Locating the Self, Welcoming the Other: In British and Irish Art, 1990-2020

This volume explores how spatialized identities, belongingness, and hospitality are interrogated in British and Irish contemporary art, focusing on how intimacy is facilitated and threatened by spatial devices, how space fashions our perception of gender, social or ethnic identity, and activates power relations. It also examines the need for a home or a homeland and the various forms exile or placelessness can take. The approach emphasizes context, situationality, and field work, proposes to repoliticize relational art, and concludes on the dialogical positionality at the core of art.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 388 pages
Publication date: 25 April 2022
Publisher: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers

This comprehensive volume delves into the intricate examination of spatialized identities, belongingness, and hospitality in British and Irish contemporary art, encompassing a diverse range of mediums such as painting, installation, video, photography, and new public art. In a context where economic and political crises often promote individual or exclusive uses of space, artists engage in a profound exploration of the complexities surrounding these themes. Through a meticulous cartography of encounters, they unravel the intricate connections between the home, neighborhood, village, city, and nation. Artists interrogate the ways in which spatial devices both facilitate and threaten intimacy, shaping our perceptions of gender, social or ethnic identity, and activating power relations. They delve into the longing for a sense of home or homeland, as well as the diverse forms exile or placelessness can take. Furthermore, they actively participate in the restoration of the Commons and the formation of alternative communities. Whether their analyses focus on the private sphere within urban, suburban, or rural contexts or on shared communal spaces, they shed light on the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion that operate in human encounters. By employing an approach that draws from art history and anthropology, the volume emphasizes the significance of context, situationality, and fieldwork. It proposes to repoliticize relational art and concludes with the notion of dialogical positionality, which serves as the foundational essence of art.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800793934
Edition number: New ed