© 2017 SUNHEE JANG All Rights Reserved CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE SEARCH FOR HISTORY —THE EMERGENCE OF THE ARTIST-HISTORIAN— BY SUNHEE JANG DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Terri Weissman, Chair Associate Professor David O’Brien Assistant Professor Sandy Prita Meier Associate Professor Kevin Hamilton ABSTRACT Focusing on the concept of the artist-as-historian, this dissertation examines the work of four contemporary artists in a transnational context. In chapter one, I examine the representations of economic inequality and globalization (Allan Sekula, the United States); in chapter two, the racial memory and remnants of colonialism (Santu Mofokeng, South Africa); and in chapter three, the trauma of civil war and subsequent conflicts (Akram Zaatari, Lebanon and Chan- kyong Park, South Korea). My focus is on photographic projects—a photobook (Sekula), a private album (Mofokeng), and archives and films (Zaatari and Park)—that address key issues of underrepresented history at the end of the twentieth century. Chapter one concentrates on how to make sense of the complex structure of Sekula’s Fish Story (1995) and suggests the concept of surface reading as an alternative to traditional, symptomatic reading and posits that some historical truths can be found by closely examining the surface of events or images. In Fish Story, photographs represent the surface of our globe, while the text reveals the narratives that have been complicated beneath that surface. I then analyze how three types of text—caption, description, and essay—interact with images. Chapter two problematizes the historical position of the African subjects represented in Mofokeng’s The Black Photo Album—Look at Me: 1890–1950 (1997). I discuss the fluidity of identity and how that fluidity intersects with the process of modernization and historical experience of colonization in South Africans near the beginning of the twentieth century. As I focus on the mnemonic role of the textual components of the project, which evokes the sense of presence for the photographic figures, I also investigate the meaning of the term ambivalence and question how it is connected to Mofokeng’s means of “doing history.” Chapter three begins with by investigating the terms parafiction and truthiness, and then discusses those terms—from hoax to plausibility, from less true to truer—in the context of Zaatari’s and Park’s works. To contextualize the fictional narratives employed by the two artists, I use the terms docu-fiction (for Zaatari) and imaginary-documenting (for Park) to designate the unique ways that the artists unite documenting and fiction. Ultimately, I investigate how their works evince that fiction—when coupled with a genealogical method and affect elements—can emancipate a history from its locally specified knowledge to engage with a wide range of international audience. ii Throughout the dissertation, I assert that each artist discussed sheds light on the others by engaging different geographical boundaries (between the global, local, and regional), as well as creating different conceptual spaces (between the amnesic, mnemonic, and virtual spaces), where they can pursue history. Finally, throughout this dissertation, I look to Foucault as the theoretical armature for my own work, yet I am as much concerned with the limitations of his theory as I am with his insights. In this vein, the artists that I investigate here reveal in productive ways how we might think about history beyond Foucault’s relativism, skepticism, and cynicism. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For the many years it took me to complete this dissertation, I owed many debts of gratitude. First and foremost, I must recognize my advisor, Terri Weissman and express my appreciation for her continuous encouragement and generosity, as well as incisive comments and questions throughout my research and writing. The years I spent at Illinois with her have shaped not only this project but my scholarship and teaching methodology. She has inspired me through the way in which she as a scholar in the humanities practices her philosophy through actual life. The numerous conversations we shared will be the treasure for my future academic profession. I wish to thank the committee members. I am grateful to David O’Brien for his practical support, as well as intellectual feedback over my graduate studies. He has guided me to be rigorous in my theoretical framework for this project and my further research. Sandy Prita Meier has also provided me critical comments on my insight of contemporary African art and its mode of representation. Kevin Hamilton has been invaluable to this project, from the beginning of the proposal, bringing creative ways of thinking on the artistic projects that I investigated. In addition to the committee members, I wish to thank the entire faculty of Art History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was lucky to have been a part of such a critically engaged and genuinely friendly intellectual community. My special thanks go to Oscar Vázquez, Lisa Rosenthal, Jennifer Burns, Anne Burkus Chasson, and Kristen Romberg, who generously supported me and encouraged me to complete this project. Although they left the campus, Anne D. Hedeman, Jennifer Greenhill, Irene Small, and Suzanne Hudson also provided me with invaluable insights on my major and minor studies. Ellen de Waard, Marsha Biddle, and Jane Goldberg have helped me with their wisdom and kindness. I also thank the professors of Art History and Theory at Hong-ik University who grounded my study and profession. This dissertation was funded through the numerous fellowships and grants from the Art History Department, the School of Art and Design, and the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am also grateful to the curators and librarians at the Museum of Modern Art and the Walther Collection in New York, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Tate Modern in London, the Artsonje Center in Seoul, the Santu Mofokeng Foundation in Johannesburg, and the Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Beirut, for assisting me in locating materials that have been vital to this project. iv My memories of Illinois will inform, I am sure, much of my future life. I must mention all of my great colleagues of SAHA and deliver my appreciation to them. In particular, I thank Carmen Ripollés and Margaret Ewing for their warm welcoming of me into the department and continuing friendship. I cannot imagine my life on campus without Miriam Kienle and Adam Thomas with whom I spent much time, and I appreciate their sharing of a deep friendship, as well as serving as excellent role models. Rachel White and Maria Dorofeeva have similarly supported me with their friendship and feedback. Lastly, I deliver my thanks to the editors of this project, Alex Morris and Jess Park, the Korean friends of Logos & Philos on campus, and the faculty colleagues of the University of Nevada, Reno. An international graduate student often struggles with the intense homesickness. I could endure my times by virtue of the friends who are now living far. I appreciate Yeonjoo Kim and Bora Kim, my best friends and colleagues of Art History and Theory at Hong-ik, for their everlasting friendship, emotional support, and intellectual conversation. Sahyang Kim, a big sister of Gadium at Hong-ik, has guided me on how to manage my studying abroad and provided me a great role model. My biggest thank goes to my brother and sister-in-law, Yoonseok Jang and Jiyoung Lee, for their constant love and care. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Jung-hak Augustine Jang and Jung-ae Savina Jung. Their extraordinary love has taught me how to love my life, continue my study, and share my knowledge. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………….…...…vii INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER 1: Reading the History of Globalization from the Surface: Allan Sekula’s Fish Story………………………………………………………..…….........16 CHAPTER 2: Ambivalent Bodies at Gray Zone: Santu Mofokeng’s The Black Photo Album—Look at Me: 1890–1950……………..………81 CHAPTER 3: Documenting, Fiction, and Genealogies: Historicizing Local Wars in a Global Context……………………………………..............139 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………….195 FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………………..202 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………….272 vi LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 43: Photographed in the Port of Rotterdam, 1993) Fig. 2: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 73: Photographed in Veracruz, Mexico, March 1994) Fig. 3: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 74: Photographed in Veracruz, Mexico, March 1994) Fig. 4: Allan Sekula, Installation View of Fish Story Chapter 1at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2014 (Black panel on left is a caption page; White panel is a description page) Fig. 5: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 28: Photographed in the Mid-Atlantic, 1993) Fig. 6: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 10: Photographed in Minturno, Italy, June 1992) Fig. 7: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 54: Photographed in Ilsan Village, Ulsan, South Korea in September 1993) Fig. 8: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 55: Photographed in Ilsan Village, Ulsan, South Korea in September 1993) Fig. 9: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 12: Photographed in Los Angeles, California, June 1992) Fig. 10: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 79: Photographed in Veracruz, Mexico, March 1994) Fig. 11: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 80: Photographed in Veracruz, Mexico, March 1994) Fig. 12: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 19: Photographed in San Diego, California, August 1990) Fig. 13: Allan Sekula, Fish Story, Photo Book, 1995 (Plate 21: Photographed in Poland, November 1990) Fig.