Gabrielle Tillenburg

This dissertation reimagines the history of American Art from the perspective of the occupied, focusing on artists from Puerto Rico, Hawai‘i, and Guåhan, as well as Okinawa (Japan) and Jeju Island (Korea). Through photography, video, and performance, these artists expose the global repercussions of U.S. militarism and envision post-military futures. The project examines how island-based artists confront and render the colonial imprint of U.S. military bases on “island bodies”—here defined as the human body, bodies of water, and bodies of land. Advancing an archipelagic approach to art historical analysis, this study demonstrates how these practices expand an insular canon, foster national self-reflexivity, document empire’s reach, and act as imaginative forces of decolonization.