Description

This course aims to provide a critical introduction to the study of contemporary art.  The module covers the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989— a year singled out by many as signalling the emergence of contemporary art as a global phenomenon— and the ongoing global economic crisis triggered in 2008. Some of the topics that will be addressed in the course include: the problem of historical memory in contemporary art, the rise of international biennales, art and environmentalism, debates concerning art and public space, the key terms informing contemporary identity politics, the post-secular turn in art, artistic responses to the ‘war on terror,’ and recent meditations on ‘recessional aesthetics.’

Moving across a wide range of media and techniques/formats of display this module will introduce students to categories such as: the performative body, the found object, the mixed-media assemblage, the projected image, the docu-fictional essay, the artist’s talk and the archival installation.

Objectives

By the end of the module students should have acquired the following:

• insight into the major historical events and geo-political shifts influencing the rise of contemporary art as a specifically global phenomenon operating outside of traditional Euro-American art centers
• a set of tools for interpreting and writing about a wide range of art forms including performance, documentary photography and video, film projection and installation
• an ability to analyse works of art using concepts derived from Marxism, semiotics, gender studies, post-colonial theory and psychoanalysis
• a knowledge of how changes in media and technology have altered the production, display and distribution of art

Preliminary reading

• Jane Blocker Becoming Past: History in Contemporary Art, University of Minnesota Press, 2016
• ‘October Questionnaire on the Contemporary’, OCTOBER 130, Fall 2009 
• Anthony Gardner and Charles Green (eds) Biennials, Triennials and Documenta: The Exhibitions that Created Contemporary Art, Wiley Blackwell 2016
• George Baker, “An Interview with Paul Chan.” October 123 (Winter 2008): 205-233.
• Claire Bishop, “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics.” October 110 (Fall 2004): 51–79
• Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Art. MIT Press, 2002.