Clark Art Lecture on Compromised Art of Parasitical Resistance

Print Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Friday, April 5 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program presents a lecture by Anna Watkins Fisher (University of Michigan) who examines artistic resistance in the twenty-first century, when disruption and dissent are co-opted and commodified in ways that reinforce powerful systems. The talk takes place in the Clark's auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
 
According to a press release, this lecture weighs the gambit of artists who willfully abandon the radical scripts of opposition and refusal long identified with anticapitalism and feminism to embrace parasitism—tactics of complicity that effect subversion from within dominant structures. The talk explores their irreverent and often troubling artworks and what they tell us about the conditions for resistance and critique today.
 
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A reception at 5 pm in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. 

Tags: Clark Art,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williams College Students Start Encampment over Gaza

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Several dozen student protesters Wednesday began an encampment at the heart of Williams College's campus to amplify their demands that the school divest from companies with ties to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
 
The move follows months of protests on campus, at the Field Park rotary and in town hall from students and other residents concerned about indiscriminate bombing that has reportedly killed more than 30,000 Palestinians since Israel began its response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist group.
 
It also mimics similar encampments on college campuses around this country, most notably at places like New York’s Columbia University, where student protests led to the occupation of an administration building and, ultimately, the arrest of nearly 300 protesters.
 
At about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, students sang protest songs and listened to speakers on the Williams Quad, surrounded by a ring of tents set up in the wee hours of the morning.
 
On Monday, Williams College President Maud Mandel sent a campus-wide message reminding students of the college’s policies on demonstrations and noting that encampments, “in and of themselves do not violate any college rule.”
 
On Wednesday afternoon, senior Hannah Bae and sophomore Deena Iqbal of the local chapter of the group Students for Justice in Palestine, said that they were aware of the college’s policies and that the encampment was not violating them.
 
The pair said the students planned to sleep in the tents, and they put no timeline on the protest.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories