Book

On whiteness / The Racial Imaginary Institute ; texts by Lauren Berlant, Sadhana Bery, Daniel Borzutzky, Jane Caflisch, Jeff Chang, Aruna D'Souza, Lori Gruen, Saidiya Hartman, Linda Martín Alcoff, Nell Irvin Painter, and Doreen St. Félix ; artworks by Alexandra Bell, Mel Chin, Ken Gonzales-Day, Titus Kaphar, Charlotte Lagarde, Carla Liesching, Glenn Ligon, Nell Painter, and Hank Willis Thomas.

On Whiteness (2018 : New York, N.Y.), author. (author.). Alcoff, Linda Martín, (author.). Bell, Alexandra, 1983- (artist.). Berlant, Lauren Gail, 1957-2021 (author.). Bery, Sadhana, (author.). Borzutzky, Daniel, (author.). Caflisch, Jane, (author.). Chang, Jeff, (author.). Chin, Mel, 1951- (artist.). D'Souza, Aruna, (author.). Gonzales-Day, Ken, (artist.). Gruen, Lori, (author.). Hartman, Saidiya V., (author.). Kaphar, Titus, 1976- (artist.). Lagarde, Charlotte, (artist.). Liesching, Carla, 1985- (artist.). Ligon, Glenn, 1960- (artist.). Painter, Nell Irvin, (author,, artist.). St. Félix, Doreen, 1992- (author.). Thomas, Hank Willis, 1976- (artist.).

Summary:

"Cofounded in 2017 by authors Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda, the Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII) is an interdisciplinary collective of artists, writers, knowledge-producers and activists. The institute's historic 2018 symposium 'On Whiteness' convened a dazzling array of thinkers, artists and activists. The essays that resulted from the event, collected here, seek to examine whiteness as a source of often unquestioned or even unobserved power, and make visible variations of this dangerous ideology that has been intentionally positioned as neutral. In our current moment, whiteness is freshly articulated: as a source of unquestioned power, and as a 'bloc', it feels itself endangered even as it retains its hold on power. Given that the concept of racial hierarchy is a strategy employed to support white dominance, whiteness is an important aspect of any conversation about race. The essays in On Whiteness make visible what has been intentionally presented as inevitable to help the move forward into more revelatory conversations about race. They question what can be made when we investigate, evade, beset and call out 'bloc whiteness.'"-- Publisher's description.

"The exhibition portion of On Whiteness aims to take advantage of art's powerful ability to reframe dominant ways of seeing, especially with regard to philosopher Sara Ahmed's postulation of whiteness as a 'habit,' whose power to form and sustain specific social behaviors and institutions resides in its being taken entirely for granted. As Ahmed proposes: 'Whiteness is what bodies do, where the body takes shape of the action ... spaces are oriented 'around' whiteness, insofar as whiteness is not seen.' By disorienting the particularly habituated space of the white cube gallery, the work in this exhibition questions, marks, and checks whiteness, challenging its dominance as it operates through default positions in cultural behavior."-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781916041288
ISBN: 1916041280
Physical Description: 187 pages, 5 unnumbered pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 15 cm.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: London : SPBH Editions ; 2022.
Distributor: New York, NY : Available through ARTBOOK / D.A.P.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Papers from a symposium co-organized by The Racial Imaginary Institute and The Kitchen, held at The Kitchen in Manhattan, June 30, 2018.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction / by The Racial Imaginary Institute Curatorial Team -- Portfolio / by Hank Willis Thomas -- Whiteness and race temperament / by Neil Irvin Painter -- Portfolio / by Charlotte Lagarde -- Against a sharp white background : culture, coalition, and the zero-sum game of managed diversity. The diversity bargain : Asian Americans, whiteness, and justice / by Jeff Chang ; The case for museum reparations / by Aruna D'Souza ; Poetry, labor, immigration and state violence / by Daniel Borzutzky ; The Internet : white rhetoric, black criticism / by Doreen St. Félix -- Portfolio / by Carla Liesching -- Whiteness and race temperament / by Linda Martín Alcoff -- Portfolio / by Glenn Ligon -- A diagnostic of whiteness : the empathy conundrum. White likability, white humorlessness / by Laurent Berlant ; White empathy : a technology of white supremacy / Sadhana Bery ; White guilt and reparation / by Jane Caflisch ; Empathy beyond whiteness / by Lori Gruen ; Near a church at dusk / Saidiya Hartman -- Portfolio / by Titus Kaphar -- Biographies -- Portfolio / by Alexandra Bell.