Hidden stories, entangled spaces: Contested island heritage and contemporary art curation

In her poem ‘To Island’ (2022, p. 127), I-Kiribati and African American scholar, poet, and activist Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa proposes turning ‘island’ into a verb, finding the noun form too vulnerable. She urges us ‘to island’ the world – to embrace a way of living as if we were all islanders. (…) This volume takes up Teaiwa’s provocation, asking what it might mean ‘to island’ in contemporary art curation. It explores how an urgent, connective, sustainable, and caring mindset informs exhibition-making today.Emerging from the Transnational Island Museologies conference (2024), co-organised by ICOFOM and the University of St Andrews as part of the Shared Island Stories research project, the volume foregrounds contributions examining oceanic travel and entangled histories. The chapters trace how contemporary artists engage with contested island heritage to tell lesser-known transnational stories and shed light on obscured historical undercurrents.