Reparative Aesthetics: Witnessing in Contemporary Art Photography (Bloomsbury 2016) is the latest book by Susan Best, Professor of Art Theory and Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Join us to launch this acclaimed publication which establishes the new theoretical framework of ‘reparative aesthetics’; creating new theories in the interdisciplinary fields of aesthetics, affect studies, feminist theory, politics and photography. Best argues that art has the capacity to heal shameful histories by closely examining the work of four female photographers.

According to leading feminist and philosopher Professor Elizabeth Grosz (Duke University), “Reparative Aesthetics develops a new account of what photographic art by women artists from the global south is able to accomplish through the acknowledgement and exposure of shame. Beautifully and hauntingly written, this book reminds us that art expresses what cannot be said.”

Susan Best is an art historian whose research focuses on critical theory and modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on body art and performance, minimalism and conceptual art, women’s art, and Latin American art.  Her publications include Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-garde (2011) which won the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand best book award in 2012.

Launching the book at the IMA will be Associate Professor Marguerite La Caze from University of Queensland’s School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry.

Free, all welcome.