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In Beyond the Sovereign Self Grant H. Kester continues the critique
of aesthetic autonomy begun in The Sovereign Self, showing how
socially engaged art provides an alternative aesthetic with greater
possibilities for critical practice. Instead of grounding art in
its distance from the social, Kester shows how socially engaged
art, developed in conjunction with forms of social or political
resistance, encourages the creative capacity required for
collective political transformation. Among others, Kester analyzes
the work of conceptual artist Adrian Piper, experimental practices
associated with the escrache tradition in Argentina, and indigenous
Canadian artists such as Nadia Myer and Michèle Taïna Audette,
showing how socially engaged art catalyzes forms of resistance that
operate beyond the institutional art world. From the Americas and
Europe to Iran and South Africa, Kester presents a historical
genealogy of recent engaged art practices rooted in a deep history
of cultural production, beginning with nineteenth-century political
struggles and continuing into contemporary anticolonial resistance
and other social movements.
In Beyond the Sovereign Self Grant H. Kester continues the critique
of aesthetic autonomy begun in The Sovereign Self, showing how
socially engaged art provides an alternative aesthetic with greater
possibilities for critical practice. Instead of grounding art in
its distance from the social, Kester shows how socially engaged
art, developed in conjunction with forms of social or political
resistance, encourages the creative capacity required for
collective political transformation. Among others, Kester analyzes
the work of conceptual artist Adrian Piper, experimental practices
associated with the escrache tradition in Argentina, and indigenous
Canadian artists such as Nadia Myer and Michèle Taïna Audette,
showing how socially engaged art catalyzes forms of resistance that
operate beyond the institutional art world. From the Americas and
Europe to Iran and South Africa, Kester presents a historical
genealogy of recent engaged art practices rooted in a deep history
of cultural production, beginning with nineteenth-century political
struggles and continuing into contemporary anticolonial resistance
and other social movements.
In The Sovereign Self, Grant H. Kester examines the evolving
discourse of aesthetic autonomy from its origins in the
Enlightenment through avant-garde projects and movements in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kester traces the idea of
aesthetic autonomy—the sense that art should be autonomous from
social forces while retaining the ability to reflect back
critically on society—through Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, and
Adorno. Kester critiques the use of aesthetic autonomy as the basis
for understanding the nature of art and the shifting relationship
between art and revolutionary praxis. He shows that dominant
discourses of aesthetic autonomy reproduce the very forms of
bourgeois liberalism that autonomy discourse itself claims to
challenge. Analyzing avant-garde art and political movements in
Russia, India, Latin America, and elsewhere, Kester retheorizes the
aesthetic beyond autonomy. Ultimately, Kester demonstrates that the
question of aesthetic autonomy has ramifications that extend beyond
art to encompass the nature of political transformation and forms
of anticolonial resistance that challenge the Eurocentric concept
of “Man,” upon which the aesthetic itself often depends.
In The Sovereign Self, Grant H. Kester examines the evolving
discourse of aesthetic autonomy from its origins in the
Enlightenment through avant-garde projects and movements in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kester traces the idea of
aesthetic autonomy—the sense that art should be autonomous from
social forces while retaining the ability to reflect back
critically on society—through Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, and
Adorno. Kester critiques the use of aesthetic autonomy as the basis
for understanding the nature of art and the shifting relationship
between art and revolutionary praxis. He shows that dominant
discourses of aesthetic autonomy reproduce the very forms of
bourgeois liberalism that autonomy discourse itself claims to
challenge. Analyzing avant-garde art and political movements in
Russia, India, Latin America, and elsewhere, Kester retheorizes the
aesthetic beyond autonomy. Ultimately, Kester demonstrates that the
question of aesthetic autonomy has ramifications that extend beyond
art to encompass the nature of political transformation and forms
of anticolonial resistance that challenge the Eurocentric concept
of “Man,” upon which the aesthetic itself often depends.
Some of the most innovative art of the past decade has been created
far outside conventional galleries and museums. In a parking garage
in Oakland, California; on a pleasure boat on the Lake of Zurich in
Switzerland; at a public market in Chiang Mai, Thailand - artists
operating at the intersection of art and cultural activism have
been developing new forms of collaboration with diverse audiences
and communities. Their projects have addressed such issues as
political conflict in Northern Ireland, gang violence on Chicago's
West Side, and the problems of sex workers in Switzerland.
Provocative, accessible, and engaging, this book, one of the first
full-length studies on the topic, situates these socially conscious
projects historically, relates them to key issues in contemporary
art and art theory, and offers a unique critical framework for
understanding them. Grant Kester discusses a disparate network of
artists and collectives - including The Art of Change, Helen and
Newton Harrison, Littoral, Suzanne Lacy, Stephen Willats, and
WochenKlausur - united by a desire to create new forms of
understanding through creative dialogue that crosses boundaries of
race, religion, and culture. Kester traces the origins of these
works in the conceptual art and feminist performance art of the
1960s and 1970s and draws from the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin,
Jurgen Habermas, and others as he explores the ways in which these
artists corroborate and challenge many of the key principles of
avant-garde art and art theory.
Collaborative and collective art practices have proliferated around
the world over the past fifteen years. In "The One and the Many,"
Grant H. Kester provides an overview of the broader continuum of
collaborative art, ranging from the work of artists and groups
widely celebrated in the mainstream art world, such as Thomas
Hirschhorn, Superflex, Francis Als, and Santiago Sierra, to the
less-publicized projects of groups, such as Park Fiction in
Hamburg, Networking and Initiatives for Culture and the Arts in
Myanmar, Ala Plastica in Argentina, Huit Facettes in Senegal, and
Dialogue in central India. The work of these groups often overlaps
with the activities of NGOs, activists, and urban planners. Kester
argues that these parallels are symptomatic of an important
transition in contemporary art practice, as conventional notions of
aesthetic autonomy are being redefined and renegotiated. He
describes a shift from a concept of art as something envisioned
beforehand by the artist and placed before the viewer, to the
concept of art as a process of reciprocal creative labor. "The One
and the Many" presents a critical framework that addresses the new
forms of agency and identity mobilized by the process of
collaborative production.
In Collective Situations scholars, artists, and art collectives
present a range of socially engaged art practices that emerged in
Latin America during the Pink Tide period, between 1995 and 2010.
This volume's essays, interviews, and artist's statements-many of
which are appearing in English for the first time-demonstrate the
complex relationship between moments of political transformation
and artistic production. Whether addressing human rights in
Colombia, the politics of urban spaces in Brazil, the violent
legacy of military dictatorships in the region, or art's
intersection with public policy, health, and the environment, the
contributors outline the region's long-standing tradition of
challenging ideas about art and the social sphere through
experimentation. Introducing English-language readers to some of
the most dynamic and innovative contemporary art in Latin America,
Collective Situations documents new possibilities for artistic
practice, collaboration, and creativity in ways that have the
capacity to foster vibrant forms of democratic citizenship.
Contributors Gavin Adams, Mariola V. Alvarez, Gustavo Buntinx,
Maria Fernanda Cartagena, David Gutierrez Castaneda, Fabian
Cereijido, Paloma Checa-Gismero, Kency Cornejo, Raquel de Anda,
Bill Kelley Jr., Grant H. Kester, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Longoni,
Rodrigo Marti, Elize Mazadiego, Annie Mendoza, Alberto Muenala,
Prerana Reddy, Maria Reyes Franco, Pilar Riano-Alcala, Juan Carlos
Rodriguez
In Collective Situations scholars, artists, and art collectives
present a range of socially engaged art practices that emerged in
Latin America during the Pink Tide period, between 1995 and 2010.
This volume's essays, interviews, and artist's statements-many of
which are appearing in English for the first time-demonstrate the
complex relationship between moments of political transformation
and artistic production. Whether addressing human rights in
Colombia, the politics of urban spaces in Brazil, the violent
legacy of military dictatorships in the region, or art's
intersection with public policy, health, and the environment, the
contributors outline the region's long-standing tradition of
challenging ideas about art and the social sphere through
experimentation. Introducing English-language readers to some of
the most dynamic and innovative contemporary art in Latin America,
Collective Situations documents new possibilities for artistic
practice, collaboration, and creativity in ways that have the
capacity to foster vibrant forms of democratic citizenship.
Contributors Gavin Adams, Mariola V. Alvarez, Gustavo Buntinx,
Maria Fernanda Cartagena, David Gutierrez Castaneda, Fabian
Cereijido, Paloma Checa-Gismero, Kency Cornejo, Raquel de Anda,
Bill Kelley Jr., Grant H. Kester, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Longoni,
Rodrigo Marti, Elize Mazadiego, Annie Mendoza, Alberto Muenala,
Prerana Reddy, Maria Reyes Franco, Pilar Riano-Alcala, Juan Carlos
Rodriguez
There is a common perception in the arts today that overtly
activist art-often seen to sacrifice an aesthetic pleasure for a
subversive one-is no longer in fashion. In bringing together
sixteen of the most important essays on activist and
community-based art from the pages of Afterimage-one of the most
influential journals in the media and visual arts fields for more
than twenty-five years-Grant H. Kester demonstrates that activist
art, far from being antithetical to the true meaning of the
aesthetic, can be its most legitimate expression. Forging a style
of criticism where aesthetic, critical, theoretical, and activist
concerns converge, Afterimage has shaped American debates around
the politics of visual production and arts education while offering
a voice to politically involved artists and scholars. Art,
Activism, and Oppositionality insists not only on the continuing
relevance of an activist stance to contemporary art practice and
criticism, but also on the significance of an engaged art practice
that is aligned with social or political activism. With essays that
span fifteen years-roughly from Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential
win to the 1994 Republican victories in Congress, a period marked
by waning public support for the arts and growing antagonism toward
activist art-Art, Activism, and Oppositionality confronts issues
ranging from arts patronage, pedagogy, and the very definitions of
art and activism to struggles involving AIDS, reproductive rights,
sexuality, and racial identity. Contributors. Maurice Berger,
Richard Bolton, Ann Cvetkovich, Coco Fusco, Brian Goldfarb, Mable
Haddock, Grant H. Kester, Ioannis Mookas, Chiquita Mullins Lee,
Darrell Moore, Lorraine O'Grady, Michael Renov, Martha Rosler,
Patricia Thomson, David Trend, Charles A. Wright Jr., Patricia R.
Zimmerman
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