The reparative potential of performance: Exploring the work of Aliza Shvarts as negotiations of harm and healing

What do the theories and practices of reparation offer that justice cannot, and how can artistic practice, especially performance, help to cultivate a kind of radical care that survival amidst multiple systems of oppression require? This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse within art history about the intersection of reparation and artistic practice through an analysis of Aliza Shvarts’s work, which emerges in its fullness as a series of works that should be seen as reiterations and renegotiations—that is, as parts of a dialogue rather than individual statements. Moreover, it is in this communicative aspect, I contend, where we begin to see how performance art can address harm caused by structural violences, specifically gender-based violence.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Wills, Savannah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Weissman , Terri

• Performance
• Repair

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Savannah Wills

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127408

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127408