Currents: Identity Politics
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to present the 7th edition of CURRENTS, a biennial open call exhibition series in which artists respond to current topics. Curated by A.I.R. Executive Director Roxana Fabius and Director of Exhibitions and Fellowship Christian Camacho-Light, the 2022 iteration of the series addresses the topic of identity politics.
Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the Combahee River Collective Statement, this exhibition looks to the origins of identity politics in order to consider the concept鈥檚 continued relevance and contemporary manifestations. In their 1977 statement鈥攐ne of the most significant texts of the twentieth century and a pillar of Black feminist theory and practice鈥攖he Combahee River Collective introduced identity politics as a cogent political analysis that emphasizes personal experience and multi-focal coalition building as wellsprings of revolutionary action. For the Combahee River Collective, identity politics allowed for the recognition that all forms of oppression are interconnected and thus cannot be fought in isolation. While importantly informed by who you are, identity politics poses the more essential question of what you might do with others.
Nearly half a century later, the value of identity politics is widely debated in the public sphere, with mainstream and alternative media alike wading into a perceived fissure in contemporary political discourse: that between so-called 鈥渋dentity politics of division鈥� on the one hand and class-based struggle on the other. On both the left and right, this has resulted in a muddying of the terms at play, giving the impression that contemporary politics is either/or, a zero-sum game.
CURRENTS: Identity Politics invited artists to consider the concept in its original, radical intention. The exhibition therefore looks to the agency to be harnessed in unique lived and embodied experience, as well as in the co-conspirators with which our intersectional identities put us in relation and potential collective action. Through a broad array of media鈥攊ncluding painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance鈥攖he twelve artists included in the exhibition represent the range and rigor with which contemporary visual artists are addressing timely issues of identity, coalition building, and intersectional analysis and action. Their works attend to race, gender, class, and access from nuanced and diverse perspectives.
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A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to present the 7th edition of CURRENTS, a biennial open call exhibition series in which artists respond to current topics. Curated by A.I.R. Executive Director Roxana Fabius and Director of Exhibitions and Fellowship Christian Camacho-Light, the 2022 iteration of the series addresses the topic of identity politics.
Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the Combahee River Collective Statement, this exhibition looks to the origins of identity politics in order to consider the concept鈥檚 continued relevance and contemporary manifestations. In their 1977 statement鈥攐ne of the most significant texts of the twentieth century and a pillar of Black feminist theory and practice鈥攖he Combahee River Collective introduced identity politics as a cogent political analysis that emphasizes personal experience and multi-focal coalition building as wellsprings of revolutionary action. For the Combahee River Collective, identity politics allowed for the recognition that all forms of oppression are interconnected and thus cannot be fought in isolation. While importantly informed by who you are, identity politics poses the more essential question of what you might do with others.
Nearly half a century later, the value of identity politics is widely debated in the public sphere, with mainstream and alternative media alike wading into a perceived fissure in contemporary political discourse: that between so-called 鈥渋dentity politics of division鈥� on the one hand and class-based struggle on the other. On both the left and right, this has resulted in a muddying of the terms at play, giving the impression that contemporary politics is either/or, a zero-sum game.
CURRENTS: Identity Politics invited artists to consider the concept in its original, radical intention. The exhibition therefore looks to the agency to be harnessed in unique lived and embodied experience, as well as in the co-conspirators with which our intersectional identities put us in relation and potential collective action. Through a broad array of media鈥攊ncluding painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance鈥攖he twelve artists included in the exhibition represent the range and rigor with which contemporary visual artists are addressing timely issues of identity, coalition building, and intersectional analysis and action. Their works attend to race, gender, class, and access from nuanced and diverse perspectives.
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