CFP " Fashion and the Contemporary Avant-Garde" - CAA Annual Conference (New York, 11-14 Feb 15)

[Addressing Fashion In Art (AFIA)]

Call for Participation for the 103rd College Art Association Annual
Conference in New York, February 11–14, 2015

The deadline to submit abstracts is May 9, 2014.
For more information on submissions, please visit:
www.collegeart.org/proposals/2015callforparticipation

Fashion and the Contemporary Avant-Garde

Session chair: Charlene K. Lau, York University
Email: ck...@yorku.ca

In the words of the critic and art historian Hal Foster, there is a
"need for new narratives" in the history of the avant-garde. This
session provides a platform for fashion within theoretical discussions
of the contemporary vanguard and posits that fashion is one such
genealogy of the avant-garde. However, the term "avant-garde" has become
a catchall in fashion discourse for conceptual, experimental, or
intellectual practices. A more critically rigorous definition of the
avant-garde in fashion is needed for these new narratives to be
possible, one which (re)draws the connections between the vanguard and
its social and political aims. In this vein, papers from across
disciplines are welcome, proposing topics including but not limited to
art and fashion, curatorial studies, display culture, performance and
theater studies, popular culture, and wearable technology. Art and
design historians, artists, critics, curators, and designers are invited
to apply.