This talk addresses a turn in the interdisciplinary field of black studies toward an ethos of care and wonders what complications may arise from insufficient attention to the subjective paradox caused by caregiving. With the benefit of distinct but related insights from psychoanalysis and health sciences, it asks: How do you prevent caring-about from being conflated with or subsumed by caring-for? How can caregiving eschew the self-congratulatory logic of all conventional giving, if the genuine gift requires the double-blind anonymity of a giver who must be anonymous both to the receiver and to themselves, without obligation or claim?
Guest lecturer: Jared Sexton, University of California, Irvine
Professor, African American Studies & Professor, Film & Media Studies, School of Humanities
Image Credit: Shikeith
notes towards becoming a spill (2019), installation view
haint-blue paint, LED lights, Audio (30 minutes), Mirrored Glass
Sculpture, Mud, Georgia Red Dirt
https://shikeith.com/notes-towards-becoming-a-spill