Migration, Borders and Precarity in Massa Lemu’s Selected Conceptual Art Projects

Bibliographic Data

ID21242443
AuthorsEmmanuel Ngwira (0000-0003-1557-8916, University of Malawi, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume11
Issue1
Pages57-76
Publication date2025-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEastern African Literary and Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2327-7408 • E-ISSN: 2327-7416
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23277408.2024.2428476
OpenAlexW4406065998
LanguageEN
References cited23

This paper focuses on how Massa Lemu, a Malawian artist living and working in the United States of America, reflects on and interrogates migrant experiences through three of his conceptual art projects namely Passages for the Undocumented (2010–2012), Stamp Collector: Coyotes (2016) and Precariot (2013–2016). Using the critical discourse analysis approach and drawing on studies on migrant arts in general and conceptual art in particular as well as literature on immigrant subjectivities, the paper holds that through these projects Lemu questions (America’s) dominant perceptions of immigrants through critical reflection on dilemmas and experiences of immigrants from the moment of leaving their countries of origin through border crossing to settling down in their host destinations in America. The paper further holds that through these projects, Lemu also interrogates the idea of the border and its power to construct and reinforce migrant identities

Economic geography · Geography · Political science · Precarity · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies

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