Research Catalog

Title

On whiteness : the Racial Imaginary Institute / texts by Lauren Berlant, Sadhana Bery, Daniel Borzutsky, Jane Caflisch, Jeff Chang, Aruna D'Souza, Lori Gruen, Saidiya Hartman, Linda Martin 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.

Publication

London : SPBH Editions ; [New York, N.Y.?] : The Racial Imaginary Institute, 2022.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Alcoff, Linda Martín
• Berlant, Lauren Gail, 1957-2021
• Bery, Sadhana
• Borzutzky, Daniel
• Bell, Alexandra
• Caflisch, Jane
• Chin, Mel, 1951-
• D'Souza, Aruna
• Gonzales-Day, Ken
• Gruen, Lori
• Hartman, Saidiya V.
• Kaphar, Titus, 1976-
• Liesching, Carla, 1985-
• Ligon, Glenn, 1960-
• Painter, Nell Irvin
• Thomas, Hank Willis, 1976-
• Racial Imaginary Institute, issuing body.

Description

187 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 15 cm.

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.'
• "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."--

Series Statement

SPBH Essays ; no. 4

Uniform Title

SPBH Essays ; no. 4.

Subject

• White people > Race identity > Congresses
• White privilege (Social structure) > Congresses
• Race in art > Exhibitions
• Race in art
• White people > Race identity
• White privilege (Social structure)
• White people

Genre/Form

• Exhibition catalogs.
• Conference papers and proceedings.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

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 Martin Alcoff -- Portfolio / by Glenn Ligon -- A diagnostic of whiteness : 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.

Call Number

JX 23-5350

ISBN

• 9781916041288
• 1916041280

OCLC

1344292095

Title

On whiteness : the Racial Imaginary Institute / texts by Lauren Berlant, Sadhana Bery, Daniel Borzutsky, Jane Caflisch, Jeff Chang, Aruna D'Souza, Lori Gruen, Saidiya Hartman, Linda Martin 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.

Publisher

London : SPBH Editions ; [New York, N.Y.?] : The Racial Imaginary Institute, 2022.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

SPBH Essays ; no. 4

SPBH Essays ; no. 4.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Added Author

Alcoff, Linda Martín, author.

Berlant, Lauren Gail, 1957-2021, author.

Bery, Sadhana, author.

Borzutzky, Daniel, author.

Bell, Alexandra, artist.

Caflisch, Jane, author.

Chin, Mel, 1951- artist.

D'Souza, Aruna, author.

Gonzales-Day, Ken, artist.

Gruen, Lori, author.

Hartman, Saidiya V., author.

Kaphar, Titus, 1976- artist.

Liesching, Carla, 1985- artist.

Ligon, Glenn, 1960- artist.

Painter, Nell Irvin, author, artist.

Thomas, Hank Willis, 1976- artist.

Racial Imaginary Institute, issuing body.

Research Call Number

JX 23-5350