The first in an occasional series highlighting the best of Australian art writing…
“Performance functions as the absent-presence/present-absence within this group exhibition. Three broad strands of performance/artwork relationship emerge in a cacophony of object and image forms and traces, indicating something of the manner in which live action haunts so much of otherwise apparently distinct contemporary practice. In one sense the exhibition might be said to be predicated upon the remediation/deferral of performance (or action) in image form. In another way, it foregrounds the manifestation/trace/sublimation of live action presented in the form of inanimate objects. Then again, in select moments of ‘liveness’ it presents the artist at work through performance, manifesting in-situ, through time otherwise apparently contradictory impulses towards disappearance and recuperation of performance as both experience and category. Works throughout the exhibition apparently or implicitly claim a lineage in the history of performance, whether in acts of homage or simply as a strategic model. Simultaneously they demonstrate a reinvestment of the performative within object making. Various performative modes are both staged and foreclosed upon: gesture, action, ritual, exploration or journey, labour, theatre, comedy etc…”
Got any quality examples of writing on contemporary art? Send your finds to: the art life at hot mail dot com and don’t forget to include a link to the source…
Ah, the condescenti strike again
Oh look, someone has a PhD.
way to make art inaccessible.
looks like the culture divide is here to stay. it’s like the literary version of a gated community.
Yes! Brilliant! Thanks Art Life for keeping us artists honest. We can have a tendency to crawl up our own bums if we’re not careful. I’m all for artists being able to write and reflect on what we do, but this….?!
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