Congratulations to second-year graduate student Dada Wang who will present her paper “Reframing Narratives of Water Control: Mechanisms of Resistance in Chinese Performance Art” at the Mary L. Cornille Annual Boston University Graduate Symposium in the History of Art & Architecture on April 2. 

The 2022 symposium, titled (UNDER)WATER, includes papers that “consider or respond to the role of the water in shaping the production of visual and material culture.” Expanding scholarship in the green and blue humanities considers the relationship between human cultural and visual production and non-human natural forces. Considerations of connections between the blue world and its presence in art and visual culture deepen our understanding between humans and their environs.

Dada’s talk will examine a selection of water-themed performance artworks from 1990s China, and place them in dialogue with China’s official rhetorics regarding water control in recent decades. The paper will investigate how these performances strategically advance ecoactivist agendas and redefine political participation in the contemporary world. 

Under(Water) will be presented remotely via Zoom from 10 am to 5 pm (UTC). Dada will present in the first panel on “Water as Resource” from 10 am to 12 pm.

Register here.