Alien Acts: (Un)making the Alien in Art
Session will present: On locationThe phrase “Alien Acts” invokes the US’ Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, utilized amid geo-political tensions with Revolutionary France to impose immigration restrictions, border violence, and censorship on French and Irish immigrants as well as any others who were deemed a threat to US national security. Historical resonances with the present day are evident and palpable. This panel explores how artists from different historical moments and geographical locations have interrogated the notion and figure of the ‘alien’ - the stranger, the foreigner, the immigrant, the other. How have artists theorized and challenged the processes through which the alien is made and unmade? In what ways can art interrupt legal designations of ontology that become enfleshed as phenotype, culture, class and thus targets of violence? Through examining the ways in which artists have explored processes of othering and its unmaking via their practices, this panel foregrounds historical precedents of the present moment to reflect upon how alienness, foreignness, and otherness have been navigated and negotiated in the past.
Keywords:
Geographic Area: Global
Topics: Migration
Topics: Social Justice
Topics: Politics
Topics: Activism
Chairs:
Christina YZ Chung, University of Oregon
and
Ananya Sikand, Museum of Modern Art
Abstract Submissions Closed