Class 18 - Transnational Solidarity Art
Checking in
Let’s check in first!
Welcome back!
Today we’ll be looking at Susan Banki’s paper “Art is happening in Myanmar, and outside of it: transnational solidarity art” in Globalizations 2023. We’ll be talking about the following themes.
- Art
- Activism
- Transnationalism
- Diaspora and the movement of human populations
- Solidarity
Background
The 2021 coup leading to a flowering of solidarity art that had a specific political purpose, that aimed to raise money for those in the CDM, and that sought audiences overseas.
In her paper Banki quotes Jacqueline Adams as referring to solidarity art as “art made by individuals experiencing state violence and economic hardship, which others distribute, sell, and buy to express solidarity with the artists and give them financial support.”
The paper by Banki explores art and activism, or resistance art — the places where art and social justice meet. Banki argues that solidarity art potentially risks reinforcing power relationships that it seeks to dismantle, increasing Global North / South divide. But she goes on to say that that solidarity art happening in Myanmar avoids some of these issues, and may help support transnational human rights activism.
In the first half of this session, I want you to do the following.
Task 1: Reading Task
Read through the PDF (shared online) catalogue of the FIGHTING FEAR exhibition. It is 58 pages long, but many of the pages are artworks. So it shouldn’t take too long. Mainly look at the artworks, and see what takes your attention.
Task 2: Engaging with the Artworks
Think about which artwork or artist you most respond to. Why is this? Choose one single artwork, re-read the section about the artist who produced it.
Now free-write for 10 minutes in response to this artwork.
Task 3: Discussion group
Share the artwork and your thoughts in your discussion group.
Break
Task 3: Thinking Through the Theory
Our next task is to think through these artworks in relation to the topic of transnational solidarity.
- What does Banki argue about how art can build transnational solidarity?
- How are transnational links important for resistance to injustices that are happening in Myanmar?
- What are the problems with art as activism, when seen in a postcolonial context (for example, exhibiting images from contemporary Myanmar in Sydney or London)?
- Banki talks about three ways that these artworks respond to these potential critiques: collective multiple transnationalisms, self-representation, and resource reciprocity. What are these, and why are they important?
Next time
We’ll talk about all this in the next session, face-to-face! Bring all your notes from the above tasks, and the artwork you want to talk about. Email me if you have any issues at all.