Pub Date : 2022-05-03DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2058806
M. Watson
Abstract This article unpacks the stakes of Rebecca Belmore’s Fountain, a video installation that represented Canada at the 2005 Venice Biennale. The artwork consisted of a video installation based on a performance she gave in Vancouver. The work engaged water from a perspective informed by the artist’s Indigenous identity and heritage, framing water as a site of struggle and violence in a manner informed by settler colonialism on Turtle Island but in a way that resonates with crisis of global water inequality and hydrocolonialism today. This article unpacks the stakes of this biennial artwork, relating it to the artist’s long interest in water and Indigenous rights, the influence of Ana Mendieta’s performance work on the piece, as well as global efforts to reimagine water outside regimes of state and corporate control. It joins a growing literature on reimagining water in the current period of crisis.
{"title":"Indigenising Water","authors":"M. Watson","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2058806","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2058806","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article unpacks the stakes of Rebecca Belmore’s Fountain, a video installation that represented Canada at the 2005 Venice Biennale. The artwork consisted of a video installation based on a performance she gave in Vancouver. The work engaged water from a perspective informed by the artist’s Indigenous identity and heritage, framing water as a site of struggle and violence in a manner informed by settler colonialism on Turtle Island but in a way that resonates with crisis of global water inequality and hydrocolonialism today. This article unpacks the stakes of this biennial artwork, relating it to the artist’s long interest in water and Indigenous rights, the influence of Ana Mendieta’s performance work on the piece, as well as global efforts to reimagine water outside regimes of state and corporate control. It joins a growing literature on reimagining water in the current period of crisis.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"195 - 213"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44994107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-27DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2057681
M. Verhagen
Abstract In a stinging critique of the work of Danh Vo, Claire Bishop argues that he reduces moments of historical significance to pretexts for ornamental displays. In stressing the need for sustained engagement with historical trauma, she aligns herself with Theodor Adorno and others who have identified a waning historical consciousness in modern society and culture. Writers descended from Adorno have put forward models for an art of remembrance, including ‘memory sculpture’ (Andreas Huyssen) and the ‘counter-monument’ (James Young). A closer examination of Vo’s work suggests that he borrows elements of both of these models in works that display powerful but contrasting investments in the past. Bishop’s analysis is harsh. The ornamental motifs that dismayed her are crucial to a practice in which the continuing relevance of the past is established through the conflict between different attitudes to the objects it leaves behind.
{"title":"A Proximate Past","authors":"M. Verhagen","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2057681","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2057681","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In a stinging critique of the work of Danh Vo, Claire Bishop argues that he reduces moments of historical significance to pretexts for ornamental displays. In stressing the need for sustained engagement with historical trauma, she aligns herself with Theodor Adorno and others who have identified a waning historical consciousness in modern society and culture. Writers descended from Adorno have put forward models for an art of remembrance, including ‘memory sculpture’ (Andreas Huyssen) and the ‘counter-monument’ (James Young). A closer examination of Vo’s work suggests that he borrows elements of both of these models in works that display powerful but contrasting investments in the past. Bishop’s analysis is harsh. The ornamental motifs that dismayed her are crucial to a practice in which the continuing relevance of the past is established through the conflict between different attitudes to the objects it leaves behind.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"215 - 240"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42297941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-25DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2058801
Tobey Yunjing Pan
Abstract Active in the 1970s and 1980s, KwieKulik was a Polish artistic duo comprised of Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek. Despite the duo’s dissolution in 1987 and Kulik – the female artist – having departed from her previous practice, KwieKulik’s art is framed by the so-called political and regional context of Poland’s state socialism. This article argues that the still on-going struggle of Kulik for self-definition opens up the possibility of rereading KwieKulik’s art through the lens of feminism. It analyses the visible and invisible gendered roles and identities reflected in two of KwieKulik’s most characteristic performances: Monument without a Passport and Activity for the Head: Three Acts. The visible refers to how, in their performances, Kulik had to actively allow herself to be restricted and humiliated in order to be viewed as a subject. The invisible, meanwhile, refers to the maintenance work that Kulik did for KwieKulik, which was once rendered secondary to Kwiek’s ambition for the appearance of spontaneity.
{"title":"KwieKulik through the Lens of Feminism","authors":"Tobey Yunjing Pan","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2058801","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2058801","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Active in the 1970s and 1980s, KwieKulik was a Polish artistic duo comprised of Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek. Despite the duo’s dissolution in 1987 and Kulik – the female artist – having departed from her previous practice, KwieKulik’s art is framed by the so-called political and regional context of Poland’s state socialism. This article argues that the still on-going struggle of Kulik for self-definition opens up the possibility of rereading KwieKulik’s art through the lens of feminism. It analyses the visible and invisible gendered roles and identities reflected in two of KwieKulik’s most characteristic performances: Monument without a Passport and Activity for the Head: Three Acts. The visible refers to how, in their performances, Kulik had to actively allow herself to be restricted and humiliated in order to be viewed as a subject. The invisible, meanwhile, refers to the maintenance work that Kulik did for KwieKulik, which was once rendered secondary to Kwiek’s ambition for the appearance of spontaneity.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"241 - 261"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47740481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-22DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2057679
Sonal Jha
Abstract Throughout the history of popular Hindi cinema, the figure of the hero has been identifiable as the bearer of hegemonic masculinity, but in the last five years, this figure appears to have developed an existential crisis with respect to his masculinity. This article seeks to identify why the spotlight has shifted to non-dominant constructions of masculinity. It charts out the changing discourse of masculinity within Bollywood. It also places this in the context of a global masculinity crisis, while attempting to understand the changes within the Indian context propelling the crisis. Three recent popular movies, showcasing narratives of men struggling with issues such as alopecia, sexual dysfunction and a lack of agency, are discussed. The analysis of the male figure probes into why these specific deficiencies become shorthand to question the protagonist’s manliness, while also placing him in relation to women and other men around him who serve to accentuate his crisis.
{"title":"Unbecoming Men","authors":"Sonal Jha","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2057679","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2057679","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Throughout the history of popular Hindi cinema, the figure of the hero has been identifiable as the bearer of hegemonic masculinity, but in the last five years, this figure appears to have developed an existential crisis with respect to his masculinity. This article seeks to identify why the spotlight has shifted to non-dominant constructions of masculinity. It charts out the changing discourse of masculinity within Bollywood. It also places this in the context of a global masculinity crisis, while attempting to understand the changes within the Indian context propelling the crisis. Three recent popular movies, showcasing narratives of men struggling with issues such as alopecia, sexual dysfunction and a lack of agency, are discussed. The analysis of the male figure probes into why these specific deficiencies become shorthand to question the protagonist’s manliness, while also placing him in relation to women and other men around him who serve to accentuate his crisis.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"278 - 292"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45965224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-11DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2052608
Paloma Checa-Gismero
Abstract The distinction between art and craft is one touchstone of Western aesthetics. Among other implications, this distinction has supported hierarchical valuations of culture that support processes of coloniality. In 1983, coherent with its mission of Third World solidarity, the Cuban state created the Bienal de La Habana, an international exhibition of art that sought to question Euro-American hegemony in the aesthetic field by showing objects from Latin America and the Third World. This article explores the dimensions of practiced and theoretical work performed within the Bienal, with especial attention to those invested in the reevaluation of the seminal art vs craft distinction. In doing so I show that, in addition to revisiting core principles of Western aesthetic philosophy, biennial curators opened as well fruitful avenues for an emancipatory curatorial practice that resonates with present concerns to decolonise the art institution.
艺术与工艺的区别是西方美学的一个试金石。在其他影响中,这种区别支持了支持殖民过程的文化等级评价。1983年,为了与第三世界团结一致,古巴政府创建了哈瓦那双年展(Bienal de La Habana),这是一个国际艺术展,旨在通过展示来自拉丁美洲和第三世界的物品,质疑欧美在美学领域的霸权。本文探讨了双年展中实践和理论工作的维度,特别关注那些投资于重新评估开创性艺术与工艺区别的人。在这样做的过程中,我表明,除了重新审视西方美学哲学的核心原则,双年展策展人也为一种解放的策展实践开辟了富有成效的途径,这种实践与当前对艺术机构非殖民化的关注产生了共鸣。
{"title":"Craft as Anti-colonial Universalism in the Bienal de La Habana","authors":"Paloma Checa-Gismero","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2052608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2052608","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The distinction between art and craft is one touchstone of Western aesthetics. Among other implications, this distinction has supported hierarchical valuations of culture that support processes of coloniality. In 1983, coherent with its mission of Third World solidarity, the Cuban state created the Bienal de La Habana, an international exhibition of art that sought to question Euro-American hegemony in the aesthetic field by showing objects from Latin America and the Third World. This article explores the dimensions of practiced and theoretical work performed within the Bienal, with especial attention to those invested in the reevaluation of the seminal art vs craft distinction. In doing so I show that, in addition to revisiting core principles of Western aesthetic philosophy, biennial curators opened as well fruitful avenues for an emancipatory curatorial practice that resonates with present concerns to decolonise the art institution.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"262 - 277"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41661450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-04DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2045148
Jasmina Gavrankapetanović-Redžić
Abstract: The paper argues that the narrative of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of its capital city Sarajevo under siege (1992-1995) was built on the trope of Sarajevo’s European, Western-oriented, cosmopolitan cultural identity, based on the image initially nurtured by Socialist Yugoslavia. In the new context of the implosion of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945 -1991) the siege of Sarajevo and the war in one of the Yugoslav republics, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslav socialism was replaced by the multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan character of the young Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I argue that the image of Sarajevo during the siege, as a by-product of foreign attention to the plight of the country and its citizens, was built on the pre-existing premises that promoted Socialist Yugoslavia as Western oriented and therefore progressive, in contrast to other communist countries beyond the Iron Curtain.
{"title":"Enjoy Sara-jevo","authors":"Jasmina Gavrankapetanović-Redžić","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2045148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2045148","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: The paper argues that the narrative of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of its capital city Sarajevo under siege (1992-1995) was built on the trope of Sarajevo’s European, Western-oriented, cosmopolitan cultural identity, based on the image initially nurtured by Socialist Yugoslavia. In the new context of the implosion of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945 -1991) the siege of Sarajevo and the war in one of the Yugoslav republics, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslav socialism was replaced by the multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan character of the young Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I argue that the image of Sarajevo during the siege, as a by-product of foreign attention to the plight of the country and its citizens, was built on the pre-existing premises that promoted Socialist Yugoslavia as Western oriented and therefore progressive, in contrast to other communist countries beyond the Iron Curtain.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"85 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45370053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-04DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2050623
Erin K Stapleton
Abstract Yayoi Kusama, the self-proclaimed ‘international avant-garde artist’ has enjoyed global commercial success in the most recent decades of her lengthy career. In this article, I address this by taking her body of work as whole, with the message of self-destruction, sifted through the branding of ‘obliteration’ and ‘accumulation’ which I term the ‘Kusama-Seppuku’. Drawing on analyses of Kusama’s visual and literary work alongside Pierre Klossowski, Georges Bataille and Friedrich Nietzsche and the simulacra that permeate each, I argue that Kusama has created a body of work that expresses a desire to disengage from any illusion of cohesive identity through modes of obsessive, repetitious acts, processes and accumulations designed to allow an experience of a return ‘to the infinite universe’ (Yayoi Kusama (quoted by Alma Reyes), ‘Art of Eternity at the Yayoi Kusama Museum, Tokyo’ in Taiken Japan (Explore Japan) online publication, 21 Oct 2017: https://taiken.co/single/art-of-eternity-at-the-yayoi-kusama-museum-tokyo/). Each iteration of her work expresses a gesture that constitutes a part of the Kusama-Seppuku, a lifelong performance of suicide, exhaustively commodified.
{"title":"The Spotted Seppuku","authors":"Erin K Stapleton","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2050623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2050623","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Yayoi Kusama, the self-proclaimed ‘international avant-garde artist’ has enjoyed global commercial success in the most recent decades of her lengthy career. In this article, I address this by taking her body of work as whole, with the message of self-destruction, sifted through the branding of ‘obliteration’ and ‘accumulation’ which I term the ‘Kusama-Seppuku’. Drawing on analyses of Kusama’s visual and literary work alongside Pierre Klossowski, Georges Bataille and Friedrich Nietzsche and the simulacra that permeate each, I argue that Kusama has created a body of work that expresses a desire to disengage from any illusion of cohesive identity through modes of obsessive, repetitious acts, processes and accumulations designed to allow an experience of a return ‘to the infinite universe’ (Yayoi Kusama (quoted by Alma Reyes), ‘Art of Eternity at the Yayoi Kusama Museum, Tokyo’ in Taiken Japan (Explore Japan) online publication, 21 Oct 2017: https://taiken.co/single/art-of-eternity-at-the-yayoi-kusama-museum-tokyo/). Each iteration of her work expresses a gesture that constitutes a part of the Kusama-Seppuku, a lifelong performance of suicide, exhaustively commodified.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"145 - 160"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43243693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-04DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2042104
Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti
Abstract Wallen Mapondera’s Pahukama is an artwork carrying memories of Zimbabwe’s November 2017 bloodless coup d’etat. The artist employs it as a gateway to documenting the everyday transactions taking place on the country’s streets. The article examines this readymade artwork’s unique qualities in the context of Zimbabwe where a generation of young artists is making art out of found objects. The article interrogates Pahukama, a concept capturing the marriage of convenience struck between the feared army militias and the masses on November 18. On a normal day, commuters crisscross the road, the homeless live on it, street vendors and the illicit forex traders strike deals on it. The article explores the multiple meanings hidden in the artwork as a visual text. While the work is conceptual, some would be tempted to read it literally because of Robert Mugabe’s stature. In conclusion, a suggestion is made for the artwork to be exhibited within Zimbabwe.
{"title":"Wallen Mapondera’s Conceptual Art","authors":"Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2042104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2042104","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Wallen Mapondera’s Pahukama is an artwork carrying memories of Zimbabwe’s November 2017 bloodless coup d’etat. The artist employs it as a gateway to documenting the everyday transactions taking place on the country’s streets. The article examines this readymade artwork’s unique qualities in the context of Zimbabwe where a generation of young artists is making art out of found objects. The article interrogates Pahukama, a concept capturing the marriage of convenience struck between the feared army militias and the masses on November 18. On a normal day, commuters crisscross the road, the homeless live on it, street vendors and the illicit forex traders strike deals on it. The article explores the multiple meanings hidden in the artwork as a visual text. While the work is conceptual, some would be tempted to read it literally because of Robert Mugabe’s stature. In conclusion, a suggestion is made for the artwork to be exhibited within Zimbabwe.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"107 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43000375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-04DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2049159
P. Malreddy
Abstract While the figure of the ‘Indian guru’ has established itself as a source of spiritual knowledge in the West, it played a unique role in the construction of the secular image of post-independence India. Historically, gurus, fakirs, or monks were considered neither a threat to the construction of secular India, nor were they given a privileged treatment on the basis of their religious denomination. Such secular ‘indifference’, however, has been challenged by competing narratives of religious modernities in popular culture, particularly in Hindi Cinema. Drawing from three recent productions – Oh My God (2012), PK (2014), and Dharam Sankat Mein (2015) – this article argues that the specific generic, cinematic, and narrative devices employed in these films gesture towards what Manav Ratti has identified as a ‘postsecular’ move in India, one that helps articulate the paradox of ‘nonsecular secularism, a non-religious religion’ wherein the figure of the guru serves as a tabula rasa of repressed secular anxieties.
{"title":"Postsecular Longings?","authors":"P. Malreddy","doi":"10.1080/09528822.2022.2049159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2022.2049159","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While the figure of the ‘Indian guru’ has established itself as a source of spiritual knowledge in the West, it played a unique role in the construction of the secular image of post-independence India. Historically, gurus, fakirs, or monks were considered neither a threat to the construction of secular India, nor were they given a privileged treatment on the basis of their religious denomination. Such secular ‘indifference’, however, has been challenged by competing narratives of religious modernities in popular culture, particularly in Hindi Cinema. Drawing from three recent productions – Oh My God (2012), PK (2014), and Dharam Sankat Mein (2015) – this article argues that the specific generic, cinematic, and narrative devices employed in these films gesture towards what Manav Ratti has identified as a ‘postsecular’ move in India, one that helps articulate the paradox of ‘nonsecular secularism, a non-religious religion’ wherein the figure of the guru serves as a tabula rasa of repressed secular anxieties.","PeriodicalId":45739,"journal":{"name":"Third Text","volume":"36 1","pages":"176 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44494639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}