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Volume 12
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Arts, Volume 12, Issue 2 (April 2023) – 44 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): This article examines Lais Myrrha and Talles Lopes’ appropriation of the city of Brasília to critique Brazil’s continued reliance on the “unfinished” project of modernity. Exploring the construction of the scenography of Brasília and its resonance with the architecture and organization of space in the colonial plantations, the works of these contemporary artists allow us to reconnect Brasília with the backdrop that gave rise to this ideal. These artworks invoke the reconciliation of the colonial matrix of power in Lucio Costa’s discourse about modernist architecture in Brazil, of which Brasília is the culmination. Myrrha’s and Lopes’ works show that the history and legacy of Brasília, not only as an idea but also as form, are embedded in the Brazilian imaginary and built environment in the contemporary moment. View this paper
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14 pages, 10663 KiB  
Article
Vinicio Paladini and the First Studies of the Soviet Avant-Garde Architecture in the Early 20th Century in Italy
by Mariia Babicheva
Arts 2023, 12(2), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020083 - 18 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2781
Abstract
The architecture of the Soviet Avant-garde represents an important part in the history of the world’s architecture. It has become and continues to be a subject of interest for numerous researchers all over the world since the second half of the 20th century. [...] Read more.
The architecture of the Soviet Avant-garde represents an important part in the history of the world’s architecture. It has become and continues to be a subject of interest for numerous researchers all over the world since the second half of the 20th century. However, was it well-known before, and who was the first to spread that knowledge? This article aims to study the critical legacy of Italian artist and architect Vinicio Paladini and his role as the first disseminator of the ideas of Soviet Avant-garde architecture in Italy in the 1920s with his article “Lo spirito moderno e la nuova architettura nell’U.R.S.S.” This article provides an in-depth analysis of chosen projects and architects as well as attribution of illustrative material alongside the archival research. It establishes the origins of Paladini’s interest in the art and architecture of the USSR, surfaces his perception of the characteristics of Soviet architecture, and highlights the importance of his role in promoting Russian modernism in Italy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Russia: Histories of Mobility)
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18 pages, 14492 KiB  
Article
A Fountain of Fire: Idolatry, Alterity, and Ethnicity in Byzantine Book Illumination
by Giovanni Gasbarri
Arts 2023, 12(2), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020082 - 17 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2868
Abstract
This article examines the visual representation of pagan idols in Byzantine book illumination and investigates how such images were employed to convey a sense of geographical or ethnic distance. The main focus of this study is a group of illuminated manuscripts containing two [...] Read more.
This article examines the visual representation of pagan idols in Byzantine book illumination and investigates how such images were employed to convey a sense of geographical or ethnic distance. The main focus of this study is a group of illuminated manuscripts containing two of the most popular texts in the Byzantine world: Barlaam and Ioasaph and the Alexander Romance. These manuscripts include numerous representations of statuary that Byzantine readers would have easily recognized as being associated with the religious practices and superstitions of distant and foreign populations, thereby reinforcing their own self-identification with “civilized” characters. Through a comparative analysis of manuscripts such as Athon. Iviron 463 (Barlaam and Ioasaph) and Venice, Istituto Ellenico cod. 5 (Alexander Romance), this article explores the variety of iconographic solutions adopted by Byzantine artists to enhance the “ethnographic” function of idol images. A close examination of these solutions sheds new light on how visual narratives contributed to the construction of notions of identity, otherness, and ethnicity in Byzantium. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byzantium and the Mediterranean (11th–13th C.): Multiculturalism, Gender and Profane Topics in Illuminated Manuscripts)
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14 pages, 7911 KiB  
Article
Black Dancers and White Ballet: Case of Cuba
by Larisa Nikiforova, Anastasiia Vasileva and Mayumi Sakamoto de Miasnikov
Arts 2023, 12(2), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020081 - 15 Apr 2023
Viewed by 3874
Abstract
Throughout the XX century, the hard-fought battle of blacks and dark-skinned dancers to perform the classical repertoire on professional stages (including “white ballets”) was a part of the struggle for citizens’ equality. Cuba is a clear example of creating a national ballet school [...] Read more.
Throughout the XX century, the hard-fought battle of blacks and dark-skinned dancers to perform the classical repertoire on professional stages (including “white ballets”) was a part of the struggle for citizens’ equality. Cuba is a clear example of creating a national ballet school in a country where the fight for social equality was closely connected with overcoming racial segregation. But some researchers have noted that the majority of dancers in the Ballet Nacional de Cuba belong to the Caucasoid phenotype, which means they do not represent the Cuban nation which includes a large variety of phenotypes. We pose the question in what way is the history of Cuban ballet and the artistic experience of its founders connected with the struggle of blacks to have professional dancing careers, and is there actually racial discrimination in Cuban ballet? We demonstrate that the Alonso triumvirate was a good indicator of the problem: Alicia and Fernando as performers, and Alberto Alonso as a choreographer, participated in a cultural movement directed at the rebirth of Cuban identity, they performed African American dances, and they worked together with George Balanchine, who adapted black dance and invited black dancers into his company. However, due to various reasons and circumstances, Alicia Alonso, first for herself and then for the Nacional ballet school and theatre, took a different path, that of entering, on equal footing, the domain of classical ballet, of European art in its essence, in which the white aesthetic is inherent. We would like to demonstrate that the main explanation of the paradox of Cuban ballet became the aesthetic dictatorship of the classics, the dictatorship within “white ballet” which is accepted voluntarily. Classical ballet is an art of subordination to rules and images that are thought of as absolute pinnacles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Colour: Art and Design in Urban Environments)
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17 pages, 5508 KiB  
Article
Ephemeral Icons: Construction and Representation of Temporary Votive Chapels in Old Russian Religious Rituals
by Emma Louise Leahy
Arts 2023, 12(2), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020080 - 14 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2116
Abstract
The collective ritual of building one-day votive churches (obydennye khramy) was practiced in the European north of Russia between the late 14th and 17th centuries. The product of a syncretism between Orthodox Christianity and native folklore, the ritual’s purpose was to [...] Read more.
The collective ritual of building one-day votive churches (obydennye khramy) was practiced in the European north of Russia between the late 14th and 17th centuries. The product of a syncretism between Orthodox Christianity and native folklore, the ritual’s purpose was to deliver the community from epidemic disease. One-day churches were built of freshly cut logs, on virgin ground, in a prominent place, such as a town square or crossroads. According to local belief, votive objects made from natural materials were simultaneously temporary and eternal; this paper interrogates how one-day churches fit this model. Obydennye khramy were ephemeral structurally, processually, and circumstantially. These were simple, rudimentary votive structures, not built to last nor substitute established churches. By condensing into a single day all of the traditional steps of church-building, the ritual prevented the church from growing old before completion, ensuring its purity through its newness. Built under threat of pestilence, obydennye khramy had the function of realigning the progression of time, putting an end to the period of disease, and thereby allowing humans to fleetingly triumph over natural forces. Obydennye khramy were enduring as objects of intercession, as governance instruments, and in their subsequent representations in the written word and urban topography. Votive churches were spatial icons, mediating between humans and the cosmos and returning to nature as they decayed. The ritual itself, led by religious and secular authorities, performatively reinforced social hierarchies. Obydennye khramy were immortalised in chronicle narratives and occasionally replaced with stone churches, some of which survive today. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Paper-Thin: Imagining, Building and Critiquing Medieval Architecture)
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33 pages, 14430 KiB  
Article
Domestic Architecture and Urban Expansion: Central Courtyard Elementary Houses in the arrabales of Córdoba (10th Century)
by Laura Aparicio Sánchez and Pedro Jiménez Castillo
Arts 2023, 12(2), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020079 - 13 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2406
Abstract
In the 10th century, the arrabales of Córdoba underwent a process of rapid growth, triggered by the growing political authority of the capital of the western caliphate. This involved the urbanisation of erstwhile agricultural areas, with new streets and public buildings such as [...] Read more.
In the 10th century, the arrabales of Córdoba underwent a process of rapid growth, triggered by the growing political authority of the capital of the western caliphate. This involved the urbanisation of erstwhile agricultural areas, with new streets and public buildings such as baths, mosques, and funduqs, as well as whole blocks of houses. Domestic blocks generally took the shape of lines of houses that were similar in plan. Among domestic models, which invariably revolved around a courtyard, the most basic type—rectangular in plan, with a central courtyard and a bay on either side—was also the most numerous. This work examines the characteristics and expansions of these buildings, in order to better understand the process that led to the crystallisation of Andalusi urban fabrics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Andalusi Architecture: Shapes, Meaning and Influences (Vol. 2))
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36 pages, 538 KiB  
Article
The Picassos in the 1901 Vollard Exhibition and Their History
by Enrique Mallen
Arts 2023, 12(2), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020078 - 11 Apr 2023
Viewed by 3802
Abstract
This article describes Picasso’s first visit to the French capital in 1900, and the events that led to his first major exhibition at the acclaimed Galerie Ambroise Vollard in Paris in 1901. The first section provides a narrative of his early experiences abroad [...] Read more.
This article describes Picasso’s first visit to the French capital in 1900, and the events that led to his first major exhibition at the acclaimed Galerie Ambroise Vollard in Paris in 1901. The first section provides a narrative of his early experiences abroad as a young unknown artist, his influences, and the contacts he established with friends, artists and dealers during this important period of his career; the second section traces the histories of the sixty-five artworks that were exhibited, identifying the collections those items went through after they were exhibited, their current locations, as well as the exhibitions in which they have been featured since Vollard first displayed them in his gallery. The last section elaborates on some of the immediate repercussions of the exhibition. The reported findings are the result of extensive research on hundreds of books and catalogs published on Pablo Picasso from 1901 to the present. The new facts we have uncovered are published here for the first time. Readers of the article will learn that the works included in Picasso’s first exhibition in France have been part of the most prestigious art collections, such as those of Justin K. Thannhauser, Gertrude Stein, Chester Dale, Paul Guillaume, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Paul Mellon, Helena Rubinstein, Alfred Flechtheim, Walter C. Arensberg, among others. The works have also been featured in such important overviews of his career as “Picasso, 75th Anniversary” 1957–1958, and “Picasso: An American Tribute”, 1962. Thus, while Vollard claimed that the exhibition at his gallery had no major impact, the facts show that it not only played an important role in Picasso’s acceptance as a groundbreaking newcomer, but also left a significant mark on the rest of his career, as evidenced by the works’ inclusion in the retrospectives held in Paris and Zürich in 1932, and New York in 1980. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Picasso Studies (50th Anniversary Edition))
32 pages, 4770 KiB  
Article
Paratextual Negotiations: Fan Forums as Digital Epitexts of Popular Superhero Comic Books and Science Fiction Pulp Novel Series
by Niels Werber and Daniel Stein
Arts 2023, 12(2), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020077 - 10 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5704
Abstract
This article examines the reception of popular serial narratives. Starting from the assumption that this reception presents both a challenge (how to study the vast and heterogeneous readerly engagement with these texts?) and a chance (readers of such texts tend to comment profusely [...] Read more.
This article examines the reception of popular serial narratives. Starting from the assumption that this reception presents both a challenge (how to study the vast and heterogeneous readerly engagement with these texts?) and a chance (readers of such texts tend to comment profusely about the reception process), we identify the paratext as a privileged space of readerly communication on, and serial engagement with, popular storytelling. We develop the concept of “paratextual negotiation” as a means of understanding letter columns and fan forums as (now mostly) digital epitexts that shape the evolution of particularly popular—widely noticed, commercially successful, long-running—narratives, with a focus on the German science fiction pulp novel series Perry Rhodan (1961–) and additional thoughts on the US American comic book superhero Captain America (1941–). Taking the quantitative-empirical metrics of attention measurement and their public display seriously by identifying and close-reading the most popular forum threads and the most broadly recognized commentary about these narratives, we argue that the participatory element of popular culture can be reconstructed in the interplay between series text and serial paratext and can be described as a force in serial evolution that thrives on a combination of variation and redundancy and of selection and adaptation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Pop Culture)
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8 pages, 224 KiB  
Article
The Holy See and Fyodor Dostoevsky: Mutual Attraction and Repulsion
by Elena Besschetnova
Arts 2023, 12(2), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020076 - 7 Apr 2023
Viewed by 3975
Abstract
The article analyzes the attitude of Fyodor Dostoevsky toward the Roman Catholic Church. The author shows how Dostoevsky comes to the Slavophile idea of unity and the impossibility of salvation outside church communion, while speaking of the Church as an ecclesia, that [...] Read more.
The article analyzes the attitude of Fyodor Dostoevsky toward the Roman Catholic Church. The author shows how Dostoevsky comes to the Slavophile idea of unity and the impossibility of salvation outside church communion, while speaking of the Church as an ecclesia, that is, an assembly of believers. At the same time, the reception of Dostoevsky from the side of the Vatican is presented. In the article, special attention is paid to the perception of Dostoevsky’s ideas by Pope Francis. The author notes that the point of attraction and repulsion between Dostoevsky and Catholic culture lies in the plane of his understanding of the concepts of nationality and universality. Dostoevsky’s Russian idea and his view on the essence of Christianity grows from the synthesis of these concepts. The author emphasizes that only in this perspective it is necessary to interpret Dostoevsky’s ideas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Russia: Histories of Mobility)
15 pages, 29589 KiB  
Article
{Not}ation: The In/Visible Visual Cultures of Musical Legibility in the English Renaissance
by Eleanor Chan
Arts 2023, 12(2), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020075 - 7 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2046
Abstract
Legibility can seem as similar to the quintessence of musical notation, without which any attempt at musical inscription has fundamentally no purpose. Nevertheless, the visual culture of the English Renaissance is full of surviving examples that feature music books that are, fundamentally, illegible. [...] Read more.
Legibility can seem as similar to the quintessence of musical notation, without which any attempt at musical inscription has fundamentally no purpose. Nevertheless, the visual culture of the English Renaissance is full of surviving examples that feature music books that are, fundamentally, illegible. Such instances are not useless, but rather shed vital light on the concerns of the visual culture of the English Renaissance, as well as what representation meant to the people who originally created and viewed these objects. What does it mean to include sheet music that merely looks similar to, but does not manifest, as legible notation? When does an object lose its semantic value? When do writing, notation, and signification pull lose from their seams and cease to be meaningful? Through the lens of a trio of objects (Four Children Making Music by the Master of the Countess of Warwick, an anonymous furnishing panel from Hardwick Hall, and a wall painting from High Street, Thame) that feature partially, or tantalizingly, legible musical notation, this paper seeks to explore the ramifications of visually depicting things that are and are not readable. Such objects have a graphic eloquence beyond the simple equation of sign and signified. Ultimately, entertaining the concept of illegible music notation within visual art objects as a deliberate stylistic choice, I argue that we can greatly enhance our understanding of what the notes on the page could mean in the English Renaissance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Im/Materiality in Renaissance Arts)
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18 pages, 69573 KiB  
Article
Continuity: Sharing Space in teamLab’s Digital Ecosystems
by Emily Lawhead
Arts 2023, 12(2), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020074 - 7 Apr 2023
Viewed by 4521
Abstract
In 2021, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco inaugurated the opening of its new contemporary wing with teamLab: Continuity. The immersive exhibition spanned six galleries and was fully interactive via sensors and digital projection mapping technology; flowers bloom and grow, flying crows [...] Read more.
In 2021, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco inaugurated the opening of its new contemporary wing with teamLab: Continuity. The immersive exhibition spanned six galleries and was fully interactive via sensors and digital projection mapping technology; flowers bloom and grow, flying crows burst into colorful chrysanthemums, and butterflies are born or killed at a moment’s touch. The digital objects dynamically interact with one another and with humans, blurring boundaries between art, participant, and technology. This article examines Continuity as a “collective interactive experience” situated within a digital ecosystem. It explores teamLab’s approach to the natural environment and its digital replication, with a focus on the relationship between humans and machines in shared exhibition spaces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Framing the Virtual: New Technologies and Immersive Exhibitions)
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12 pages, 15123 KiB  
Article
You Look at Me Looking at You Looking at Me
by Brigitte Jurack
Arts 2023, 12(2), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020073 - 4 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3211
Abstract
Living and working for a month at the Sanskriti Foundation in Delhi, the artist’s life was watched and observed by a group of resident monkeys. This paper is based on notes begun during that studio residency and represents the critical reflections emerging alongside [...] Read more.
Living and working for a month at the Sanskriti Foundation in Delhi, the artist’s life was watched and observed by a group of resident monkeys. This paper is based on notes begun during that studio residency and represents the critical reflections emerging alongside the hands-on sculptural practice. It is illustrated with close-up photographs of the artist’s sculpture that asks how encounters with fabled animals in densely populated 21st century urban areas can alter our understanding of the gaze as an inter-species gaze. The sculpture and paper begin to ask broader questions, including how can sculpture provide a different, and perhaps more tacit and empathetic, encounter with the other to enable a physical, mental or spiritual experience of cultural entanglement between the various onlookers? In how far is modelling the other’s gaze a form of embodiment and mimicry? Do the fast-changing camera angles and soundtracks of natural history programmes hinder an empathic inter-species encounter? Or, does the slow animation of the artist’s sculpted surface heighten a sense of being alongside equally curious, cunning and adaptable others such as crows, foxes and monkeys? Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art and Animals and the Ethical Position)
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14 pages, 301 KiB  
Article
Playing in the Camps: Performative Practices in the Migrant Camps of Southern Italy
by Rosaria Ruffini
Arts 2023, 12(2), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020072 - 4 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1805
Abstract
The article addresses the role of performative practices in the informal camps and shantytowns in southern Italy, where many sub-Saharan migrants live. In these settlements, creation and performative expressions take various forms: an organic and unplanned one, which gives shape to multiple improvised [...] Read more.
The article addresses the role of performative practices in the informal camps and shantytowns in southern Italy, where many sub-Saharan migrants live. In these settlements, creation and performative expressions take various forms: an organic and unplanned one, which gives shape to multiple improvised languages; one supported, sustained, and often directed and managed by associations; and finally, one produced by non-migrant artists who see the camps as a challenging field of research to situate their works. These three forms (of/with/on) bring several critical issues concerning the role played by migrants, the dynamics of appropriation and agency, and the power relations with local associations, professional artists, and political activists, which intersect in complex ways. The article addresses these different artistic experiences, considering strategies of self-representation, artistic legitimacy, and authorship. Finally, it analyses how performative practices become a primary political tool for facing spatial segregation and racial discrimination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 2))
1 pages, 146 KiB  
Correction
Correction: Stürzebecher (2022). Jewish Wedding Rings with Miniature Architecture from Medieval Europe. Arts 11: 131
by Maria Stürzebecher
Arts 2023, 12(2), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020071 - 4 Apr 2023
Viewed by 929
Abstract
Error in Figure Captions [...] Full article
10 pages, 265 KiB  
Article
Towards a Weak Avant-Garde, Re-Shaping the Canon
by Ewa Majewska
Arts 2023, 12(2), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020070 - 3 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1798
Abstract
Feminist discussions in art history usually focus on the exclusion of women artists and the reification of women’s bodies. A growing constellation of queer and feminist theorists today, however, analyse failure and cuteness as aspects of contemporary feminist avant-garde practices, suggesting that alternative [...] Read more.
Feminist discussions in art history usually focus on the exclusion of women artists and the reification of women’s bodies. A growing constellation of queer and feminist theorists today, however, analyse failure and cuteness as aspects of contemporary feminist avant-garde practices, suggesting that alternative currents in art practice and theory are emerging that challenge traditional notions and modes of art production. In my article, I discuss these debates in relation to “weak universalism” and weak messianism in order to reshape our understanding of avant-garde theory and practice from a feminist perspective. I argue that feminist analysis transforms what was previously thematized as conditions of exclusion into an important part of artistic legacy in works made by previously excluded groups. I propose that the concept of a weak avant-garde might help to theorize these shifts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Around/Beyond Feminist Aesthetics)
22 pages, 343 KiB  
Article
New Perspectives on Old Pasts? Diversity in Popular Digital Games with Historical Settings
by Angela Schwarz and Milan Weber
Arts 2023, 12(2), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020069 - 3 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2861
Abstract
With their increasing popularity, digital games have come to stage notions of history and the past for ever broader circles of recipients, thereby shaping what is understood, interpreted, and negotiated as history in popular contexts. Digital games with historical settings not only adopt [...] Read more.
With their increasing popularity, digital games have come to stage notions of history and the past for ever broader circles of recipients, thereby shaping what is understood, interpreted, and negotiated as history in popular contexts. Digital games with historical settings not only adopt already successfully popularized and widely mediated images of history. They also integrate current social debates into the historical worlds they construct and recreate. Using three highly popular representatives of the medium as examples, this article examines how the debates about diversity and the representation of People of Color, which have intensified in recent years, inscribe a particular social self-image into the mediated staging of history and thus offer new perspectives on the past. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Pop Culture)
13 pages, 2862 KiB  
Essay
Deep Canine Topography: Captive-Zombies or Free-Flowing Relational Bodies?
by Darren O’Brien
Arts 2023, 12(2), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020068 - 3 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1509
Abstract
For the last three years I have been making walks with my canine companion as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded fine art practice-based PhD at Nottingham Trent University, UK, which considers walking art as a shared human–canine practice. In [...] Read more.
For the last three years I have been making walks with my canine companion as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded fine art practice-based PhD at Nottingham Trent University, UK, which considers walking art as a shared human–canine practice. In this paper I reflect upon the doings of deep canine topography as a practice, with particular attention to the ethical questions raised. In the short meditation on the ethics of human animal artistic collaboration that follows, I will wander through the complex web of human–canine kinship, explored through art practice. Joining us on our walk through this tricky landscape are Rosi Braidotti, Jack Halberstam, Dona Haraway, Ron Broglio, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and a host of other actors whose concepts and theories provide a rich source of ethical discussion, which fellow artists might find helpful. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art and Animals and the Ethical Position)
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21 pages, 2872 KiB  
Article
A Nature Thing: What Does Contemporary Ecological Art Produce?
by Barbara Stoltz
Arts 2023, 12(2), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020067 - 29 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 9699
Abstract
This article demonstrates that ecological art is a very specific art form that follows its own methods of creation and, consequently, of dealing with material and its definitions. This view of ecological art is directed by art theory factors and fundamental questions of [...] Read more.
This article demonstrates that ecological art is a very specific art form that follows its own methods of creation and, consequently, of dealing with material and its definitions. This view of ecological art is directed by art theory factors and fundamental questions of art history. Therefore, the main question in discussions on material and the functions of art is that of what contemporary ecological art produces in terms of the concepts ‘natural’ and ‘nature-fair.’ By analysing the artists Thomas Dambo, Aviva Rahmani and Tomás Saraceno, this article finds that, compared to various artistic forms that deal with ecology and the environment, ecological art acts more in the physical reality of the environment and ecosystems. Subsequently, what ecological art is actually producing is ‘a nature thing’, meaning a concrete effect on or intervention in the environment with gestures of appropriation, regeneration and coexistence, being above all ‘art for nature.’ The article shows that, in ecological art, the linear relationship between material and artwork, in that the artist transforms the material to its final form, namely the artwork, is absent. In ecological art, the aim is an ongoing process in which material can have different facets: the material can be a mere auxiliary instrument, the art object itself can become material for something else and the material in general can be understood as an overarching aim and motive: nature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Materiality in Modern and Contemporary Art)
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17 pages, 798 KiB  
Article
Now It’s My Time! Black Girls Finding Space and Place in Comic Books
by Grace D. Gipson
Arts 2023, 12(2), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020066 - 28 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3754
Abstract
This essay examines how Black girl narratives are finding and making space and place in the arena of comic books and television. With the rise in Black girl (super)hero protagonists on the comic book pages and adapted television shows, it is essential to [...] Read more.
This essay examines how Black girl narratives are finding and making space and place in the arena of comic books and television. With the rise in Black girl (super)hero protagonists on the comic book pages and adapted television shows, it is essential to explore the significance of their rising inclusion, visibility, and popularity and understand how they contribute to the discourse surrounding the next generation of heroes. Guided by an Afrofuturist, Black feminist, and intersectional framework, I discuss the progressive possibilities of popular media culture in depicting Black girlhood and adolescence. In Marvel Comics’ “RiRi Williams/Ironheart”, DC Comics’ “Naomi McDuffie”, and Boom! Studios’ “Eve”, these possibilities are evident. Blending aspects of adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, and STEM, each character offers fictional insight into the lived experiences of Black girl youth from historical, aesthetic, and expressive perspectives. Moreover, as talented and adventurous characters, their storylines, whether on the comic book pages or the television screen, reveal a necessary change to the landscape of popular media culture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Pop Culture)
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23 pages, 13108 KiB  
Article
The Body as Memory: Breast Cancer and the Holocaust in Women’s Art
by Mor Presiado
Arts 2023, 12(2), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020065 - 27 Mar 2023
Viewed by 5600
Abstract
The Holocaust is a living trauma in the individual and collective body. Studies show that this trauma threatens to be reawakened when a new and traumatic experience, such as illness, emerges. The two traumas bring to the fore the experiences of death, pain, [...] Read more.
The Holocaust is a living trauma in the individual and collective body. Studies show that this trauma threatens to be reawakened when a new and traumatic experience, such as illness, emerges. The two traumas bring to the fore the experiences of death, pain, bodily injury, fear of losing control, and social rejection. This article examines the manifestation of this phenomenon in art through the works of three Jewish artists with autobiographical connections to the Holocaust who experienced breast cancer: the late Holocaust survivor Alina Szapocznikow, Israeli artist Anat Massad and English artist Lorna Brunstein, daughters of survivors. All three matured alongside the rise and development of feminist art, and their works address subjects such as femininity and race and tell their stories through their bodies and the traumas of breast cancer and the Holocaust, transmitting memory, working through trauma, and making their voices heard. Full article
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12 pages, 247 KiB  
Editorial
The Intersection of Abstract Expressionist and Mass Visual Culture—An Historiographic Overview
by Gregory Gilbert
Arts 2023, 12(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020064 - 24 Mar 2023
Viewed by 4618
Abstract
Of the major modernist movements in the 20th century, Abstract Expressionism long retained its canonical status as a radical avant-garde detached from a broader mass culture [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Intersection of Abstract Expressionist and Mass Visual Culture)
13 pages, 621 KiB  
Article
The Politics and Aesthetic Choices of Feminist Art Criticism
by Katy Deepwell
Arts 2023, 12(2), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020063 - 23 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5967
Abstract
This article explores feminist art criticism from the point of view of aesthetics/politics in global contemporary art. It is based on the author’s experience as an art critic and founding editor of n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal (1998–2017). Reading articles published in the [...] Read more.
This article explores feminist art criticism from the point of view of aesthetics/politics in global contemporary art. It is based on the author’s experience as an art critic and founding editor of n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal (1998–2017). Reading articles published in the previous two decades both for the journal and outside it, it became possible to identify how subjects produce specific objects in art criticism that demonstrate different locations and standpoints in thought and how these align with criticism from broader feminist political theories. This is an exploration of the aesthetics/politics both in, about and beyond feminist art criticism. The methodology presented analyses feminist art criticism using a model of clusters of concepts that draws on Anne Ring Petersen’s examination of identity politics, race and multiculturalism from 2012. Feminist analyses in which this approach has been attempted are discussed: Sue Rosser’s 2005 analysis of cyberfeminism and Tuzyline Jita Allan’s 1995 discussion of black/womanist/African feminisms. The article identifies four types of feminist art criticism: liberal feminism, materialist feminism, feminist cosmopolitan multi-culturalism, and queer post-colonial feminism. The aims, methods and approaches of these tendencies are outlined to demonstrate the differences between them. The article concludes with a discussion about the futures of feminist art criticism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Around/Beyond Feminist Aesthetics)
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13 pages, 1581 KiB  
Article
Pop/Poetry: Dickinson as Remix
by Julia Leyda and Maria Sulimma
Arts 2023, 12(2), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020062 - 22 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 11584 | Correction
Abstract
In its meticulous, freewheeling adaptation of the life and work of celebrated poet Emily Dickinson, the television series Dickinson (Apple TV+, 2019–2021) manifests a twenty-first-century disruption of high and low culture afforded by digital media, including streaming video and music platforms. This article [...] Read more.
In its meticulous, freewheeling adaptation of the life and work of celebrated poet Emily Dickinson, the television series Dickinson (Apple TV+, 2019–2021) manifests a twenty-first-century disruption of high and low culture afforded by digital media, including streaming video and music platforms. This article argues that the fanciful series models a mixed-media, multimodal aesthetic form that invites a diverse range of viewers to find pleasure in Dickinson’s poetry itself and in the foibles of its author, regardless of their familiarity with the literary or cultural histories of the US American 19th century. Dickinson showcases creator Alena Smith’s well-researched knowledge of the poet and her work, while simultaneously mocking popular (mis)conceptions about her life and that of other literary figures such as Walt Whitman and Sylvia Plath, all set to a contemporary soundtrack. This analysis of Dickinson proposes to bring into conversation shifting boundaries of high and low culture across generations and engage with critical debates about the utility of the popular (and of studies of the popular) in literary and cultural studies in particular. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Pop Culture)
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21 pages, 5768 KiB  
Article
“Small Is Viable”: The Arts, Ecology, and Development in Peru
by Claire F. Fox
Arts 2023, 12(2), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020061 - 21 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2432
Abstract
This essay examines three Lima-based cultural projects dating from the 1980s through the 2000s that creatively adapt ideas and iconography associated with large-scale 1960s-era modernization initiatives to forge an alliance between “nature” and “culture” against capitalist development. Lima en un árbol (1981), an [...] Read more.
This essay examines three Lima-based cultural projects dating from the 1980s through the 2000s that creatively adapt ideas and iconography associated with large-scale 1960s-era modernization initiatives to forge an alliance between “nature” and “culture” against capitalist development. Lima en un árbol (1981), an action and video by Rossana Agois, Wiley Ludeña, Hugo Salazar del Alcázar, and Armando Williams, and the installation and video Árbol (2002–2008) by Carmen Reátegui present trees as individuated, bearers of collective memory, and subjects of ritual interaction, while also contesting extractivist economies. The Micromuseo, founded in 1983 by Gustavo Buntinx and Susana Torres Márquez, conceptualized cultural networks as an ecosystem to articulate an “alternative museality” in the capital during eventful decades marked by devastating civil conflict and the implementation of austere neoliberalism. Inviting direct interaction with diverse publics, each of these ecologically oriented projects anticipates “cultural sustainability” as an emerging concept in cultural policy arenas. By drawing attention to how these cultural producers deliberately embrace the small and the everyday in opposition to elite institutional presentation, I want to bring greater recognition to cultural placemaking as a source of knowledge and a conduit for often marginalized perspectives to enter ongoing public conversations about human-environmental interactions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Contemporary Latin American Art)
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8 pages, 194 KiB  
Article
Picturing, Pledges and Other Scripted Acts: Performance (In) Art
by Dave Beech
Arts 2023, 12(2), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020060 - 20 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1254
Abstract
This essay re-examines several examples of non-performance based artworks from the perspective and history of performance art. For instance, the photomontages I produced as an undergrad art student were based on repeated acts of stealing posters from their public sites on the street [...] Read more.
This essay re-examines several examples of non-performance based artworks from the perspective and history of performance art. For instance, the photomontages I produced as an undergrad art student were based on repeated acts of stealing posters from their public sites on the street between my house and the college. Later, while working collaboratively with Mark Hutchinson in Manchester and London, we made photograms and paintings of scenes that we enacted on the street (striking a match, taking a flag for a walk). Years later, as a solo artist again, I produced a body of work in the form of slide presentations that consisted of photographs of me dressed in homemade costumes that cast me as a monster. In my work with the Freee art collective, we used slogans, our own bodies, costumes and props to give material reality to slogans that we treated as scripts. We wrote manifestos and staged events in which participants read. So, while the forms of my work are image based, the rationale is typically tied to the techniques and values of performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art and Performance)
14 pages, 231 KiB  
Article
The Aura of the Object and the Work of Art: A Critical Analysis of Walter Benjamin’s Theory in the Context of Contemporary Art and Culture
by Kiril Vassilev
Arts 2023, 12(2), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020059 - 19 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 8452
Abstract
This text is a critical interpretation of Walter Benjamin’s theory in the context of the contemporary situation in art and culture. Benjamin’s innovative method of analysis and key concepts in art theory and their simultaneous research and political function are carefully reconstructed. This [...] Read more.
This text is a critical interpretation of Walter Benjamin’s theory in the context of the contemporary situation in art and culture. Benjamin’s innovative method of analysis and key concepts in art theory and their simultaneous research and political function are carefully reconstructed. This critical analysis is centered on the main concept of Benjamin’s philosophical aesthetics, the concept of ‘aura’. This analysis shows how Benjamin mixes and replaces the aura of the work of art with the aura of the historical object. Benjamin’s main thesis about the loss of the aura of the work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility is disputed. Technical reproducibility does not take away the aura of the work of art, but separates its aura from the aura of the historical object. Auraticness is inherent in every work insofar as it is a work of art. The aura of the historical object does not disappear in modernity either. With the emergence of historical and aesthetic consciousness, of the historical and art museum, the almost mechanical production of auratic objects began in modernity. As a result of the critical analysis of the concept of “aura”, the main binary oppositions that frame Benjamin’s theory of art—art with aura/art without aura; art with cult value/art without cult value; aestheticization of politics/politicization of art—are questioned. At the end of this text, the key lines of analysis proposed by Benjamin in an attempt to make sense of the radical changes in art since the beginning of the 20th century are used to outline the contemporary situation in art and the changes in perception with which it is associated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art Theory and Psychological Aesthetics)
13 pages, 255 KiB  
Article
Reframing Migrant Narratives through Arts Practice
by Elena Marchevska and Carolyn Defrin
Arts 2023, 12(2), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020058 - 17 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2856
Abstract
In this article, we reflect on our collaborative practice-as-research piece Project Finding Home, that arose from our experiences of working and living in the UK as ‘non-British’ citizens. Engaging with other refugee and migrant artists over three years, we worked deliberately as [...] Read more.
In this article, we reflect on our collaborative practice-as-research piece Project Finding Home, that arose from our experiences of working and living in the UK as ‘non-British’ citizens. Engaging with other refugee and migrant artists over three years, we worked deliberately as co-researchers and co-creators in a non-hierarchical dynamic to produce a series of four films reflecting on how we find home when it is so impacted by government policy, social and cultural integration, and intergenerational relationships. This article focuses on two of these films, one made with the participatory theatre company of Sanctuary, PSYCHEdelight, and one made with conceptual artist, Khaled Barakeh. Through observations of their work, we discuss how their respective uses of comedy (in PSYCHEdelight’s show Mohand and Peter) and visual representation (in Barakeh’s installation On the Ropes) resist singular views of migrant narratives. Additionally, we analyse our creative and ethical processes for making films with them about their work. Discussing how their aesthetics informed our processes for showcasing who they are and what they do as artists to a wider audience, we examine how artistic practice, its documentation, and its dissemination can question dominant aesthetic norms and existing migration and cultural policies in the UK and Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 2))
30 pages, 10272 KiB  
Article
Realism as a Representational Strategy in Depictions of Horses in Ancient Greek and Egyptian Art: How Purpose Influences Appearance
by Lonneke Delpeut and Carolyn Willekes
Arts 2023, 12(2), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020057 - 15 Mar 2023
Viewed by 4482
Abstract
When modern (Western) viewers look at ancient art, the first feature of the image that is often assessed is its relationship to ‘reality’. How ‘real’ the image looks is inextricably linked to its evaluation and therefore the viewer’s estimation of its quality. The [...] Read more.
When modern (Western) viewers look at ancient art, the first feature of the image that is often assessed is its relationship to ‘reality’. How ‘real’ the image looks is inextricably linked to its evaluation and therefore the viewer’s estimation of its quality. The more ‘realistic’ an image is deemed, the more it is appreciated for its historic and aesthetic value. This fixation on reality has often affected the assessment of ancient imagery. It can create a bias that limits the researcher’s ability to analyse and interpret the image(s) to their full potential. When studying ancient images, the viewer should always keep in mind its original purpose. Rather than looking for reality through the notion of resemblance, the degree of reality should instead be assessed through the way the subject is being conveyed as the image’s purpose dictates its appearance. This article will use depictions of the horse in ancient Egyptian and Greek art to highlight some of the challenges one encounters when studying ancient images’ relationship with reality. It will show why it is important for scholars to focus on the image/object’s purpose, their resemblance to their subject, and their meaning in terms of the message(s) they are meant to convey. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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18 pages, 5479 KiB  
Article
The Many Lives of Oscar Niemeyer’s Column: The Legacy of Brasília, Coloniality, and Heritage in the Works of Lais Myrrha and Talles Lopes
by Alice Heeren
Arts 2023, 12(2), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020056 - 14 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2821
Abstract
This article examines contemporary artists’ appropriation of the city of Brasília to critique Brazil’s continued reliance on the “unfinished” project of modernity. Exploring the construction of the scenography of Brasília and its resonance with the architecture and organization of space in the colonial [...] Read more.
This article examines contemporary artists’ appropriation of the city of Brasília to critique Brazil’s continued reliance on the “unfinished” project of modernity. Exploring the construction of the scenography of Brasília and its resonance with the architecture and organization of space in the colonial plantations, the works of contemporary artists Lais Myrrha (Estudo de Caso [Case Study], Estudo para um Futuro Construído [Study for a Constructed Future]), and Talles Lopes (Construção Brasileira [Brazil Builds]) allows us to reconnect Brasília with the backdrop that gave rise to this ideal. These works invoke the reconciliation of the colonial matrix of power in Lucio Costa’s discourse about modernist architecture in Brazil, of which Brasília is the culmination. Myrrha’s and Lopes’ works show that the history and legacy of Brasília, not only as an idea but also as form, are embedded in the Brazilian imaginary and built environment in the contemporary moment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Contemporary Latin American Art)
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15 pages, 290 KiB  
Article
Refugees’ Arriving through the Lens of Fiction: Unveiling the Ambivalences of Hegemonic Expectations
by Ana Mijić and Michael Parzer
Arts 2023, 12(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020055 - 14 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1752
Abstract
In this article, we use fiction as a lens to study processes of refugees’ arriving in Austria. For that purpose, we draw on findings from our transdisciplinary and participatory project “The Art of Arriving—Reframing ‘Refugee Integration’” in which we have created a real-world [...] Read more.
In this article, we use fiction as a lens to study processes of refugees’ arriving in Austria. For that purpose, we draw on findings from our transdisciplinary and participatory project “The Art of Arriving—Reframing ‘Refugee Integration’” in which we have created a real-world laboratory and examined if and how the meaning-making processes involved in creating and interpreting art can foster reframing “refugee integration” concepts and provide alternative views on the arrival of refugees beyond an assimilationist lens. By inviting and accompanying artists from different cultural realms (literature, music, and photography) and with different refugee experiences during the process of jointly creating an artwork as well as by getting access to the recipients’ interpretations of these artworks, we gained insights into the various ways that artistic practices unveil and contest common hegemonic expectations that shape the processes of refugees’ (and other migrants’) arriving. Our analysis of the short story “Außen vor” (“Being [left] out”) written by Hamed Abboud, Anna Baar, and Mascha Dabić—of its creation and reception process—contributes to the ongoing debates on how refugees’ artistic practices can serve as means of cultural and social transformation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 2))
33 pages, 12098 KiB  
Article
Self-Betrayal or Self-Deception? The Case of Jackson Pollock
by Elizabeth L. Langhorne
Arts 2023, 12(2), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020054 - 13 Mar 2023
Viewed by 5494
Abstract
Clement Greenberg interpreted the rise of authentic modern art as a rejection of kitsch and “half-baked” religiosity and celebrated Jackson Pollock as representing what he called for. However, his presentation of Pollock as a leading modernist fails to do justice to his lifelong [...] Read more.
Clement Greenberg interpreted the rise of authentic modern art as a rejection of kitsch and “half-baked” religiosity and celebrated Jackson Pollock as representing what he called for. However, his presentation of Pollock as a leading modernist fails to do justice to his lifelong spiritual quest and to his desire to reach a broad public, which led him to open his art and person to the popular media of photography and film. Following Greenberg, Donald Kuspit would have us understand Pollock’s embrace of and by the public as a self-betrayal, transforming his great abstractions into decorative kitsch. Kuspit’s understanding of Pollock’s “true self”, however, cannot convince. His embrace of the public did lead Pollock to doubt his artistic enterprise: his dream of art as alchemy. But, the great abstractions testify to the power of that dream to create great art, challenging us to reconsider the relationship between authentic art and mass culture, of modernism, spirituality, and the public. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Intersection of Abstract Expressionist and Mass Visual Culture)
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