Daisy Dixon: "Aesthetic Slurs"

Daisy Dixon, Cardiff University: "Aesthetic Slurs"

Abstract
I present a novel account of what I call the ‘aesthetic slur’. Inspired by Patricia Hill Collins’s notion of ‘controlling images’, I delineate images which behave in much the same way as linguistic slurs, analysing particularly their feature of ‘effluence’; how their harmful content can leak out and not be insulated by intention or context. I then use this analysis to explain what went wrong with Makode Linde's controversial artwork Painful Cake (2012).

Content warnings: racist & antisemitic imagery and language.