Care is a murky notion. It is entangled with ugly feelings of obligation and burden, exhaustion and sacrifice. It is sometimes a mask for coercion and control. It is co-opted by commerce as a marketing tool, rebranded and repackaged as wellness and self care. The ‘uncaring’ positions—libertarians and litterers, meat eaters and gas guzzlers—are regularly overlooked too. How might these contingents inform the practice of care?
Artists, students, researchers and academics are invited to attend and contribute to a dynamic dialogue in response to the international group exhibition Duty of Care, which explores institutional and professional care, care and gender, care and race, care and medicine, artists as healers and extreme care.
Keynote Speaker: Catherine Liu (Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine), and author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class.
Trauma Culture: Public Spheres and Aesthetic Production in an Age of Managed Care
In this keynote, Liu will explore the rise of public caring and self-presentation in the age of austerity and social media, examining how the aestheticisation of private life has shaped the role of artists and public culture. The discussion will also address trauma, a central theme in Liu’s forthcoming book Traumatized, and the role of art in forging social bonds through mediated forms of confession.
Other Speakers: Stephanie Berlangieri, Angela Goddard, Tara Heffernan, Robert Leonard, Joel Sherwood Spring, Charla Strelan, and Cassie Thornton.
WHEN: Saturday 17 August, 9.30am – 3.30pm
WHERE: Queensland College of Art and Design Lecture Theatre
Griffith University South Bank campus, 226 Grey Street, South Bank, Brisbane
COST: $30 / $25 students (catered lunch and refreshments provided)
For complimentary First Nations community tickets email artmuseum@griffith.edu.au
The symposium will be followed by official opening celebrations of Duty of Care: Part Two at Griffith University Art Museum, 3.30 – 5pm.
Co-curated by Angela Goddard, Robert Leonard, and Stephanie Berlangieri, Duty of Care is a joint exhibition project by Griffith University Art Museum and the Institute of Modern Art. Part One, Institute of Modern Art, until 22 September. Part Two, Griffith University Art Museum, 15 August – 9 November.
