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One of the most captivating and provocative artists of the
Sensation generation, Richard Billingham (b. 1970) came to
prominence in the late 1990s with his visceral photobook Ray's a
Laugh, a slice of everyday life in a high-rise sink estate in the
British West Midlands. This book is the first comprehensive
discussion of Billingham's art practice. Articulating the
socio-historical, aesthetic, geographical as well as
anthropological aspects of Billingham's art, the book situates his
work within the British neorealist tradition in visual art, cinema
and televisual culture. Beginning with the first photographic
studies of his father in the early 1990s, Cashell argues that these
sympathetic, haunting images prefigure the later development of his
thematic concerns. Significant consideration is also given to
Billingham's cinematic oeuvre, including his recent feature-length
autobiographical film, Ray & Liz, which substantially clarifies
the complex continuity of his developing aesthetic vision.
Illustrated throughout with colour and black and white
reproductions, Photographic Realism: The Art of Richard Billingham
combines investigative research with interviews and studio
conversations, providing a subtle and sophisticated critical
evaluation of the artist's key photographic and film-based works
from the 1990s to the present.
One of the most captivating and provocative artists of the
Sensation generation, Richard Billingham (b. 1970) came to
prominence in the late 1990s with his visceral photobook Ray's a
Laugh, a slice of everyday life in a high-rise sink estate in the
British West Midlands. This book is the first comprehensive
discussion of Billingham's art practice. Articulating the
socio-historical, aesthetic, geographical as well as
anthropological aspects of Billingham's art, the book situates his
work within the British neorealist tradition in visual art, cinema
and televisual culture. Beginning with the first photographic
studies of his father in the early 1990s, Cashell argues that these
sympathetic, haunting images prefigure the later development of his
thematic concerns. Significant consideration is also given to
Billingham's cinematic oeuvre, including his recent feature-length
autobiographical film, Ray & Liz, which substantially clarifies
the complex continuity of his developing aesthetic vision.
Illustrated throughout with colour and black and white
reproductions, Photographic Realism: The Art of Richard Billingham
combines investigative research with interviews and studio
conversations, providing a subtle and sophisticated critical
evaluation of the artist's key photographic and film-based works
from the 1990s to the present.
Modernity has radically challenged the assumptions that guide our
ordinary lives as persons, in ways we are not normally aware. We
live our concrete lives taking for granted that personal decisions,
desires, relationships, actions, aspirations, values, and knowledge
are central to our existence. But in modernity, we think of these
matters as private, idiosyncratic, and subjective, even irrational.
This modern conception of ourselves and the associated way of
reflection known as modern critical thinking came to dominate our
thinking is culminates in the dualistic philosophy of Rene
Descartes. This dualism has spawned a reductionist view of persons
and tainted "the personal" with connotations of bias, partiality,
and privacy, leaving us with the presumption that if we seek to be
objective and intellectually respectable, we must expunge the
personal. William H. Poteat's work in philosophical anthropology
has confronted this concern head on. He undertakes a radical
critique of the various forms of mind-body dualism and materialist
monism that have dominated Western intellectual concepts of the
person. In a unique style that Poteat calls post-critical, he
uncovers the staggering incoherencies of these dualisms and shows
how they have resulted in a loss of the personal in the modern age.
He also formulates a way out of this modern cultural insanity. This
constructive dimension of his thought is centered on his signature
concept of the mindbody, the pre-reflective ground of personal
existence. The twelve contributors in this collection explore
outgrowths and implications of Poteat's thought. Recovering the
Personal will be of interest to a broad range of intellectual
readers with interests in philosophy, psychology, theology, and the
humanities.
Accused by the tabloid press of setting out to 'shock',
controversial artworks are vigorously defended by art critics, who
frequently downplay their disturbing emotional impact. This is the
first book to subject contemporary art to a rigorous ethical
exploration. It argues that, in favouring conceptual rather than
emotional reactions, commentators actually fail to engage with the
work they promote. Scrutinising notorious works by artists
including Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Richard Billingham,
Marc Quinn, Sally Mann, Marcus Harvey, Hans Bellmer, Paul McCarthy,
Tierney Gearon, and Tracey Emin, "Aftershock" insists on the
importance of visceral, emotional and 'ethical' responses. Far from
clouding our judgement, Cashell argues, shame, outrage or revulsion
are the very emotions that such works set out to evoke. While also
questioning the catch-all notion of 'transgression', this
illuminating and controversial book neither jumps indiscriminately
to the defence of shocking artworks nor dismisses them out of hand.
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