CFP: Subaltern Rising: Racialization and Visual Culture in the Wake of Independence
Association for Critical Race Art History (ACRAH) Sponsored Session
College Art Association Annual Conference
New York, February 13-16, 2013
Chair: José Esteban Muñoz, New York University
The years 2012 and 2013 mark fifty years of independence for dozens of former colonies across the globe. This panel is dedicated to the consideration of art and other forms of expressive culture at the moment of historical transition, especially as it was evident in the reconfigured racialization of citizens, economies, geographies, and political systems.
Key regions of post-coloniality include the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Commissioned public monuments and state architecture; redrawn cities, renamed streets and other public spaces; and the establishment of cultural institutions—including national museums and libraries—were acts of autonomy in newly independent Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Algeria, and Western Samoa (all 1962), and elsewhere.
How was the burst of creativity among artists producing work for the state, reorganized marketplaces and other commercial venues, performance, and national pageants inevitably informed by the preceding colonial order? Which post-colonial strategies reflect symbolic and stylistic borrowings from the language of European modernism in general?
What comparisons and contrasts can be made with post-colonial art produced earlier in short India and Pakistan (1947); Sri Lanka (1948); Laos (1949); Cambodia (1953); Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and Sudan (1956)? How do all these mid-twentieth century breaks from colonial and imperial rule influence subsequent visual and cultural programs in the Bahamas (1971), Suriname (1973), Papua New Guinea (1975), the Panama Canal Zone (1979), Australia and New Zealand (1986), and Eritrea (1993)?
Please submit a 350-word preliminary abstract and short CV (2 page maximum) in one MSWord or PDF file attachment to: acrah@ymail.com by May 11, 2012. Email submissions with one attachment only.
CAA membership is NOT required to participate in or attend the session.
ACRAH 
