DOCSLIB.ORG

Art's Intervention

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Art's Intervention ART'S INTERVENTION: ACTIVATING CULTURAL MEMORY FOR SOCIAL CHANGE LISA SCHINCARIOL A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER, 2012 ©LISA SCHINCARIOL, 2012 Abstract This dissertation develops a socialist feminist aesthetic theory that brings an intersectional and anti-capitalist analysis of aesthetics to art criticism, museum studies and cultural policy. It begins by positing the social value of the arts in terms of their relationship to social change, which is catalyzed by cultural memory. This argument proceeds by developing the concept of cultural memory through keystone texts in aesthetic theory, which it redeploys to explain how cultural memory operates through the arts. The dissertation then outlines a socialist feminist politics that distinguishes cultural memory from discourse and explains the mutual impact of discursive and material conditions through the mechanism of cultural memory. This theoretical construct is applied to a case study of Charlotte Salomon's massive and multidisciplinary Life? or Theatre?. The case study attends to the socialist feminist dimension of the work, which has otherwise been underrepresented. The dissertation further applies a socialist feminist theory of art as cultural memory to its analysis of problems in the work's exhibition at the Art Galley of Toronto in 2000. This analysis reveals the ways in which the work's political content was circumscribed by the exhibition. It also explores the political and economic climate of patriarchal capitalism impinging on the gallery to describe how this circumscription was preconditioned. By developing the concept of cultural memory in this way, the dissertation makes a contribution to the study of Salomon's work, as well as debates on art's social value and political effects, feminist art history, and the sociology of art. ii Acknowledgements I am grateful to my committee members Drs. Kevin Dowler, Deborah Barndt, and Monique Tschofen for giving this project thoughtful and thorough consideration. I also wish to thank the Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam, which accommodated my visit to the Charlotte Salomon Archives and kindly answered my many inquiries from afar. Several allies provided encouragement during the PhD process. Robert Case in particular supported me through the final year of writing with his companionship and regard. However, I am most indebted to my husband Dr. J.J. McMurtry whose breadth of understanding provided unparalleled assistance. 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 Defining "Art" ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Defining "Cultural Memory" ................................................................................................................... 7 Theoretical Stance ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Method ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: Art's Social Value ............................................................................................................................. 16 Art's Imbrication in Subjectivity and Social Change ................................................................... 24 Chapter 2: Establishing Art's Cultural Memory as an Agent of Social Change: Definitions & Applications ............................................................................................................................................................. 37 Memory as Power and Resistance ..................................................................................................... 38 Narrowing the Field of Study ............................................................................................................... 40 Memory and Representation ................................................................................................................ 42 Reading "Cultural Memory" from Aesthetic Theory................................................................... 44 A History of the Concept of Art as Dialectical... ............................................................................. 52 Summary....................................................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 3: The Feminist Frame: A Consideration of Art's Social Value Often Excluded from Domi11ant Discourse ............................................................................................................................................. 63 Thinking Socialism & Feminism Together...................................................................................... 64 Major Contributions of Feminist Art & Criticism to Social Praxis: The Personal/ Political Dialectic ................................................................................................... 7 4 Feminism, Art and Memory .................................................................................................................. 81 Memory as Material ................................................................................................................................. 84 Chapter 4: Life? or Theatre? as Feminist Cultural Memory ............................................................... 101 The Feminist Dimension ..................................................................................................................... 109 Critical Framing of Life? or Theatre? .............................................................................................. 122 Universalizing Experience .................................................................................................................. 140 Chapter 5: Policy as a Cultural Memory Frame ...................................................................................... 146 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 172 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................................... 181 iv Introduction This dissertation challenges the premise that art exists for the purpose of decoration, distraction, and distinction, to nurture a mood within a particular place or person, or to gratify an urge toward self-expression by individuals .of a peculiar disposition. Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed these ideas when he made the following remarks after cutting $45 million from arts and culture funding: "I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up - I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people" (Toronto Star). The country's foremost representative was articulating a popular perspective among Canadians-one that views the arts as a realm of privilege and little collective relevance. Indeed, the Harper campaign saw its highest polling numbers the day after he made what has been dubbed his "Ordinary People Don't Care About the Arts statement" (Wheeler), suggesting that many Canadians regard artistic practice as frivolous and private, rendering marginal value to society at-large except when, as a commodity of decoration, distraction, and distinction, it can produce consumer value. It does so either by generating cultural capital through the sheer aura of originality or by connecting consumers to capital generating corporations, thereby fueling a local, regional, national or global economic system. This is why lucrative cultural industries 1 exist within Canada, as does an affluent but extremely narrow art market. Even so the average artist lives below the poverty line. There remains within :the population of Canada at least a residual understanding that some human activity is not market durable yet might merit communal support for the sake of enrichment and innovation, otherwise known broadly speaking as the public good. For this reason, the arts have long been supported by private and public donors in this country, despite a pervasive attitude of indifference and occasionally disdain. This is the popular profile of the arts in Canada at the time of writing. This is the profile by which artists and artworks of every ilk and character are to be recognized in every branch of mass media, as well as perhaps in most classrooms and living rooms. It is a profile reflected in the ghettoization of arts education into underfunded, academic sub-disciplines. It is evident in the well-publicized need of cultural institutions to continuously pursue another blockbuster event or architectural makeover. The names and faces of our artists never appear on our currency or on our public infrastructure, as they do in other countries (Leger). Rather, the arts
Load more

Recommended publications
  • MARSV15N1A5.Pdf (1.183Mb)
    Mid-American Review of Sociology GENDER AND EVALUATION IN FINE ART. They show their evaluation of her through their own rites and meetings" (p. n). Traq' X. Karner This differs from Schur'snotion of the source of the structural ambivalence The University ofKansas present within society. While Schur implies that the devaluation of women propagates from and is supported by the behavior and perception of men, the Mid-American Review of Sociology, 1991, Vol. XV, No. 1:53-69 literature cited indicates that female gang members are influenced more by the constraints of their female peers than by the perceptions of male gang !he significance of ~en~er and its potential as a stigmatic social label members. Contrary to the literature, one could argue that because female ~n the field i!f art IS Investigated. As art objectifies both a society's gangs are most often auxiliary components to male gangs, female gang ideals and biases, the recognition and appreciation of art can be seen members are more dependant upon their male counterparts to define as a pivot~1 poi~t fro~ which to ~tudy. social values. Gender, having gender-related norms than are females in the society at large, where ~een prevlo~s/y Identified as a StlgnJDIIC label in fonnalized careers, independent female associations are more likely to occur. Nevertheless, what ts hypotheslze~ to account for tile lack oj recognized art works by seems necessary is to approach female gang delinquency and the normative women: Especially as the realm oj art has no formalized criteria for structure of the gang as it relates to both male and female peer influences, e~aluatlng competence.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Cultural Value in the Historical Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu Tony Bennett
    The Historical Universal: The Role of Cultural Value in the Historical Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu Tony Bennett The definitive version of this article is published in: Bennet, T. 2005, ‘The Historical Universal: The Role of Cultural Value in the Historical Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu’, The British Journal of Sociology, 56(1): 141-164. The definitive version of this article is published in: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2005.00051.x/abstract (institutional or subscribed access may be required) The journal British Journal of Sociology is available online: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-4446 (institutional or subscribed access may be required) Copyright remains with the publisher, Blackwell Publishing. Disclaimer Please note that this is an electronic, pre-print version of this article produced by the Institute for Culture & Society, University of Western Sydney, in accordance with the requirements of the publisher. Whilst this version of the article incorporates refereed changes and has been accepted for publication, differences may exist between this and the final, published version. Citations should only be made from the published version. User Agreement Copyright of these pre-print articles are retained by the author. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article to facilitate their own study or non-commercial research. Wider circulation and distribution of the material and/or use of it in profit-making activities is prohibited. URLs to access this pre-print version can
    [Show full text]
  • Situating German Multiculturalism in the New Europe
    University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 6-1-2011 A Country of Immigration? Situating German Multiculturalism in the New Europe Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Khrebtan-Hörhager, Julia, "A Country of Immigration? Situating German Multiculturalism in the New Europe" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 337. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/337 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. A COUNTRY OF IMMIGRATION? SITUATING GERMAN MULTICULTURALISM IN THE NEW EUROPE __________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Social Sciences University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager June 2011 Advisor: Dr. Kate Willink ©Copyright by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager 2011 All Rights Reserved Author: Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager Title: A COUNTRY OF IMMIGRATION? SITUATING GERMAN MULTICULTURALISM IN THE NEW EUROPE Advisor: Dr. Kate Willink Degree Date: June 2011 Abstract This dissertation addresses a complex cultural and social phenomenon: German multiculturalism in the framework of the European Union in the century of globalization and global migration. I use selected cinematographic works by Fatih Akin, currently the most celebrated German and European filmmaker, as cultural texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Memory in Mind and Culture
    This page intentionally left blank Memory in Mind and Culture This text introduces students, scholars, and interested educated readers to the issues of human memory broadly considered, encompassing individual mem- ory, collective remembering by societies, and the construction of history. The book is organized around several major questions: How do memories construct our past? How do we build shared collective memories? How does memory shape history? This volume presents a special perspective, emphasizing the role of memory processes in the construction of self-identity, of shared cultural norms and concepts, and of historical awareness. Although the results are fairly new and the techniques suitably modern, the vision itself is of course related to the work of such precursors as Frederic Bartlett and Aleksandr Luria, who in very different ways represent the starting point of a serious psychology of human culture. Pascal Boyer is Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory, departments of psychology and anthropology, at Washington University in St. Louis. He studied philosophy and anthropology at the universities of Paris and Cambridge, where he did his graduate work with Professor Jack Goody, on memory constraints on the transmission of oral literature. He has done anthro- pological fieldwork in Cameroon on the transmission of the Fang oral epics and on Fang traditional religion. Since then, he has worked mostly on the experi- mental study of cognitive capacities underlying cultural transmission. After teaching in Cambridge, San Diego, Lyon, and Santa Barbara, Boyer moved to his present position at the departments of anthropology and psychology at Washington University, St. Louis. James V.
    [Show full text]
  • Reproductions, Cultural Capital and Museums: Aspects of the Culture of Copies
    47 Reproductions, cultural capital and museums: aspects of the culture of copies Gordon Fyfe* Keele University Abstract The concept of cultural capital is well known in museum studies from pioneering visitor research conducted and reported by Pierre Bourdieu in the 1960s. This paper examines the concept in the light of the criticism that, whilst it illuminates the dynamics of cultural consumption and inequality in advanced capitalist societies, its socio-genesis is less well understood. It is argued that the historical sociology of fine art reproduction provides an opportunity to (i) enlarge our understanding of its formation and (ii) to explore the cultural character of the copy and the sociology of the body. The paper draws on Marx’s concept of primitive accumulation, on Connerton’s distinction between incorporated and inscribing practices and on Bourdieu’s distinction between three states of cultural capital. Key words: cultural capital, art reproduction, museums. Introduction The concept of cultural capital features widely in museum studies and in debates about access and social inclusion. Pierre Bourdieu’s pioneering study of visitors, conducted in the 1960s, established its relevance for the museum although the concept has had a much wider sociological application than museum studies. In The Love of Art Bourdieu considers the puzzle that although public art museums celebrate citizenship and are open to all citizens only a relatively small and privileged proportion of people pass through their doors. His solution has three parts:
    [Show full text]
  • THE ARTIST's PRINT AS a STRATEGY for SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT Bess Frimodig a Thesis Submitted in Partial F
    AN HONOURABLE PRACTICE: THE ARTIST’S PRINT AS A STRATEGY FOR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT Bess Frimodig A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education University of the West of England, Bristol April 2014 Volume I 0 List of Illustrations Fig.3. Fukuzoku Koto Gakko High School Year Book, Kanazawa, Japan 1980 Plate I. She Still Rules Plate II. Twente Identity Robe Plate V. Stand Up To Hatred: Wall of Resistance Plate VI. To Let Plate VII. Mapping The Longest Print 1 CONTENTS Pg.4 AUTHOR DECLARATION Pg.5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Pg.6 ABSTRACT Pg.7 INTRODUCTION Pg.8 The dilemma Pg.10 Research Question Pg.10 Aims and Objectives Pg.10 Development of the research and its rationale Pg.12 Methodology Pg.14 Outline Pg.16 CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND Pg.17 Personal Context Pg.22 The Social Role of Art – A Debate Pg.27 Why print? Pg.27 History of Print Pg.35 Literature of Print – Texts, Websites and Blogs Pg.49 The Way Forward: The Individual Artist and Entering the Collective Pg.49 Models of practice Pg.58 Guiding principles Pg.59 CHAPTER TWO: CASE STUDIES Pg.60 CS1 Black History Month Pg.61 Introduction Pg.61 Aims and Objectives Pg.62 Context Pg.62 The Print Pg.63 Evaluation Pg.66 Conclusion Pg.67 The Way Forward Pg.68 CS2 AKI Twente Identity Robe Pg.69 Introduction Pg.69 Aims and Objectives Pg.70 Context Pg.70 The Print Pg.73 Evaluation Pg.74 Conclusion Pg.75 The Way Forward Pg.76 CS3 Stand up to Hatred: Wall of Resistance
    [Show full text]
  • Sculpture and Installation Public Sculpture and Installaion .Pages
    ARTS - 3860 Section 001 Sculpture and Installation # 67191 Public Sculpture and Installation: Methods and Practice 1:25 PM - 4:25 PM, M/W Regis Center for Art E117 Andréa Stanislav, Associate Professor [email protected] Instructor’s office hour: Mondays 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM, Room #E265 Class will meet during regularly scheduled hours in the classroom. The class will also meet outside the classroom during the scheduled class time. The class may also meet other days of the week for outside events, field trips, and guest artist and curator speakers -- these events may be scheduled on a weekly basis -- and are subject to change. There will also be a public art field trip to Chicago scheduled in April. Suggested texts: • Jane Bennet, Vibrant Matter: a political ecology of things. Duke University Press, Durham and London 2010 • Brunno Latour and Peter Weibel Making Things Public -- Atmospheres of Democracy, MIT Press, 2005 • Guy Debord, La Société du Spectacle (Society of the Spectacle),1967, Rebel Press 2004 Course Description and Objective: This course is an intermediate/advanced exploration of contemporary approaches, concepts, and practices of installation art and public art. What was, is, and will be installation art and public art? What purpose do these art practices serve? Who is the public? What effect and real changes (if any) do these practices have in the public realm and the fine art academy/ world? How are public art monuments that commemorates, honors, reminds, catalogues regarded, critiqued and transformed in the present? This project-based interdisciplinary course will focus on the development of skill sets in making, designing, critical thinking and realization of: a public artwork proposal, a public art intervention project, and an installation project.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Memory Through Analyses of Site-Specific Contexts of Montreal and Berlin
    There is no time like the past Retro between memory and materiality in contemporary culture Handberg, Kristian Publication date: 2014 Document version Early version, also known as pre-print Citation for published version (APA): Handberg, K. (2014). There is no time like the past: Retro between memory and materiality in contemporary culture. Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet. Download date: 27. sep.. 2021 FACULTY OF HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN PhD thesis Kristian Handberg There’s no time like the past Retro between memory and materiality in contemporary culture Academic advisor: Mette Sandbye Submitted: 09/05/2014 Institutnavn: Institut for Kunst og Kulturvidenskab Name of department: Department of Arts and Cultural Studies Author: Kristian Handberg Titel og evt. undertitel: There´s no time like the past Title / Subtitle: Retro between memory and materiality in contemporary culture Subject description: A study of retro in contemporary culture as cultural memory through analyses of site-specific contexts of Montreal and Berlin. Academic advisor: Mette Sandbye, lektor, Institut for Kunst og Kulturvidenskab, Københavns Universitet. Co-advisor: Will Straw, Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Submitted: May 2014 2 Contents AKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 7 There’s no time like the past: Presenting the
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering and Forgetting: Narrative As Cultural Memory
    02 Brockmeier (MJ/d) 1/2/02 9:39 am Page 15 Abstract This paper has two objectives: one is to explore the dialectics of remembering and forgetting, an issue traditionally neglected in psychological memory research; the other is to question the widespread dichotomy of individual and social memory. To do so, a cultural-historical perspective is outlined that allows us to conceive of individual memory as an inextricable part of an overarching cultural discourse, the discourse of cultural memory. In this discourse, narrative practices are of central importance because they combine various cultural symbol systems, integrating them within one symbolic space. In order to explain and illustrate this conception of narrative, a historical memorial and work of art is examined. Three narrative orders of this artwork are distinguished—the linguistic, semiotic and performative or discursive—and discussed as particular forms of meaning construction. Together, they constitute a mnemonic system, a symbolic space of remembering and forgetting in which the time orders of past and present are continuously recombined. Key Words cultural memory, narrative, remembering, symbol system Jens Brockmeier University of Toronto, Canada, and Free University Berlin, Germany Remembering and Forgetting: Narrative as Cultural Memory Reading the psychological literature on memory, there is little doubt who plays the leading roles on this stage. The radiant hero in the lime- light is Remembering, attracting all attention, support and sympathy. The shady villain is Forgetting, the trouble maker who is lurking behind the scenes, always ready to counter-act Remembering and thwart its achievement. There are various scenarios in which this plot is acted out.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Searching for Cultural Memory
    01 Brockmeier (MJ/d) 1/2/02 9:39 am Page 5 Abstract This Introduction situates the papers and commentaries of this Special Issue on ‘Narrative and Cultural Memory’ within the context of a new multidisciplinary research literature that suggests localizing memory in culture and, in doing so, focuses on the role of narrative. This literature is viewed against the backdrop of a fundamental critique of the traditional notion of memory as reflecting one strand in the emergence of a new post- positivist cultural research paradigm in the study of memory. Key Words methodology, narrative, post-positivist paradigm of memory Jens Brockmeier University of Toronto, Canada, and Free University Berlin, Germany Introduction: Searching for Cultural Memory Perhaps there was a time when it could seem obvious what memory is, and why it matters. To be sure, for most philosophers and writers in the Western tradition, memory and the ability to remember the past were unquestionable and indisputable parts of the human condition. For a long time, it simply was taken for granted that memory was a unitary faculty of the individual, single mind, and that memories were passive and literal recordings of experience. Significantly enough, the archive and the wax tablet were the two most used metaphors of memory in Western literature—from Aristotle and Augustine to cognitive psychology. Many considered the way to this archive, remembering, as the golden path to wisdom and all knowledge that reaches beyond the here and now. Plato, one of the most influential thinkers in the Western history of thought, saw in the process of remembering, which he called anamnesis, the key to the deepest and most universal truths.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Article (PDF)
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 301 Seventh International Conference on Languages and Arts (ICLA 2018) WEST SUMATERA’S CONTEMPORARY PAINTING IN SOCIOLOGY STUDIES Nora Susanti1 and Budiwirman2 1Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia, [email protected] 1Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia, [email protected] Abstract West Sumatra is one of the regions that contribute many artists to the field of arts. One of the field of arts that gains so much attention is contemporary art. It is an art that is no longer bound to the rules of past works. Contemporary art has gained such a rapid growth that it intrigues many researchers to conduct studies on it. This present study attempts to investigate the factors that influence the development of contemporary art and how these factors determine the direction of its development. The study was conducted with descriptive qualitative methods. It involved interviews with several informants, and reading and comparing various related literatures. Based on the results, it can be concluded that contemporary art has undergone significant growth and development which are influenced by the social system such as the environment, the education in West Sumatra, the arts community and so on. Keywords: Painting, Contemporary, Sociology. Introduction West Sumatra is one of the places that contribute many artists to the field of arts including the arts of music, dance, drama and fine arts. For instance, one of the aforesaid fields, namely fine arts, has produced many potential artists such as Zaini, Effendi, Hamzah, and others. They all have participated in making West Sumatra proud and even actively involved in International arena.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Memories for Better Place Experience: the Case of Orabi Square in Alexandria, Egypt
    Article Cultural Memories for Better Place Experience: The Case of Orabi Square in Alexandria, Egypt Fatmaelzahraa Hussein 1,2,* , John Stephens 1 and Reena Tiwari 1 1 School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia; [email protected] (J.S.); [email protected] (R.T.) 2 Department of Architectural Engineering, High Institute of Engineering and Technology, El Behira 22699, Egypt * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +046-960-6078 Received: 10 December 2019; Accepted: 19 January 2020; Published: 24 January 2020 Abstract: Globalization is associated with significant transformations in city forms and cultural and social performances. Governments and cultural heritage organisations increasingly appreciate the importance of preserving diverse physical cultural heritage through rehabilitation and the implementation of conservation plans. Nevertheless, there is a need to evaluate whether these plans understand the importance of cultural memory in societies, as well as how it affects the human psyche. Utilizing Orabi Square, which is one of the richest Historic Urban Landscapes (HUL) in the metropolitan city of Alexandria in Egypt, this study aims to answer the question; to what extent does Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) management present a situation that maintains cultural memory and achieve psychosocial well-being? The research explored the site’s old and new conditions and place experience, applying a qualitative approach through onsite face-to-face semi-structured interviews combined with data from a Facebook group—Alexandria’s Spirit. The QSR Nvivo12 analysis program was used for the data interpretation and for charting the intangible values accompanying cultural memory such as emotions and behaviour.
    [Show full text]