This article examines four multimedia artivist artefacts at the nexus of the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s (MMIW) crisis. I position artivism as a decolonial methodology that radically alters our attunement to embodied aesthetics, contending that feminist artivists employ a radical imagination to liberate the body/body politic. Decoloniality must be an enacted praxis, and for many Indigenous feminists, creative and artistic practices provide a transformative pathway towards “making” and “living out” one’s indigeneity as knowledge and tradition-bearers. Each of the four exhibits illustrate the ways in which settler politics are narrated and resisted through and by the Indigenous body. My analysis illuminates what I theorize as an “embodied liminality” allied to Anzaldúa’s (1987) “Borderlands” and Bhabha’s (2004) “Third Space.” By articulating both feminist and decolonial forms of liminality, I explore the radical dimensions of artivism and the strategic subjugation of the liminal’s in-between threshold in which Indigenous women are traditionally relegated as “monstrous” Others. Using feminist artivism as a pathway to decolonization renders indigeneity clearly visible, such that the once-shadowy forms of its liminality are now simultaneously the protagonist and antagonist of the settler state. Building a decolonial movement against the MMIW crisis must begin with the recognition of the Indigenous body across fluid boundaries of radical resistance and critical vocabularies of aesthetic deviance.

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Embodied Liminality and Gendered State Violence: Artivist Expressions in the MMIW Movement

Abstract Art for social justice has long challenged notions of whose stories are told, how, and by whom, positioning it as a key body of practice to combat neoliberalism and other structures of domination. In the global struggle for liberation, art and social justice practices must be contextualized, requiring approaches and pedagogy that address the cultural landscapes in which they are rooted. Against this backdrop, the artivist-authors explore two questions: 1) In what ways do practices in the arts and social justice differ and intersect across cultural contexts? and 2) What lessons can be gleaned from grassroots and systems-level approaches to arts for social justice? Here, three vignettes, explored through Chicane testimonios and story circles rooted in Black and Indigenous theater practice, elucidate approaches to building creative justice in the landwaters colonized into Colombia, Rwanda, and the United States. Across these three vignettes, questions of practice and lessons learned emerge.

From Grassroots to Systems Change: Art for Social Justice

Este estudio de caso aborda el estudio de las ilustraciones en Instagram (IG) de “Feminista ilustrada” en el contexto de la cuarta ola del movimiento feminista desde la perspectiva de análisis de la Teoría Crítica. Se examinan los planteamientos teóricos presentes en su discurso y se caracteriza su estilo visual y narrativo desde un prisma de artivismo feminista. Se emplean la entrevista en profundidad y el análisis de contenido de las 388 publicaciones y 99 stories publicadas en IG desde la apertura del perfil en 2016 hasta septiembre de 2020. En la producción de la autora están presentes las agendas de las cuatro olas con una intencionalidad pedagógica, ya que, mediante un estilo propio y numerosas referencias a la cultura popular, pretende contribuir a la reflexión y el debate feminista. “Feminista ilustrada” constituye así un caso de artivismo y ciberactivismo en redes que contribuye al capital social del feminismo.

La contribución al feminismo de la ilustración artivista en redes sociales: el caso de “Feminista ilustrada”

This article looks at the practice of combining art and activism—‘artivism’—by feminist activist groups around the world. It argues that who tells the story matters fundamentally, that it is crucial that women, girls, and trans and intersex people represent their own experiences, and that the use of art for political advocacy can reach new audiences in new ways, opening up eyes, hearts and space for dialogue. The article argues that it is urgent that funders resource artivist work and recognize the value it has in effecting political change.

Vanina Serra

Papers

Envisioning Change Through Art: Funding Feminist Artivists for Social Change