Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Contemporary Art
- Creators: Fahlman, Betsy
Description
In the 1960s, Minimal Art introduced a radical insistence on the bodily immediacy of the experience. Since then, artists have increasingly focused on the creation of immersive experiences, resulting in spectacular installations that fill museums, galleries, and public spaces. In this thesis, I argue that the artistic shift toward experience-based work stems from an overall revaluation of the experience as a central component of contemporary life in Western societies. Referencing sociological and economic theories, I investigate the evolving role of the art museum in the twenty-first century, as well as the introduction of new technologies that allow for unique sensorial encounters. Finally, I situate this development in both art historical and theoretical context, examining the relationship between critical distance and immersion and challenging the notion that art must become spectacle to compete with the demands of a capitalist culture.
ContributorsCorrales, Brittany (Author) / Fahlman, Betsy (Thesis advisor) / Hoy, Meredith (Committee member) / Lineberry, Heather (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This thesis expands the scope of literature surrounding the work of Juno Calypso, Christina Quarles, and Lisa Yuskavage by increasing the scope of their theoretical interpretations. Juno Calypso’s case requires establishing a critical foundation for her interrogations of domestic space, her subversions of feminine performance—particularly through accusatory address of the gaze—and her demonstrations of the new-hysterical process that I argue for via her alter-ego, “Joyce.” Similarly, I emphasize Christina Quarles’ subversions of art historical traditions, such as the gaze, meta-framing, and figural language, instead of her explorations into race and linguistic titular play. Finally, Lisa Yuskavage’s inclusion will bring discussions of her contemporary artworks fully into the present, leaving behind the scandalous-or-not questions plaguing her oeuvre in favor of contemporary figural reinterpretation. Through comparisons of each one’s approach to contemporary, artistic feminist theories and dilemmas, the artists convey informative insights into today’s visual culture. The thesis brings these ruminations to light through study of Calypso’s, Quarles’, and Yuskavage’s shared themes and characteristics, including subconsciously-influenced practices, multiplicity, and uncanny space. I account for one of Calypso’s most crucial yet divergent strategies of spatial uncanniness—gendered space. Calypso, Quarles, and Yuskavage are also linked by their ostensibly domestic spaces and featuring feminized figures. Yuskavage uses hyperfeminine performance as means of questioning the conventional and the pleasure one expected to receive from it; Quarles instead uses ambiguity to challenge the traditional white femininity assigned to subjecthood in order to reinforce her dissolution of race and gender. Unanswered performance and gaze questions of femininity, feminine performance and feminine rituals drive Calypso’s photographs, in which an onlooker’s voyeurism is highlighted by their mid-procedure state. Yuskavage uses the home as extension of cheesy self, a site of performance, but Quarles uses domestic spaces as sites or causes of internal struggle. Calypso is closer aligned to Yuskavage’s intersectional-feminist anxieties than Quarles’ post-pandemic ones. The temporal span of the artworks’ creation (2015-2022) is reflective of the dramatic social paradigm shifts experienced by Western societies post-BLM and other social movements, and post-COVID pandemic; the arguments made by this essay will contribute to the understanding of ongoing change experienced by women.
ContributorsBugno, Celia (Author) / Fahlman, Betsy (Thesis advisor) / Anderson, Lisa (Committee member) / Hoy, Meredith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s – Now presents a group of artists working in both natural and urban environments whose work exploits the power of place to address issues of social, environmental, and personal transformation. Through a focused selection of key works made between 1970 and 2019, which extend beyond traditional categories, Counter-Landscapes illuminates how the methodologies created by women artists in the 1970s and 1980s are employed by artists today, both men and women alike. Developing a practice of performative actions, these artists countered the culture that surrounded and oppressed them by embodying the live elements of performance art in order to push for social change. Looking back to the 1960s and the counter-culture mindset of the times, I approach the histories of land, performance, and conceptual art through feminist studies. Then I apply the same feminist approach to philosophical histories of landscape, place, and space. Through a discussion of an extensive range of works by 25 artists, this research seeks to demonstrate the indelible influence of feminist art practice on contemporary art. It brings the work of an innovative generation of women artists—Marina Abramović, Eleanor Antin, Agnes Denes, VALIE EXPORT, Rebecca Horn, Leslie Labowitz, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Mendieta, Adrian Piper, Lotty Rosenfeld, Bonnie Ora Sherk, Beth Ames Swartz, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles—together with more recent work by artists who have adopted and extended their methods. These artists, both male and female, include Allora & Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Angela Ellsworth, Ana Teresa Fernández, Maria Hupfield, Saskia Jordá, Christian Philipp Müller, Pope.L, Sarah Cameron Sunde, Zhou Tao, and Antonia Wright.
ContributorsMcCabe, Jennifer (Author) / Fahlman, Betsy (Thesis advisor) / Hoy, Meredith (Committee member) / Asmall Willsdon, Dominic (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Chinese landscape painting has a long history and is one of the most practiced traditions in Chinese art. There are many different styles within this genre, from the larger and bold style of the Northern Song dynasty to the smaller, softer paintings of the Southern Song dynasty. Yang Yongliang is a contemporary Chinese artist that was born in 1980 in Shanghai, China. He was trained in traditional Chinese painting styles from a young age and, during his university schooling, he focused on digital art and graduated with a degree in Visual Communication. Yang combines these two distinct backgrounds in his art by creating pieces inspired by classical Chinese genres in a digital manner, using composite photographs. He creates different scenery by piecing small clips of pictures together to create one larger image. Yang takes the traditional style of work and changes it to comment on modern Chinese and global values. While many artists that focus on social or political messages create works that are not visually appealing, Yang has been able to create works that are powerful through their message while still being beautiful. Through his works, he successfully brings together both “New China” and “Old China” within every piece.
ContributorsBrown, Ciara (Author) / Brown, Claudia (Thesis director) / Fahlman, Betsy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2022-05