Art Monthly Event

Panel discussion devised by Chris McCormack for Art Monthly and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Leigh Claire Le Berge (Associate Professor of English, City University of New York)
Marc Aziz Michael (American University, Beirut)
Dante Micheaux (Poet)
Monica Narula and Jeebesh Bagchi (Raqs Media Collective)
Oreet Ashery (Associate Professor of Fine Art, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford)
Jackson Davidow (Independent Researcher)

Under the violent normalisation of austerity, the pandemic has exacerbated conditions of increased work surveillance and precarity, deepening an awareness of the consequences of chronic exhaustion. The now commonplace discussion of contemporary fatigue, anxiety, and depression points us, as Lauren Berlant states, ‘to the way living also becomes a scene of the wearing out of life’. From caregivers to lives more at risk of infection through socioeconomic consequences of structural racism and underpayment, how might kinships ‘wear out’ together and apart, how might artworks play a part in redefining the public sphere or enable us to consider the interrelations of equity and collective care.

Art Criticism and the Pandemic II continues and reshapes the discussions had at two events in 2020 which considered how the structures of a globalised art world had been interrupted or changed and whether, in the context of renewed activism, the art world is addressing problems of inequity and injustice in its own order. These ideas remain urgent as the art world negotiates the legacies and ramifications of making, thinking, and writing about art in the context of a global pandemic. Two live research lunch events across two days will provide spaces for testing out ideas voiced by a panel of speakers, followed by discussion and questions from attendees.

Zoom webinar