Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
Description
n 1986 Gerard Jan van Bladeren walked into Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum and with a knife attacked Barnett Newman's painting "Who is Afraid of Red, Blue, and Yellow 3", slashing it repeatedly. How is it that a painting can be so powerful as to inspire such violence? This talk explores the social aspects of images that create common collective imaginaries, which can both act to unite and to divide. Further it will examine how images are reproduced in these social imaginaries creating common reference points, often demanding shared emotional responses. Beyond individual emotional experiences social images create collective identifications which may induce members of the community to express their desire for inclusion through violent acts or the repudiation and exclusion of others. The talk will explore how such images travel with communities both as visual objects and as shared emotional experiences.