Have we attained a post-emancipation world? Or is such a world impeded by the sediments of slavery embedded within capitalism? In Perpetual Slavery, Ciarán Finlayson considers these questions through extended…

Have we attained a post-emancipation world? Or is such a world impeded by the sediments of slavery embedded within capitalism? In Perpetual Slavery, Ciarán Finlayson considers these questions through extended readings of works by Cameron Rowland and Ralph Lemon, two contemporary African American artists who work within inventive strains of post-conceptualism. In dialogue with their works, Finlayson reflects on the legacy of slavery and investigates one of capitalist modernity’s central contradictions: though chattel slavery has officially ended, conscripted labor and carceral statism persist. This essay contemplates the possibility of freedom in the current political context, probing the historical relationship of art to capitalism.