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.