Border Imagery And Refugee Abjection In Contemporary Visual Art
Border Imagery And Refugee Abjection In Contemporary Visual Art

Author(s): Balca Arda
Subject(s): Visual Arts, Culture and social structure , Migration Studies, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: traditional media; information; public; global migration; new digital media technologies; social media; migrants; artistic terms; critical anthology; migration; art; migration; local cultures; gender;
Summary/Abstract: This chapter examines the reflection of border imagery in various artistic productions related to refugeehood and theoretically analyzes its relation to abjection. The prominent role of border priority in its theories and practices on abjection makes contemporary art a decisive field of inquiry to conceptualize terms of artistic reconciliation and oppositional trends against otherization while popularization of isolationism prevails at global level. I contend that the contextualization of politics of pity versus politics of justice provides a better understanding on the potentiality of these artistic practices to reach anti-migrant sensibilities deriving from the notion of ableism for citizenship with specific criteria of “merit”. Ableism generically defines migrants as ‘harmful’ to the host national community’s “health”. Throughout this survey, I explore how difference produced through refugee abjection has been contested and whether such creative interventions address alternative belonging precepts. I question what kinds of representational projection can reconcile the conflicts of interests between various publics that constitutes the society, including host and incoming members.

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