Feeling Political: Art as Public Sphere in the Cross-Strait Worlds
February 18 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00 pm on Feb. 17 for campus access.
Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.
Speaker: I-Yi Hsieh, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Geography, National Taiwan University
Moderator: Nick Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society, AMEC/EALAC, Barnard College
The recent boom-and-bust of art museums in China has attracted global attention (Hsieh 2021, Fei 2025). Revealing the industry’s instability rooted in entanglements with the financial sector, the wave of museum closures in the People’s Republic of China indicates the changing horizon of art institutions as public spaces for political cacophony. I-Yi Hsieh’s talk draws on her book Flora and Fauna: Domestic Nature and Private Collecting in Reform Era Beijing (2025) and the exhibition Contested Waters (2024–2025) to further the conversation by addressing art as public sphere in the cross-strait worlds. Hsieh will introduce her book’s ethnographic lens capturing the rise of private collecting as an alternative to the diminishing public realm for political expression, while, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese artists and art institutions increasingly showcase projects with a focus on geopolitical tensions. It is the worst of times and the best of times for political art in the cross-strait worlds.
This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
Registration:
