Aesthetics of Repair: Indigenous Art and the Form of Reconciliation

Aesthetics of Repair examines how Indigenous artists and cultural activists in British Columbia, Canada, mobilize belongings called "art" to address settler-colonial harm and promote aesthetics of care. It explores diverse forms of collective reckoning with harm and its resonance with aesthetics of care in art, across urban and remote spaces of display. The book argues that arts efficacies in this moment draw on Indigenous protocols for enacting justice between persons, things, and territories, featuring examples of belongings that embody these social relations. It illuminates the collision of contemporary art with extractive economies and contested practices of "resetting" settler-Indigenous relations.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 244 pages
Publication date: 12 July 2024
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Aesthetics of Repair is a book that explores how Indigenous artists and cultural activists in British Columbia, Canada, mobilize the belongings called "art" to address settler-colonial harm. It draws on contemporary imaginaries of repair to examine how diverse forms of collective reckoning with settler-colonial harm resonate with urgent conversations about aesthetics of care in art. The book examines the practices around art and artworks as forms of critical Indigenous philosophy, arguing that arts efficacies in this moment draw on Indigenous protocols for enacting justice between persons, things, and territories. It features examples of belongings that embody these social relations, such as a bentwood box made to house material memories, a totem pole whose return replenishes fish stocks, and a copper broken on the steps of the federal capital. Ultimately, Aesthetics of Repair illuminates the collision of contemporary art with extractive economies and contested practices of "resetting" settler-Indigenous relations.

Weight: 542g
Dimension: 253 x 202 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781487522667