Aftermath Images: Location and Memory in Post-Conflict Representations
A one-day symposium presenting interdisciplinary approaches to imaging the consequences of conflict
Saturday 19 May 2007
1.30 – 6.00pm
Lecture Theatre 1, Sandra Burslem Building, All Saints Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University
Many recent art practices have been concerned with the aftermath of political conflicts. Artists have used photography, film and other media as a means of recording the sites and traces of conflict, adopting 'forensic' or 'archaeological' metaphors to describe their approaches. The intentions of these practices have often been to record and memorialise that which is usually unseen or not remembered through media representations of conflict. This symposium aims to explore recent art practices producing post-conflict images and involves both academics and visual practitioners in a discussion of the place art has as a set of practices that can create new visual languages through which the meanings of conflict can be explored.
Speakers
Aisling O' Beirn, Associate Lecturer in Sculpture, University of Ulster.
Aisling will speak about her recent work that investigates post-conflict Belfast through a constantly expanding collection of urban myths, anecdotes, landmarks, place nicknames, and hand drawn maps.
Angus Boulton, Research Fellow, MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Angus will discuss the development of his practice and his current project examining art film and photography as vehicles of contemporary visual archaeology and historical narrative through the representation of abandoned Soviet military bases within the former Eastern Bloc.
Simon Faulkner, Lecturer in Visual Culture, Manchester Metropolitan University.
This talk focuses on the 'Necropolis' project by Israeli photographers Roi Kuper and Gilad Ophir on abandoned Israeli military sites, considering how these pictures raise questions about the place of the military in Israeli society and allude to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Colin Graham, Lecturer in English at National University of Ireland
Maynooth. He is author of 'Deconstructing Ireland' and 'Ideologies of Epic'
and co-editor of 'The Irish Review'.
His talk is entitled 'Not this: Photography and Peace in Northern Ireland'.
Mark Phelan, Lecturer in Drama at Queens University Belfast.
He has published several articles on Irish theatre and photography.
His talk is entitled 'Temenos, Trauma, Topography and Photography: Remembering the Disappeared'.
Reception and Screening
The Symposium will be followed by a reception and the screening of Angus Boulton's film 'Cood Bay Forst Zinna' (2001).
Tickets
£20 / £5 students (cheques to Manchester Metropolitan University)
To reserve a place or for further details contact Fionna Barber f.barber@mmu.ac.uk or Simon Faulkner s.faulkner@mmu.ac.uk, School of History of Art and Design, Righton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cavendish St, Manchester M15 6BG
Download e-flyer [JPEG 300KB]
Links
www.aislingobeirn.com
www.thethirdspacegallery.com
www.angusboulton.net
www.roikuper.com
www.giladophir.com
