Reparative Aesthetics

Seminar presented by Professor Susan Best, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.

This lecture provides an overview of my book Reparative Aesthetics: Witnessing in Contemporary Art Photography. The book examines the work of four women photographers from the southern hemisphere, who are pioneering what I am calling a reparative approach to the representation of shameful histories. That is, their work attenuates shame while also bringing to light difficult and disturbing issues such as: the harsh and unjust treatment of indigenous peoples; the cruel institutionalisation of vulnerable groups; the disappearance of dissidents; and the carnage of civil war. The artists are: Anne Ferran (Australia), Fiona Pardington (New Zealand), Rosângela Rennó (Brazil), and Milagros de la Torre (Peru).

Susan Best is an art historian with expertise in critical theory and modern and contemporary art. Her books include Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-garde (2011) and Reparative Aesthetics: Witnessing in Contemporary Art Photography (2016). Both books won the Australia and New Zealand Art Association best book prize. She is Professor at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

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