1 minute read
VANESSA HOLYOAK
from GIRLS 17
GM: You are currently a PhD student in Comparative Media and Culture at USC. What do you plan on focusing on in your graduate studies?
VH: I’m hoping to really consolidate these philosophical ideas that are already present in my creative practices and approach them from a more theoretical/scholarly standpoint I’m definitely interested in continuing to look at ideas of darkness as a potential fugitive space, or site of resistance from hegemonic capitalism. In line with that, [I’m also] thinking about other dark spaces, such as spaces of memory, dreams, and sleep as ways of resisting capitalism, colonialism, etc. Through both the visual art and literary canons, [I’m] looking at practices that embody those ideas and open up more unwieldy durations and forms of embodiment, with temporalities that don’t fit into the neat frame of disciplinary (art historical or literary) boundaries.
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GM: What could art institutions do to better engage with AAPI art and artists, especially in terms of exhibition organizing and programming thematics?
VH: Although I’ve never worked in a museum myself, my first impulse would be to hire Asian Americans as curators and art administrators, or place them in other roles of power to give them the agency to make more inclusive decisions, and to showcase Asian American artists [Having the] makeup of your employees at an institution reflect the actual diversity of society would already be a huge step, rather than this performative virtue signaling where institutions claim alliances with certain communities without actually rethinking the foundational structures and makeup of who has power in the institution. So, the first step is actually giving Asian American thinkers, artists, etc. that decision-making power, which hopefully would create greater inclusivity by reflecting our perspectives in the institution. This goes for other communities beyond Asian Americans as well; museums are still very white institutions. Diversify the voices, identities, and perspectives present, give them agency, and don’t reduce them to mere tokens of their identity positions.