Art as a Decolonial Tool: Family (Her)stories in the Practice of Contemporary Female Artists

• In Event: Contested Memory and Resistance to Neocolonialism in Ukraine’s Culture II

Abstract

This article explores how contemporary female artists from the Baltic region, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus use art as a tool to confront colonial violence within their family (her)stories and to challenge colonial narratives through the lens of personal and collective memory. A key focus of this research is the concept of gaps, ruptures, voids, and muted or tabooed zones created by colonial violence, as well as the possibilities—and limitations—of using art to address or fill these gaps in family histories that have emerged due to (in)voluntary migration, colonial violence, and colonial erasure. The article examines how artists engage with questions of identity and their own positionality within the framework of the Russian colonial project, particularly in the context of conflicting or erased memories and identities. Additionally, it explores the impact of multilayered migration—both voluntary and forced, whether rooted in familial histories or linked to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine—on family (her)stories.

Author

• Lia Dostlieva, Independent Artist