Transgressions

Symposium on Visual Culture
Department of Art History, York University
Toronto, Canada
March 17, 2006

The Art History Graduate Students Association of York University cordially invites proposals for academic and creative contributions to its fifth annual symposium on visual culture, this year with the theme of “Transgressions.”

Transgression is regularly associated with the rupture in artistic forms and discourse that emerged in the 1960s and 70s, yet the concept applies to many facets of art and visual culture from all periods. Literally meaning to “step across” boundaries, we relate transgression to an expanded discourse within art history, extending to interdisciplinarity and visual culture, and beyond canonicity and traditional artistic practices and privileges. While we hope to reflect on this expansion of the field, we welcome research on a variety of modes of transgression in representation. These transgressions may relate to:

-The Body: crossing lines of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity; (dis)abilities; cyborgs and automatons; abjection; hybridity; interior/exterior boundaries.
-Ideologies: transgressive politics;“truth” and its fictions; shifting paradigms; theoretical trespassing; feminist, queer, and postcolonial revisions.
-Space and Place: architectural transgressions; interstitial spaces; transnationalism; the atopic.
-Discipline: interdisciplinarity in art and its histories; transgressions of the archive; intertextuality; political/apolitical dimensions of the medium; deterritorialization.
-The Object: transformation of the art object and its venues; art after dematerialization; the challenges of objecthood.
-Exhibition: personal and cultural modes of collection and display; public vs. private space; institutional upsets; historical diversions; new directions.

We invite proposals for 15-minute presentations from interested graduate students of all disciplines. Formats may include presentations of academic papers or artist talks accompanied by images or screenings. Panel entries are also encouraged. Please submit abstracts or artist statements of 250 words to yorkarthistory@yahoo.ca by FEBRUARY 13, 2006.