Book talk: Eunsong Kim and “The Politics of Collecting”
Date / Time
February 6, 2025
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
Categories
Writer and poet Eunsong Kim’s latest book, “The Politics of Collecting: Race and the Aestheticization of Property” (Duke Press, 2024), examines how private and museum collections in the United States overlook the violent and colonial processes that underlie the objects they collect. She links the Homestead Strike of 1892 to a larger narrative on the role de-unionization efforts led by steel magnates Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie played in amassing personal art collections that are now in museums.
In posing the question, “whose garbage becomes the archive?,” Kim challenges conventional understandings of collecting art, arguing that how objects are curated, collected and displayed contributes to the racial and economic hierarchies that persist in today’s cultural sector.
Join Kim for a lecture on her book, followed by a conversation with Denny Mwaura, Gallery 400’s assistant director and curator.
Access information: This program is free and CART captioning will be available. For questions and access accommodations, email gallery400engagement@gmail.com.