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SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... Finding Place: The art of Wangechi Mutu, Maria Magdalena Campos- Pons and IngridMwangiRobertHutter A Dissertation Presented by Eva Susanne Hericks-Bares to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History and Criticism Stony Brook University December 2014 Copyright by Eva Susanne Hericks-Bares 2014 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Eva Susanne Hericks-Bares We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Barbara Frank – Dissertation Advisor Associate Professor, Department of Art Michele Bogart – Chairperson of Defense Professor, Department of Art Shoki Goodarzi – Committee Member Lecturer, Department of Art Edward S. Casey – Outside Committee Member Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Charles Taber Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation Finding Place: The art of Wangechi Mutu, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and IngridMwangiRobertHutter by Eva Susanne Hericks-Bares Doctor of Philosophy in Art History and Criticism Stony Brook University 2014 This dissertation examines the issue of “place” in the lives and works of three contemporary women artists of the African Diaspora: Maria Magdalena Campos- Pons, IngridMwangiRobertHutter, and Wangechi Mutu. Place as a location is a core challenge of globalism: though fundamental to our existence, it has ceased to be permanent or definite. However, place is more than location—it is cultural, gendered, historical, interactive, personal and social, among other things—and can only be fully understood in considering several of these different facets. Each of the artists in this dissertation has had to navigate through instances of bias (such as racism and chauvinism), and physical displacement in order to create, find, and represent their places. In three case studies, the artists’ works and interviews serve as points of departure, illustrating how insights from Phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty and Casey) and from Humanistic Geography (Tuan, Relph, Massey) as well as from the discourses of feminist geography and contemporary art historiography can help us understand place. As there is currently no systematic study of place in art, nor an art-specific place theory to use in analysis, it provides a summary of the geographical and phenomenological insights and proposes a “lens” of place to apply to art works and artists. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………….….…..………V INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………….……..1 A BEGINNING………………………………………………………………………………….……..1 CONTEMPORARY ART AND ITS OTHERS …………………………………………....……….…4 PLACE AND PHENOMENOLOGY………………………………………………………..…….….10 OVERVIEW OF THE DISSERTATION……………………………………………………..…...…17 PART 1: PLACE INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………..………22 CHAPTER 1: PLACE AND ART……………………………………………………………..……..23 ART IN AND OF PLACE……………………………………………………………..……23 ART IN PLACE(S)……………………………………………………………………..…..26 PUBLIC ART………………………………………………………………….....28 STREET ART………………………………………………………………….....32 ENVIRONMENTAL ART………………………………………………………..38 LAND ART/EARTH WORKS…………………………………………….…….41 ART OF PLACE AND PLACE IN ART……………………………………………….…..45 LANDSCAPE ART…………………………………………………………….....46 PLACE IN ART LITERATURE……………………………………………….....48 PLACE IN “DIASPORA ART”…………………………………………….……..52 CHAPTER 2: PLACE THEORIES…………………………………………………………………..59 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PLACE (AS HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY)…………………59 FROM SPACE TO PLACE – YI FU TUAN…………………………………….61 PLACE INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS – EDWARD RELPH…………………65 A PROGRESSIVE SENSE OF PLACE – DOREEN MASSEY………………..69 GENDER AND PLACE – FEMINIST GEOGRAPHY…………………………71 THE EXPERIENCE OF PLACE (IN PHENOMENOLOGY)…………………………....74 PLACE – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH…………………………………...…79 BODY AS PLACE…………………………………………………..………….…81 PLACE AND HOME……………………………………………..……………...84 VIRTUAL PLACE………………………………………………..………..…....87 NON-PLACES AND INTERPLACES…………………………….…………….89 HOW TO UNDERSTAND PLACE IN ART …………………….………………93 iv PART 2: ARTIST CASE STUDIES CHAPTER 3: WANGECHI MUTU…………………………………………………………………..96 BODY AS PLACE AS BODY………………………………………………………………….96 THE BODY AS THE PLACE OF EXPERIENCE……………………………….101 FINDING HER PLACE IN ART………………………………………………..104 COLLAGE AS FACT AND AS FICTION………………………………………..108 CONTESTED PLACE – THE BLACK FEMALE BODY………………………116 COLLAGE ON EVERY LEVEL………………………………………………….126 COUNTER-VIOLENCE………………………………………………………….129 THE GALLERY AS A PLACE OF ARTISTIC CREATION……………………135 CHAPTER 4: INGRIDMWANGIROBERTHUTTER……………………………………………..145 PUTTING PLACE TO WORK……………………………………………………………..145 TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF DISPLACEMENT………………………..147 TAKING RESPONSIBILITY AND PUTTING EXPERIENCE TO WORK…….155 A PLACE IN THE INTERNATIONAL ART SCENE……………………………162 PLACE IN A NEW LIGHT OR “SEEING ISN’T KNOWING”…………………173 CHALLENGES OF PLACES REAL AND VIRTUAL……………………………181 PERFORMING PLACE………………………………………………………….185 CHAPTER 5: MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS.…………………………………………196 THE MANY PLACES OF MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS…………………..196 THE PLACES OF MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS…………………198 A FIRST PLACE: THE BODY…………………………………………………...202 PLACE IN CUBA…………………………………………………………………206 PLACE IN THE DIASPORA……………………………………………………..207 CONNECTING PLACES PAST AND PRESENT………………………………..211 A PLACE IN AND OF EXHIBITIONS…………………………………………..219 EXPERIENCE OF PLACE THROUGH INSTALLATION ART………………..225 CREATING A NEW PLACE IN THE ART WORLD…………….....………….226 PLACE BEYOND THE LIMITATIONS OF THE MEDIUM…………………..228 (RE)CREATING PLACE………………………………………………………..235 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………………………..241 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………………………..265 v Acknowledgements This dissertation presents the culmination of thoughts and ideas borne of many years of study and research. Yet none of these would have been possible without “the people” – teachers, mentors, colleagues, friends, and family – who sparked my interest, helped my ideas grow, edited the manuscript, provided me with feedback, and who gave me balance, food, and love. And then there are “the places” of my life that have all come into this work by making me who I am and making me see the world anew – Germany: Bamberg and Berlin; Europe: the Alps, Tuscany, Umbria, Brittany, and the Scottish Highlands; North America: Fredericton, New York City, Port Jefferson, and Asheville. Among the people there are first and foremost the artists of this dissertation, who have so generously shared time and conversations and ideas with me. The incredible talents of each of them cannot possibly be contained in a single chapter, but at least through place we can get more than just a glimpse of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Wangechi Mutu, and IngridMwangiRobertHutter. My heartfelt thanks go to the professors throughout my academic career, especially those who first sparked my intellectual interest, Dr. Michael Carlebach at the University of Miami, Coral Gables and Dr. Stefan Neuhaus at the Otto-Friedrich Universität, Bamberg. Among those who were most influential for my intellectual development at Stony Brook University were the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Edward S. Casey, Dr. Michele Bogart, Dr. Shoki Goodarzi, and my advisor extraordinaire Dr. Barbara Frank. I also benefited from many great discussions and exchanges with my grad school peers Danielle Lenhard, Harry Weil, Jen Kruglinski, Travis English, and Valerie Hellstein, who also provided me with equal measures of encouragement and comic relief across state boundaries. My colleagues at UNC Asheville in the Art and Art History department, in the Humanities and Arts & Ideas program, in International and Interdisciplinary studies and in the Liberal Arts cohort, and especially my department chairs Virginia Derryberry and Leisa Rundquist and Dean of Humanities Gwen McNeill Ashburn deserve much of my gratitude for bearing with me these past three years. I would also like to thank my students in the three different iterations of “place” related courses—Art and Place, Gendered Places, and Mindfulness and Place—for the many stimulating and thought provoking discussions. And thanks also need to go to my colleagues in the contemplative practices learning circle for helping me find my place on campus and inspiring me to help students find theirs. My writing group colleagues from UNC Asheville and Warren Wilson College cannot be commended enough for all their valuable input and editing suggestions: Drs. Leisa Rundquist, Julie Caro, Christey Carwhile, and Kate Zubko. Kate especially deserves a medal for spending a whole year being my work buddy twice a week – this dissertation would not have gotten done without these sessions. My Asheville friends Amanda Wray, Bridget Felix, Elly Wells, Kate Zubko, Sara Wilcox, and Suzanne Klonis supported me along the way: taking me on a run, vi lending me an ear, watching my kids, feeding me, or helping with whatever else needed doing. This list would not be complete without mentioning my parents, Hedwig and Bernhard Hericks, and my parents-in-law, Jane and Harold Bares, for without their unwavering support—both in my choice of new career and my choice of a