CFP: Bringing Light to the Dark: Visual Sovereignties in Contemporary Indigenous Art of the Americas

Status  Sonny Assu.

Symposium - July 19-20 2019, 

 Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia

Beyond the Spectacle: Native American Presence in Britain, an AHRC funded research project at the Universities of East Anglia and Kent, is issuing a call for papers for a two-day academic symposium.

The symposium, second in the Beyond the Spectacle series, will conclude the summer residency of Sonny Assu, a Kwakwaka’wakw mixed media artist, at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. It will also celebrate the opening of an exhibition of his works and historic Native Northwest Coast objects from the Sainsbury Collection, curated by Sonny at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. Sonny will open the conference on July with a keynote on his history of art-activism and his time living in Britain.

Bringing Light to the Dark takes its title from Sonny’s commentary on his own work, which so often explores Indigenous art as a response to settler colonialism, and its role in asserting Native sovereignty in the face of government suppression of Indigenous cultural production.

Sonny’s residency is the latest in a long history of Native American visitors to this country, bringing their knowledge and expertise to British audiences. This symposium offers an opportunity to acknowledge and explore their contribution to the entangled histories of Native American and British people.

We are inviting papers of approximately 20 minutes in length on the study of Native North American art and its long history of engagement with Native activism, identity, and sovereignty. Of particular interest are papers that engage with Beyond the Spectacle’s core remit to study the history of Native presences in Britain, including in the fields of history, literature, anthropology and other associated disciplines.

Please send abstracts (300 words maximum) with title and 100 word biography to:

beyondthespectacle@kent.ac.uk  by  25^th April 2019  

Any questions to Prof. Jacqueline Fear-Segal (AMA): j.fear-segal@uea.ac.uk

Successful applicants will be notified in the week following this date.