Contemporary Art Discourse Research Articles

Amatsuchi Kosaku: Reconsidering Postwar Japanese Art History from a Perspective of Ecology

This paper discusses Amatsuchi Kosaku, an artist collective that formed in the late 1980s and continued its unique activities until the early 2000s. Because Amatsuchi Kosaku was based in Shizuoka, it was excluded from the normative narrative of Japanese art history, which has been constructed around artists and artist collectives working in metropolises like Tokyo and Kyoto. This paper examines the “metropolitan-centrism” in the Japanese art history, and reconsiders the artistic practice of Amatsuchi Kosaku, from the perspective of “ecology,” a concept that has been the focus of much attention in recent contemporary art discourse.

Snail trails and alternative momentum: the Fine Art Critical Practice Archive

ABSTRACT Interest in art school histories and the archives that support them has grown over the past decade, yet institutional recordkeeping practices and collecting, where they exist, do not tend to capture the kind of records that are most useful for research into art school pedagogies or their relationship with contemporary art discourse. This article gives an archive studies perspective on the Fine Art Critical Practice (FACP) Archive, a collaborative project to collect archival sources documenting the history of the FACP degree programme at the University of Brighton, UK, to be held at the University of Brighton Design Archives and activated through involvement of the FACP community of staff and students. It considers the records of interest to that community may lie in the context of an art school archive within an institution. It goes on to consider the example of a body of papers received from a former member of FACP staff, Mick Hartney, reflecting on some of the questions raised by this mode of collecting in terms of archival arrangement and knowledge production for the project’s future phases.

The cutting edge in Ghanaian contemporary ceramics

This article discusses Ghanaian ceramic art and the critical interventions that are driving an emerging contemporary ceramic practice. Over the last decade (2011–22), Ghanaian ceramic art appears to have had a stagnant traditional practice and has struggled to be seen, heard and valued within local and global contemporary art discourse. Reviews and reforms of art education in college and tertiary curriculum have provided critical interventions to address this situation. Discussing the works of Japheth Asiedu-Kwarteng, Eugene Ofori Agyei, Frederick Ebenezer Okai, Alex Awuku and other artists, this article reveals how young Ghanaian contemporary ceramic artists are navigating a path to creating new artistic identities and pushing the boundaries of conventional Ghanaian ceramics. These developments also point to the meaningful expansion of ceramics in contemporary art education more generally.

Critical interventions in emerging Ghanaian contemporary ceramic practice

This article discusses Ghanaian ceramic art and the critical interventions that are driving an emerging contemporary ceramic practice. Ghanaian ceramic art, until a decade ago (from 2011), have had a stagnant traditional practice and has struggled to be seen, heard and valued within local and global contemporary art discourse. Reviews and reforms of art education have provided critical interventions to addressing this issue. Discussing the works of Japheth Asiedu-Kwarteng, Eugene Ofori Agyei, Frederick Ebenezer Okai, Alex Awuku and a few other Ghanaian traditional artists, we reveal how these young Ghanaian contemporary ceramic artists are navigating their path to creating new artistic identities and pushing the boundaries of conventional Ghanaian ceramics, questioning stereotyping and pigeonholing. These developments also point to the meaningful expansion of ceramics in contemporary art education more generally.

Porous Worlds – the Liminal Spaces of Relief

Porous Worlds – the Liminal Spaces of Relief was carried out as an artistic research PhD project in affiliation with The Art Academy, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen. The project examines the relief, its connections to art, craft, architecture, and ornament, as well as its various dimensions as an artistic medium. It has been the relief´s in-between status and the lack of contemporary art discourse around it that has informed the questions like: what is at stake working with relief form today? What kind of artistic potential and possibilities does ceramic relief have to offer?

IN DEFENCE OF A “POOR” VR IMAGE

The article is devoted to a “poor image” considered in the context of artworks created by means of virtual reality (VR). In contemporary art discourse, the concept of a “poor image” was actualised by German video artist Hito Steyerl, who analysed it in accordance with the development of telecommunication networks and Internet culture. We transpose this intuition to the field of a “poor” VR image, that is, one that is characterised by low polygonality and detail, poor elaboration of textures, and so on. We argue that a “poor image” can be used as a tool to form an artistic statement, or may work as an artistic device, as a “cool medium” (using M. McLuhan’s term), which encourages the viewer to participate in communication more intensely: the lack of visual information and/or insufficient information allows the viewer’s imagination to complete the image in a mode of perception that may be understood as co-creation. Our statement is confirmed by examples of VR projects done in the last ten years: Home after the War and In the Morning You Wake up. A “poor” VR image can be compared, among other things, to amateur video filming, where there is no “cinema effect”. The authors offer the viewer low-poly models of characters (that do not look like real living beings), spaces that are impossible to get into, backgrounds that look like flat theatre backdrops, on which objects seem to “play a role” rather than exist (as in modernist paintings). In that sense, the phenomenon of the “poor” VR-image opposes the existing conventions of the film and video game industry, where the “good picture” dominates. There is a “reign” of a high-quality, visually convincing (suggestive) image that allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the vicissitudes of the narrative, makes the medium “transparent”, enhancing the effect of the viewer’s presence in the virtual world. Unlike a “good” picture, a “bad” picture does not allow the viewer to forget about the medium since, like a Dadaist collage, it has “seams outward”. However, this is precisely why such a statement can be perceived by the audience as anti-commercial, non-false, as if it arises from authors’ need for co-existence and co-experience with the audience. In the hands of a contemporary VR artist, a “poor image” can become an effective tool for artistic influence.

CHOREOGRAPHER IN CONTEMPORARY THEATRE: THE CASE OF LATVIA

As the paradigm of dramatic theatre has changed and the genre of contemporary dance has evolved, a new approach to theatrical choreography has emerged. In Latvia, a new generation of contemporary dance choreographers has been active for two decades. They have significantly influenced both the aesthetics of their productions and developed the degree of the participation and co-responsibility in dramatic actors.
 By working together with contemporary dance choreographers, some actors and directors have changed their attitudes toward their body, its role, and the meaning of their movements. There is a growing awareness of how much time, effort, and precision would be required for smart and valuable choreography. This is a new experience and an opportunity for dramatic theatre. To delve deeper, Ben Spatz, researcher and theorist of embodied practice, through his research encourages artists to focus on the process of exploring the body rather than endlessly developing technical virtuosity.
 While the director is still primarily responsible for the staging, the work of the rest of the creative team is often of equal importance. According to the postdramatic theatre theory of German theatre scholar Hans-Thies Lehmann and the performing arts scholar Erika Fischer-Lichte, this is related to a general tendency in the contemporary theatre – the focus is set on living, immediate relationship between theatre and audience, and in this contemporary art discourse the choreographer plays a very important role.

Art-Heritage-Environment: Common Views Art Collective Engagement with Bedouin Minority in Israeli Desert Region (2019–2021)

The Bedouin and Jewish inhabitants of the southern Israeli desert region share a common desert vista. However, they are diverse, multicultural communities who suffer inequity in access to valuable resources such as water. Between 2019 and 2021, Common Views art collective initiated a socially engaged durational art project with Bedouin and Jewish inhabitants entitled Common Views. The art collective seeks to enact sustainable practices of water preservation as a mutually fertile ground for collaboration between the conflicted communities, by reawakening and revitalizing rainwater harvesting, as part of traditional local desert life. Their interventions promote new concepts of Environmental Reconciliation, aiming to confront social-ecological issues, the commons, and resource equity, grounded in interpersonal collaborative relationships with stratified local communities. Their site-specific art actions seek to drive a public discourse on environmental and sustainable resources, while reflecting on the distribution of social and spatial imbalance. They take part in contemporary art discourse relative to socially engaged practices, yet their uniqueness lies in conflictual sites such as the discord arising from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and their proposed model for resolution linking politics with environment. It utilizes renegotiation with histories and heritage, as a vehicle to evoke enhanced awareness of mutual environmental concerns in an attempt at reconciliation on political grounds.

Folk culture China in the China Pavilion, Venice Biennale: repositioning ‘Chineseness’ in contemporary art discourse

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore how Qiu Zhijie’s curation of the exhibition Continuum – Generation by Generation at the China Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale offers a new understanding of ‘China’ and ‘Chineseness’. It is neither a reproduction of literati arts nor a critical use of symbols of socialist China, but an appropriation of Chinese folk culture to re-envision the central role of China in the global art scene. This new form of Chineseness is what I call ‘folk culture China’. Although the curator attempts to challenge the existing interpretation of contemporary Chinese art widely circulated in the art market, the curatorial strategy deployed in this exhibition inherits a culturalist view of Chinese culture by re-nationalizing folk culture as the essence of Chinese culture that sustains Chinese civilization. Folk culture China also highlights the importance of collaboration between folk and contemporary artists in which the former can remind the latter of the collective spirit embodied in craftsmanship, which is the core of the Chinese mode of art-making. More importantly, folk culture China is an anti-nation-statist discourse that paradoxically repositions China from an object of the Euro-American-centric contemporary art system to the center of the world.

Clive Bell’s "Metaphysical Hypothesis" and Everyday Aesthetics

Clive Bell’s Art, published in 1913, is widely seen as a founding document in contemporary aesthetics. Yet his formalism and his attendant definition of art as “significant form” is widely rejected in contemporary art discourse and in the philosophy of art. In this paper I argue for a reconsideration of his thought in connection with current discussions of “the aesthetics of everyday life.” Although some, notably Allen Carlson, have argued against application of Bell’s formalism to the aesthetics of everyday life, I claim that this is based on an interpretation of the concept that is overly narrow. First, Li Zehou offers an interpretation of “significant form” that allows in sedimented social meaning. Second, Bell himself offers a more complex theory of significant form by way of his “metaphysical hypothesis,” one that stresses perception of significant form outside the realm of art (for example in nature or in everyday life). Bell’s idea that the artist can perceive significant form in nature allows for significant form to not just be the surface-level formal properties of things. It stresses depth, although a different kind than the cognitive scientific depth Carlson wants. This is a depth that is consistent with the anti-dualism of Spinoza, Marx and Dewey. Reinterpreting Bell in this direction, we can say we are moved by certain relations of lines and colors because they direct our minds to the hidden aspect of things, the spiritual side of the material world referred to by Spinoza and developed by Dewey in his concept of experience. Bell hardly “reduces the everyday to a shadow of itself,” as Carlson puts it, since the everyday, as experienced by the artist or the aesthetically astute observer, has, or potentially has, deep meaning. If we reject Bell’s dualism and his downgrading of sensuous experience, we can rework his idea of pure form to refer to an aspect of things detached, yes, from practical use, but not from particularity or sedimented meaning, not purified of all associations.

GLAMOR IN CONTEMPORARY ART CRITICISM DISCOURSE

The article presents the study of glamor as a modern phenomenon, reveals its socio-cultural aspects, analyzes the features of the representation of this phenomenon in the visual arts, highlights the main directions of the study of glamor in art discourse. The purpose of the article is to explore and systematize the existing theories on the conceptualization of glamor in contemporary art discourse with objectivity and impartiality, abandoning the evaluative and emotional connotations (both positive and negative). The theoretical and methodological basis of the work is the principle of transdisciplinarity and such philosophical and general scientific methods and approaches as phenomenological, systemic, semiotic, historical, axiological, which allow to study the phenomenon of glamor in line with various research optics. The turn of the XX–XXI centuries is characterized by important socio-political, socio-economic and sociocultural transformations, the prospects of which are still difficult to fully understand and assess. Visual perception becomes a kind of scheme-core of the modern cultural and artistic paradigm, and the production and consumption of images is one of the characteristic features of today. In his essay The World as a Phantom and the Matrix, Günther Anders reflects on the consequences of the modern “stream of images” a stream that spreads common images in the form of photographs, leaflets, posters, magazines, movies, television, and the Internet. He believes that the modern world is characterized by “hypertrophy of visual products”, and the global flow of images declares the process of coupling human subjectivity with the productive forces of the industrial apparatus [24]. “Nowadays, the image of a thing prevails over the thing itself, the copy – over the original, the representation – over reality, visibility – over the essence…” [8]. Consumption of spectacle and illusions instead of or along with material goods is the reality of modern culture and art. It is no exaggeration to say that one of the most common and dominant visual (media) images of today can be considered glamorous, which is created, distributed, advertised and exists only through the media and communication, the world of fashion and entertainment. In this context, the study of such a phenomenon as glamor, which today is a global phenomenon, a product of man-made processes, the manifestations of which we observe in various national cultures becomes particularly relevant. Insufficient understanding of issues related to Ukrainian glamor, its difference from the foreign prototype “glamor”, is of considerable interest for research.

Christian morale and collective ethical experience in contemporary Ukrainian art discourse

The article in question deals with the fact that contemporary art discourse under the influence of Christian ideas reflects Ukrainian mentality and spirituality, represents profoundly symbolic information on every individual’s outlook, priorities of his/her existence and criteria for assessing the morality of deeds. The study considers current issues of cultural identity and national Christian ethics of Ukrainians, the dichotomy of biblical ethical mandates and collective ethical experience recorded in literary works. Taking into account individual samples of literary works, the interpretation of biblical moral postulates from the perspective of collective ethical experience has been examined. The process of modifying biblical images in current secular context has been described. It has been taken into consideration that appealing to biblical parallels is an effective way to draw attention to urgent national issues.

ВИРАЖАЛЬНА ЕМОТИВНІСТЬ ТІЛЕСНОСТІ У СУЧАСНОМУ ВІЗУАЛЬНОМУ МИСТЕЦТВІ: МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

Мета статті – дослідити емотивні параметри зображення тілесності та представити методологічні параметри виражальної емотивності у мистецтвознавчому аналізі тіла, ню, еротики, оголеного тіла. Для реалізації цього завдання досліджується зміст і сенс поняття «емотивність», що впроваджується в сучасний мистецтвознавчий дискурс для комплексного аналізу процесу візуалізації тілесного в образотворчому мистецтві. Методологія дослідження полягає у порівнянні понять «емотивність», «вираження» та «експресія», з’ясуванні їх евристичного потенціалу для аналізу специфіки візуалізації оголеного тіла, еротичної тілесності у візуальному мистецтві. Наукова новизна. В контексті методології емотивності доводиться доцільність «вбудувати» у даний дискурс так зване «українське тіло», тобто ню-зображення у творах українських художників. «Українське тіло» в палітрі сучасного мистецтвознавства та художньої практики виступає емотивною реакцією на світоглядні зміни, що виражаються в конструюванні нових ідеалів, нових героїв, актуальних маркерів цінностей (наприклад, «тіло-свобода», «тіло-війна», «тіло-ґендер»). Зміст даного концепту розкривається через дотичні поняття – «вираження» та «експресія», що стали генеральними у філософсько-естетичних розвідках філософів, теоретиків мистецтва Бенедетто Кроче та Робіна Джорджа Коллінґвуда. Спираючись на розуміння сутності мистецтва як вираження (Кроче), доводиться принцип зображального як емотивно-виражального. Висновки. На прикладі зіставлення класичних та некласичних параметрів зображення тіла в такому ж аспекті з’ясовується зміст понять «зображальне» та «художнє», їх нетотожність. Підкреслюється, що така відмінність яскраво унаочнюється в сучасних мистецьких практиках зображень тілесного (перформансах, медіа-арті, фото-арті тощо), коли зображальна фіксація тіла не є його художнім втіленням. Доводиться значення емотивності у сприйнятті мистецтва як співтворчості, коли сенси віднаходяться поза межами самого твору. Тіло із тіла зображального у мистецтві сьогодення перетворюється на тіло виражальне.

PECULARITIES OF REALITIES CONCEPTS VERBALIZATION IN MODERN GERMANLITERARY DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to the analysis of the modern German language means used in the process of CITY and TRANSPORT concepts verbalization, presented in contemporary art discourse. It is precisely contemporary art prose that plays a special role in creating concepts of realities that are the semantic dominants of the work in question. From the point of view of the conceptual analysis method, the essence of the named concepts is revealed and their basic functions are determined. It is established that, taking into account the field structure of the concepts, language facilities are appropriately grouped and distributed. Due to this fact, it’s possible to isolate the core, the subnuclear zone, the near periphery, and also the far periphery of the analyzed concepts. In the structure of the literary concepts of realities the conceptual and figurative strata are under consideration. The conceptual stratum is actualized by language means with zero stylistic coloring. In turn, the shaped stratum is represented by the stylistically colored means of modern German language. Their frequency depends on a number of factors. First of all, the texts are written from the first-person point of view. This contributes to creating trust-based relationships between the writer and the reader. Secondly, the explication of concepts largely depends on the language personality of the writer and his/her mentality, which correlates with the characteristics of the worldview. In this case, literary constants, which are units of mentality, play a specific role, which makes the need for further comprehension of the concept as a literary category. There is emphasized the need to further study the concepts representation on the contemporary literary discourse texts basis, taking into account their national and cultural specifics. Also, it’s emphasized further concepts representation study based on the modern literary discourse texts with a glance to their national-cultural specifics.

한국 현대미술의 시대구분의 재정립의 문제 : 컨템퍼러리 아트의 담론의 관점에서

한국 현대미술의 시대구분의 재정립의 문제 : 컨템퍼러리 아트의 담론의 관점에서

United to Be Dispersed

Abstract This article analyzes the various practices of the WAWA Project as a case study of community-based art after the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011 (“3.11”). Organized by Masato Nakamura (b. 1963), the Tokyo-based artist, college professor, and director of an artist collective commandN, the WAWA Project is an ongoing project that initiates, mobilizes, promotes, and connects local residents and civic groups in disaster-stricken areas for their regeneration efforts. In the current discourse of contemporary art, the WAWA Project can be discussed within the framework of relational aesthetics, in the sense that the works of art function as a platform through which the individuals are engaged collectively with particular experiences and social circumstances so as to create a communal unity. This conceptualization of relational aesthetics becomes theoretically impoverished and politically suspect when combined with Japan's changed sociopolitical environment in the wake of 3.11. When the state exploits the rhetoric of communal solidarity, it seriously undermines democracy, threatens autonomous individuals, and blocks egalitarian social structure instead of furthering it. I argue that the dynamic, creative, and contestatory networks and initiatives that WAWA Project has promoted, which are distinct from the more formalized community associations and artistic projects, will allow us to articulate alternative ways of challenging conventional conceptions of community and social order.

Arai Takashi and Nagashima Yurie through the Historical Frame of “Japanese Photography”

Arai Takashi and Nagashima Yurie through the Historical Frame of “Japanese Photography” Nakamura Fumiko (bio) and Kevin Niehaus (bio) Translated by Mai Hayano (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution 15.2. Arai Takashi, A Maquette for a Multiple Monument for the Wristwatch Dug Up from Ueno-machi, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, 2014. © Arai Takashi. Courtesy of the artist. [End Page 204] Many artists working with photography today have begun to deviate from the two-dimensional traditional format of the medium and are extending their artistic range to include installation art, video, and performances. It has therefore become extremely difficult to identify the techniques and forms of expression that the term “photography” indicates. In light of these global trends, this essay examines Arai Takashi (b. 1978) and Nagashima Yurie (b. 1973), two renowned Japanese artists of the 2010s, by considering their work against the backdrop of the genealogy of Japanese photography. At present, both artists have broken with utilizing the traditional two-dimensional surface and instead are creating works that encompass a broad range of expression, including video, writings, and installation art. Tying their work to the history of Japanese photography therefore includes the risk of producing a critique that runs counter to their current interdisciplinary activities. Yet, the themes in their work, including the transformation of private life into art, as well as the representation of nuclear issues in a country with a history of being attacked by the atomic bomb, are nevertheless characteristic of the field of Japanese photography as a whole. Arai and Nagashima engage these characteristics endemic to the field and have proceeded to develop them from within the more focused discourse of contemporary art. It is for this reason that I resituate the pair within the history of Japanese photography, analyzing their art from the standpoint of their relationship to the genealogy of Japanese photographic expression. Specifically, I examine their individual works to trace both the history underpinning their production and how critics evaluate their work. Moreover, this essay attempts to illuminate the issues articulated by the field of Japanese photography and explore how these same issues are taken up by contemporary artists. By reexamining Arai’s and Nagashima’s work from within the limited scope of the history of Japanese photography, I will attempt to shed light on traits in their art that have been overlooked, with the hope that these individual elements can, in turn, be positioned vis-à-vis more universal issues. [End Page 205] On EXPOSED in a Hundred Suns Arai is widely known for his use of the classic technique of the daguerreotype. The daguerreotype is a unique artistic medium; equipped with a specific materiality, the image created can neither be duplicated nor reproduced as a paper print. The daguerreotype is specular, reflecting ambient light to draw the viewer deeper into the work. And, despite its incredibly high resolution, depending on the lighting and viewing angle the image can nevertheless give the impression of vanishing and reappearing. The daguerreotype is therefore characterized by both the intricate detail of the image and its larger instability. Arai first became interested in the issue of nuclear weapons in 2010 while researching art movements from the 1950s. He came across the history of the Lucky Dragon Incident (in which the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5 was contaminated by radiation near the Bikini Atoll after the United States conducted a nuclear weapons test) and the movements to ban atomic and hydrogen bombs. After experiencing the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, he created two series of photographs: Here and There Tomorrow’s Islands (2011-), photographed in Fukushima and Tokyo, and EXPOSED in a Hundred Suns (2012-), in which he photographed objects related to nuclear weapons. This essay focuses on EXPOSED in a Hundred Suns, not only because the concepts of the photographic subject and the work of art here intersect with the technique of the daguerreotype in a unique manner, but also because the series engages the representation of nuclear weapons, which is consistently problematized across the history of Japanese photography. Click for larger view View full resolution 15.1. Arai Takashi, May 13...

Für eine meta-ethische Wende. Anmerkungen zur neueren Verantwortungsästhetik

Abstract Dating back to the early 2000s, a much discussed ‘ethical turn’ of the discourse of contemporary art has affected (and continues to infect) the entire field, from art practice, to curating, to criticism, to education, to the business of art. This turn – which arguably resumes one of the steadfast dialectical features of modernism as such – has caused deep schisms between defenders of art’s autonomy and those who see art as increasingly obliged to engage in moral, social, and political issues – due to claimed urgencies of the contemporary condition. The essay ponders various conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of this ethical conjuncture and makes a plea for an aesthetics of responsibility in opposition to the neoliberal responsibilization palpable in contemporary art and culture.

Independent spaces to the street: Participatory art in Shanghai

Abstract The culture of accelerated museum building and promotion of contemporary art in Shanghai has created a spill-over effect in the upsurge of independent art spaces and self-organized artistic projects on the streets. Yet, participatory art in China that directly engages the viewers has its own prescriptions for ‘publicness’ that does not readily conform to western concepts of site-specificity or the public sphere. By foregrounding cross-disciplinary methods and years of primary field work, this research is a dedicated and vigilant observation of how a new generation of artists are incorporating the community as an integral aspect of their practice to expand the discourse of contemporary art in Shanghai. This article sets the context by providing a brief art historical evaluation of art outside museums and institutions as they emerged in the West and in China. Then, three contemporary case studies in Shanghai are examined to contend that artistic producers who recognise the shifting identities and needs of the public are interrogating the value and potentiality of socially engaging art to expand the cultural literacy for members of its community.

Trends in Contemporary Art Discourse: Using Topic Models to Analyze 25 years of Professional Art Criticism

In this article, we use topic modeling to systematically explore topics discussed in contemporary art criticism. Analyzing 6965 articles published between 1991 and 2015 in Frieze, a leading art magazine, we find a plurality of topics characterizing professional discourse on contemporary art. Not surprisingly, media- or genre-specific topics such as film/cinema, photography, sculpture/installations, etc. emerge. Interestingly, extra-artistic topics also characterize contemporary art criticism: there is room for articles on new digital technology and on art and philosophy; there is also growing interest in the relationship between art and society. Our analysis shows that despite evolutions in the field of contemporary art – such as the ‘social turn’, in which contemporary art starts paying more attention to social forms and content – the prevalence of certain topics in contemporary art criticism has barely changed over the past 25 years. With this article, we demonstrate the unique value of topic modeling for cultural sociology: it is both a powerful computational technique to generate a bird’s-eye view of a huge text corpus and a heuristic device that locates key texts for further close reading.