Afterall Journal Issue 50: Strangeness and Defamiliarisation in the Pandemic Era

Afterall Journal publishes its 50th issue, edited collectively by seven editors who each contributed essays and selected seven artworks. The foreword, written by Mark Lewis, explores the concept of defamiliarisation (ostranenie) through a personal anecdote about a Pakistani student seeing snow for the first time in Saskatchewan. Lewis draws parallels to the Covid-19 pandemic, describing it as a 'magical defamiliarisation' that has erased normalcy and revealed societal divisions. The issue reflects on art's role in a world made strange, referencing Viktor Shklovsky, Sigmund Freud's uncanny, and the pandemic's impact on artists and institutions. It also addresses racial justice, citing Caroline Randall Williams's New York Times piece on Confederate monuments. The editors include Ute Meta Bauer, who is leaving Afterall after four years, and new editors Amanda Carneiro, Nav Haq, Amber Husain, and Adeena Mey. The issue features design by Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Adam Turnbull of Pacific.