Full Description
The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement reinvented the concept of North America as a cohesive whole, united by free trade. But within the bold concept of continental unity lay a paradox. While art was mobilized to frame the new narrative, culture itself was explicitly excluded from the agreements that implemented this vision.
Trading on Art brings culture to the fore by examining how artworks, exhibitions, and museum programs from the 1980s to 2010 mediated North American free trade, from government-supported cultural diplomacy initiatives to activist art that confronted impending US hegemony.
Sarah E.K. Smith reveals how Canadian artists engaged with, contested, and reflected on free trade, paying particular attention to the ways in which art was used to forge ties between Canada and Mexico and to circulate ideas about North American identity. Her nuanced analysis convincingly makes the case for the centrality of art in conceptualizing continental unity.
Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Exhibiting Diplomacy
1 Mexican Art in Canada
2 Canadian Art at 49th Parallel
Part 2: Picturing North America
3 Exhibiting the Continent
4 Settler State Claims to Indigeneity
Part 3: Creating Resistance
5 Reading inSite against the Cultural Exemption
6 Changing Narratives of Free Trade in Video Art
Epilogue: Art and the Invention of North America
Notes; Bibliography; Index
