This dissertation examines contemporary Los Angeles-based artists whose identity and work engages with issues of diaspora. I combine visual analysis of the artwork with interviews with the artists to look at the ways in which they utilize several visual and theoretical concepts of diaspora, arguing, that as diasporans they adopt a dialogic gaze that disallows monologic readings of their work, while denying easy binaryisms, to transgress multiple borders – temporal, cultural, stylistic, and geographic – simultaneously. In doing so, I argue that their work performs a revisionist historiography – they contribute to a project that decenters dominant discourses, by shifting absent or marginal narratives to the center, modeling a process of writing history that goes beyond merely inserting peoples of diverse backgrounds into the history of art, but revisions history from a more equitable perspective. Furthermore, drawing on a broad field of diaspora studies, I utilize a theory of diaspora that moves beyond a single ethnic or national identity to a global intersectional framework, which allows me to compare work that might not be otherwise read together. Therefore, I argue that applying a diaspora analysis to this diverse work contributes to a revisionist historiography by producing new narratives and analytical frameworks to an art historical discourse, one that centers questions of gender, culture, migration, sexuality, transnationalism, and global power structures.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation examines contemporary Los Angeles-based artists whose identity and work engages with issues of diaspora. I combine visual analysis of the artwork with interviews with the artists to look at the ways in which they utilize several visual and theoretical concepts of diaspora, arguing, that as diasporans they adopt a dialogic gaze that disallows monologic readings of their work, while denying easy binaryisms, to transgress multiple borders – temporal, cultural, stylistic, and geographic – simultaneously. In doing so, I argue that their work performs a revisionist historiography – they contribute to a project that decenters dominant discourses, by shifting absent or marginal narratives to the center, modeling a process of writing history that goes beyond merely inserting peoples of diverse backgrounds into the history of art, but revisions history from a more equitable perspective. Furthermore, drawing on a broad field of diaspora studies, I utilize a theory of diaspora that moves beyond a single ethnic or national identity to a global intersectional framework, which allows me to compare work that might not be otherwise read together. Therefore, I argue that applying a diaspora analysis to this diverse work contributes to a revisionist historiography by producing new narratives and analytical frameworks to an art historical discourse, one that centers questions of gender, culture, migration, sexuality, transnationalism, and global power structures.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Singh, Surana Kaur"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Cultural Studies, PhD","degree_level":"Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Joshua Goode","David Pagel"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:22Z","subjects":["Art","Contemporary","Dialogic","Diaspora","Historiography","Los Angeles","American Studies","Art Practice"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/624","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Joshua Goode","David Pagel"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Singh, Surana Kaur"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-01-01T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Cultural Studies, PhD"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Art","Contemporary","Dialogic","Diaspora","Historiography","Los Angeles","American Studies","Art Practice"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/624"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation examines contemporary Los Angeles-based artists whose identity and work engages with issues of diaspora. I combine visual analysis of the artwork with interviews with the artists to look at the ways in which they utilize several visual and theoretical concepts of diaspora, arguing, that as diasporans they adopt a dialogic gaze that disallows monologic readings of their work, while denying easy binaryisms, to transgress multiple borders – temporal, cultural, stylistic, and geographic – simultaneously. In doing so, I argue that their work performs a revisionist historiography – they contribute to a project that decenters dominant discourses, by shifting absent or marginal narratives to the center, modeling a process of writing history that goes beyond merely inserting peoples of diverse backgrounds into the history of art, but revisions history from a more equitable perspective. Furthermore, drawing on a broad field of diaspora studies, I utilize a theory of diaspora that moves beyond a single ethnic or national identity to a global intersectional framework, which allows me to compare work that might not be otherwise read together. Therefore, I argue that applying a diaspora analysis to this diverse work contributes to a revisionist historiography by producing new narratives and analytical frameworks to an art historical discourse, one that centers questions of gender, culture, migration, sexuality, transnationalism, and global power structures.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Los Angeles Artists and Revisionist Historiography: A Diasporic Intervention"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Joshua Goode","David Pagel"],"dc:creator":["Singh, Surana Kaur"],"dc:date.available":["2023-01-01T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation examines contemporary Los Angeles-based artists whose identity and work engages with issues of diaspora. I combine visual analysis of the artwork with interviews with the artists to look at the ways in which they utilize several visual and theoretical concepts of diaspora, arguing, that as diasporans they adopt a dialogic gaze that disallows monologic readings of their work, while denying easy binaryisms, to transgress multiple borders – temporal, cultural, stylistic, and geographic – simultaneously. In doing so, I argue that their work performs a revisionist historiography – they contribute to a project that decenters dominant discourses, by shifting absent or marginal narratives to the center, modeling a process of writing history that goes beyond merely inserting peoples of diverse backgrounds into the history of art, but revisions history from a more equitable perspective. Furthermore, drawing on a broad field of diaspora studies, I utilize a theory of diaspora that moves beyond a single ethnic or national identity to a global intersectional framework, which allows me to compare work that might not be otherwise read together. Therefore, I argue that applying a diaspora analysis to this diverse work contributes to a revisionist historiography by producing new narratives and analytical frameworks to an art historical discourse, one that centers questions of gender, culture, migration, sexuality, transnationalism, and global power structures.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/624"],"dc:subject":["Art","Contemporary","Dialogic","Diaspora","Historiography","Los Angeles","American Studies","Art Practice"],"dc:title":["Los Angeles Artists and Revisionist Historiography: A Diasporic Intervention"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Cultural Studies, PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:22Z"}