Events

While the arts have long been a method of domination and influence (Said 1998; Manderson 2019), creative, collaborative, and communal spaces have also been places of sanctuary from oppressive laws and regimes. They have provided creative, intellectual, and emotional sanctuary for those oppressed and exiled. This stream encourages an exploration of artistic modes and practices as spaces of sanctuary, as well as peril.

Over the last twenty years, a body of work has considered the complex relationship between law and art; this is complemented by an emergence of recent projects, scholarship and networks exploring the creative engagement between law and art. This intersection is a space to develop new ways of thinking and blurring the boundaries of difficult subjects. Projects from the Scottish Feminist Judgement Project, Criminal Quilts, Sanctuary City and Venice Biennale’s migrant boat, the engagement in art and law is prevalent and powerful.
We would encourage applicants to interpret and explore the topic of this stream broadly, to think of the intersecting lines that exist between and beyond the two disciplines of law and art, the entanglements of their practices, processes and materialities.

We invite critical reactions and discussions of the relationship between law and art. Some suggested areas for engagement are below:
 Law and art: a complex history;
 Peril and sanctuary;
 Migration sanctuary within a hostile environment;
 Testing the limits of law: artistic interventions;
 Art as a critical tool of protest and change;
 Art as legal history or legal history as art;
 Exploring jurisprudence through visual art;
 Performance art and the legal body;
 Feminist art and anti-feminist law;
 Testimony through visual art;
 Representations of criminal justice in visual art;
 Critical Legal Studies and the arts;

Dr Lizzy Willmington, Dr Sophie Doherty and Dr Swastee Ranjan, have a stream at the Critical Legal Conference this year in Durham. The theme is Sanctuary, and there is a specific Sanctuary, Art and Law stream (stream 7). They would be delighted if anyone would like to join them and present. The deadline is 30 June for abstracts, all other information is in the link.