Arguing for Assemblage

Within today's accelerated landscape of consumption and extraction, how does the technique of assemblage offer a different mode of inquiry for contemporary artists? This panel will explore assemblage-based sculpture—the use of found, mundane objects, combined in new and surprising ways—as a crucial tool for interrogating our entangled experiences of life under late capitalism. How do assemblage practices help reflect artistic experiences of migration and diaspora, political upheaval, and ecological crisis? How does the materiality of assemblage sculpture enact new performative modes of engagement in the contexts of its display—museums, galleries, artist-run spaces, and elsewhere? Does assemblage-based sculpture prompt a different, slower, mode of looking?

This panel welcomes art historical analyses of assemblage-based practices by contemporary and historical artists, alongside practice-based responses from artists who engage in this technique themselves.

How can you participate? Join us in person by or online by registering for the Zoom Meeting or watching live on YouTube.

Have questions or if we can make this event more accessible for you: Contact us at info.4@concordia.ca

Camille Sung

The Logic of Structure: Yi Kǒnyong's Spatial and Temporal Assemblages and "Contemporary Asian Art" 

Kelly Jazvac

New Users: Assemblage as Response to Extractivism

Maggie Gunn

Assemblage at the Intersection of Mass-Material Culture and Worship

Karen Kraven 

Thinness: empty boxes, fabric scraps and flower petals

Dan Adler

For the full abstracts and speaker bios, visit the UAAC - AAUC Conference Programme.