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Document Type
Text
Broad Creation Date
2022
Language
English
Location
Portland
Abstract
Confederate sculptures are not mundane objects that decorate the landscape in communities across the United States, but are ideological structures to white supremacy. When the words monument and memorial are used interchangeably and weaponized, the sculptures are trapped on a hermeneutic circle that escalates racial conflict to abuse. By twisting circular interpretation to form an apeiron, represented as an infinity symbol,rigidity can be opened to accept a multiplicity of truths.
This project begins by untangling the words monument and memorial to demonstrate abuses of power and memory. By stripping away the language, the sculptures and the work they perform in public to uphold white supremacist ideology is revealed. Exposing them removes their power and neutralizes the grounds for discourse where dialogical sculptures can then be inserted.
The inclusion of dialogical public art that moves Confederate aesthetics to an apeiron engages conflict transformation that expresses the fluidity of history, memory, and consciousness. Recontextualizing public art not only indicates a cultural paradigm shift, but has the power to form a new public that accepts a multiplicity of truths. Public art that aids in the formation of a new public holds the promise of helping the collective development of a new level of consciousness, compassion, empathy, and care that is extended to others.
Disciplines
Aesthetics | American Studies | Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Philosophy | United States History
Publisher
Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts
City
Portland ME
Recommended Citation
Williamson, Lisa A., "Confederate Aesthetics: From Reconstruction to Deconstruction" (2022). Academic Research and Dissertations. 34.
https://digitalmaine.com/academic/34
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