Revisiting Ephemera: Call for Art and Papers

CALL FOR ART AND CONFERENCE PAPERS

The Revisiting Ephemera Graduate Student Conference and Exhibition is presented by the Visual Arts graduate students at the University of Western Ontario and will take place on January 15, 2011 in the ArtLab Gallery, UWO. Organized in parallel with Bruce Nauman: Audio/Video Piece for London, an exhibition at the Forest City Gallery, Revisiting Ephemera encompasses topics such as but not limited to: ephemera, transience, time, de-objectification, performance, documentation and the archive, as they pertain to the history, creation and curation of visual arts and material culture.

We invite MA, MFA and PhD students from Visual Arts and all related disciplines to put forward submissions relating to the concept of ephemera in visual and material culture. You may submit:

1. A proposal for an academic paper, artistic or performative presentation 20 minutes in length, OR
2. An artwork proposal for inclusion in a group exhibition

Growing out of the recent curatorial, critical and academic interest in the re-staging of historical conceptual art exhibitions, Revisiting Ephemera calls presenters to explore the concept of ephemera in art, artist practices, exhibitions, curatorial studies and in other fields that engage with visual and material cultures.

Conference papers may consider artworks or artistic practices that are conceptual, performance, time-based, ephemeral or in some way distinct from the traditional art object.

How is this work or practice revisited? Can an ephemeral work or performance be preserved? How does the artwork depend on, stray from or relate to its documentation via photo, text or archival materials? Does documentation ultimately replace the event? Is there such a thing as an enduring art object? What happens when so-called ephemera becomes an art object? How does the status of ephemera change when it is part of the archive or historical record?

Presentations may also consider artists who produce ephemera as art, conceptual artists and histories, and curatorial practices both recent and historical that engage with ephemeral or time-based art and the notion of re-staging, the archive and documentation. Topics may also engage with the ways in which the ephemeral has been studied and considered in academic and non-academic discourses alike.

The following list outlines other themes to consider, but is by no means exhaustive; additional topics are welcome:

* Disposable Culture
* Obsolescence
* De-materialization
* Traces
* Death
* Transience
* The Everyday
* Collecting: Permanence and Flux
* Performance
* Events/Happenings
* Liminalilty
* Provisional
* Preservation
* Text
* Organic
* Participation
* Community
* Memory

Revisiting Ephemera is a unique collaborative venture by MA, MFA and PhD students from the UWO Department of Visual Arts comprised of both art history and studio graduate students. As such, we encourage participation from graduate students in studio, art history, cultural studies and beyond.

This one-day conference and art exhibition will host presentations and a keynote address.

All Submissions must be sent electronically to: Ephemera.Conference@gmail.com

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: November 1, 2010

CONFERENCE PAPER SUBMISSIONS must include: a 200-word abstract and CV, including your name, telephone number and email address.

ART WORK/PROJECT RELATED SUBMISSIONS must include:

1. Art work/project description (max one-page)
2. CV, including your name, telephone number and email address.
3. Support Material must include:

* a maximum of 10 current images.
* Include a separate image list with titles, dimensions, dates and media
* Detail the installation demands, technical requirements for the work (i.e. monitors, speakers) and your plans for shipping or delivery if applicable
* JPEG files only
* 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels high. -1 MB maximum
* RGB, or grayscale colour mode files only (no CMYK).
* Number and title each file (digital still); the number must appear before the title so the order of the images corresponds to the image list, example: 001RedPainting.jpg.
* Do not submit images embedded in the following programs or formats: iPhoto, PowerPoint.

For detailed information please contact us: Ephemera.Conference@gmail.com