of the SAH Data Project, a Mellon-funded study that is assessing the status of the field of architectural history in higher education. The project will launch a key component of the data-gathering effort, online surveys for students, faculty, and program chairs/administrators, right before the CAA Annual Conference.
Early Registration is open for the SAH 2020 Annual International Conference in Seattle, Washington, April 29–May 3. Nearly 700 SAH members from around the world are expected to convene at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel to present new research on the history of the built environment, network, and participate in roundtables, seminars, workshops, tours and more. Early registration closes March 3, 2020.
SAH will offer a total of 36 paper sessions at its 2021 Annual International Conference in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The Society invites individuals and those representing SAH chapters and partner organizations to submit a session proposal for the Montréal conference. Since the principal purpose of the SAH annual conference is to inform attendees of the general state of research in architectural history and related disciplines, session proposals covering every time period and all aspects of the built environment, including landscape and urban history, are encouraged. The submission deadline is January 14, 2020.
Visual Resources Association
The Visual Resources Association (VRA) has planned two events for the 2020 Chicago conference and we welcome CAA conference attendees to join us for a full session and open business meeting turned interactive forum.
Both events take place on Wednesday, February 12th, starting with a VRA Business Meeting scheduled midday (free and open to the public), which we have turned into a discussion forum opening with a presentation entitled “From Archive to Classroom: The Use of Omeka and Companion Tools in the Curation of Digital Stories and Exhibits” involving Matt Taylor, Director of the Media and Design Studio, and Rebecca Zorach, Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art and Art History, as well as their students from Northwestern University. It will be followed by what will surely be an engaging discussion about online exhibitions and other current trends in the field of visual resources.
In the afternoon, a formal session has been organized entitled, “Hands-On to Eyes-On: From Material Collections to Digital Exhibitions“ chaired by Bridget Madden, Associate Director of the Visual Resources Center, in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. A distinguished panel of artists, art historians, librarians, museum and information professionals will discuss the hands-on use of materials and museum collections to allow students to apply their knowledge in real-life contexts (full slate below). The presenters will discuss: the use of a materials collection in teaching art history survey courses to studio art and design students; fashion and textile resources transitioning from physical to digital collections for enhanced access; and a two-term curatorial practice course sequenced to design and install a museum exhibition. In all cases, the collections used in teaching are prioritized and sustained, not treated as occasional visits or demonstrations. The role of professional staff supporting these collections and facilitating their use by faculty and students is integral. It will be shown how effective these collaborations can be, including how they can lead to more engaging, active learning experiences in the classroom. The session will take place at 4pm at the Hilton Chicago in the Wilford C room as follows:
1) “Materials in Context: Experiential Learning in Art History” at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with Allan T. Kohl, Librarian in charge of Visual Resources and Library Instruction, presenting a collection curator’s perspective, partnered with Jessica M. Dandona, Associate Professor of Art History, providing a faculty perspective.
2) “Materiality Made Visible” will be presented by Melanie E. Emerson, Dean of the Library + Special Collections, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
3) “Exhibition in Practice” at the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, will be presented with Leslie Wilson, Curatorial Fellow for Diversity in the Arts, providing “A Perspective from the Classroom” and Berit Ness, Assistant Curator of Academic Initiatives, talking about “Execution in the Museum.”
The Visual Resources Association is a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image management within the educational, cultural heritage, and commercial environments (http://vraweb.org/).
For additional information, please contact Maureen Burns, VRA CAA Affiliate Society Representative at moaburns@gmail.com.
Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE)
There is a date change to the original announcement of the FATE Biennial Conference.
18th Biennial Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Conference will be hosted by University of North Carolina Charlotte. Mark your calendars for April 15-17, 2021 and make plans to be there!
Mid-America College Art Association
Invite for new prospective board members:
The Mid-America College Art Association is seeking motivated artists, and art faculty, to become members of an energetic team who provide avenues for fellowship in the arts on the collegiate level. All media are welcome, we give preference to artists that have expertise in Art Finance, Art Non-Profits, Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Art History, Art Administration and Art Therapy, Art Education, Art Interdisciplinary, Art Performance. Please send inquiry and letter of interest and CV to Heather Hertel, MACAA President: heather.hertel@sru.edu.
view our website: www.macaart.org Instagram: midamericacollegeartassoc
SECAC
SECAC 2019: 75th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
In October, SECAC met for the 75th time in Chattanooga, hosted by The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 672 members representing 330 institutions participated in 140 sessions. Highlights of the conference included a keynote address by Sharon Louden at the Hunter Museum of American Art, the 2018 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship Exhibition at the ConTemporary Cress Gallery,the SECAC Juried Exhibition, at Stove Works satellite gallery, and the SECAC Mentoring Program.
At the annual business meeting, SECAC President Sandra Reed of Marshall University introduced new members of the Board of Directors: Arkansas, Kevin Cates, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Florida, Jeff Schwartz, Ringling College of Art and Design; Louisiana, Rachel Stephens, The University of Alabama; Mississippi, Elise Smith, Millsaps College; Tennessee, Christina Vogel, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; and At-Large Seat #1, Dennis Ichiyama. Also new to the board are Michael Borowski, Virginia Tech, representing Virginia, and Sunny Spillane, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, serving as an officer in the new role of Secretary.
SECAC 2020 will be hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, October 21–34. Regularly-updated information, and links to calls are published here. The SECAC submissions site is here.
AWARDS PRESENTED AT SECAC 2019
- The SECAC Artist’s Fellowship was awarded to Adrian Rhodes, University of South Carolina, for Blood and Honey.
- Yumi Park-Huntington, Framingham State University in Massachusetts, received the William R. Levin Award for Research in Art History Before 1750 for Monumental Structure, Sacred Landscape, and Cosmology at the Late Formative Period Peruvian Site of Jequetepeque-Jatanca.
- Stephen Mandravelis, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, received the William R. Levin Award for Research in Art History Since 1750 for Access to Avenues of Art: Mapping the Cultivation of Rural Art Markets through the American Agriculturalist, 1850-1880.
- The SECAC Award for Excellence in Teaching was presented to Jenny Hager, University of North Florida.
- The SECAC Award for Outstanding Exhibition and Catalog of Contemporary Materials was given to William U. Eiland for Clinton Hill, Georgia Museum of Art, 2018.
- The Georgia Museum of Art received the SECAC Award for Outstanding Exhibition and Catalog of Historical Materials for Crafting History: Textiles, Metals, and Ceramics at the University of Georgia.
- The 2019 SECAC Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Graphic Design was presented to Meena Khalili, University of Louisville.
- The 2019 SECAC Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication was awarded to Peter Scott Brown, University of North Florida, for The Riddle of Jael: The History of a Poxied Heroine in Medieval and Renaissance Art and Culture.
Visit SECAC Awards for details.
Twenty-two graduate students received Gulnar Bosch Travel Awards: Melissa Airy, University of Iowa; Olivia Armandroff, University of Delaware; Alyssa Bralower, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Lauren Cesiro, Binghamton University; Dominik Eckel, DFK Paris / University of Cologne; Isabel Fontbona Mola, University of Girona, Spain; Dilmar Mauricio Gamero Santos, Temple University; Naghmeh Hachempour, Georgia Southern University; Dana Hogan, Duke University; Julia Katz, Rutgers University-New Brunswick; Ximena Kilroe, CUNY; Julia Kirshaw, Florida State University; Tess McCoy, University of New Mexico; Melissa Miller, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Jonathan Morgan, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts; Danielle Powell, University of Central Florida; Chris Slaby, College of William & Mary; Sara Anne Stepp, Univeristy of Kansas; Barbara Tyner, Centro de Cultura Casa Lamm, Mexico City; Marina Tyquiengco, University of Pittsburgh; Or Vallah, University of Washington; and Jennifer Vess, University of Iowa.
At the SECAC 2019 Annual Juried Exhibition, Juror Amelia Briggs, Director of David Lusk Gallery, awarded First Place to Anne Herbert, Alabama School of Fine Arts, for Event Horizon; Second Place: to Chung-Fan Chang, Stockton University, for Guangwu’s Land; Third Place to Natalie Harrison, Samford University, for Pastel Tapestry 1; and Honorable Mention to Mary Laube, The University of Tennessee, for Queen Min’s Hair. The Co-Directors’ Award was presented to Ann Moody, University at Buffalo, for Lickety-Split.
American Society of Appraisers
Upcoming educational offerings:
· February 3, 2020 | Fundamentals of Jewelry Appraisal | Tucson, AZ
· February 5, 2020 | Introduction to the Chinese Art Market, Challenges and Opportunities | Webinar
· March 2, 2020 | Fundamentals of Jewelry Appraisal | Carlsbad, CA
· March 16-17, 2020 | Appraising Fine Arts Overview | Chicago, IL
· March 20, 2020 | Personal Property Appraisal Report Writing Update | Reston, VA
· May 30-June 14, 2020 | 9th Annual Summer Appraisal Camp | Purchase, NY
· October 29, 2020 | The Decorative Art and Mechanics of Antique Clocks | Webinar
Historians of Netherlandish Art
CAA CONFERENCE CHICAGO, February 12-15th, 2020:
HNA RECEPTION: Friday, February 14th, between 5:30 and 7 pm. Private Dining Room 4, located on the third floor of the Hilton
HNA SESSION:
Thursday February 13th, 10:30-12:00 pm
Hilton Chicago – Lower Level – Salon C-5: 10
Historians of Netherlandish Art
Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, Harvard Art Museums and Sarah Walsh Mallory, Harvard University
SESSION run by HNA members:
Thursday, February 13th, 6:00-7;30 PM
Hilton Chicago – 3rd Floor – Wilford C
Re-Assessing the Northern European Male Nude
Martha Hollander, Hofstra University and Lisa Rosenthal, University Of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
JOURNAL OF THE HISTORIANS OF NETHERLANDISH ART:
JHNA has just published a special guest-edited issue on the art of Gerard de Lairesse (Winter 2020, vol. 12:1). The editors include Eric Jan Sluijter (University of Amsterdam Emeritus); Elmer Kolfin (University of Amsterdam); Jasper Hillegers (Salomon Lilian Gallery, Amsterdam); and Marrigje Rikken (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem).
JHNA has received a grant from the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH) to support the development of a hot spot feature for images in the article by Melanie Gifford on Rubens’s Fall of Phaeton, National Gallery of Art, Washington, which appeared in the Summer 2019 issue (vol. 11:2). Watch for this digital feature in Gifford’s essay in 2020 as well as in other essays to come.
Vote for CAA’s 2020 Board of Directors
posted by CAA — January 06, 2020
As a CAA member, voting is one of the best ways to shape the future of your professional organization. Thank you for taking the time to vote! Scroll down to meet this year’s candidates and submit your online voting form.
2020 CAA Board of Directors candidates, clockwise from top left: Ixchel Ledesma, Janet Bellotto, Scherezade Garcia-Vasquez, Lara Ayad, Tiffany Holmes, Mora Beauchamp-Byrd, Robin Landa, and Nada Shabout
2020 CAA Board of Directors Election
The CAA Board of Directors comprises professionals in the visual arts who are elected annually by the membership to serve four-year terms. The Board is charged with CAA’s long-term financial stability and strategic direction; it is also the Association’s governing body. The board sets policy regarding all aspects of CAA’s activities, including publishing, the Annual Conference, awards and fellowships, advocacy, and committee procedures. For more information, please read the CAA By-laws on Nominations, Elections, and Appointments.
Meet the Candidates
The 2019–20 Nominating Committee has selected the following candidates for election to the CAA Board of Directors. Click the names of the candidates below to read their statements and resumes before casting your vote.
Board of Director Candidates (Four-Year Term, 2020-2024)
• Mora Beauchamp-Byrd
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Oklahoma
• Janet Bellotto
Professor
College of Arts & Creative Enterprises,
Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Scherezade Garcia-Vasquez
Interdisciplinary visual artist
Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design
New York, New York
• Tiffany Holmes
Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Studies
Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, Maryland
• Robin Landa
Distinguished Professor of Design
Kean University
Union, New Jersey
• Nada Shabout
Professor of Art History
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas
Emerging Professional Board of Director Candidates (Two-Year Term, 2020-2022)
• Lara Ayad
Assistant Professor, Art History
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, New York
• Ixchel Ledesma
Independent Curator
Mexico City, Mexico
CAA members must cast their votes for board members online using the form below; no paper ballots will be mailed. The deadline to vote is 6:00 p.m. (Central Time) on Thursday, February 13, 2020.
Submit Your Vote Below
Use the scroll bar on the right side of the form to scroll down, make your choices, and submit.
Questions? Contact Vanessa Jalet, executive liaison, at (212) 392-4434 or vjalet@collegeart.org
Sign Up for Mock Interviews at CAA 2020
posted by CAA — January 06, 2020
Interview booths at the 2018 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Photo: Rafael Cardenas
Each year at CAA, the Students and Emerging Professionals Committee (SEPC) offers 30-minute mock interviews for those looking to develop and refine interviewing skills, including job-seekers. Participants practice one-on-one with a seasoned interviewer and receive candid feedback.
SEPC makes every effort to accommodate all applicants, however, space is limited. Interviews are available by appointment via the pre-conference Google Registration Form. Registration is Monday, January 6 to Friday, January 31. Participants will be notified of their slot by e-mail. With confirmation, we’ll request a CV and cover letter for your interviewer. On-site registration will be available at the conference, but pre-registering is strongly recommended for those whose conference plans are confirmed to get more tailored training and feedback.
Free of charge, CAA members only. Sign up via the pre-conference Google Registration Form.
New in caa.reviews
posted by CAA — January 03, 2020
Angela Andersen discusses Social Housing in the Middle East: Architecture, Urban Development, and Transnational Modernity, edited by Kıvanç Kılınç and Mohammad Gharipour. Read the full review at caa.reviews.
Kiara M. Vigil reviews Emily Burns’s Transnational Frontiers: The American West in France. Read the full review at caa.reviews.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by CAA — December 25, 2019
The overhead entrance to the previously uncharted chamber in Indonesia, which houses cave art that dates back at least 43,900 years. Credit: Ratno Sardi for The New York Times
Mythical Beings May Be Earliest Imaginative Cave Art by HumansThe paintings found in central Indonesia—which are at least 43,900 years old—may shift an understanding of when and where humans started depicting imaginary figures. (New York Times)
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Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera and Allison Yasukawa
posted by CAA — December 23, 2019
The weekly CAA Conversations Podcast continues the vibrant discussions initiated at our Annual Conference. Listen in each week as educators explore arts and pedagogy, tackling everything from the day-to-day grind to the big, universal questions of the field.
CAA podcasts are on iTunes. Click here to subscribe.
This week, Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera and Allison Yasukawa discuss international and multilingual students at art/design schools.
Juan Carlos Rodríguez Rivera is a queer boricua visual communicator and educator, passionate about food, lover of gradients, and anything with glitter. Juan was born and raised in Cataño, the smallest town of Puerto Rico, but relocated to San Francisco, California in 2017. Juan’s work focuses on challenging colonial perspectives in design from the point of view of a boricua diaspora. Juan Carlos is an Assistant Professor in the Design Department at California College of the Arts, and holds an MFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute in NY.
Allison Yasukawa is a visual artist and educator. She holds an MFA in Studio Arts and an MA in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. In her studio practice, she explores asymmetries of power and imagined geographies in interactional spaces ranging from the personal to the global. Yasukawa’s pedagogy focuses on studio and academic classes in English for Art and Design. She is the Director of English Language Learning at the California Institute of the Arts and has presented nationally and internationally on art-language overlaps in critique instruction, student autonomy, and multilingualism as a creative resource.
New in caa.reviews
posted by CAA — December 20, 2019
Jillian Hernandez discusses the show Per(sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, from the Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University. Read the full review at caa.reviews.
Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank reviews the exhibition Art and Empire: The Golden Age of Spain at San Diego Museum of Art. Read the full review at caa.reviews.
Adrienne Rooney covers the Menil Collection’s Mapa Wiya (Your Map’s Not Needed): Australian Aboriginal Art from the Fondation Opale. Read the full review at caa.reviews.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by CAA — December 18, 2019
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International Review: The Many Faces of Human Impacts in The Seventh Continent, 16th Istanbul Biennial
posted by CAA — December 17, 2019
THE MANY FACES OF HUMAN IMPACTS: Exhibition Review of The Seventh Continent, 16th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, September 14–November 10, 2019.
The following article was written in response to a call for submissions by CAA’s International Committee. It is by Madeleine Kelly, an artist based in Sydney, Australia.
When artists work with archaeology and anthropology it is easy to imagine their work as a labor entrenched in the past. Yet, in the 2019 Istanbul Biennial—an enormous exhibition in three venues that presented the work of fifty-six artists and art collectives from twenty-six countries—artists engaged with the descriptive capacity of archaeological methods by reinvesting them in the metaphorical dimension of imaginative artifacts and languages. New and complex ways of signifying humanity’s traces, marks, and interactions with the non-human universe emerged, blurring the traditional separation between nature and culture. Following from this, the division between subjects and objects also breaks down, granting subjective agency to stones, plants, and other non-human voices. The most powerful works invented an “inter-subjective relation” (see discussion below) that proceeded by way of the form of the face. As othered subjects are often faceless, the mediums in which they are embodied configure them as anthropological concepts. Entitled The Seventh Continent after the drifting mass of plastic waste that contaminates the world’s oceans, this year’s Istanbul Biennial explored the complex entanglements of anthropogenic climate change and the human impact on the planet.
French curator and art historian Nicolas Bourriaud is known for his controversial book, Relational Aesthetics (1998, English translation 2002), which revitalized the discussion on aesthetics at the time. In it, film critic Serge Daney suggested that the invention of “inter-subjective relation” proceeds by way of the form of the face, an exchange that denotes the consideration we have towards others. Further, to produce a form is to partake in a transitive ethic in which an image mediates the longing to be looked at. He states that “all form is a face looking at me.” In the biennial, Bourriaud drew attention to “the primacy of encounter over form,” arguing that dynamic encounters between different types of beings–and by extension forms–constitute relational formations. I propose that an echo of his early citation of inter-subjective relation is present in forms with subject-like qualities–in particular faces– and that these especially address our relation to dwindling diversity and mounting waste generated by industrial capitalism.
Figure 1: HaZaVuZu art collective, Worlbmon, 2019, installation view and details; Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture (photograph provided by the author)
In the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture, located in the heart of the city, the Istanbul-based HaZaVuZu art collective presented an alluring grotto-like installation of animated surfaces and faces inspired by everyday packaging, inkblots, and grotesque figures that “look back at us” (Fig. 1). The myriad images recall the semiotic wonderland of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum, weaving its historical thread of the iconophilic and iconoclastic, but the HaZaVuZu seems to riff on this legacy with forms that oscillate between iconic, indexical, and symbolic sign systems. Bourriaud’s statement (in an introduction to the exhibition) that “the work of art is a signal, akin to those all living organisms emit” seems to crystalize in these works where the artists breathe life into inanimate materials composed of matter seemingly evolving into being.
Figure. 2: Hale Tenger, Appearance (detail), 2019, mixed-media and sound installation, black obsidian mirrors, iron, epoxy resin based paint, water, audio-spotlight speaker, Büyükada Island (photograph provided by the author)
Along with the trope of the living work is that of art as a mirror to the world, reflecting the ineffable operations of nature. Yet in the context of the exhibition, an ideal nature is displaced to expose, as Bourriaud states, “the reverse mirror-image of our societies, the seventh continent is the country we don’t want to inhabit, made up of everything we reject.” On the island venue of Büyükada, a ferry ride from town, Istanbul-based artist Hale Tenger presented a mixed-media and sound installation entitled Appearance (Fig. 2). The viewer entered an apple orchard on the grounds of the dilapidated Sophronius Palace in which round black obsidian mirrors and pools of water reminiscent of black oil reflected skyscapes and trees. A voice from the house hoarsely whispered a poem by the artist: “I was a fruit tree . . . I gave, without expecting reciprocity . . . can you be by not doing?” And when we saw our faces reflected in the black mirrors we felt caught up in the quotidian complicities conjured by the question.
Another compelling work, this time the face of the deep, was also on the island. Armin Linke’s investigative film Prospecting Ocean (2018) transported viewers to the world of deep-sea politics where activists organize protests against seabed mining and the technocratic entanglement of industry, science, politics, and the economy. In the accompanying installation of documents related to Italian and Turkish marine history, a book chapter entitled “Ion by Ion,” by marine scientists Bruce Heezen and Charles Hollister, beautifully describes the evolution of mineral gardens comprised of manganese nodules. These polymetallic rock concretions accumulate daily in atomic layers and correlate with species abundance. Like strata that accumulate in the layers of a painting, the nodules embody an enlivening vitality.
Figure 3. Mika Rottenberg, still from Spaghetti Blockchain, 2019, 4K color video installation with 7.1 surround sound, 18:15 min.; Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture (artwork © Mika Rottenberg; photograph provided by the artist and Hauser & Wirth)
Artist Mika Rottenberg’s rapid-edit video Spaghetti Blockchain presents more strata, but hers are of oozy plastic modelling compounds, cakes that accumulate in layers of artificially coloured jelly, and molecular models scaffolded from skewers and marshmallows (Fig. 3). The film cuts to a potato-processing plant that rips through tree branches and thousands of potatoes in granular form. The agency of the hand appears as a critical element, often framed by hexagonal kaleidoscopic apertures that “blink” us through the brilliantly edited comic nightmare of her “organic chemistry.” Bourriaud proposes, “today’s artists practice a type of anthropology that one could call molecular.”
Figure 4: Eloise Hawser, Feathering, 2019, video sculpture, 76 x 101 x 20 in. (193.6 × 257 × 50 cm), steel, laminated and repurposed glass panels, Pera Museum (photograph provided by the author)
Another work, The Tipping Hall by London-based artist Eloise Hawser, takes the “petal claw” as its subject. These mechanical fists, with their twenty-six foot (eight meter) talons, do a vital job of aerating the waste of tipping halls to prevent the build-up of toxic gases. This work was displayed in the biennial’s third venue, the Pera Museum, as was Hawser’s Feathering (2019), a mesmeric kinetic sculpture made from waste and showing, at high magnification, the intricate and fine-toothed handling of e-waste (Fig. 4).
Figure 5: Jonathas de Andrade, still from O Peixe (The fish), 2016, 16mm transferred to 2K video, 5.1 sound, screen ratio 16:9 (1.77), 23 min.; Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture (photograph provided by Pedro Urano)
In Brazilian-based artist Jonathas de Andrade’s film O Peixe (The fish) (Fig. 5), Amazonian fishermen ceremoniously embrace and caress their slowly suffocating catch. While stylistically a pastiche of early ethnographic films, the intimate gesture between man and dying fish is an invention of the artist. Pertinent here is the aesthetic encounter between humans and animals being slaughtered, generating uneasy discussions and making this a challenging work.
In many ways, The Seventh Continent was an aestheticizing of the anthropogenic environmental tragedy. These artists translated notions of subjectivity into forms that document and/or question human impact–their forms look back at us, urging us to explore the complex entanglements of anthropogenic climate change and holding us to account for our impact on the planet.
CAA Endorses ACASA’s Statement Concerning Destruction of Cultural Patrimony in Bafut
posted by CAA — December 16, 2019
On September 24, soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) attacked and looted the Royal Palace, in Bafut, North-West region. © Creative Commons/ShareAlike 3.0, via Human Rights Watch
CAA endorses its affiliate society, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), in condemning recent reports of theft, property damage, as well as violence at the Palace of Bafut in Cameroon.
The site is an important part of the history and culture of the Bafut population in the northwest region of Cameroon, and continues to function as a center for religious rites and ceremonies. The violence and destruction to the Bafut Palace threatens the safety and identity of the Bafut people and the maintenance of their distinctive cultural traditions. As such it deserves protection from the Republic of Cameroon and pressure from organizations and governments to restore damaged structures and return stolen artifacts.
Read ACASA’s statement below.
Statement Concerning Destruction of Cultural Patrimony in Bafut
20 November 2019
The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)—an independent professional association which exists to facilitate communication among scholars, teachers, students, artists, museum specialists, collectors, and all others interested in the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora—condemns the violent aggression perpetrated by the Republic of Cameroon against the Palace of Bafut, a site included on UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites since 2006. Human Rights Watch reports that “On September 24 [2019], soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) attacked and looted the Royal Palace in Bafut, North-West region.” (https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/11/world-heritage-site-attacked-cameroon#) Fon Abumbi II of Bafut protested the aggression in a letter dated September 24, 2019 and addressed to the Governor of North West Region. In addition to causing damage to buildings within the palace and perpetrating violence against those who had been neither charged nor tried in a court of law, these troops representing the authority of the State shamelessly stole historical objects from the palace museum.
According to the World Monuments Fund, the palace “embodies Bafut cultural identity and remains a center for religious rites and traditional ceremonies. Over 50 houses are clustered around the site’s spiritual core, Achum Shrine, and are used by the Fon (king), his wives, and the royal court.” (https://www.wmf.org/project/bafut-palace) The palaces and museums of the North West Region of Cameroon serve as invaluable repositories of the long-standing traditions and material cultures of these vibrant kingdoms. These palaces and associated sites—where ritual practices have long been performed—foster and house the heritages, both tangible and intangible of these communities. The violent destruction and looting of such a site may be understood as an attempt to erase the cultural identity of the Bafut population. As a site listed on the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites, Bafut Palace is recognized as holding even greater than just local significance, constituting a primary locus of cultural heritage for the entirety of Cameroon, and indeed the world. The Cameroonian State must treat these places as the internationally significant cultural heritage sites that they are.
ACASA calls on the Republic of Cameroon to protect sites of cultural heritage as required by being party to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property. According to Article 4(3) of the aforementioned convention, it is the obligation of the State “to prohibit, prevent and, if necessary, put a story to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism directed against, cultural property….” In light of this international obligation, the Cameroonian State must bring to justice and punish appropriately those responsible for this heinous act. Furthermore, every effort must be taken to return looted items of cultural heritage to the palace museum of Bafut.
CC:
Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon
Henri Etoundi Essomba, Ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon to the US
Peter Henry Barlein, US Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon
Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, Minister of Arts and Culture for the Republic of Cameroon
UNESCO
World Monuments Fund