Abstract
Was it a Madonna, a “cross between a Buddha and a veiled woman,” an erect penis, or nothing more than an autographed upside-down urinal? And what was it trying to say? Whether the artist was a baroness whose creative authority was concealed because she was a woman, or the French-American painter after whom it is named, this bizarre and/or brilliant piece (depending on your point of view) has nonetheless had a profound impact on the evolution of art. In 2004, almost 90 years after Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain made its debut at the inaugural exhibition of the Parisian Salon des Indépendants in New York, the 500 judges of the 2004 Turner Prize voted the piece the most influential modern artwork of all time, above works by Picasso and Matisse. This seminal expression of what Duchamp coined “readymade” art, paved the way for the use of everyday objects, and in turn of unusable or discarded material, in artworks. This paper’s focus is on art that is created from the two latter forms: artefacts and materials that fell out of use through redundancy or retirement, or those that were wilfully or accidentally discarded. It speaks of art that revivifies, returns objects to the systemic record, and injects beauty where there was none. And it speaks of art that lacks aesthetic value. It is art that is rhetorical, that in itself has something to say of society and to society: anti-retinal art that unambiguously and unapologetically carries messages, meaning, exclamations and commands.
Presenters
Frances Di LauroSenior Lecturer, Writing Studies, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Arts, Communications, Information, Propaganda, Interpretation
