48th Annual UBC AHVA Graduate Sy
mposium
Navigating the Image: Toward and Beyond Representation
October 30–31\ , 2025
Keynote lecture: Idols and Figural Images i
n Islam: A Brief Dive into a Perennial Debate
Dr. Christiane
Gruber
Mehmet Ağa-Oğlu Collegiate Professor of Islamic Art History in
the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan\, Ann Arbor
Thursday\, October 30\, 2025
5:30–7:00 pm
Room 102\, Frederic
Lasserre Building
6333 Memorial Road
Please contact the AHVA Vis ual Resources Centre for access to the Keynote Lecture recording: ahva.vrc@ubc.ca
Symposium Present ations
Friday\, October 31\, 2025
10:30 am–4:30 pm
Room 1002\, Audain Art Centre
6398 University Boulevard
Schedu le
10:00
–10:30
am
WELCOME
1
2:15–1:00 pm
LUNCH BREAK
1:10–2:10 pm
Aurora Yar
atzeth Aviles Garcia | Lina Xin Weng | Jojo Tang
2:1
5–2:30 pm
BREAK
2:30–3:30 pm
Ozan Yildiz | Ambree
n Shehzad Hussaini | Michael Dang
3:40–4:40 pm
Dr. Christiane Gruber Response
Th e AHVA Graduate Symposium Committee has selected mimetic representation as the theme for this year’s symposium. A foundational concept in art-historic al discourse\, the terms “mimesis” and “representation” are often associate d with imitation and realism\, and inevitably raise questions about the rel ationship between an artwork and the objective “real world.” As a cornersto ne of art-historical inquiry\, mimetic representation has long served both to define the parameters of interpretation and to reinforce Eurocentric fra meworks within cultures that maintain distinct representational value syste ms. Our modus operandi is to create a forum for charting novel approaches t oward a more inclusive and transhistorical history of art for the twenty-fi rst century. During the selection process\, we intentionally kept the theme open-ended—without restrictions on geography or period—to bring together a diverse group of graduate students from our own department and across Nort h America.
The symposium’s content spans a wide range of subjects\ , from the video art of Vancouver-based artist Theodore Saskatche Wan and c ontemporary Japanese “flowerscapes” to manuscript paintings from Ottoman Em pire\, medieval mirrors and an ewer from sixth-century China. To further facilitate these discussions\, we have invited Professor Christiane Gruber\, a renow ned historian of Islamic art from the University of Michigan\, to deliver t he keynote address on the relationship between idols and figural imagery in Islam.
By presenting this mélange of topics and perspectives\, w e aim to continue the legacy of challenging Eurocentric narratives while ex panding lines of dialogue among art historians across traditional boundarie s within the discipline.
The 48
th Annual Graduate Symposium coincides wi
th the final days of Loosely
Bound\, the annual exhibition of
new work by the 2nd-year Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art cohort. The atte
ndees are invited to visit the exhibition before it closes on Friday\, Octo
ber 31\, at AHVA Gallery\, 6398 University Boulevard.
We ac knowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional\, an cestral\, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
The Annua l Graduate Symposium is generously supported by the Joan Carlisle-Irving En dowment\, the Department of Art History\, Visual Art and Theory and the Off ice of the Provost & Vice-President Academic at the University of British C olumbia\, Vancouver.
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