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The Battle Is Joined: Contemporary Art and Contested Memorial Ecologies
Author(s) -
BowmanMcElhone Amy,
Fonder Carrie,
Aiken Joshua,
Olivier Karyn
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12974
Subject(s) - narrative , construct (python library) , hegemony , sociology , aesthetics , battle , visual arts , meaning (existential) , contemporary art , frame (networking) , embodied cognition , gesture , art , epistemology , history , literature , art history , political science , linguistics , politics , performance art , philosophy , archaeology , computer science , law , programming language , telecommunications
Objective This article assesses contemporary artists whose creative practices operate within the contested space of memorial ecologies in order to frame monuments, heritage landscapes, and memorial ecologies within artistic discourses. Method Through interdisciplinary methodologies including artist interviews, art historical and humanities‐based analyses and artistic practice, this article assumes a hybrid form of scholarly essay, interview, and visual intervention. Result This article resulted in a collaborative project that critically examines public representations of memory narratives from an art historical lens, and functions as a creative text that visualizes slippages of narrative, form, and meaning paralleling the operations, gestures, and strategies of visual artists addressing monument discourses. Conclusion We conclude that artists prompt critical and unexpected interrogations of monument discourses and memorial ecologies that serve to deconstruct, critique, and disrupt hegemonic narratives of these objects and relations, and work to construct new interpretative strategies and alternative models of understanding.