Academic Sessions: London 2003
Dislocution: Expressing Displacement in Visual Culture
Convenor:
Christine Boyanoski, boyanoski@hotmail.com
Abstract:
‘Dislocution’ is a term, coined by James Joyce and adopted by cultural critic and curator Sarat Maharaj, that describes the double disruption of place and speech that is a condition of the displaced, or those in exile. These groups, including exiles, refugees, immigrants and expatriates, must find alternatives to their native forms of expression which no longer serve them in new and different cultures. The analogy of speech is useful – particularly the concept of cultural translation – for exploring the interconnections that are made upon the meeting of cultures, the transposition of cultural values, and the new hybrid forms of artistic expression that arise. In his 1984 essay ‘Reflections of Exile’ Edward Said opposed exile to nationalism – ‘opposites informing and constituting each other’. Those dislocated from their place of origin must negotiate the tension between loss and invention, absence and the need to inscribe their presence on another culture. This has wider implications, for the dominant culture is itself involved in the process – even altered by it – and the assumption that national cultures represent an ‘isomorphism of space, place and culture’ is challenged. The history of nations, like Great Britain, demonstrates that a plurality of cultures has contributed and still contributes to their making. This strand will explore the different types of displacement and the forms of artistic expression to which the experience of ‘dislocution’ has given rise across time and in a variety of media.
Anna Green (Norwich School of Art and Design) Muting the Spectacle: Italian Child Street Musicians in 19th–Century Paris.
Fintan Cullen (University of Nottingham) Ireland in Court.
Diane Miliotes (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College) Crossing Borders: Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States.
Deborah Schultz (University of Sussex) Suppression and Amplification of Speech in Works by Artists Displaced during the Nazi period.
Naomi Skelton (Connaught Brown Gallery) Performing Exile: Some Reflections on the Work of Ruth Francken and Ana Mendieta.
Roisin Kennedy (University College Dublin) Made in England: The Critical Reception of Louis le Brocquy’s painting, A Family.
Dorothy Rowe (Froebel College, University of Surrey) Cultural Crossings: Locational Identity in recent Black and Asian British Art.
Christine Boyanoski, boyanoski@hotmail.com
Abstract:
‘Dislocution’ is a term, coined by James Joyce and adopted by cultural critic and curator Sarat Maharaj, that describes the double disruption of place and speech that is a condition of the displaced, or those in exile. These groups, including exiles, refugees, immigrants and expatriates, must find alternatives to their native forms of expression which no longer serve them in new and different cultures. The analogy of speech is useful – particularly the concept of cultural translation – for exploring the interconnections that are made upon the meeting of cultures, the transposition of cultural values, and the new hybrid forms of artistic expression that arise. In his 1984 essay ‘Reflections of Exile’ Edward Said opposed exile to nationalism – ‘opposites informing and constituting each other’. Those dislocated from their place of origin must negotiate the tension between loss and invention, absence and the need to inscribe their presence on another culture. This has wider implications, for the dominant culture is itself involved in the process – even altered by it – and the assumption that national cultures represent an ‘isomorphism of space, place and culture’ is challenged. The history of nations, like Great Britain, demonstrates that a plurality of cultures has contributed and still contributes to their making. This strand will explore the different types of displacement and the forms of artistic expression to which the experience of ‘dislocution’ has given rise across time and in a variety of media.
Anna Green (Norwich School of Art and Design) Muting the Spectacle: Italian Child Street Musicians in 19th–Century Paris.
Fintan Cullen (University of Nottingham) Ireland in Court.
Diane Miliotes (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College) Crossing Borders: Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States.
Deborah Schultz (University of Sussex) Suppression and Amplification of Speech in Works by Artists Displaced during the Nazi period.
Naomi Skelton (Connaught Brown Gallery) Performing Exile: Some Reflections on the Work of Ruth Francken and Ana Mendieta.
Roisin Kennedy (University College Dublin) Made in England: The Critical Reception of Louis le Brocquy’s painting, A Family.
Dorothy Rowe (Froebel College, University of Surrey) Cultural Crossings: Locational Identity in recent Black and Asian British Art.