News tagged:

Nostalgia

  • CFP: Nostalgia

    CFP: Nostalgia

    Birkbeck College, University of London
    Deadline: Apr 20, 2016

    The Dandelion editors seek submissions on the theme of NOSTALGIA for their forthcoming issue.

    Nostalgia is a ubiquitous presence in contemporary culture. Images and fantasies of the past permeate cultural and political discourses: from the mediated recycling of retro culture and popular history, to nostalgia as a method of political renewal (for example, Donald Trump’s campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again!’ and Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ‘45).

    Nostalgia is readily apparent in the current popularity of culture that celebrates our national past, while self-styled ‘progressive’ cultural institutions are increasingly turning to the past in order to better understand the contemporary: for instance, the reproduction of Richard Hamilton’s installations ‘Man, Machine and Motion’ (1955) and ‘an Exhibit’ (1957) at the ICA, London, in 2014. As the RetroDada manifesto declares ‘why shouldn’t a .gif run backwards as well as forwards?’

    To this end we ask: why the resurgence of nostalgia? Is it merely a displacement strategy for a world convulsed by social, political, economic, and environmental crisis, or is there something salvageable in its longing for a prior wholeness, in its desire to seek out a moment when the new was still possible? Should nostalgia be condemned as an ethical and aesthetic failure? Is nostalgia a hindrance to making it new; a symptom of lateness, of a loss of the future? Or can nostalgia be a productive force that provides, both for the self and society, insights into our present?

    This journal invites submissions that address the theme of nostalgia across the spectrum of Arts and Humanities research.

    Topics may include, but are not limited to:

    • Genealogies of nostalgia: from its earliest expositions in medical science through its Romantic and now latest twenty-first century phase • Homesickness, exile and diaspora • Nostalgia, nationalism and the nation • Postcolonial nostalgia
    • Institutionalised nostalgia: heritage, memorials and/or museums • Life writing and memoirs • The restaging of exhibitions and past live art events • Nostalgia and film: remakes, mediating history through dramatic reconstruction, retro-soundtracks • Nostalgia and digital technologies • Genres of nostalgia: ranging from the Romantics to the return of the long novel and to science-fiction, steampunk, and retro-futurism • Nostalgia for the avant-garde and avant-garde nostalgia • Communist and fascist nostalgia: utopia • Temporalities of nostalgia: late time and belatedness • Scenes of nostalgia: the ruin, the country house, reconciliation with nature

    We welcome short articles of 3000-5000 words, long articles of 5000-8000 words and critical reviews of books, film, and exhibitions. We also strongly encourage submissions of artwork including visual art; creative writing; podcasts and video footage (up to 10 minutes). We would be happy to discuss ideas for submissions with interested authors prior to the submissions deadline.

    Please send all submissions to mail@dandelionjournal.org by 20th April

    Please also include a 50-word author biography and a 200-300-word abstract alongside your submission. All referencing and style is required in full MHRA format as a condition of publication and submitted articles should be academically rigorous and ready for immediate publication. Complete instructions for submissions can be found at www.dandelionjournal.org under ‘About’.

  • Exhibition: Nostalgia by Pavel Romaniko at the Harriman Institute

    Exhibition at the Harriman Institute: Nostalgia by Pavel Romaniko

    Friday, January 29, 2016 to Thursday, March 10, 2016 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Harriman Institute Atrium (420 West 118th Street, 12th Floor)

    Pavel Romaniko was born in Pereslavl – Zalessky, near Moscow, in 1980. He received his MFA in Imaging Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology. The artist works with photographs, video and sculpture to explore gaps in the archive and the collective memory, relying on imagery and symbolism found in both the public realm and his own memory. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and collections, including Rovinj Photodays Festival in Croatia, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, Mimi Ferzt Gallery in New York, and the Art Center of Orange Coast College in California. Romaniko divides his time between New York City and Lowell, MA where he is a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts.

    In the early part of the 20th century politicians, activists and artists in Communist Russia were involved in an act of building a Soviet myth, creating a new space-time continuum, while violently eradicating the past by erasing facts from history texts, documents, photographs, and from people’s consciousness. In the process, new histories were fabricated, thus creating a new order, new collective memory turning an entire country and its many cultures into exiles in their own land. In the years since, Vladimir Nabokov’s exploration of nostalgia and reflections on exile, and Ilya Kabakov’s reconstruction of the past, to name a few examples, are all part of a ritualistic return, an obsessive homecoming and anxious preservation of memory. Nostalgia in the work of these artists is palpable and real and has great impact on constructs of cultural memories. They do, however, remind us that the images produced and circulated within a culture need to be carefully examined. Perhaps, when remnants of history are scattered all over with no sign of provenance, they have no ability to tell a story of their own but can only remain in a form of melancholic nostalgia.

    From Mimi Ferzt Gallery, New York:

    The work from Romaniko’s project titled “Nostalgia” commenced in 2008. “Nostalgia” consists of photographs of miniature paper versions of Russian interiors. The artist describes this project as “a reflection on the topic of exile, home and the relationship with one’s past and belonging.” Romaniko manifests his curiosity and the desire to conserve history through the precise reconstruction of the modest yet so precious details of a Russian household or office. Devoid of human presence, Romaniko’s interiors bear an almost palpable air of uncertainty and the urge for change emblematic of Russian social and political landscape. “Kitchen” (2009, pigment print on archival paper) documents the Soviet residential experiment known as the communal apartment. The artist deliberately eschews the haphazard dynamics of communal cooking, allowing the viewer to reflect upon the peculiarities of communal living, both intimate and public. “Work Desk” (2008, pigment print on archival paper) is the artist’s tribute to Russia’s ominous past, with Joseph Stalin’s portrait hovering over a vintage piece of furniture, with paperwork scattered on the floor.

    Exhibit viewing hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm, (1/29-3/10)