Category: Writing

Posts which have some amount of my own writing included.

CREATIVE JOURNAL—Daniel Buren—Institutional Critique?

In the course of researching my essay on Daniel Buren, I’ve come across an interesting, and somewhat confusing, statement by Jean-François Lyotard regarding Buren’s works, and their place in the genre of institutional critique.

In ‘The Pragmatic of Works’, an piece from 1979 published in the journal October, Lyotard states:

We would be mistaken to assume that the metapragmatic function of contemporary works of art is the critique of ideological superstructures, the calling into question of institutions, and other critical strategies of that order. (Lyotard, 1979, p.65)

He then claims that Buren ‘once held such a position . . .’ (Lyotard, 1979) and as an indication of this change, Lyotard then quotes the following by Buren:

The work in progress has the ambition, not of fitting in more or less adequately with the game, nor even of contradicting it, but of abolishing its rules by playing with them, and playing another game, on another or the same ground, as a dissident. (Buren, 1977, p.73)

Pragmatics/Metapragmatics

In this article Lyotard defines pragmatics as being a set of effects corresponding to Wittgenstein’s language games. Although pragmatics apply equally to any form of symbolic communication, for art this means the effects of the ‘game of visible forms.’ Interpretation (of an artwork, for instance) is one effect of this game.

Alluding to some conceptual art practice, with particular reference to Art & Language, he goes on to characterise a work which is its own interpretation, ‘presenting the effect of the work as the work.’ Looked at another way, he conceives of a work which is ‘reduced to its own effect’ and which thereby becomes ‘it’s own interpretation.’

Lyotard sees Buren’s art as the ‘exposition of a hidden pragmatic of art, veiled by the context of exposition.’ So context, what I would normally take as the subject of institutional critique, is here posited as the mask of the artwork’s pragmatic. The subject of the artwork is then this unveiling process, its method and the result of that method. The context is purely a side-show (or distraction?) in relation to this process, which is the metapragmatic function of the piece.

Institutional Critique

So what does this mean for institutional critique? Can the category still help us to understand Buren’s work? Is it a concept that can be applied to any, some or all of his works?

Buren’s work is classed as ‘experimentation with the pragmatic condition of the work: on the reverse side of the canvas, its material and moral supports, the artistic confines of the museum and gallery, and what Buren calls the cultural limits.’

One might expect work produced to this specification to be within the limits of institutional critique, but I think what Lyotard is suggesting is that Buren’s work is an indirect movement, for which a critique of an institution is a concomitant result but not the primary function of the work:

The function of the work of art, therefore, is not reconciliation, enlightenment, or veracity, but the invention of another language game, another artifice.

Lyotard sees the works as a ‘refinement of the strategies that give efficacy to the work of art’ by using the pragmatics of art, the veiling of its pragmatics in this case, as it’s own pragmatic and hence Buren’s pieces have a paradoxical tendency—at their most effective—to disappear.

‘. . . artists today are engaged not in the deconstruction of significations but in extending the limits of sense perception: making visible (or audible) what now goes unobserved, through the alteration of sense data, perception itself.’

This statement seems to be Lyotard attempting to recuperate traditional values of sensory gratification for conceptual art, even if this means that the term ‘sensory’ must be adjusted to accommodate these works. But I think that’s a rather a limited interpretation of his words.

End

That was a very confused post, and didn’t really go anywhere. The subtleties of this argument are just out of reach to me at the moment. Posting about it here has helped me start to get to grips with the matter and I’ll be pursuing it further when I write the essay.

  • Buren, Daniel (1977). Reboundings. trans. Philippe Hunt. Brussels: Daled & Gevaert.
  • Lyotard, Jean-François (1979). The Pragmatic of Works. In October, vol.10 (Autumn). pp.59–67.

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LOVE—Forgetting Oneself

This quote is from Julia Kristeva’s ‘Women’s Time’, in the context of the changing attitudes towards the desire to be a mother among feminists:

. . . love for another. Not for herself, nor for an identical human being, and still less for another person with whom ‘I’ fuse (love or sexual passion). But the slow, difficult and delightful apprenticeship in attentiveness, gentleness, forgetting oneself. The ability to succeed in this path without masochism and without annihilating one’s affective, intellectual and professional personality – such would seem to be the stakes to be won through guiltless maternity. (Kristeva, 1981, p. 206)

  • Kristeva, J. (1981). Women’s Time. In Moi, T. (ed.). The Kristeva Reader. Oxford. pp. 187–213.

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COLLEGE—MA Application

I’m making some progress on my MA application form. I found out last week that I had missed the deadline for submitting the form for it to be ready for the associated funding application. I’d misunderstood the instructions on the College’s website as applying just to the their internal funding scheme, not to the AHRC’s process as well.

The AHRC would probably have been my major source of funding next year. Looking at their information it seems they can grant an individual around £14,000 a year, which is designed to cover all living expenses. However, I have been warned that they will not consider anyone who doesn’t get a 1st in their previous degree.

Now, I don’t want to sound overly ambitious, but of course I aim to get this 1st.

But having missed the deadline, of course, all this is moot. So I’ve done a bit of rethinking and although I’ll still apply, I’ll have to find a part-time job in order to be able to pay my way.

Getting back to the application, the biggest stumbling-block has been the personal statement. At present it looks like this:

MA Application Statement

Why I wish to study at Goldsmiths.

Looked at simplistically, the MA in Contemporary Art Theory is the natural follow-up to Goldsmith’s PGDip in Contemporary Art History which I will complete this year. That said, during the PGDip I have developed proven skills in this area, through the areas in which I have worked and subjects I have been drawn to.

The PGDip built on an existing area of interest for me. Prior to taking this course I had completed a BA in Fine Art at Middlesex University, not in itself a particularly theoretical environment, but by the end of which I was producing artworks which were concerned with the nature of art in general and the relationship between the artwork and the institutions in which it existed or was placed. For instance, for my degree show I invited another artist (Peter Fend) to exhibit in my place and used the opportunity to probe the limits of the academic structures in place at the college.

At the time, I had only a very cursory knowledge of the theory backing up such artistic manoeuvres, although I was greatly attracted to theory as a concept in itself, borrowing quotations and particularly loaded author’s names as exemplars for a potential depth of knowledge which I did not yet have.

Choosing to take the PGDip was designed to give me that knowledge. A knowledge that would give the necessary backup to my ideas and works.

What do I want to do with the MA?

Over the past few years I have begun writing on a combination of theoretical and quotidian subjects as part of my daily activities and aim to expand on that writing during the MA by improving the quality and also the visibility of it. The MA will provide the opportunities to perform research and write extensively, in a critical setting where I will be pushed to make more of these writings.

The MA will also give me the environment in which to fully concentrate on particular subjects that I have become interested in while on the PGDip. I have become somewhat enamoured of Deleuze (a phase I believe a lot of people go through) and have spent many a happy(?) session trying to get to grips with his work. I am also interested in looking at the political in relation to philosophy, and vice versa, as a means to investigate theory as a practical source of social effectiveness. This MA will allow me to really get to grips with these subjects in a much more detailed and personally relevant fashion.

Personal reasons for doing MA

I believe I have the talent and ability to think and write both critically and philosophically. I enjoy pushing my thought processes into new areas and to turn those thoughts around in strange ways. In general, I am curious to know what it means to think about things, then what that means in the context of art, and then what that means in a wider context.

Finally, I know from my previous experience that Goldsmiths gives me access to many useful extra-curricular events and facilities and this MA will provide a high quality teaching environment and milieu in which to consolidate my own work.

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