UNFIXED Projects
UNFIXED Projects (2010-2012) was a multi-platform project initiated by independent curator Sara Blokland & photo researcher, editor, & curator Asmara Pelupessy (NL/USA) to explore the relationship between photography, postcolonial perspectives & contemporary art. The organisation explored photography’s relationship to ideas of ethnicity, culture and identity in contemporary art.
UNFIXED Projects began with a shared interest in photography’s relationship to culture and heritage, characterized by some key similarities and differences in the members’ backgrounds. They trace parts of their ancestry to former colonies, are children of migrants to the ‘West’ and identify with a juxtaposition of heritages, cultures, images and histories. However, the Dutch versus United States perspectives, language and sensitivities around culture and representation consistently came to the foreground in their meetings. Gradually these critical differences in the ways race, multiculturalism and cultural identity are constructed in Europe and the US began to reveal themselves as productive opportunities to develop broader and more flexible understandings of these issues. This unfixed view was also notable in contemporary artworks they were inspired visually and intellectually. The exchange and exploration of contemporary art and postcolonial, cultural and photographic theory continued and led to the development of the project UNFIXED.
