Weapon of Choice: Installation Art and the Politics of Emotion Agnieszka Golda University of Wollongong
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University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2012 Weapon of choice: installation art and the politics of emotion Agnieszka Golda University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Golda, Agnieszka, Weapon of choice: installation art and the politics of emotion, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, 2012. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/3598 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Weapon of Choice: Installation Art and the Politics of Emotion PhD (Creative Practice) From University of Wollongong By Agnieszka Golda BA in Textile Design RMIT, MVA (Research) University of South Australia Faculty of Creative Arts 2012 1 Abstract This practice-led research project, Weapon of Choice: Installation Art and the Politics of Emotion, explores the complex set of relations between the felt, social-political and mytho- sacral spheres involved in migration. The project asks how installation art can be the means for responding in Australia to the feeling encountered in moving between Poland and Australia. Critical inquiries into this question reveal the links between feeling and politics, and show how systems of knowledge shape human and mythical bodies as well as the borders between secular and sacred spaces. More specifically, the research asks how the established institutions of a place claim control over the borders between visible and invisible worlds, involving secular and sacred spheres, as well as between inner and outer territories. The project investigates how traditional Polish folk devotional practices and contemporary art practices, such as those of Ilya Kabakov, Marina Abramović, Louise Bourgeois, and Magdalena Abakanowicz, resist the politics of control over those boundaries. This critical inquiry has brought together a variety of interconnected methodological approaches and theoretical tools to produce a visual art installation and a thesis. With an underpinning of practice-led research (Carter 2004; Smith & Dean 2009; Sullivan 2010), the study has further drawn on methodological approaches for investigating the felt dimensions (affect, emotion and sensation) of place and of artworks (Williams, R 1960, 1961, 1977; Stoller 1997, 1989; Bennett 2005). The theoretical framework focused on recent trans-disciplinary scholarship attending to feeling, including the affective, emotional and sensory registers of the body, in relation to migratory experiences, intercultural living and the history of installation art (Classen 1997, 2005; Massumi 2002; Howes 2003, 2005, 2007; Ahmed 2004; Thrift 2004; Law 2005; McKay 2005; Ticineto Clough 2007). The practical component of the studio research comprised installation art works involving cycles of multi-sensory, affective and emotional experiments arising out of theoretical, ethnographic and historical research. Collaborative and independent art-making since 2007 (Spill 2007, Raising the Dead 2008, Contact 2009, Frenzy Episode 2010, Last Exile 2011) resulted in a series of public installations and exhibitions of sculptural objects, paintings, and textiles. Through Weapon of Choice a number of key principles and strategies have emerged as significant in responding to the institutional politics of boundaries encountered in moving between Poland and Australia. Particular strategies of installation art are the total immersive, ritualistic and fragmented narrative modes (Onorato 1997; Kabakov, Tupitsyn & Tupitsyn 1999; Warr 2000; Geczy & Genocchio 2001; Oliveira 2003; Bishop 2005; Heartney 2008; Franke 2010). The Weapon of Choice installation deploys these strategies to construct a critical space for encountering the Polish mytho-sacred realm in Australia. ii Thesis Certification I, Agnieszka Golda, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Practice), in the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. This document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Agnieszka Golda 27 April 2012 iii Acknowledgements This project could not have come to fruition without the support of various individuals and organizations. I begin by expressing my deepest respect and gratitude to my husband Martin Johnson and my grandmother Maria Zawada for their unconditional love and unflagging warm support during this project. With great respect, I thank my mother Eva Stoklosa, my father Andrzej Golda and Heluta Sobieraj for their help in making this project possible. Sincere gratitude goes to my supervisors Professor Diana Wood Conroy and Dr Ruth Fazakerley for their critical guidance and invaluable assistance, and to the Faculty of Creative Arts and University of Wollongong for their generous grant and fellowship assistance. I am grateful for the assistance provided by the Ethnographic Museums in Tarnow and Krakow, and to Zalipianki women for sharing their knowledge of the Polish folk traditions. I also must thank my colleagues Associate Professor Brogan Bunt, Dr Richard Hook, Joanna Stirling, Grant Ellmers and Robyn Douglass. My special thanks goes to Dr Mehmet Adil, Dr Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis and Deborah Jenkin for their encouragement and for enriching this experience. iv Table of Contents Page Abstract ii Thesis Certification iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v List of Figures viii Introduction 1 Aims and Objectives 1 Background and Rationale 1 Research Framework and Outline of Dissertation 5 Chapter 1 Methodology and Methods for Weapon of Choice 8 Practice-led Research 8 Visual Art Practice-led Research 9 Structures of Feeling and Sensuous Scholarship 11 Structures of Feeling 13 Sensuous Scholarship 15 Empathic Vision 16 Material Thinking 18 Conclusion 19 Chapter 2 Theoretical Concepts and Perspectives for Approaching the 20 Construction of Weapon of Choice The Felt Registers of the Body 21 The Senses 21 Sensory Model 23 Olfactory Politics 25 Sensography 25 Affect 27 Margin of Manoeuvrability 28 Vampiric Politics 29 Affective Practices 30 Affective Labour 31 Emotion 32 Multi-dimensions of Feeling 36 Politics of Emotion and Affective Economy 36 v Migrant Re-emplacement Practices 39 Conclusion 40 Chapter 3 Installation Art: Immersive, Ritualistic and Fragmented 42 Narratives Modes Installation Art: General Influences, Features and Strategies 43 Orientation Towards the Spectator, Viewer’s Active Role in Interpretation and 44 Production of Artwork Decentering the Subject 44 Bricolage and Fragmented Narratives 45 Immersion 47 Particular Approaches and Strategies of Installation Art 49 Ilya Kabakov’s Concept of Total Installation 49 Fragmented Narrative Mode 54 Ritualistic Mode 56 Rituals, Animism and Animism Within 60 Louise Bourgeois 68 Magdalena Abakanowicz 80 Conclusion 86 Chapter 4 Feeling the Power Politics of Narratives 88 Folktales and Scholarly Politics of Boundaries 89 Baba Jaga’s and Lisica’s Features 94 Politics of Emotion and Affective Economy of Narratives 102 Folktales and Rituals Concerning Baba Jaga and Lisica 104 Baba Jaga’s and Lisica’s Entanglements in Power Politics 108 Malleus Maleficarum 110 Baba Jaga’s and Lisica’s Soul Migration into the Virgin Mary 117 Matka Boska Częstochowska 118 Affective Practices in the Chapel Housing the Matka Boska Częstochwska Icon 120 Animism within Matka Boska Częstochowska 122 Vampiric Politics and Matka Boska Częstochowska 126 Conclusion 130 Chapter 5 Maintenances and Resistances in Polish Folk Ritual Art Practices 132 Zalipie Folk Practices: General Overview, History and Power Politics 133 Polish and Zalipie’s Folk Textile and Painting Practices, Colours, Patterns and 137 Sculptural Objects Zalipianki’s Cottages 149 vi Conclusion 155 Chapter 6 Installations 2007 - 2011 157 Spill, South Australian School of Art Gallery, University of South Australia, 10 157 October – 2 November 2007 Raising the Dead, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide Centre for the Arts, 18 162 September - 16 October 2008 Contact, Faculty of Creative Arts Gallery, University of Wollongong, 20 August – 167 9 September 2009 Frenzy Episode, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong, 5 - 16 May 2010 172 Last Exile, Wollongong City Gallery, 17 June – 29 July 2011 177 Weapon of Choice, Project Space Gallery, Hope Theatre, Faculty of Creative 186 Arts, University of Wollongong, 15 - 23 December 2011 Conclusion 194 Conclusion 195 List of References 201 List of Image References 215 vii List of Figures Figure Image Description Page 1 Kabakov, I & E 1998, The Palace of Projects, mixed media installation, 50 Artangel Collection, photographer unknown. 2 Kabakov, I & E 1998, Project 4: Encounters with the Past (detail), wood, 51 furniture, clothing, utensils, Artangel Collection, photographer unknown. 3 Kabakov, I & E,1998, Project 16: Encounter with an Angel (detail), wood, 51 ceramic figures, paint and plexiglass, Artangel Collection, photographer Cohen, D. 4 Kabakov, I & E 1998, Project 1: How Can One Change oneself? (detail), 51 wood, leather, gauze, paper, Artangel Collection, photographer unknown. 5 Kelly, M 1977 & 1978, Post-Partum Document Documentation V & VI, 54 installation view, Collection Australian National Gallery, Canberra, photographer unknown. 6 Kelly, M 1973, Post-Partum Document Introduction (detail), perspex unit, 55 white card, wool vest, pencil,