Art, Borders and Belonging - by Maria Photiou & Marsha Meskimmon (Paperback)

About the Book

Examines how the concepts of 'home', 'migration' and 'belonging' can be used to contextualise contemporary art practices and visual culture.

Book Synopsis

Art, Borders and Belonging: On Home and Migration investigates how three associated concepts-house, home and homeland-are represented in contemporary global art. The volume brings together essays which explore the conditions of global migration as a process that is always both about departures and homecomings, indeed, home-makings, through which the construction of migratory narratives are made possible. Although centrally concerned with how recent and contemporary works of art can materialize the migratory experience of movement and (re)settlement, the contributions to this book also explore how curating and exhibition practices, at both local and global levels, can extend and challenge conventional narratives of art, borders and belonging.

A growing number of artists migrate; some for better job opportunities and for the experience of different cultures, others not by choice but as a consequence of forced displacement caused economic or environmental collapse, or by political, religious or military destabilization. In recent years, the theme of migration has emerged as a dominant subject in art and curatorial practices. Art, Borders and Belonging thus seeks to explore how the migratory experience is generated and displayed through the lens of contemporary art. In considering the extent to which the visual arts are intertwined with real life events, this text acts as a vehicle of knowledge transfer of cultural perspectives and enhances the importance of understanding artistic interventions in relation to home, migration and belonging.

Review Quotes

This is a wonderfully curated collection of essays. The range of artistic material is rich, and the thematic focus on art's unique potential to weave together experiences of migration, borders, homemaking and belonging is remarkably consistent, as is the authors' innovative use of feminist and transnational perspectives to foreground female artists and engage with their works in close readings that are both intimate and trenchant.

Anne Ring Petersen, Professor of Modern Culture & Contemporary Art at the Department of Arts & Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Whether they are from Cyprus, Palestine, Spain, Kazakhstan or elsewhere, artists who have relocated often make works that not only invoke the idea of a lost home but also an impetus to achieve a sense of belonging in their new places of abode. This orientation, so important in contemporary art, is explored eloquently and compellingly in Art, Borders and Belonging.

Brenda Schmahmann, Professor and SARChI Chair in South African Art & Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

About the Author

Maria Photiou is an Art Historian and a Research Fellow at the University of Derby, UK. Her research focuses on women's art practices and the connections between migration, gender, memory and the politics of belonging.

Marsha Meskimmon is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History & Theory at Loughborough University, UK. Her current research is particularly engaged with connections between transnational feminisms, contemporary art and the environmental humanities.