Lorna Simpson, “Necklines” (1989); Leslie Hewitt, “Make it Plain (2 of 5)” (2006)
Across the Divide: Intermediality and American Art Symposium
Bowdoin College, September 29-30 2016
This paper examines how conceptual photographers Lorna Simpson and Leslie Hewitt engage the registers of photography and sound to articulate the complex connections between the body and the world. While photography was a crucial mechanism for the development of race, sound has been invoked by scholars and artists to illuminate the spatial and immaterial dimensions of intergenerational memory and cultural practice in the African Diaspora. Their work, in using sonic frameworks for visual representation, make space for movement and temporality in the representation of black life.
Symposium description: In recent years as the critical emphasis on “medium specificity” in art historical practice has waned, it has been replaced by a scholarly focus on the interplay between various media. The replacement raises a number of critical questions about intermediality: How do artists exchange motifs and tropes from one kind of art to another? How do different media play against each other? Can the integration of aesthetic concepts from different media interfere with each other? How might experiences with different media spark new and surprising experiences for audiences and artists alike? The symposium Across the Divide: Intermediality and American Art takes these questions as a point of departure for an investigation of this practice in American art. Scholars drawn from various disciplines, including history, art history, American studies, and English, will address, among other issues, racial caricature, violence, memory making, and national identity. To encourage lively discussions and productive conversations around the issue of intermediality, each speaker’s presentation will be followed by remarks by a discussant whose research and teaching interests resonate with the concerns of the presenter. Michael Leja, Professor of History of Art, Chair of the Graduate Group at the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, will deliver the keynote address. Attendees will have an opportunity to tour Bowdoin College’s historic collections, including those found in Special Collections, the Arctic Museum, and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
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