ARTH3349 · Fine Arts

Memory Work: Art and Mourning, 1945-Present

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This introductory course examines the relationship between the work of art and the work of mourning and memory, with a focus on art made after 1945 in a global context. By considering works that address historical traumas and their resonance in the present, we will consider enduring dilemmas surrounding the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of art that undertakes memory work. For help, we will look to a disparate group of artists, filmmakers, and other types of image makers in order to analyze arts responsibilities in the face of profound suffering. In a present of perpetual global war and a corresponding hypervisualization of state-sanctioned violence, what types of spaces are available for conducting memory work today? No prerequites required.