Craftivism Between Nationalism and Activism in Ukraine and Belarus

This article outlines the history and significance of Craftivism in Eastern Europe. Using two case studies of artists it investigates the use of the craft language in Eastern Europe and its usability for activism. Do-It-Yourself culture, of which Craftivism is part, rejects the commercialism, gender norms and the conventional lifestyle in the Global North. Use of crafts as a language of political and social struggle allows to convey the message in a less confrontational but nevertheless very pertinent way. The craftivism is a successful language for the feminist political struggle in the Eastern Europe

Introduction to Contemporary Art Across Political Divides

This book addresses the need for a more sustained knowledge and multidisciplinary understanding of what art and artists can do to create democratic spaces, forms and languages in a world devastated by multiple crises. The book’s main inquiry is whether contemporary art can or cannot cultivate an “agonistic” way of togetherness and facilitate difficult conversations through a multitude of contradictions, diverging views and conflicting visions. With Marxist, feminist and ecologist perspectives, the contributors analyze contemporary art worlds across the globe in relation to memory, conflict, trauma, transitional justice, social engagement, social resistance and activism. In this volume artists, activists, art historians and curators respond to the scholarly need to conduct timely and critical analyses of art across political divides in both informing and echoing the public search for agency, dialogue and self-representation. Secondly, they analyze how artists across the world transform these social relations through aesthetic means with a shared commitment to bridge political divides and conflicts. The book also investigates the attempts to articulate the counter-narratives and practices of anti-dialogism in terms of whitewashing public murals and censoring artworks. The case studies from Australia, India, Mexico, Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Poland and Italy discuss the possibility or impossibility of building avenues for participation, equitable interaction, self-organization, the common creation of the imaginary and imagining a culture of dialogue. They discuss the possibility or impossibility of building avenues for participation, equitable interaction, self-organization, the common creation of the imaginary, and a culture of dialogue. The sophisticated discussions of aesthetic and political struggles over the meaning of democracy in both academia and the art world is very timely. The book pushes these discussions for a broader and more conflict-oriented understanding of art and politics and explores the ways in which contemporary art forms can sublimate antagonism into an agonistic way of co-existence

Contemplative Interiors: Ceramics and Furniture

Exhibit Catalog for the show Contemplative Interiors exhibited at the Lockhart Gallery at SUNY Geneseo from February 6, 2019-March 15, 2019. Exhibit Curator: Alla Myzelev.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/geneseo-authors/1008/thumbnail.jp

Five Geneseo Monuments: Exhibition Catalog

SUNY Geneseo Museum Studies Class Exhibition, Fall 2019. Bridge Gallery, December 4, 2019. The Big Tree The Bear Fountain Monument: A Symbol of Community James Samuel Wadsworth Statue Progression Toward Modernity: Geneseo’s Suffragists, The Shaw Sisters The Geneseo Fire Department Memorialhttps://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/geneseo-authors/1009/thumbnail.jp

Crafting Digital Materiality: Feminism and Contemporary Culture of Making

Recent revival of the do-it-yourself (DIY) culture and its relationship to third wave feminism and post-feminism had received scant scholarly attention so far. Many political projects that involve DIY strategies and materials rely on digital communities of likeminded people, mainly women and advocate women involvement in the public politics. Actions such as Knit Your Congressman a Vagina and yarn bombings, considered to be implicitly feminist and therefore, the argument goes, do not require additional examination, attention and analysis vis-à-vis feminist ideas. My research looks at intersections of the digital communities produced through practice of DIY, such as for example www.countercraft.org and understanding of feminism that members of these communities adhere to. It looks at how these communities utilize implicitly or explicitly understood feminisms and empowerment while practicing craft techniques that traditionally considered part of patriarchal society and thus presumably contributed to disempowerment of women. In addition, I look at how these websites, blogs, and discussion groups involve women in the political realm through use of one of seemingly traditional and apolitical techniques of knitting, sewing, crocheting, etc

Crafting Digital Materiality: Feminism and Contemporary Culture of Making

Recent revival of the do-it-yourself (DIY) culture and its relationship to third wave feminism and post-feminism had received scant scholarly attention so far. Many political projects that involve DIY strategies and materials rely on digital communities of likeminded people, mainly women and advocate women involvement in the public politics. Actions such as Knit Your Congressman a Vagina and yarn bombings, considered to be implicitly feminist and therefore, the argument goes, do not require additional examination, attention and analysis vis-à-vis feminist ideas. My research looks at intersections of the digital communities produced through practice of DIY, such as for example www.countercraft.org and understanding of feminism that members of these communities adhere to. It looks at how these communities utilize implicitly or explicitly understood feminisms and empowerment while practicing craft techniques that traditionally considered part of patriarchal society and thus presumably contributed to disempowerment of women. In addition, I look at how these websites, blogs, and discussion groups involve women in the political realm through use of one of seemingly traditional and apolitical techniques of knitting, sewing, crocheting, etc

Canadian Architecture and Nationalism: From Vernacular to Deco

The debates about national and local architecture in Canada go as far as the construction of the first permanent structures. The young country had to invent its native architectural tradition and at the same time to mitigate European influences. Introducing the notion of longing – or nostalgia – into the debate on Canadian design and architecture this study argues that European grandeur, innovations as well as financial and cultural magnitude often played an important role in the desire to create artistic projects including public and residential buildings. The interest in the Gothic revival and the forging of the Neo-Gothic style can be tied to a nostalgic feeling for the British Isles (their land of origin) and also for the utopian notions of unalienated artistic production during the Romanesque and Gothic periods championed by British philosophers Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852) and John Ruskin (1919-1900). The cultural horizons of those who participated in the forging of the national style included both the notion of modernity and its opposite (the anti-modern), the dream of the new but also the dream of the old. The article argues that such a complex inspiration is at the core of any modernist production, for it brings together and blurs the modern and anti-modern, the old and the new, and by doing so, it generates constant innovation. At the core of forging the nationalist style, there is also a desire to incorporate European history and heritage, not to negate or reject it. Finally, it argues that Art Deco became the vehicle that helped to popularize the ideas of modernity propagated by avant-garde artists and architects