OCAD University Open Research Repository

Contemporary Art Curating and its Long Christian Shadow

Lim, Elisha (2017) Contemporary Art Curating and its Long Christian Shadow. Masters thesis, OCAD University.

Item Type: Thesis
Creators: Lim, Elisha
Abstract:

In order to tackle the under-representation of racialized artists in Canadian art galleries, it is useful to gain familiarity with the Christian ideologies that bolster Eurocentric race representation. Although secular Euro-Western society is culturally Christian, museologists rarely consider how residual Biblical values may underpin gallery pedagogy. This paper combines museum studies, critical race scholarship and theology to argue that modern exhibition practices deal in valorization that was developed by the medieval Church and continues to justify the power of dominant groups. Namely, that museum visitors and subordinate staff encounter binaries that alienate difference and trigger shame and insecurity. Three curators committed to equitable race representation offer counter-strategies to these binaries through epistemic disobedience, which springs from their marginalized identities. For example Michelle Jacques and Geneviève Wallen celebrate and restore Black Canadian art history, and Wanda Nanibush invokes Anishinaabe pedagogy in the gallery, centering respect, love and intuition.

Date: 6 May 2017
Divisions: Graduate Studies > Criticism and Curatorial Practice
Date Deposited: 09 May 2017 14:44
Last Modified: 20 Dec 2021 23:15
URI: https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1646

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