Making worlds, making subjects: contemporary art and the affective dimension of global ethics

In response to Terry Smith’s article, ‘Currents of world-making in contemporary art’ (2011), Meskimmon’s text seeks to extend the arguments that contemporary art is both decidedly ‘worldly’ and ‘with time’, exploring art’s ethical agency in a globalised world. Arguing that Smith’s ‘contemporal dialectic’ locates a materialist politics for contemporary practice, the article suggests ways in which contemporary practice might engender a future beyond teleology, through an active engagement with imagination, affect and the logic of the gift.