Rachel M. Tang

Can art objects be at once a political accomplice, history teacher, or even an agent of repair? Public education in the U.S. is and has historically been a battleground of fervent ideological contestation, simultaneously rife with conflicting ideals of enlightenment, the joys of liberation through knowledge, and deep historic wounds. At once, this wounded history provides artists a rich ground to metabolize our collective past, to critically reflect on the conditions of their own formation, and to produce artworks as holding vessels of enlightenment’s contradictory ideals and visions. Over the course of three historical episodes at the intersection of contemporary art history and the history of American education, this dissertation examines how artists mobilize art objects to contend with this history—stories painted with wounds that look like galaxies, ruins of a broken landscape small enough to cradle in your arms, and a basket made of names to hold our burdens. Focusing specifically on the work of Black and Indigenous artists, this project explores how art objects can do more than simply elucidate the history of racialized education in America by enacting the possibility of historical repair.