Canvas Journal XIV - Winter 2015 by Canvas Journal

Volume XIV A

Winter 2015

Canvas

The McGill Undergraduate Journal of Art History and Communication Studies

Cover Photo

Ida LĂŚrke Hansen Untitled, 2014 Issue Volume XIV Winter 2015 McGill University Montreal, Quebec

Jemma ElliottIsraelson

Erica Morassutti EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EDITOR

Erin Havens LAYOUT AND DESIGN EDITOR

Klea Hawkins EDITOR

Karly Beard EDITOR

Catherine LaMendola EDITOR

Carolyn Buszynski EDITOR

Nancy Li EDITOR

Krystin Chung EDITOR

Jennifer Mueller EDITOR

Benjamin Demers EDITOR

Funding for this journal has been generously supplied by the AHCSSA and the AUS Journal Fund. The opinions expressed by the contributors do not +" "00 /&)6 /"Äł" 1 1%,0" ,# &)) +&3"/0&16H ,2/ Ä˛+ + & ) 0-,+0,/0H ,/ 1%" +3 0 !&1,/& ) , /!F ,3"/ /1&01 ! "/(" +0"+ )&3"0 &+ ,-"+% $"+F "/ 0&*-)" 6"1 01/&(&+$ 01&)) )&#" &* $"0 + " #,2+! ,+ +01 $/ * 1 &+01 $/ *F ,*m&! ) "/("

Jennifer Mueller

p. 9

Sara Kloepfer

p. 31

Josh Falek p. 43

MĂŠlanie Wittes

p. 55

Klea Hawkins p. 73

Anthony Portulese

p. 89

Vidal Wu p. 105

Lexi Stefanatos

p. 123

Krystin Chung p. 143

Willa Meredith

p. 155

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a Name?

11"/ ,# ,/$"/6 ,+ "/+&+$ 1%" "1/,-,)&1 + 20"2*T0 Qingming /,))H /"3&,20)6 11/& 21"! 1, &2 &+$

Scene of the Crime:

%" "$ 6 ,# "*&+&01 "/#,/* + " /1 +! "52 ) 00 2)1

Unproductive Reflections:

,4 /!0 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6 ,# q!&0r &)&16

Spilling Over Colonial Enclosures:

+!&$"+,20 /1&010 +! "-/"0"+1 1&,+0 &+ 1/""1 +! +! /1

The Grotta Grande:

%" &00,)21&,+ ,# ,2+! /&"0 "14""+ /1 +! 12/"

Where am I, Monet?:

%" 1"/ &)&"0 ,# 1%" / +$"/&" %/,2$% %"+,*"+,),$& ) "+0

Who Carries the Big Stick?

%" "$2) 1&,+ ,# + !& + ,/+,$/ -%6

A Biography of Abundance:

12!6 ,# 1%" +0""+ &3"0 "%&+! 1%" ,**,!&1&"0 "-& 1"! &+ "3"+1""+1%K "+12/6 21 % 1&))K &#"

All Eyes on CBC/Radio-Canada:

/&1& ) + )60&0 ,# 2 "/1 /,&5T0 -/&+$ 9A8; Strategy Announcement

The Elation of The Low:

+!6 /%,)T0 +! "ČŹ ,,+0T0 ,2)"3"/0"*"+1 ,# &$% /1

Note to the Reader On behalf of the Editorial Board, I am delighted to present you with the fourteenth volume of Canvas. As the only undergraduate academic journal of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Canvas aims to provide students with the opportunity for publication and showcase the remarkable academic talent present within our joint faculty. This edition of Canvas features ten exemplary essays that discuss 0-" 10 ,# 3&02 ) +! -,-2) / 2)12/" ȩ,* 1%" #,2/1""+1% "+12/6 to the present. The journal begins with an exhaustively researched piece by Jennifer Mueller, who engages with the subject of forgery in the work of a Qing Dynasty master. Next, Sara Kloepfer discusses an ongoing piece of performance art by Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz as an act of protest against the institutional bias obscuring sexual assault on campus, situating the work in a longer tradition of feminist performance art. In the following essay, Josh Falek masterfully weaves personal narrative with radical disability theory, expanding on an existing model of queer phenomenology. Next, Mélanie Wittes explores street and land art as a means of resistance to the ongoing oppression faced by Indigenous people in Canada, followed by Klea Hawkins, who examines the interweaving of art and nature in Renaissance gardens. Wading through the watery depths of a Monet mural, Anthony Portulese introduces a novel approach to the artist’s work. Vidal Wu brings us back to the -/"0"+1H "5-),/&+$ 1%" /"$2) 1,/6 %&01,/6 +! )"$&0) 1&3" ȩ *"4,/( surrounding Canadian pornography, before Lexi Stefanatos takes us to seventeenth-century Holland, where the trappings of the Dutch ,),+& ) "+1"/-/&0" 4"/" /"ĳ" 1"! &+ 1%" & ,+& 01&)) )&#" - &+1&+$0 produced at the time. Next, Krystin Chung undertakes a critical

analysis of a statement recently released by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The journal concludes with a discussion of the contemporary art market and how we attribute value to art, as Willa "/"!&1% !"Ȫ)6 "5-) &+0 4%6 1%" *,01 "5-"+0&3" 4,/( 6 )&3&+$ artist sold at auction to date is a lurid orange sculpture of a giant balloon dog. The creation of this publication would not have been possible with,21 1%" ,))" 1&3" "Ȭ,/1 ,# !"!& 1"! 1" * ,# &+!&3&!2 )0F &/01H would like to thank the authors for their courage and willingness to 0% /" 1%"&/ &!" 0H +! 1%"&/ 2+ĳ $$&+$ - 1&"+ " !2/&+$ 1%" "!&1&+$ process. I am also incredibly grateful for my team of editors, their grammatical zeal and keen attention to detail. In addition, I would like to thank previous editor-in-chief Kathryn Yuen, whose guidance was indispensable to the project, and layout editor Erin Havens, 4%,0" !"0&$+ 1 )"+10 /" /"ĳ" 1"! &+ " % - $" ,# 1%&0 " 21&#2))6 executed publication. On behalf of the entire Canvas team, I would like to thank the McGill Art History and Communication Studies Students’ Association and the McGill Arts Undergraduate Society Journal Fund for their generosity in funding the production of the journal. Finally, I would like to extend the warmest of thanks to the professors, lecturers and teaching assistants of the Art History and Communication Studies department. It has been a tremendous privilege 1, )" /+ ȩ,* 6,2 ))F

Erica Morassutti !&1,/K&+K %&"#

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a Name? A Matter of Forgery Concerning the Metropolitan Museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Qingming Scroll, Previously Attributed to Qiu Ying

By Jennifer Mueller

What’s in a Name? A Matter of Forgery Concerning the Metropolitan Museum’s &+$*&+$ Scroll, Previously Attributed to Qiu Ying The &+$*&+$ 0% +$%" of the Four Ming Masters tu

variously

[Shen

Zhou

(1427-

translated as -/&+$ "01&3 ) 1509), Wen Zhengming ,+ 1%" &3"/H ,&+$ -/&3"/ #,/

(1470-1559), Tang Yin

1%" &+$*&+$ "01&3 )H and Up

(1470-1523)], was alleged

1, 1%" -&1 ) 1 &+$*&+$, has

to have painted a version

enjoyed a steady popularity

of the &+$*&+$ handscroll;

as a narrative scroll subject,

however, Qiu Ying is likewise

one of the most copied of all

The painting is a depiction

Chinese painters.03 Whether

of the daily life and activities

Qiu Ying in fact ever painted

of a bustling riverside town,

the

with

,-&"0 4"/" -/,)&Ĳ F

the

subject

usually

scroll

Why

uncertain.04 would

the

*" 02/&+$ "14""+ Ĳ3" +! earliest forgers of Qiu’s work ten metres long. Song artist

choose to fake a work that

Zhang Zeduan’s

(1085-

may have perhaps never been

&+$*&+$ handscroll,

painted by the artist? Many

held in the Palace Museum in

copies of the purported “Qiu

Beijing, is considered one of

Ying” handscroll -/&+$ "01&3 )

the greatest Chinese paintings

,+ 1%" &3"/ can be found,

created: it is also one of the

including

*,01 ȩ".2"+1)6 #,/$"!F

held

1145)

Ying

Qiu

(ca.1494-1552), one

01 Julia Murray, “What is ‘Chinese Narrative Illustration’?” The Art Bulletin 80 no. 4(1998): 605. 02 Su-Chen Chang, Improvised Great ages: The Creating of Qingming Shengshi (University of British Columbia: PhD. Dissertation, 2013): ii. Zhang Zeduan’s work and the subject in general will heretofore be referred to as the Qingming scroll.

the the

handscroll Metropolitan

03 Sherman E. Lee, “Literati and Professionals: Four Ming Painters,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53 no.1(Jan., 1966): 25. The Metropolitan Qinming handscroll will be referred to as Spring Festival. 04 Ellen J. Laing, “Suzhou Pian and other dubious paintings in the received oeuvre of Qiu Ying.” Artibus Asiae 59, no. 3-4 (2000): 9>9H .2,1&+$ %&1Ĳ")!H V %T&+$K*&+$ 0% +$K%, t’u,” 2.

Museum of Art, New York (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Anonymous [prev. at-

Although it is now considered to

tributed to Qiu Ying (

be a copy, the scroll is in reality one many to bear the name and characteristics of the painter. Qiu Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation as a painter and as one of the Four Ming Masters, his

meticulous

brushwork

(the

gongbi style, which will be discussed later), and the sustained popular

)], Spring

"01&3 ) ,+ 1%" &+$*&+$ &3"/ ( ), Qing dynasty 18th (?) century, handscroll, ink and colour on silk, 29.8 x 1004.6 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

appeal of the &+$*&+$ subject

authorship of such a work

were enough to encourage a

was so credible. Through an

profusion of fakes. A second

exploration of Qiu’s artistic

explanation

identity and his style, and

might

the

fact that since there was

no such scroll in existence,

patronage

the possibility of possessing

with the production context

the ‘genuine’ scroll would

of other &+$*&+$ s c r o l l s ,

increase

its

market

value.

In this paper I argue

comparing

will

patterns his

career

demonstrate

Metropolitan is

the

-/&+$ "01&3 )

that the reason that forgers

scroll

consistent

would sign Qiu Ying’s name

Qiu Ying’s accepted œuvre.

on their works is because his

Regardless

with

whether

authentic copy of the work exists

Figure 2. Detail of anonymous’

today it is very likely that Qiu painted

-/&+$ "01&3 ) ,+ 1%" &+$*&+$

the subject, so that if forgers were +,1 4,/(&+$ ȩ,* %&0 ,/&$&+ ) 4,/( they would use their knowledge of his brushwork and aesthetic tropes to paint a “Qiu Ying” &+$*&+$ scroll. The particular version of the -/&+$ "01&3 ) discussed here is held in the A.W. Bahr collection at the Metropolitan in New York. Even at the time of its acquisition in 1947, Alan Priest, then curator of Far Eastern

&3"/F

Art, described the scroll as

attributed paintings in his

“optimistically”

inscribed

book /1&+$ 1 1%" %,/", likely

with Qiu Ying’s name.05 The

because of his uncertainty

seeming inexistence of the

regarding

its

provenance.

genuine “Qiu Ying” &+$*&+$ In sum, the identity of the scroll

confounded

authentic “Qiu Ying &+$*&+$”

connoisseurs who equivocate

painting has not been agreed

uponH if

has its

legitimacy

authentic

with

painting

all

exists.

In comparison with

compare it against. It has

the other three Ming Masters,

been proposed that artists

Qiu

painting the scroll worked

details are sparse at best.

ȩ,* + 2+Ĳ+&0%"! !/ Ȫ 1% 1 Qiu Qiu Ying had created, but

Ying’s is

biographical

primarily

known

for his versatile brushwork

1%" ), 1&,+ ,# 02 % !/ Ȫ &0 &+ )2!&+$ -/,Ĳ &"+ 6 &+ 1%" unknown, and its existence

(baimiao) and (gongbi) styles.08

dubious.06 A version of the

All sixteenth-century sources

scroll held in the Liaoning

indicate that Qiu Ying was

Provincial

was

born in Taicang, although

thought by several scholars

the scholar Stephen Little

studying the Suzhou forgery

proposes Qiu Ying’s ancestral

industry to be painted by Qiu

home was Nanyang in Hubei

Ying, but it has since proven

Province.09

to be misattributed.07 James

other contemporary masters,

Cahill does not discuss, or

&2 )"Ȫ +, ,/-20 ,# 4/&11"+

even reference the &+$*&+$

material, nor was he given

amidst

a full biography; his tomb

Museum

all

Qiu’s

other

05 Alan Priest, “Spring Festival on the River.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 6 10(June 1948): 283. 06 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 272. See Laing’s discussion (267-8) on mid-sixteenth century forgers Wang Biao and son Wang Jingxing who are responsible for many of the scrolls signed with Qiu Ying’s name, and produced at least one copy of Spring Festival on the River. 07 Chang, “Improvised Great Ages,” 40.

contrast

inscription, although it was likely made, does not survive; 08 Stephen Little, “The Demon Queller and the Art of Qiu Ying,” Artibus Asiae 46 1/2(1985): 6. 09 Little, “Demon Queller,” 43-44 cited in Laing, “Problems in Reconstructing the Life of Qiu Ying,” Ars Orientalis 29(1999): 73.

and despite being acquainted

Yuanbian

with the cultural elite in

(1525-1590).13

Qiu

Ying

lived

for

Suzhou, even his birth date

much of his active career

remains

in Suzhou

uncertain.10

The

artist belonged to a lineage

, present-day

Jiangsu

province: an

,# -/,Ĳ &"+1 /1&010H +! &2 economically prosperous and was pupil to Zhou Chen,

culturally rich city in addition

who was himself the pupil

to a burgeoning centre for

the selling of fake paintings.14

highly

regarded

Chen

Xiang. According to Cahill,

27%,2 -& +H translated

“it was [Zhou] who raised

Suzhou pieces or fakes, were

the

commercial productions of

[Suzhou] painting to a level

minor artists that were mostly

commensurate with that of

copies and forgeries of earlier

the scholar-amateur side.”11

masters.15 Chinese art scholar

Qiu Ying made copies of

Ellen J. Laing states that the

the many Tang and Song

favourite Suzhou pian in Qiu

dynasty paintings to which

Ying’s time were those in

he had access, drawing on

which Qiu excelled, including

earlier paintings “to lend an

his

air of antique authenticity”

to his pictures.12 In addition

V"5" 21"! &+ ȩ"0%H --" )&+$

to his stylistic inspiration,

colour and meticulous detail

Qiu also produced copies of

on silk.”16 According to Cahill,

originals on commission for

Qiu

patrons such as renowned

employed as a forger, with

Ming dynasty collector Xiang

13 Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 204; Su-Chen Chang, “Improvised Great Ages,” 52. 14 Bruce Rusk, “Artifacts of Authentication: People Making Texts Making Things in Late Imperial China,” Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500–1800, ed. François Louis and Peter Miller (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012): 180. 15 Cahill, Pictures for Use and Pleasure: Vernacular Painting in High Qing China (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2010): 8. 16 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 267; “Qiu Ying’s Delicate Style,” Ars Orientalis 27(1997): 59.

professional

side

10 Laing, “Sixteenth-Century Patterns of Art Patronage: Qiu Ying and the Xiang Family,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 111, no. 1(Jan. – Mar., 1991): 1. 11 James Cahill, Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty 1368-1580 (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978): 168. 12 Cahill, The Painter’s Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 91.

speciality, famous

may

replicas

compositions

have

also

been

Figure 3. (Top) Qiu Ying (

), -/&+$ ,/+&+$ &+ 1%" + ) " (

), Ming dynasty, handscroll, ink and colour on silk, 30.6 x 574.1 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Figure 4. Detail of Qiu Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spring Morning in the Han Palace.

works

accomplished

with the cultural elite of

+! /"Ĳ+"! 1% + 1%" ),4K

Suzhou

and

level artists producing fakes

patrons,

for “equally low-level and

incapable of participating in

undiscerning

buyers.”17

their world on their terms.

Qiu Ying was likely

Not being recognized as their

literate

very

had

wealthy

“simply

was

limited

social equal, he is not named

degree, though the charge that

in their writings.”21 Few of

he could not write at all, or that

Qiu’s paintings are dated, the

his signatures were inscribed

ambiguity helping to disguise

by others, is almost certainly

the presence of forgeries.22

untrue.18 The fact that Qiu

Qiu’s indeterminate biography,

wrote no poetic or lengthy

made more complicated by

inscriptions

probably

mythicized tales of his life,23

due to his lack of ability to

further adds to his attraction

compose,19 and was likely the

was

basis for the charge of his illiteracy. this literati

Notwithstanding

social and

impediment, critics

# )0&Ĳ )" Before

* 01"/F explore

the false attribution of the Metropolitan &+$*&+$ scroll a

highly

brief discussion of Qiu Ying’s

esteemed Qiu Ying despite his

style will be necessary. Qiu’s

status as a professional artist

technique and idiosyncrasies

and humble origins, due to

are discussed at length in

1%" 02-"/&,/&16 ,# %&0 Ĳ$2/" Laing’s “Qiu Ying’s Delicate - &+1&+$ +! 1%" /"Ĳ+"*"+1 Style,”

where

she

exposes

of his brushwork.20 It must be

some of the ways in which

remembered, however, that

a painting may pose as an

although Qiu Ying mingled

authentic copy or a forged

17 Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 210; Su-Chen Chang, “Improvised Great Ages,” 96. 18 Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 202. 19 Laing, “Reconstructing Qiu Ying,” 79. 20 Marilyn and Shen Fu, Studies in ,++,&00"2/0%&-I %&+"0" &+1&+$0 ȩ,* 1%" Arthur M. Sackler Collections in New York (Princeton and Washington, D.C. 3rd Ed. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 8.

copy.24 In other words, a 21 Laing, “Reconstructing Qiu Ying,” 79. 22 Ibid., 80. 23 Laing, “Sixteenth-Century Patterns of Art Patronage: Qiu Ying and the Xiang Family.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 111, no.1(Jan. – Mar., 1991): 1, note 3. 24 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 278-80.

work may be a legitimate

particular

copy, painted in much the

but no others.

same

one must work with objects

way

Qiu

might

master’s 28

work,

To do this,

copy a Northern Song work;

!"Ĳ+&1&3")6 11/& 21"! 1, 1%"

alternatively, it may be a

artist. However, when the

blatant forgery by the hand of

set of paintings examined to

an enterprising copyist.25 We

determine such traits have

could examine the &+$*&+$

been misattributed, it becomes

scroll using Stanley-Baker’s

!&ȯ 2)1 1, /" ,+ &)" 1%,0"

method of dismissing any

traits as being representative.

and all paintings as genuine as

beginning

carefully

attributing

%" 1 0( ,# !"Ĳ+&+$

point,

the ‘Qiu Ying style’ is an

only

elusive one. Scholars hold

Ȫ"/ !"Ĳ+&1&3" "3&!"+ "F26

varying

opinions

The opposite, more common

what constitutes (as Fu and

method of weeding out fake

Fu describe) Qiu’s uniquely

- &+1&+$0 ȩ,* + /1&Ĳ & ))6 &!"+1&Ĳ )" &+ĳ 1"! Ś23/" )),40 20 1, of “distinguish elements shared

about

1/ &10F

singular,

+01" !

markedly

distinct style, it is perhaps

6 ,+)6 1%" Ĳ+"01 ,# s &2 more appropriate to say that Ying’s] high quality works.”27

Qiu Ying was the master of

In 12!&"0 &+ ,++,&00"2/0%&-H appropriating the styles of other 2 +! 2 !"Ĳ+" 1%&0 -/, "00 maters – arguably more than as

discovery

traits

thirty.29 Qiu Ying’s “jadelike”

that invariably recur in a

quality of painting is situated

25 Ibid., 293-94; “Qiu Ying’s Delicate Style,” 65, note 36. Laing explains, “In addition 1, ,21/&$%1 #,/$"/&"0H / +$" ,# ȩ 2!2)"+1 practices (such as replacing signatures, applying impressions of faked artist’s seals, combining spurious colophons with authentic paintings, or combining authentic colophons with counterfeit paintings) were employed by unscrupulous dealers in China.” 26 Joan Stanley-Baker, Old Masters Repainted: Wu Zhen (1280-1354), Prime Objects and Accretions (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1995). Stanley-Baker uses this method to argue that all but three paintings ascribed to Wu Zhen are misattributions or forgeries. 27 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 271.

within the context of Suzhou "&+$ "+1/" #,/ % +!& / Ȫ0 such

embroidery

and

lacquer, all of which have qualities in common with 28 ship, 16. 29 39.

Fu and Fu, Studies in ConnoisseurLaing, “Qiu Ying’s Delicate Style,”

painting:

rich

surface,

How can we reconcile

!" ,/ 1&3" ĳ 1+"00H +! $/" 1 the connoisseurial imperative precision of workmanship.30

concerning a distinctive ‘hand’

The “lapidary” character of

4%"+ &2 &+$T0 $&Ȫ 4 0 1,

Qiu’s brushwork, “as if [his

sublimate any personal style

paintings] had been carved in

in his work, distinguished

jade,” alludes to the precise

only by a high sophisticated

details of Qiu’s most polished

brush

productions.31 Cahill argues

Ellen Laing and connoisseur

that Qiu Ying “is strangely

Xu Bangda refute the idea

invisible

that Qiu lacked a distinctive

artistic

technique?

personality … One looks in

style.34

vain for some small outbreak

opinion

style is an embodiment of

turn of line that betrays the

perfection, where any hand

person behind the brush.”32

or object out of place, any

Cahill explains the problem

imperfectly

of talking about the work of

object, or other “mis-detail”

individuality,

even

The

Scholar

connoisseurial

Qiu

Ying’s

symmetrical

&2 qV!&ȯ 2)1 1, !&0 200H " 06 belies a hand other than Qiu to describe”), arguing that

Ying’s.35 Osvald Sirén detects

the meaning and expression

forgeries

of Qiu Ying’s painting “lie

almost exclusively in pictorial

basis, comparing their less-

values.”33 This position makes

than-perfect character with

similarly

&1 !&ȯ 2)1 1, !&0 "/+ +6 Qiu’s

Qiu

Ying

connoisseurial

reputed

meticulous

outbreak of individuality in

brushwork.

Qiu’s artistic persona, which

- &+1&+$ 4%"/" 1%" Ĳ$2/"0

would prioritize the subject

possess

features and colour that is

his

painting

over

the

nuances of his brushwork. 30 31 32 33

Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 209. Ibid., 204. Ibid., 203. Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 203.

For Sirén, a

generalized

facial

34 Laing “Qiu Ying’s Delicate Style,” 39. 35 Ibid., 63. 36 Osvald Siren, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles (New York: Ronald Press, 1956-58), Vol. 4:214, as quoted in Laing, “Qiu Ying’s Delicate Style,” 58.

“applied without much regard

,# - &+1&+$I - /1 ȩ,* %&0

to light and shade or the

decision to leave many of

tactile qualities of the objects,”

his works unsigned, Qiu’s

would be dismissed as a fake.37

limited

The

amateur

literacy

prevented

%&* ȩ,* &+0 /& &+$ "51"+!"!

painting style favoured by

colophons on his paintings.

the literati “with its disdain

This

may

have

been

one

#,/ 1" %+& ) Ĳ+&0% +! &10 reason forgers may have found reliance on highly personal, " 0&)6

&!"+1&Ĳ )"

working

016)"0H so

under

appealing.

his

name

addition,

was especially susceptible to

the profusion of &+$*&+$

imitation.”38 Yet it was also

scrolls

easy to copy an artist such

and composition meant that

as Qiu Ying because of the

a forged imitation of Qiu’s

sublimation of his artistic

% +!0 /,)) 4 0 !&ȯ 2)1 1,

technique in his work. The

!&01&+$2&0% ȩ,* )"$&1&* 1"

distinctive gongbi brushwork

copy of Zhang Zeduan’s work.

style of Qiu Ying, while not

varying

Su-Chen

quality

Chang

requiring imitation of the

!&0 200"0 !&Ȭ"/"+1 *"1%,!0

0-" &Ĳ &16 ,# 1%" * 1"2/K

style, would be harder to prove

notes that certain techniques,

a forgery. This made, and still

such as gai and # +$H gave

copying

paintings,

and

* ("0 &1 !&ȯ 2)1 1, "51/ 1 - &+1"/0 Vȩ""!,* +! /,,* Qiu’s distinctive stylistic traits,

to interpret the themes [of the

thus determining a work’s

&+$*&+$ scroll] and contrive

legitimate

new

illegitimate

paintings

under

provenance.39 %" ȩ".2"+1 particular composition.”40 The absence of inscriptions on

fen-pen copying technique, a

&+$*&+$ handscrolls further

method for making copies “so

coincides with Qiu’s methods

exact … they could be confused

37 38 39 ship, 16-17.

Ibid. Cahill, Painter’s Practice, 135. Fu and Fu, Studies in Connoisseur-

with 40 Ages,” 56.

the

originals”

may

Su-Chen Chang, “Improvised Great

have been used to create the

bustling activity is painted

Metropolitan’s -/&+$ "01&3 )H in the gongbi style, for which and other “Qiu Ying” &+$*&+$

Qiu

was

known.

scrolls.41 Thus it is possible

translated

that Qiu’s painting – original

brushwork,”

Roughly

“meticulous

gongbi !&Ȭ"/"!

,/ !/ Ȫ M * 6 % 3" 1 ,+" 0&$+&Ĳ +1)6 ȩ,* 1%" ȩ"" time existed.42 On the other

and

expressive

hand, it is also possible that

style prized by the amateur

mendacious forgers had never

scholar-painter. Other such

seen the original: renowned

practitioners of this technique

collector and connoisseur Li

included Qiu’s contemporary

Baoxun claimed that although

Tang

he had seen many of Qiu

brushwork is recognizable in

Yin.45

The

sketchy

gongbi

&+$T0 - &+1&+$0H Ȫ"/ #,/16 -/&+$ "01&3 ) 1%/,2$% 1%" Ĳ+" years he never saw a genuine

contours of the brush, the use

&+$*&+$ scroll by the artist.43

,# ,),2/H +! 1%" Ĳ+" ) 6"/0

The

Metropolitan’s

eighteenth-century

of ink wash on silk. (Fig. 3)

Spring

Another hallmark of

"01&3 ) scroll exhibits many

Qiu Ying’s artistic identity

of the features common to

is his attention to detail.

Qiu Ying’s reputation. The

This is partly due to Qiu’s

scene is “lined with shops,

conscientious brushwork, and

stores, eateries, and stalls, and

partly due to his carefully

1""*&+$ 4&1% 1%" 1/ ȯ ,# planned compositions, which gentry and rustic pedestrians,

/" )&01& ))6 ), 1" Ĳ$2/"0 +!

peddlers,

porters,

architectural elements within

and carters, all climaxed with

the picture plane. The obvious

a scene of the imperial palace

horizontality of -/&+$ "01&3 )H

and garden.”44 All of this

concomitant with its nature

strollers,

41 Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 204. 42 Laing, “Suzhou,” 272, note 35. Laing is citing Yang Renkai, ed., Zhongguo shuhua (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1990), 478. 43 Laing, “Suzhou,” 272. 44 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 269.

as a handscroll, allows the artist to create a progressive composition 45

which

Cahill, Vernacular Painting, 13-14.

characters can be viewed one

painterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style. The minutely

ČŞ"/ +,1%"/F %" 0 /,)) $&3"0 detailed

nature

the

little meaning when viewed

Metropolitan

all at once. It is an â&#x20AC;&#x153;unfolding

/"Äł" 10 0-" 10 ,# &2 &+$T0

narrativeâ&#x20AC;? requiring the slow,

genuine works. Ellen Laing

deliberate and tactile process

agrees

of unrolling a handscroll to

be appreciated.46 The painting

a distinctive hand of the

is â&#x20AC;&#x153;believed to be an idealized

artist in his work and goes

depiction of the realm in

so far as to say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;one of Qiu

peace

Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal achievements

and

prosperity

that

-/&+$ "01&3 )

with

Bangda

connoisseur in

discerning

was created to legitimize the

&+ Ä˛$2/" - &+1&+$ 4 0 1%"

reign of a Song-dynasty (960-

creation of a distinct feminine

1279).â&#x20AC;?47

the

# & ) +! Ä˛$2/ ) 16-"F %&0

veracity of this statement, the

!&01&+ 1 Ä˛$2/" 16-" + "

&+$*&+$ scroll was certainly a

taken as a characteristic of

popular subject and provided

his hand.â&#x20AC;?49 Presenting

viewers

profusion

ostensibly authentic painting

,# Ä˛$2/"0 +! !"1 &)H48 such

with which to compare the

Qiu

anonymously painted scroll

Ĺ&#x201C;uvre.

best accomplishes the task of

being

establishing Qiu Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style.

disproved as being a Qiu

One of the most meticulously

Ying painting and not even

executed of his (ostensibly)

produced during the Ming

genuine

dynasty,

Leaving

with

aside

customary

Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

ostensible Despite

works

Spring

The

Metropolitan

,/+&+$ &+ 1%" + ) "H

"01&3 )

nonetheless

National Palace Museum in

relates the essence of the

Taipei. (Fig. 3) The + ) "

-/&+$

46 Murray â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chinese Narrative Illustration,â&#x20AC;? 605. 47 Elizabeth Kindall, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Visual Expe/&"+ " &+ 1" &+$ 27%,2 S ,+,/&Ä˛ T +! â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Famous Sitesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Paintings,â&#x20AC;? Ars Orientalis (2009): 147. 48 Murray, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Water Under a Bridge: Further Thoughts on the Qingming Scroll,â&#x20AC;? Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 27 (1997): 100-1.

"5"*-)&Ä˛"0 1%" !")& 1" /20% technique and high degree of 49 51.

polish

Laing

describes

Laing, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Qiu Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Delicate Style,â&#x20AC;?

as Qiu’s signature feature.50

Fang.53 Despite working in

The + ) " scroll,

this style, Cahill argues that

much is

-/&+$ "01&3 )H

vignettistic,

and

-/&+$ ,/+&+$ &+ 1%" + ) "

allows

is an original composition

for a close examination of

that could not be confused

&+!&3&!2 ) Ĳ$2/"0 +! 1%"&/ with works by the two Tang employments.51 The viewer’s

painters, nor considered an

omniscience allows him or

,/!&+ /6

her to see that the styles

works.54 The expressiveness

,# 1%" Ĳ$2/"0 &0 ,+0&!"/ )6

+ ) "

and

Spring

,-6 Ȫ"/ 1%"&/

"01&3 ) /" !&Ȭ"/"+1 "+,2$% superior to the detail in Spring to

distinguish

the

‘hand’

"01&3 )H in which the hands

of the artist, as argued by

+! # "0 ,# 1%" Ĳ$2/"0 /"

Laing and Xu Bangda, but

,Ȫ"+

similar enough to see the

%" 0*&)&+$ * )" Ĳ$2/"0 &+

connection between the two.

1%" )"Ȫ ,# Ĳ$2/" < + "

The

compared

“fastidious

descriptive

)2*0&)6

and

!"-& 1"!F

contrasted

technique” for which Qiu

with the austere expressions

Ying is known is visible in

of the palace ladies. Even

both paintings.52 However, the

1%" &+!&3&!2 ) Ĳ+$"/0 ,#

representational accuracy of

,*- / 1&3")6 *&+,/ Ĳ$2/"0

+ ) " far surpasses Spring

are distinguishable at a glance.

"01&3 )H as one can see in the

-/&+$

"01&3 )

consistent

faces of the palace ladies.

certainly

(Fig. 4) Qiu worked in the

the “Qiu Ying style,” but

conservative, representational

its

style of painting palace ladies

“fastidious detail” is surpassed

originated by the two Tang

by a genuine work by Qiu, such

artists Zhang Xuan and Zhou

as + ) ". Nevertheless,

50 Ibid., 52. 51 Dore J. Levy, “Vignettism in the Poetics of Chinese Narrative Painting,” Alexandra Green, ed., Rethinking Visual Narratives ȩ,* 0& I +1"/ 2)12/ ) +! ,*- / 1&3" "/spectives (Hong Kong University Press, 2013): 38. 52 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 265.

without an original &+$*&+$

meticulousness

with and

53 Cahill, “Paintings Done for Women in Ming-Qing China?” Christensen Lecture, Stanford, May 16 2002; Cahill, Vernacular Painting, 18. 54 Cahill, Parting at the Shore, 202.

scroll

painted

Qiu

composition and manner of

Ying to compare with the

execution

Metropolitan’s

individual

scroll,

understandable

that

help

distinguish

works.

the

same time, their similarities

painting’s attribution would

reveal which aspects of the

be believed. This brings us

works were most essential to

to the question of what, in

their documentary function

fact, makes an extended and

2)12/ ) 0&$+&Ĳ + "F57

!"1 &)"! Ĳ$2/" - &+1&+$ Thus the similarities between &+$*&+$ scroll? Art historian

Zhang Zeduan’s scroll and the

,!"/& ( %&1Ĳ")! !&3&!"0 anonymously authored scroll the

Beijing

attributed to Qiu Ying, besides

handscroll by Zhang Zeduan

the the Ming period clothing

into three categories: those

and customs of the latter,58

with a house-building scene,

reveal stylistic characteristics

those with a dragon boat

that

regatta in the imperial palace,

emblematic of Qiu.

and

copies

those

details

the

with

such

additional theatre

performances.55 However, this

were

considered

Already in the late Yuan

dynasty

artists

were

transitioning to a professional,

!,"0 +,1 !"Ĳ+" 4% 1 02 '" 10 monetized form of patronage must be included in a &+$*&+$ 4%& % !&Ȭ"/"! 0&$+&Ĳ +1)6 scroll to be considered as

ȩ,* 3 ),/&0"! 1%" S * 1"2/T

such. In fact, this elusive

mode

!"Ĳ+&1&,+ &0 * !" 4,/0" 0 pleasure.

creating The

rise

art

for

the &+$*&+$ “was one of the

exchange of art for money,

most eagerly accepted subjects

$&Ȫ0H

# 3,2/0

V 20"0

+! *,01 ,Ȫ"+ ,))" 1"! +! doubt about the accuracy of viewed paintings in the Ming-

the later division between

Qing era.”56 &Ȭ"/"+ "0 &+

57 Maxwell K. Hearn, “An Early Ming Example of Multiples: Two Versions of Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden,” Smith and Fong: 253; Robert E. Harrist Jr., “Connoisseurship: Seeing and Believing,” Smith and Fong: 300. 58 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 272; Murray, “Water Under the Bridge,” 99-102.

55 Laing, “Suzhou Pian,” 271-2, quot&+$ %&1Ĳ")!H V %T&+$K*&+$ 0% +$K%, 1T2HW 9F 56 Su-Chen Chang, “Improvised Great Ages,” 56.

amateurs

and

professionals

the ‘artist-in-residence’ was

…

Ultimately,

this

kind

-/,Ĳ1 )" +! 0" 2/"H 21

patronage

may

have

also more restrictive of his

determined

some

stylistic

ȩ""!,* 1, - &+1 0 %" %,0"F

changes in the art of the

It is also during one of these

time.”59 Being a professional

residencies

painter

Qiu

would have been most likely

Ying was remunerated for

to paint the &+$*&+$ scroll.

his

meant

work,

that

unlike

scholar-painters

amateur

who

gave

that

Qiu

Ying

Qiu Ying’s three major patrons were Zhou Fenglai

$&Ȫ0 ,# - &+1&+$0 1, ȩ&"+!0 (1523-55),

Xiang

and colleagues. A letter to

(1525-90),

Chen

his patron at the Han-lin

Ȫ"/ 8<>>r.62 It is probably

Academy

&*-,00& )" 1, !"Ĳ+&1&3")6 01 1"

the

imperial

Yuanbian Guan

(d.

court lends insight into his

the order of Qiu Ying’s three

life as a professional painter,

major patrons – a lamentable

calling

lacuna in the narrative of

attention

his

subordinate status.60 Qiu had

Qiu’s

three

levels

patronage:

have provided us with the

“the

one-time

customer,

approximate dates of many of

but

intermittent

his paintings.63 If we accept, as

and

‘sustaining’

Karen S. Wong and Cahill do,

maintained

that Xiang was the last of Qiu’s

him for long periods of time

three major patrons it follows

as an artist-in-residence in

that he must have spent a

the

loyal

supporter, patrons

their

who

life,

which

would

homes.”61 %" Ĳ+ ) considerable amount of time

category of patronage, that of 59 Chu-tsing Li, Introduction to sec. II (Patronage in Suchou), Artists and Patrons (Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1989): 91. 60 Reproduced in Cahill, Painter’s Practice, 36 and Jean-Pierre Dubosc “A Letter and Fan Painting by Ch’iu Ying,” Archives of Asian Art (1974): 108-110. 61 Laing, “Reconstructing Qiu Ying,” 79-80

with him before his death in 1552.64 Xiang Yuanbian was arguably the most important patron of Qiu Ying, and Qiu 62 Laing, “Ch’iu Ying’s Three Patrons,” Ming Studies 8(Spring 1979): 49-56 63 Laing, “Reconstructing Qiu Ying,” 80 64 Wong, “Artists and Patrons,” 157.

created

various

important

works during his residence

his mother, cost 100 ounces.68 Both

prices

with Xiang, such as the /!"+ exorbitant

would

when

compared

,# ")#K +',6*"+1 handscroll

with

and &3" ,/*0 ,# 2 +K6&+F65

professional

The types of large pieces being

neither

commissioned by his major

reputation of Qiu Ying nor

patrons

the

closely

correspond

other

seem

contemporary painters,

the

with

prominent

comparable

technical

with the possibility of Qiu

skill.69 If Qiu indeed painted a

Ying painting the demanding

version of -/&+$ "01&3 )H or if

&+$*&+$ scroll.

%" ,+)6 ,*-)"1"! !/ ČŞ ,#

However,

it is also conceivable that

the work, it likely would have

Qiu painted the piece for

been during his time as an

the open market, as it was a

artist-in-residence with one

predictably popular piece that

of his three major patrons.

would fetch a high price.66

ČŞ"/ ))H 1%" &+$*&+$ scroll

Qiu was a well-paid

was

subject

particularly

artist. In 2-"/Äł2,20 %&+$0H

favoured by wealthy patrons.70

Craig

discusses

Valerie Hansen argues that

the prices paid for labour-

the scrollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large size and

intensive

use of expensive silk and

Clunas silk

paintings,

giving the example of Qiu

pigments

Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s -/&+$ 1 1%" + ) ",

patronage, if not imperial â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

which cost 200 ounces (liang)

and certainly a buyer who

of silver.67 &2T0 0&$+&Ä˛ +1)6 1%"

" /1

21/ H

wealthy

,2)! ČŠ,+1 1%" ,01 ,# 02 %

shorter scroll % , "+$#2 as /&1&+$

suggest

expensive

undertaking.71

What &+$*&+$

patron Zhou Fenglai (1523-

signature of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Qiu Yingâ&#x20AC;? so

8<<<r 0 &/1%! 6 $&ČŞ #,/

68 Clunas, Elegant Debts,127. 69 Ibid. 70 Su-Chen Chang, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Improvised Great Ages,â&#x20AC;? 56. 71 Valerie Hansen as cited in Julia K. Murray, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Water Under a Bridge: Further Thoughts on the Qingming Scroll,â&#x20AC;? Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 27 (1997): 102-103.

Cahill, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Artists and Patrons,â&#x20AC;? 15. Laing, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Suzhou Pian,â&#x20AC;? 267-268. / &$ )2+ 0H 2-"/Äł2,20 %&+$0H

with

the

commissioned by his regular

65 66 67 126-7.

scroll

made

the

desirable a forgery, and why

scroll is consistent with Qiu

was such an object remain

Ying’s œuvre and it is indeed

possible

marketable

throughout

that

the

genuine

the Ming-Qing period? The

- &+1&+$ "5&010F + "Ȭ" 1H 1%"

Qing

Metropolitan’s

dynasty

Metropolitan

-/&+$ "01&3 ) scroll (Fig. 1)

century

is simply one of the many

1%" &3"/

examples of the “Qiu Ying”

signed scrolls of the &+$*&+$ of shanghe tu. As Craig Clunas explains, with painting, it was not simply the subject matter and appearance of the work that

mattered:

“association

and ‘biography’ were equal, if

not

important,

determinants of price.”72 That is, the name of “an artist so obscure that his or her name was obliterated [was] replaced with that of Qiu Ying,” in order that the work “might have some commercial value, as

otherwise

wouldn’t

have had.”73 A forger who signed his work as “Qiu Ying” capitalized on the plausibility of Qiu’s authorship, that the scroll would be considered an authentic work. The &+$*&+$ 72 / &$ )2+ 0H 2-"/ĳ2,20 %&+$0I Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), 127. 73 Cahill, “Paintings Done for Women,” Christensen Lecture.

eighteenth-

-/&+$ "01&3 ) ,+ is

example

1%"

,**,!&Ĳ 1&,+

Qiu

Ying’s

name.

Bibliography

Cahill,

James. Chinese Painting. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972. 144-148.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Châ&#x20AC;&#x2122;iu Ying.â&#x20AC;? Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368- 1644. ed. L. Carrington Goodrich and Fang Chaoying. Vol 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976. 255-57.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Paintings Done for Women in Ming-Qing China?â&#x20AC;? (Previously titled: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Passages ,# ")1 &#"I "+/" %&ČŞ &+ &+$K Qing Figure Painting.â&#x20AC;?) Christensen Lecture, Stanford, May 16 2002.

)2+ 0H / &$F 2-"/Äł2,20 %&+$0I 1"/& ) 2)12/" and Social Status in Early Modern China. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.

Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty 1368-1580. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978.

Clunas, Craig, and Zhengming Wen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;Friendsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Clients, Customers.â&#x20AC;? Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2004. 113-140.

Pictures for use and pleasure: Vernacular painting in high Qing China. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2010. 1-29.

Cooke Johnson, Linda. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Place of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Qingming Shanghe Tuâ&#x20AC;? in the Historical Geography of Song Dynasty Dongjing.â&#x20AC;? Journal of SongYuan Studies 26(1996). 145-182.

The Painterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Dubosc,

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Types of Artist-Patron Transactions in Chinese Painting.â&#x20AC;? Li ed., Artists and Patrons, sec. Introduction.

Fong,

Cahill, James and Silbergeld, Jerome. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chinese Art and Authenticity.â&#x20AC;? Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 55 no.1(Autumn 2001): 17-36. Chang,

Su-Chen. Improvised Great ages: The Creating of Qingming Shengshi. University of British Columbia: PhD. Dissertation, 2013.

Jean-Pierre. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Letter and Fan Painting by Châ&#x20AC;&#x2122;iu Ying.â&#x20AC;? Archives of Asian Art (1974): 108-112.

Wen. Beyond representation: Chinese painting and calligraphy, 8th14th century. Vol. 48. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Problem of Forgeries in Chinese Painting. Part one.â&#x20AC;? Artibus Asiae 25 no.2/3(1962): 95-119 + 121-140. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why Chinese Painting Is History.â&#x20AC;? The Art Bulletin 85 no.2( Jun., 2003): 258280

Jennifer Mueller â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Jennifer is an undergraduate studying art history and

international

relations

McGill.

Her

primary research interests are in eighteenthcentury

British

and

French

art,

particularly

portraiture, but she is also passionate about Ming period Chinese painting and Canadian Inuit sculpture. Lately, Jennifer has focused on sociological aspects of museum practice, including the restitution of plundered cultural objects.

Bibliography

Levy, Dore J. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vignettism in the Poetics of Chinese Narrative Painting.â&#x20AC;? Green, Alexandra, ed. Rethinking Visual // 1&3"0 ČŠ,* 0& I +1"/ 2)12/ ) and Comparative Perspectives. Hong Kong University Press, 2013. 27-40. Hansen, Valerie. The Beijing Qingming Scroll +! &10 &$+&Ä˛ + " #,/ 1%" 12!6 ,# Chinese History. Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, Department of East Asian Studies, University at Albany, 1996. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Mystery of the Qingming Scroll and its Subject: The Case Against Kaifeng.â&#x20AC;? Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 26 (1996): 183-200.

Li, Chu-tsing, ed. Artists and Patrons: Some Social and Economic Aspects of Chinese Painting. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1989. Little, Stephen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Demon Queller and the Art of Qiu Ying (Châ&#x20AC;&#x2122;iu Ying).â&#x20AC;? Artibus Asiae 46 1/2(1985): 5-128. McCausland, Shane, and Yin Hwang, eds. On Telling Images of China: Essays in Narrative Painting and Visual Culture. Hong Kong University Press, 2013. Murray,

Julia K. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Water Under a Bridge: Further Thoughts on the Qingming Scroll.â&#x20AC;? Journal of SongYuan Studies 27 (1997): 99-107.

Harrist, Robert E., Jr. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Connoisseurship: Seeing and Believing.â&#x20AC;? Smith and Fong eds., Issues of Authenticity, 293-310.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chinese Narrative Illustrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;?â&#x20AC;? The Art Bulletin 80 no.4(1998): 6026 1 5 .

Hearn, Maxwell K. â&#x20AC;&#x153;An Early Ming Example of Multiples: Two Versions of Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden.â&#x20AC;? Smith and Fong eds., Issues of Authenticity, 221-258.

Priest, Alan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spring Festival on the River.â&#x20AC;? The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 6 10 ( June 1948): 280â&#x20AC;&#x201C;292.

Hsingyuan,

Tsao. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unraveling the Mystery of the Handscroll â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Qingming shange tuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.â&#x20AC;? Journal of SongYuan Studies (2003): 155-179.

Hyland, Alice R.M. Deities. Emperors, Ladies and Literati: Figure Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1987. Kindall,

Laing,

Elizabeth. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Visual Experience in 1" &+$ 27%,2 S ,+,/&Ä˛ T and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Famous Sitesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Paintings.â&#x20AC;? Ars Orientalis (2009): 137-177. Ellen Johnston. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chinese PalaceStyle Poetry and the Depiction of a Palace Beauty.â&#x20AC;? Art Bulletin 72, no. 2 ( Jun., 1990): 284-295.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Châ&#x20AC;&#x2122;iu Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Three Patrons.â&#x20AC;? Ming Studies 8(Spring 1979): 49-56. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Problems in Reconstructing the Life of Qiu Ying.â&#x20AC;? Ars Orientalis 29(1999): 698 9 . â&#x20AC;&#x153;Qiu Yingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Delicate Style.â&#x20AC;? Ars Orientalis 27(1997): 39-66. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sixteenth-Century Patterns of Art Patronage: Qiu Ying and the Xiang Family.â&#x20AC;? Journal of the American Oriental Society 111, no.1( Jan. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Mar., 1991): 1-7. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Suzhou Pian and other dubious paintings in the received oeuvre of Qiu Ying.â&#x20AC;? Artibus Asiae 59, no. 3-4 (2000): 2652 9 5 . â&#x20AC;&#x153;The State of Ming Painting Studies.â&#x20AC;? Ming Studies 1977, no. 1 (1977): 9-26. Lee, Sherman E. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Literati and Four Ming Painters.â&#x20AC;? of the Cleveland Art 53 no.1( Jan.,

Professionals: The Bulletin Museum of 1966): 2-25.

Rusk, Bruce. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Artifacts of Authentication: People Making Texts Making Things in Late Imperial China.â&#x20AC;? Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1800. Ed. FranĂ§ois Louis and Peter Miller. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012: 180-204. Osvald

Siren. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. Vol. 4. New York: Ronald Press, 1956-58.

Smith, Judith G., and Wen Fong, eds. Issues of authenticity in Chinese painting. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. Stanley-Baker, Joan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Forgeries in Chinese Painting.â&#x20AC;? Oriental art 32, no. 1(1986): 54-66. Old Masters Repainted. Wu Zhen (12801354), Prime Objects and Accretions. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1995. Wang, Sarah. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Consistencies and Contradictions: From the Gate to the River Bend in theâ&#x20AC;? Qingming shanghe tu.â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;? Journal of Song-Yuan Studies (1997): 127-136. Wong, Kwan S. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hsiang YĂźan-pien and Suchou Artists.â&#x20AC;? Li ed., Artists and Patrons, sec. II (Patronage in Suchou). %&1Ä˛")!H

,!"/& (F Châ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ing-ming Princeton

% +$ 0"K12 +T0 shang-ho tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;u. University, 1965.

Young, Martie Wing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Paintings of Châ&#x20AC;&#x2122;iu Ying: A Preliminary Survey.â&#x20AC;? PhD dissertation Harvard University, 1962.

Scene of the Crime: The Legacy of Feminist Performance Art and Sexual Assault

By Sara Kloepfer

Scene of the Crime: The Legacy of Feminist Performance Art and Sexual Assault 1 Ĳ/01 $) + "H 1%" 1973,

artist

Ana

Mendieta

Columbia University campus

performed +1&1)"! q -" "+")

looks like any other. Students

in response to the rape and

walk between classes, toting

murder of one of her peers at

backpacks and books, chatting

the University of Iowa (Fig. 2).

amongst themselves. Then, a

For her piece, Mendieta invited

),+" Ĳ$2/" !&0/2-10 1%" &!6))& classmates to her apartment. scene

–

woman

Upon entering, they found

mattress

her body bloodied and bound,

across the quad. Her name

simulating the scene as it

is Emma Sulkowicz, and she

had been reported by the

is a visual arts major in the

press.

middle of her senior thesis

Sulkowicz use performance

lugging

young

twin

Both

Mendieta

and

project, 11/"00 "/#,/* + "I to politicize the personal and Carry That Weight (Fig. 1). In

to call attention to the sexual

-/&) 9A8:H 2)(,4& 7 Ĳ)"! violence faced by women. By sexual assault complaint with

exploring Mendieta’s piece as

Columbia

part of the legacy of feminist

against

another

student. The university found

performance

him not guilty. To protest

Sulkowicz’s

this verdict, Sulkowicz has

show how 11/"00 "/#,/* + "

committed to carrying a dorm

/"ĳ" 10

mattress around campus until

0"+ " 1%"/",#N&+ 0, &"1 )

Columbia expels her alleged

reactions to sexual assault

rapist, or until she graduates.

Sulkowicz’s

piece

art

project,

% +$"0N,/

university In

informing will 1%"

campuses.

examining

the

engages in a long history

respective works of Mendieta

and Sulkowicz, it will be

feminist

performance

art as a means of protest. In

%")-#2) 1, !"Ĳ+" 1%" 1"/*

“performance art” itself. At its

and claiming autonomy and

most basic level, performance

agency,

art is an act presented to an

engages

audience. It may be scripted

of feminism. Female artists

or unscripted, spontaneous or

are drawn towards a focus

orchestrated, with or without

on autobiography as a means

audience participation, live or

via media. Performance art

narratives. Performance allows

can occur anywhere for any

women to place themselves,

performance in

key

art

discourses

displacing

dominant

)"+$1% ,# 1&*"H +! + ,Ȫ"+ " )&1"/ ))6 +! Ĳ$2/ 1&3")6H 1 repeated when accompanied

the centre of their work and

instructions.

to assert themselves as active

Performance artists challenge

and self-determining agents

the viewer to approach and

set

conceptualize in

own

narratives.02

the

work

As a politicized strategy

unconventional

ways,

of engagement, performance

breaking ideas

their

down

about

traditional

what

art

is.

Many performance art

art

acknowledges

women’s

bodies as testaments to and subversions

patriarchal

pieces conceive of the artist

oppression. Both performer

as both subject and object.

+! 3&"4"/ /" Ĳ$2/"! 0

%"&/ 20"0 /" ,Ȫ"+ /,,1"! active

subjects,

exchanging

in the bodies and experiences

and negotiating meaning in

and

“the real social condition of

are “made performative by

everyday life.”03 Through these

[artists’] consciousness of them

negotiations, performance art

and the process of displaying

,Ȭ"/0 1%" -,00& &)&16 #,/ 0, & )

them

and

artists

themselves

for

exploring

audiences.”01 the

political

change.

This

and

melding of the personal and

lived experience, disrupting

political is not only central to

male-centric

body

narratives,

01 Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2004), 5.

02 Jayne Wark, Radical Gestures: Feminism and Performance Art in North America (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006), 32. 03 Wark, Radical Gestures, 31-32.

feminism, but also especially

month, Mendieta invited her

powerful in the spheres of

classmates to her apartment,

art and activism. However, an

where she enacted Untitled

emphasis on the personal is not

q -" "+"r. Upon entering

to be confused with isolated

1%/,2$% !,,/ )"Ȫ ' /H

individualism,

Mendieta’s classmates found

artists

women

commonly

seek

%"/ 01/&--"! ȩ,* 1%" 4 &01

combat the way in which the

down and bent over a table,

art world has mythologized

blood smeared on her lower

1%" Ĳ$2/" ,# 1%" * )" /1&01K

,!6 +! -,,)&+$ ,+ 1%" ĳ,,/

as-genius.04

at her feet. Her hands bound

personal narrative is rather

to the table, broken dishware

a means of humanizing and

and bloodied clothes strewn

bringing to light women’s

/,00 1%" ĳ,,/H "+!&"1

lived

had arranged the room so

Emphasis

experiences,

Ĳ+!&+$

and

,++" 1&,+0

similarities

among

+! that it resembled reports of them.

the crime scene. Mendieta

Ana Mendieta’s work

recalled that her audience

"5"*-)&Ĳ"0 %,4 -"/#,/*&+$ “all sat down, and started the female body is a means

talking about it. I didn’t move.

women’s

I stayed in position about an

experiences. In March 1973,

hour. It really jolted them.”06

politicizing an

art

student

the

University of Iowa, Mendieta

Mendieta

went

to stage variations of the

4 0 V*,3"! +! ȩ&$%1"+"!W scene throughout the year, by the brutal and highly publicized rape and murder

challenging

students

,+ȩ,+1 1%" 3&,)"+ " ,# / -"F

of fellow student Sara Ann

She posed semi-naked and

Otten.05

bloody outside on campus,

The

following

04 Ibid., 36-37. 05 Elizabeth Manchester, “Ana Mendieta Untitled (Rape Scene) 1973,” Tate, accessed November 20, 2014, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/ artworks/mendieta-untitled-rape-scene-t13355/ text-summary.

once with a fellow student standing

over

her

taking

pictures as though recording 06

Manchester, “Ana Mendieta.”

the accident for the press or

its

police.

Mendietaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

graphic

tableaux are not reenactments;

political

ČŠ *&+$

artistic

interpretation poses a powerful

1%"6 /" !/ 4+ ČŠ,* 1%" challenge *"!& T0

implications,

/ -"

rape

culture.

Thirty years later, the

and, according to the artist

work of Emma Sulkowicz is

herself, are â&#x20AC;&#x153;a reaction against

taking up the same protest.

the idea of violence against

This time, however, the artist is

women.â&#x20AC;?07 The purpose of

actually the victim. Sulkowicz

these works was to elicit a

claims that during consensual

/"0-,+0" ČŠ,* 1%" 2!&"+ "F sex in her dorm room, she 6 -"/#,/*&+$ &+ !&ČŹ"/"+1 was anally raped by fellow ), 1&,+0H "+!&"1 ČŹ" 1"! student, a

feminist

across the

intervention

campus

horror

that the

kept attack

Paul

Nungesser.

Sulkowicz did not initially /"-,/1 1%" 11 (H 21 ČŞ"/ meeting two other women

ČŠ"0%H !"* +!&+$ /" 1&,+F who also claimed Nungesser These acts underline

had assaulted them, all three

the reality that no space,

decided to report their cases

domestic or otherwise, could

to Columbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administration.

be considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;safeâ&#x20AC;? in light

Columbia

of Ottenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attack, that all

Sulkowiczâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s charges for six

women carry the knowledge

months.

that

denied

they

are

constantly

in danger. By showing the

did

not

When the

hear

Nungesser

charges,

all

three cases were dismissed.

V*"00W +! &!"+1&ČŤ&+$ 4&1% Sulkowicz appealed, but the and performing the victim, "+!&"1

,+ČŠ,+10

dean refused to overturn the

1%" verdict.

Under

Columbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

0-" &Ä˛ &16 ,# / -"H /" (&+$ 6) 40H %&0 !" &0&,+ 4 0 Ä˛+ )F08 the

silence

rendering

anonymous and general. By embracing the personal and 07

Manchester, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ana Mendieta.â&#x20AC;?

08 Vanessa Grigoriadis, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault,â&#x20AC;? The Cut, New ,/( "!& H ) 01 *,!&Ä˛"! "-1"* "/ 98H 2014, http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/09/emma-sulkowicz-campus-sexual-assault-activism. html.

Figure 2. (Top) Ana Mendieta. Untitled ( -" "+"). 1973. Photograph. The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, New York. Figure 3. (Bottom) Emma Sulkowicz in her studio at Columbia University, with the rules of engagement for 11/"00 "/#,/* + "I //6 % 1 "&$%1 on the walls. Photography by Jennifer S. Altman, ČŠ,* V + 11/"00H "3"/ #,/ /1 +! ,)&1& ) /,1"01W 6 , "/1 *&1% q %" "4 ,/( &*"0; The New York Times Company, 21 Sep. 2014; Web; 19 Nov. 2014). Figure 1. (Pages 34-35) Emma Sulkowicz performing 11/"00 "/#,/* + "I //6 % 1 "&$%1 on ,)2* & +&3"/0&16T0 *-20F %,1,$/ -%6 6 +!/"4 2/1,+H ČŠ,* V ,)2* & 12!"+1 //&"0 Mattress Around Campus Until Her Alleged Rapist Is Expelledâ&#x20AC;? by Andrew Burton ( "116 * $"0; Getty Images, 5 Sep. 2014; Web; 19 Nov. 2014).

Sulkowicz, along with

her statement as audio.11 She

twenty-two other Columbia

soon focused on the mattress

and

alone, deciding the simplest

Barnard

students,

Ä˛)"! &1)" in

April,

,*-) &+1 and most public action would

accusing

the

be to carry it. Titled Carry That

administration of systematic

Weight:

mishandling

2)(,4& 7T0

assault

cases.09

claims

that

made

errors

sexual

11/"00 "/#,/* + ", -&" "

/"Äł" 10

Sulkowicz

the conditions of her attack

administrators

in her own dorm bed: â&#x20AC;&#x153;that

and

disrespectfully

acted

during

0- " % 0 " ,*" ČŠ 2$%1 #,/

the

meâ&#x20AC;Śand I feel like Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve carried

hearing process.10 She began

the weight of what happened

expressing

outrage

there with me everywhere

publicly: interviewing with

since then.â&#x20AC;?12 Sulkowicz notes

news outlets, appearing with

that a mattress is â&#x20AC;&#x153;the perfect

her

0"+ 1,/ &/01"+ &))& / +! 1 size for [her] to just be able press conference about sexual

to carry it enough that [she]

assault,

could

and

posting

â&#x20AC;&#x153;rape

continue

with

[her]

listsâ&#x20AC;? with other students in

day but also heavy enough

campus bathrooms, publicly

that [she] ha[s] to continually

+ *&+$ %"/ ))"$"! 11 ("/ 0 struggle with it,â&#x20AC;? paralleling a warning to other students. Then Sulkowicz found

her

daily

psychological

struggle with her rape.13 The

powerful

* 11/"00 &0 %" 36 N Ä˛ČŞ6

outlet for her anger: art. First,

-,2+!0 N +! &!"+1& ) 1, 1%"

another,

0%" * !" 0%,/1 3&!", 1% 1 standard issue one on which showed her dismantling a bed,

she said the rape occurred.14

with the police station tape of

11 Roberta Smith, â&#x20AC;&#x153;In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest,â&#x20AC;? The New York Times, September 21, 2014, http://www.nytimes. com/2014/09/22/arts/design/in-a-mattress-a-fulcrum-of-art-and-political-protest.html?_r=0. 12 Columbia Daily Spectator, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Emma Sulkowicz: Carry That Weight,â&#x20AC;? YouTube, 2 September 2014. 13 Ibid. 14 Stassa Edwards, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Carry that Weight: The Revival of Feminist Performance Art,â&#x20AC;? The Hairpin, September 29, 2014, http://

09 ** ,$)"/H V 12!"+10 Ä˛)" #"!"/ ) complaint against Columbia, alleging Title IX, Title II, Clery Act violations,â&#x20AC;? Columbia Daily Spectator, April 24, 2014, http://columbiaspecta1,/F ,*m+"40m9A8;mA;m9;m012!"+10KÄ˛)"K#"!"/ )K complaint-against-columbia-alleging-title-ix-title-ii-clery. 10 Grigoriadis, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Meet the College Women.â&#x20AC;?

most

is normally found in our

performance art, the piece has

bedroom out into the light is

)" /)6 !"Ĳ+"! - / *"1"/0H supposed to mirror the way which Sulkowicz terms “rules

I’ve talked to the media.”16

of engagement.” Displayed in

By visually manifesting the

her studio on campus, the

psychological

rules are: the performance

the attack, Sulkowicz both

will last until her rapist leaves

demands

campus (or she graduates); the

refuses

mattress will only be carried

privilege of anonymity. Her

on campus; and she cannot ask

performance centres on a body

for help, but can accept help

/" ,+01&121"! Ȫ"/ 3&,) 1&,+ N

weight

recognition her

attacker

of and the

&# ,Ȭ"/"!F q &$F :r 2)(,4& 7 by both her alleged rapist and rarely

walks

someone

far

lending

without

the legal system protecting

%&* N +! 1%" - &+ ,# 1% 1

hand

and entering into “the space

reconstitution. As Sulkowicz

states, it is “an endurance

performance,” a

“collective Just

resulting carry.”15

performance

Sulkowicz’s

-&" " ĳ2 12 1"0 "14""+ 1%" and

art

piece.”17

Intensely

personal

aggressively

political,

solitary and the participatory,

Carry That Weight renews a

it blurs the lines between

1960s tone of radical feminist

private and public, personal

consciousness-raising.

and

literally

"4 ,/( &*"0 characterizes

bringing the scene of the

Sulkowicz as a “messianic”

crime

artist, but as Mendieta’s piece

typically intimate and private

proves, her work is simply

– into plain sight, Sulkowicz

an expansion of the legacy

relocates the subject of rape

art.18 The history of feminist

political. –

public

“carrying

By space

that

consciousness: something

that

thehairpin.com/2014/09/carry-that-weight-therevival-of-feminist-performance-art. 15 Smith, “In a Mattress”

feminist

The

performance

16 Columbia Daily Spectator, “Emma Sulkowicz.” 17 Ibid. 18 Smith, “In a Mattress”

art is a history of the female

performance

body and the ways it has

"Ȭ" 1&3" &+ !/ 4&+$ 11"+1&,+

been

that

to the gendered oppression of

violence is internalized, and

women. Sadly, the fact that

the

expression

these performances still exist

of residual trauma. Mendieta

suggests that there has not

and

""+ *2 % -/,$/"00 Ȫ"/ ))F

terrorized,

how

subsequent Sulkowicz’s

embodied

performances that

within

suggest the

discourse

surrounding rape, there is no separation between the personal and political or the private and public. Mendieta performs the role of victim, implying

this could happen

1, *"H &1 ,2)! % --"+ 1, +6 woman. Sulkowicz takes this idea

one

step

further

saying it did happen to me. By owning her accusation, and -,&+1&+$ %"/ Ĳ+$"/ +,1 ,+)6 at her assailant but also at the university, Sulkowicz acts as both object and subject of

her

piece,

victim

and

accuser. As a public protest against Columbia’s lackluster response to accusations of sexual

assault,

Carry That

Weight has inspired “solidarity carries” This

across

shows

the

that

globe.

feminist

art

still

Bibliography ,$)"/H ** F V 12!"+10 Ä˛)" #"!"/ ) ,*-) &+1 against Columbia, alleging Title IX, Title II, Clery Act violations.â&#x20AC;? Columbia Daily Spectator. Spectator Publishing Company, 24 April 2014. Accessed November 19, 2014. h t t p : / / c o l u m b i a s p e c t a t o r. c o m / n e w s / 2 0 1 4 / 0 4 / 2 4 / s t u d e nt s - f i l e federal-complaint-against-columbiaa l l e g i n g - t i t l e - i x - t i t l e - i i - c l e r y. Carlson,

Marvin. "/#,/* + "I /&1& )

+1/,!2 1&,+. New York: Routledge, 2004. Columbia Daily Spectator. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Emma Sulkowicz: Carry That Weight.â&#x20AC;? Online video clip. ,2 2 ". YouTube, 2 Sep. 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.

Edwards, Stassa. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Carry That Weight: The Revival of Feminist Performance Art.â&#x20AC;? The Hairpin. Michael Macher, September 29, 2014. Accessed November 19, 2014. http://thehairpin.com/2014/09/ c a r r y - t h a t - we i g h t - t h e - r e v i v a l of-feminist-performance-art. Grigoriadis, Vanessa. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault.â&#x20AC;? The Cut. September 21, 2014. Accessed November 19, 2014. http://nymag.com/ thecut/2014/09/emma-sulkowiczcampus-sexual-assault-activism.html.

Manchester, Elizabeth. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ana Mendieta Untitled q -" "+"r 8@>:FW 1"F 01 *,!&Ä˛"! October 2009. http://www.tate.org. uk/art/artworks/mendieta-untitledrape-scene-t13355/text-summary. Smith, Roberta. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest.â&#x20AC;? %" "4 ,/( Times. September 21, 2014. Accessed November 19, 2014. http://www.nytimes. com/2014/09/22/arts/design/ in-a-mattress-a-fulcrum-of-artand-political-protest.html?_r=0. Sulkowicz,

Wark,

Emma. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My Rapist Is Still on Campus.â&#x20AC;? Time. May 15, 2014. Web. 19 November 2014.

Jayne. !& ) "012/"0I "*&+&0* +! "/#,/* + " /1 &+ ,/1% *"/& .

Montreal: McGill-Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s University Press, 2006. Accessed November 19, 2014. http:// w w w. m qup . c a / r a d i c a l - g e s t u r e s products-9780773529564.php.

Sara Kloepfer â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Sara Kloepfer is a U3 Cultural Studies major with a double minor in Art History and Communications. She is drawn to contemporary art, especially Ä˛)* +! -%,1,$/ -%6F + %"/ ,4+ 4/&1&+$H 0%" engages with power dynamics relating to gender, race, and sexuality. She wrote this piece to highlight the unacknowledged institutional bias towards covering up rape on college campuses.

Unproductive Reflections: Towards A Queer Phenomenology of (dis)Ability

By Josh Falek

+-/,!2 1&3" "ĳ" 1&,+0I ,4 /!0 2""/ Phenomenology of (dis)Ability A family tree is not just

intimate

history,

relying upon her experiences 0 *,01 !"Ĳ+&+$ #,/ 1%" 1"51F

but an elaboration of one’s

Therefore, while her narrative

own

between

presents a dearth of disability

horizontal and vertical axes,

discourse, this absence makes

these charts delineate those

apparent those bodies that

who have begotten and those

are unaligned in the most

begot. Sara Ahmed utilizes

material

source.

Set

this key structure in 2""/ by %"+,*"+,),$6

Moreover,

examining

Ahmed’s

explain

silences, one can utilize these

that queerness is a moment

voids for the cultivation of

phenomenologies

when one’s body is misaligned

unproductive.

Ahmed’s

with social order, pointing

critique of heteronormative

towards

linearity can be complicated

slantwise

sense.

disorientation,

other

potentials.

the

%&)" %*"!T0 !"Ĳ+&1&,+ by embracing radical models &0 "51/"*")6 ȩ2&1#2)H 1%"/" of exists

the

possibility

disability,

incorporating

conceptions of accessibility

--/,-/& 1" 1%&0 ȩ *"4,/( and barriers to the discussion. for those whose bodies are

A phenomenological model

not only misaligned socially

of disability will investigate

but

4% 1 !"Ĳ+"0 -,&+10 ,/ , '" 10

physically,

diagnosis

and

through (dis)ability.

as divergent barriers, as lines

This is not to say that Ahmed

do not merely extend, but

forgets ability, but instead,

encounter and pass through

remains

within

what they point towards. I

tradition:

will argue that barriers can

strictly

phenomenological

01 / %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6I /&"+1 1&,+0H '" 10H 1%"/0 (Durham: Duke +&3"/0&16 /"00H 9AA=rH 8=<

1 0 /"ĳ" 1&3" 02/# "0H rather

than

arresting

forces. Expanding on Ahmed’s

phenomenology, I will put

anchoring.”06 Each of these

forward a new understanding

points (im)presses upon the

of how objects and orientations

,!6H Ȭ" 1&+$

-/,!2 "

/"ĳ" 1&,+0

,# through

unproductivity. Ahmed

,/-,/" )&16

“accumulat[ing]…to

create lines” in the direction situates

her

our

orientation.07

Such

phenomenology around the

lines also maintain normative

body, which she argues has

power dynamics, for anyone

0-" &Ĳ ,/&"+1 1&,+ 1% 1 who

turns

away,

describes our extensions into

objects

space.02 The body is said to

)&+"0H &0 !"- /1&+$ ȩ,*H +!

either be oriented, at home

potentially threatening, the

and comfortable inhabiting

dominant social structure.08

space, as if one was wearing

Ahmed

a warm set of footie pajamas,

as such a turn, as it requires

or disoriented, with nauseous

either

awareness

(gendered)

its

lack

)&$+*"+1 +! Ĳ1F03 orientation

of Our

outside

towards of

situates an

these

queerness ‘improperly’

object

orientation.09 Ahmed reaches

determined

this

by the proximity of other

her

points to our body, and in

Ponty’s

turn our body determines

"/ "-1&,+H 4%& %

which of those points is most

1% 1 + Ȭ" 1&3")6 .2""/

proximate.04 Therefore, we are

direction is achieved when

not only oriented, but oriented

the axis are reoriented to

1,4 /!0 +! 4 6 ȩ,* ,1%"/ be points, namely, objects and

conclusion reading

through Merleau-

%"+,*"+,),$6

slant-wise,

0-" &Ĳ"0

rather

vertical/horizontal,

due

than to

futures.05 %*"! ) /&Ĳ"0 1% 1 1%" /"ĳ" 1&,+ ,# )&+" 1 these objects or points are landmarks, “that give us our 02 03 04 05 24.

%*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6H 35. %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6H 35. Ahmed, 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6H 73-74. %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 20-

a 45° angle.10 Therefore, to 06 07 08 167. 09 10

%*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 9. Ahmed, 2""/ %"+,*,+,),$6H 30. Ahmed, 2""/ %"+,*,+,),$6, 165Ahmed, 2""/ %"+,*,+,),$6H 154. Ahmed, 2""/ %"+,*,+,),$6H 163.

be queer is to be diagonal

barrier-as-blockage

in a world premised on the

nearly

enough

straightness of an allegiance

to express the precarity of

inaccessibility.

the

horizontal-vertical

complex

not

Barriers

are

5"0F 1 &0 ȩ,* 1%&0 -,&+1H not merely a stop sign that 1% 1 &1 &0 "+"Ĳ & ) 1, 12/+ 1, cause

pause

exclusion.

radical models of disability

Phenomenologically,

inspect

barriers

Ahmed’s account of linearity.

mirrors.

question

and

While disability has

are

these

As light strikes

the mirror’s surface, it is

""+ 1%",/&7"! !&Ȭ"/"+1)6 /"ĳ" 1"! 4 6 ȩ,* 1%" across time and space, recent

barrier. More rarely, it will

“radical” models of disability

have illuminated the process of

through

social construction, in which

only when colliding at a

existing

0-" &Ĳ"! *,!"H !&/" 1&,+ +!

power

structures

transmitted the

&!"+1&ȫ !&Ȭ"/"+ "0H 4%& % orientation

completely barrier,

but

collision.

are then deemed unacceptable

does not completely eliminate

and thus, labelled disability.11

one’s ability to act, but creates

F F &1%"/0 #2/1%"/ !"Ĳ+"0 and produces new forms of disability, barriers

explaining prevent

how

access

production.

These

are

squarely

placed

barriers down

certain things. People who are

the normativity-reproducing

unable to pass through these

Y-vertical axis of Ahmed’s

//&"/0 /" 1%"+ !"Ĳ+"! phenomenological strata. Not as

un-able,

and

therefore,

"3"/6 /"ĳ" 1&,+ 1/ +0-,/10 ,+"

dis-abled.12 However, for a

to queerness; one can graze

queer

these barriers, transmitting a

phenomenological

ȩ *"4,/(

!&0 &)&16H form of opaque light, a ghost

11 A. J. WithersH &0 &)&16 ,)&1& 0 +! Theory q )&# 5H F FI "/+4,,! 2 FH 9A89rH <F 12 Theory, 5.

WithersH &0 &)&16 ,)&1& 0 +!

compared to a transmission that strikes the barrier at the "5 1 0-" &Ĳ &16 +""!"! #,/

bypass. This proposal provides

to queerness but not to the

a much-needed obstruction to

label of “Gay.”13 The response

Ahmed’s “lines,” which may

/" "&3"! *,01 ,Ȫ"+ 1,

" &+1"/0" 1"!H 21 ,Ȫ"+ 4&1% #,)(0 /" "&3&+$ ,+Ĳ/* 1&,+ the possibility of the turn. The

of my deviance was: “How

mirror model seeks to provide

do you know if you haven’t

for

without

kissed/loved/etc. a boy yet?”

possibility of turn. For further

Their queries were a direct

explication, I turn to my own

response to my questioning of

experiences to trace out the

compulsory

history

they questioned my identity

encounters

and

formation

my queerness and disability. I have known I was

because

heterosexuality;

threatened

dominant

social

This

debated telling my parents

example

for some time, but feeling

Ahmed

overwhelmed

are

applied

blurted out my secret to my

and

discipline

sister.

producing normative power

Word

day,

soon

spread

just

structure.

queer since I was ten. I

one

the

one

the

claims

ȩ,* *6 0&01"/H 1, *6 *,1%"/H dynamics.14

small

way

that

these

axes

manage queerness,

However,

their

to my father, to my aunt,

questioning only served to

who then won ten dollars

disorient me further, for my

ȩ,* *6 2+ )" ,Ȭ ,# + ,)! choice of identity had never 4 $"/ * !" Ȫ"/ 4 1 %&+$

been solely due to my object-

the

choice, but also due to a

relative familial acceptance,

minimal orientation towards

there was no possibility of

masculinity.

dance.

Despite

/" ,$+&1&,+ ȩ,* +6 0,/1 ,# these

repetitive

Therefore, questions,

grander societal mirror. My

insults to the basis of my

orientation,

queerness, served to inspire

turned

strictly

4 6 ȩ,* %"1"/,+,/* 1&3&16H deeper gender exploration to brought

greater

proximity

13 14

%*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 179. %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 179.

ensure absolute validation of

could feel at home no matter

my identity. Having learned

what physical room I was

ȩ,* *6 /" "+1 / &173 % in, for I was always in a chat that

adulthood

ȩ,* &!"+1&16

follows

room. Too deeply oriented

,+Ĳ/* 1&,+H 4 6 ȩ,* %"1"/,+,/* 1&3&16

1/&"! 1, Ĳ+! 1% 1 0 *" to be folded in, my lack of 3 )&! 1&,+ ȩ,* *6 .2""/ straightening

directed

community. However, due to

towards a search for other

the rural geography of North

queers, which I only knew to

Carolina, this did not take

exist within sexual exploits.

the

form

My repeated turn to the chat

of joining a Gay Straight

room, and towards queerness,

Alliance, but through a turn

took the form of an alternative

towards my most familiar

bodily horizon, which then

object,

impressed

age-appropriate

the

computer.

itself

upon

The computer appears

body.17 The repeated tracings

for me just as the table

of my teenage impulsions

appears

could

most

familiar

for

not

disappear

into

Husserl and Ahmed.15 Just

heteronormativity,

as their orientation towards

architectural “desire lines,”

writing directed them toward

they merely inscribed these

inhabiting rooms that allowed

deviations further into my own

them to write, I inhabited

landscape the more I followed

the many chat rooms that

1%"

allowed me to reach across

V,Ȭ

,2/0"W

- 1%F18

This was not just

the internet.16 In these spaces,

I was able to expand and

It was an expansion of my

inhabit, so long as I didn’t

orientation.

mention my age. Otherwise, I

ȩ,* *6 #,/*"/ !"*&

would hear a chorus of “Come

focus and unable to bypass

back in a few years, kid.” I

the youth consent laws that

15 16

17 144. 18

%*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 33. %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 33.

extracurricular

activity.

Disoriented

%*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 142 %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 176.

("-1 *" ȩ,* "+$ $&+$ &+ did doing. My near academic my lust, I almost failed my

failure lead to the barriers,

eighth grade science class,

which lead to my diagnosis,

passing by just a few marks.

prescription,

My parents did the thing

years of pill swallowing. I

any reasonable middle-class

* Ȭ" 1"! 1, 1%&0 ! 6H 0

Jewish parent would: they had

continue to take Adderall.

their child tested for ADHD

This interaction with

at the recommendation of

the barrier was not just a

the school counsellor. Bingo!

/",/&"+1 1&,+H 21 /"ĳ" 1&,+F

Diagnosis,

prescription,

and

object-choice

(gender)

they told me it would all

created

get better now. Through this

queerness.

action,

was

towards this divergent point,

held under the straightening

I bracketed that future of

gaze of the medical model

- 00&+$ 1% 1 "&$%1% $/ !" Ĳ+ )

of disability. My expansion

exam. This academic barrier

into it was amended, for

worked as a mirror to divert

while they could not control

my path, to change what it

meant for this object to be

queerness

queerness,

they

could

control how distracted I was. There to

Ahmed’s

is claim

truth that

“Orientations toward sexual

impressed

eight

line As

upon

towards I

turned

skin.

Having more than grazed that *&//,/H *6 )&$%1 /"ĳ" 1"! 1 an obtuse angle. For it was

, '" 10 Ȭ" 1 ,1%"/ 1%&+$0 not simply an intersection, that we do.”19 It is very clear

but a collision. Barriers such

%,4 1%&0 !&Ȭ"/"+1 #,/* ,# as these do not just create desire, inhabiting chat rooms

new trails, they expose the

+! 12/+&+$ 12/+ 4 6 ȩ,* objects that have the greatest 1%" K 5&0 +,1 ,+)6 Ȭ" 1"! consequence on our most the way I did other things, but also the way in which I 19

%*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 170.

primary

point:

the

While

body. bodies

do not have direction, moving

in a direction may replicate

two components: label and

those lines upon the skin,

opportunity. To be pointed

manifesting

towards one, may yield the

repetition shapes the body,

other in greater proximity.

then to have your body so

However, without one being

texture.20

why

disability

!&0,/&"+1"! 0 1, " /"ĳ" 1"! labeled is

the

than

shaping,

transportation,

disability

requires

unproductive,

merely

the

!&Ȭ"/"+ "F

the

towards the labeling allowed

body. It is the permanence of

for this opportunity to trace

a turn. If these barriers are

itself onto my skin.

situated directly upon the

my line more askew and

Y-axis, then any non-vertical

proximity

movement is punished by

object

recontextualization

exists

-/,5&*&16

With

amended,

itself,

crashed

the into

"&+$ /"ĳ" 1"! ,210&!" ,# my line. There was no turn these barriers. One could say

,2)! % 3" * !" Ȫ"/

that to approach a barrier and

reaching this mirror, there

" /"ĳ" 1"! ,214 /!0 4,2)! was no way to orient myself require transmission at an

!&Ȭ"/"+1)6I Ȫ"/ *6 )&$%1 4 0

angle preferably at least that of

/"ȩ 1"! /,00 1%" 3,&! +!

Merleau-Ponty’s queer 45°.21

into that cold Psychiatrist’s

This is why investing in

,ȯ "H 4 0 01 0 !&3"/$"+1H

queerness brings only queerer

!&0 )"!H 2+ )"F 6 Ȭ" 1&+$

things. It is only through

the proximity and orientation

these turns that one feels the

towards

texture of the skin retain a

the mirror creates identity.

particular permanence. Had

There are other more

many

I never turned to queerness,

obvious

who knows if I would have

1 0 /"ĳ" 1&3" //&"/0I

ever been diagnosed? This

* //& $" 3,40 ,Ȫ"+ &+ )2!"

20 21

Ahmed, 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 28. %*"!H 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6, 163.

the

ways

objects,

question

that

one

points

will

take the other “for richer

+! " /"ĳ" 1"! 01/ &$%1 (

for

into

poorer,

for

better

for

worse, and in sickness and in

the

horizontal-vertical

axes of homonormativity. This

%" )1%FW 1 &0 +,1 ,Ȫ"+ 1% 1 is another instance in which the other will respond “No,

the state’s systems of power

only in sickness, I don’t want

) ") !&Ȭ"/"+ " 0 !&0 &)&16H

you when you’re healthy.” I

unqueering

have been seeing the same

However, my line will always

person for nearly a year and

remain queer in so many other

a half now. As both of us are

ways, for the only way I want

neurodivergent,

unaligned

to marry him is if we are sick.

with what is conceptualized

I will not take him in health.

as the mental normality, and

Not all lines extend

as he is a Canadian and I am

similarly, but all lines may be

American, we have had many

forced to change direction.

conversations as to what it will

Just as I had hoped to have

mean in the future for me to

*&//,/ /"ĳ" 1 ( 1,

obtain permanent residence

and health care in Canada.

queerness at an early age,

Although we are both opposed

1%&0 *&//,/ /"ĳ" 1"! ( 1%"

to marriage, it has always been

decisions that would enable

mentioned as a last resort to

the formation of an identity.

ensure health and happiness.

Proximity

one’s

line.

,+Ĳ/* 1&,+ ,# *6

only

explains

2/ )&$+*"+1 4 6 ȩ,* 1%" distance; it does not explore state and dominant structures

the ways in which these

of power is one that can only

objects

be maintained so long as I can

upon our skin. These marks

impress

themselves

Ȭ,/! *"!& 1&,+ &+ + ! F are not only determined by But if either of us got sick(er),

our closeness to an object,

I would be “taking him in

21 1%" &)&16 #,/ &1 1, /"ĳ" 1H

sickness,” not “in health.” Our

direct, and connect to our

slantwise line may hit a barrier

bodies. Our bodies are always

marked not only by the turns, but by the objects. They are +, )"00 Ȭ" 1&+$ 1% + 4" are. Through Ahmed’s 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6 and disability

radical

discourse,

one

can produce not only novel conceptions of disability but trace its labeling, exposing what objects, what choices, and it

what to

identities

greater

yield

proximity.

Phenomenology is a crucial access

point

marginalized told

allow

stories

within

for

contexts

choices, objects and futures, and there is a very clear need for greater works on Queer phenomenology of disability. Discussions of barriers are nothing

new

disability

studies, but at its root, this unique intersection of critical 1%",/6 ,Ȭ"/0 &+0&$%1 &+1, potential

and

precarity.

exposes how the tenderest of for

impressions one’s

can

allow

extension

across

space and through time to be altered into permanence.

Bibliography Ahmed, Sara. 2""/ %"+,*"+,),$6I /&"+1 1&,+0H '" 10H 1%"/0. Durham: Duke UP, 2006.

Withers,

&0 &)&16 ,)&1& 0 +! %",/6.

Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood Pub., 2012.

Joshua Falek â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Joshua Falek is in their last year at McGill University

and

currently

studying

queer

theory, neoliberalism and disability studies. At the current moment, they are most interested in the intersections between Jewish and queer conceptions of lineage and futurity. Their favourite +&* )0 /" 10H '"))6 Ä˛0% +! $& +1 0.2&!0F

Spilling Over Colonial Enclosures: Indigenous Artists and Representations in Street and Land Art

By MĂŠlanie Wittes

Spilling Over Colonial Enclosures: Indigenous Artists and Representations in Street and Land Art Indigenous

art

has

"5&01"+ " &+ + ! +! / Ȫ

,Ȫ"+ ""+ 20"! 0 1,,) ,# their own identities outside resistance to the continued

of colonial institutions. These

oppression

outlets become canvases for

peoples

Canada,

colonial

Indigenous

structures

institutions

Indigenous

people

re-

and

appropriate

land

that

was

While

once theirs and to make their

much of this contemporary

decolonizing art accessible to

resistance art is exhibited in

4&!"/ 2!&"+ "F 4&)) Ĳ/01

art galleries and, to a lesser

begin with a discussion of

extent, in museums, there

the role of museums (and, to

are

through

some extent, art galleries) in

which Indigenous resistance

the perpetuation of colonial

is disseminated. Two such

structures

places are in the street and

imposed

on the land. Indigenous street

people. Next, I will explore

and land art have become

the ways in which street

increasingly

artists

other

within of by

the

persist.

where

venues

prevalent active

decolonization Indigenous

project executed

identities Indigenous

represent

their

identities outside of colonial &+01&121&,+ ) ,+Ĳ+"0 +! &+

non-

urban spaces, looking at the

alike.

works of Red Bandit. I will

In this essay, I argue that

then examine the creation

street

art are a

of accessible decolonizing art

means by which Indigenous

both on reserves, through the

people assert their continued

work of Tom GreyEyes, and

01 Street art in this essay refers to art that is generally done in a more urban setting and that is exposed on any sort of human-made structure, such as buildings or fences. 02 I am not referring to the land art *,3"*"+1 which occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, but rather to land art in a general sense, meaning art that uses as its primary medium the land and nature.

in non-reserve urban areas,

Indigenous 01

and

people

and land

through the work of Chris Bose. Finally, I will end with a discussion of the ways in

which land art can express

objects that would have been

Indigenous identities through

used in ceremonies were taken

its

ȩ,*

mix

and

traditionalism

contemporaneity

exploring

-",-)"0H

,Ȫ"+ 4&1%,21 ,*-"+0 1&,+F04

work

These captured objects were

Cheryl

L’Hirondelle.

then given to museums and

Many

Canadian

art galleries, in particular the

large

National Gallery of Canada in

collections of art made by

Ottawa (NGC) and the Royal

museums

the

+!&$"+,20

hold

+!&$"+,20 -",-)"0 ȩ,* 1%" Ontario Museum in Toronto.05 land now considered Canada. Much

these

collections

Though the Potlatch + 4 0 /"*,3"! ȩ,* 1%"

are due to the fact that the

Indian Act in 1951, the legacies

early twentieth century in

of the ban remain on display

Canada was considered the

in art galleries and museums.

“age of great collecting” for

The

museums.03 This collecting,

objects

practice

(which

collecting are

then

%,4"3"/H 4 0 ,Ȫ"+ //&"! ,21 constructed as ‘artifacts’) can in a manner quite detrimental

thus be understood as a form

Indigenous

peoples.

conquest,

whereby

the

The Potlatch Ban, instated

collected artifacts are viewed

in 1884 under the Indian

as a sign of victory of the

Act,

conquerors over a conquered

prevented

peoples

all

Indigenous

over

Canada

people. Once these artifacts

ȩ,* -/ 1& &+$ 1/ !&1&,+ ) have been collected, they are ceremonies and rituals such

then made to conform to a

as the Potlatch, which is a

new social order imposed

$&ȪK$&3&+$ by

#" 01

Indigenous

-/ 1& "! by the venue in which they

peoples

1%" &Ĳ ,/1%4"01 , 01F Because of this ban, many 03 Douglas Cole, -12/"! "/&1 $"I %" / * )" #,/ ,/1%4"01 , 01 /1&# 10 (UBC Press, 1995), 279.

are being displayed.06 Indeed, 04 Ibid., 249, 253. 05 Ibid., 254. 06 Constance Classen and David Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” in "+0& )" '" 10I ,),+& )&0*H 20"2*0 +! 1"/& ) Culture, ed. Elizabeth Edwards et al. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2006), 209.

the

ethnographic

museum

museums, though, in reality,

was supposed to represent

few objects in their natural

a model of an ideal colonial

environments

empire, perfectly controlled

V /1&Ĳ & ))6 1"*-,/ ) )&#"W

and imposed upon the people

of artifacts in a museum.11

native to the land.07 This

Galleries and museums thus

space of “law and order”

create

creates a point of contact for

what traits of indigeneity are

Westerners to experience a

S 21%"+1& HT 4%& % /" ,Ȫ"+

safe interaction with ‘other

traits that are temporalized

worlds’

that

Western of

conform

representations

non-Western

cultures.08

Indeed, the ‘artifacts’

survive

narrative

pristine

past,

the

about

rather

than in a dynamic present. As elucidated by historian *"0

)&Ȭ,/!H

*20"2*0

displayed serve as metonyms

and galleries become contact

that

zones of ongoing encounters

create

image

the imaginary Other.09 The

between

galleries

museums

people complicit in ongoing

determine the authenticity of

colonialism) and the colonized,

objects, as they decide what

which

is to be kept or discarded,

them as colonial institutions.12

and

displayed or stored away.10 These are been

‘authentic’ presented conserved

as for

colonizers

thus The

(or

characterizes notion

objects

‘authenticity’ can be extremely

having

limiting

many

for

Indigenous

identities because it serves

decades or even centuries in

a pristine state through their

that do not conform to the

exhibition in galleries and

mold of what is deemed to

07 Ibid., 210. 08 Ibid., 203, 210. 09 Sven Ouzman, “The Beauty of Letting Go: Fragmentary Museums and Archaeologies of Archive,” in "+0& )" '" 10I ,),+& )&0*H 20"2*0 +! 1"/& ) 2)12/", ed. Elizabeth Edwards et al. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2006), 271. 10 Ibid., 274.

delegitimize

identities

be ‘authentic.’ As Indigenous 11 Classen and Howes, “The Museum,” 215. 12 "ȳ"6 3&! ")!* +H V ,+1 1 Points: Museums and the Lost Body Problem,” in "+0& )" '" 10I ,),+& )&0*H 20"2*0 +! terial Culture, ed. Elizabeth Edwards et al. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2006), 253.

artist

and

advocate

Kent

for many Indigenous artists

Monkman explains, “Under

such as Kent Monkman, one of

the

‘cultural

the purposes of their art is to

preservation’ and ‘ethnology,’

mark a space for their enduring

these

-/"0"+ "H 4%& % &0 ,Ȫ"+

guise

contrived

romantic

images ultimately serve a more

space of resistance against

sinister agenda of cultural

colonialism and its legacies.15

and

racial

discussed,

depicted as relics of the past,

museums

have

and romantic casualties of

designed

a dying race, they would

accurate image of Indigenous

irrelevant,

people and their identities.

future.”13

Indigenous artists in Canada

Native

and

obliteration:

people

could

innocuous, without

previously galleries not portray

and been an

Museums and galleries – and

% 3" ,Ȫ"+ "5-/"00"! #"")&+$

the romanticized image of

that

Indigenous people that they

themselves”

perpetuate – can therefore be

and galleries and that they

very problematic, because, by

feel marginalized by them.16

depicting Indigenous people

Though contemporary works

as communities or artifacts

further

exhibited in these institutions,

Indigenous

such as in the ( %ĕ+ exhibit

people in the present. Jarrett

at the NGC in 2013, their

Martineau and Eric Ritskes,

presence there continues to

two academics who study

be an exception instead of the

decolonization

and

norm. Before ( %ĕ+, it had

praxis, argue that art-making

been twenty-one years since

has always been integral to

“Fugitive Indigeneity: Reclaiming the Terrain of Decolonial Struggle Through Indigenous Art,” " ,),+&7 1&,+I +!&$"+"&16H !2 1&,+ ] , &"16 3.1 (2014): 9. 15 Ibid., 1. 16 Susan D. Dion and Angela Salamanca, “inVISIBILITY: Indigenous in the City-Indigenous Artists, Indigenous Youth and the Project of Survivance,” " ,),+&7 1&,+I +!&$"+"&16H !2 1&,+ ] , &"16 3.1 (2014): 165.

the

past,

erasure

they of

theory

Indigenous survival.14 Thus, 13 Kathleen Virginia Ritter and Tania Willard, " 1 1&,+I /1H &- ,- +! ,/&$&+ ) Culture (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with Grunt Gallery, 2012), 14 Jarrett Martineau and Eric Ritskes,

they

do in

Indigenous

not

“see

museums

artists

are

the last major exhibition of

public. She is one of many

contemporary Indigenous art

street artists who participated

at the NGC with the exhibit

in the Decolonizing Street Art

+!H -&/&1H +! ,4"/ in 1992.17

convergence of August 2014.

For certain Indigenous artists,

She explains that, given that

street

therefore

she grew up in a â&#x20AC;&#x153;very white,

become venues to exhibit their

very colonialist environment,â&#x20AC;?

and

land

4,/( ,210&!" ,# 1%" ,+Ä˛+"0 0%" % 0 #,2+! &1 !&ČŻ 2)1 1, inherent in museums and

connect with her Indigenous

galleries:

identity

â&#x20AC;&#x153;[Indigenous

art]

and

view

Ä˛$%10 1, /" )&7" +!&$"+,20 positively.19 Her art focuses on alternatives. Äł,40H

[â&#x20AC;Ś]

2&)!0

Creativity +!

the importance of traditional

0-&))0 styles

revitalizing

over and through colonial

Indigenous

enclosures, exceeding them.â&#x20AC;?18

epistemologies.20 For example,

By working outside of the

she created a spray-painted

physical

piece of what appears to be a

and

metaphorical

boundaries

cultures

and

colonial

man whose face is styled as a

institutions, Indigenous artists

traditional Northwest Coast

can

mask. (Fig. 1) His tongue is

represent

according

themselves own

out and he sports a side-swept

identities.

hairstyle. His face is primarily

Red Bandit, a mixed

painted in red, but he has

self-determined

+!&$"+,20

their

-"/0,+

ČŠ,* very bold white teeth. This

Canada, is one such artist

face seems to represent four

who uses street art as a means

things. First, it would seem to

to represent her identity as

represent the Canadianization

a contemporary Indigenous

person by exhibiting her work outside of galleries in order to make it visible to a vast 17 Ibid., 165. 18 Martineau and Ritskes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fugitive Indigeneity,â&#x20AC;? 4.

Indigenous

identity.

19 â&#x20AC;&#x153;ITW #4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Red Bandit,â&#x20AC;? YouTube video, 3:32, posted by â&#x20AC;&#x153;Decolonizing Street Art,â&#x20AC;? August 31, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TPZwOVQK6nY. 20 Red Bandit, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Red Bandit: Decolonizing Streetart,â&#x20AC;? Decolonizing Street Art, accessed Nov. 30, 2014, http://decolonizingstreetart.com/.

6363

The red and white colours are

reminiscent

the

+ !& + ĳ $H 4%&)" 1%" face itself looks traditionally Indigenous. Thus, I would argue that this face represents the dynamic and changing nature of Indigenous (and of all) identities. Second, given that the man has a modernlooking hairstyle, I would contend that he represents the

fact

that

Indigenous

people do not solely exist in a static past, but rather actively exist in the contemporary and ever-changing present, and that they have identities

Figure 1. (Top) Red Bandit, +1&1)"!H Spray paint on cement wall, Montreal; Accessed Dec. 1, 9A8; ȩ,* 1%" " ,),+&7&+$ 1/""1 /1 4" 0&1" <http://decolonizingstreetart.com/artists/ red-bandit/>. Figure 2. (Bottom) Red Bandit, Untitled, Wheatpaste on stucco wall, Montreal; Accessed Nov. :AH 9A8; ȩ,* 1%" " ,),+&7&+$ 1/""1 /1 4" site <http://decolonizingstreetart.com/artists/ red-bandit/>.

that

are

rediscovered

and

of Indigenous people has been

reinterpreted.21 Third, given

erased in these urban centres,

that the red paint overpowers

in what Dene scholar Glen

the white, I would posit that

Coulthard has termed “urbs

this is perhaps representative

nullius.” The purpose of “urbs

of Red Bandit’s Indigenous

nullius” is to erase Indigenous

identity

life in an urban context by

overpowering

identity

her

Canadian.

/")"$ 1&+$

,+Ĳ+&+$

Finally, given once again the

Indigenous people to reserves,

prominence of the red paint

prisons, and “other carceral

over the white, this image

venues

may represent the continual

and history texts” in order

resistance

to further settler expansion

Indigenous

such

museums

people to assimilation. Red

Bandit therefore presents the

streets

dynamic nature of identities

a metaphor for the colonial

and

Indigenous

process.24 Therefore, in order

identity in particular very

to decolonize urban centres, it

visible in an urban setting.

is important to reclaim such

makes

themselves

The

become

population

spaces through the presence

of Indigenous people live in

of Indigenous people and,

non-reserve

centres.

by extension, their art.25 A

Indeed, nearly half of all

second important piece by

Indigenous youth in Canada

Red Bandit, also shown at

live

the 2014 convergence, is a

large

$"+1/&Ĳ 1&,+F23

urban

non-reserve

urban

centres, many of whom live

wheatpaste

raggedly-

near large cities like Toronto

shaped traditional Northwest

or Montreal.22 Yet the presence

Coast-style thunderbird. (Fig.

21 Kathleen Virginia Ritter and Tania Willard, " 1 1&,+I /1H &- ,- +! ,/&$&+ ) Culture (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with Grunt Gallery, 2012), 9. 22 Marianne Ignace and George Ignace, “Tagging, Rapping, and the Voices of the Ancestors: Expressing Aboriginal Identity Between the Small City and the Rez,” in The Small &1&"0 ,,(I + 1%" 2)12/ ) 212/" ,# * )) &1&"0 (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2005), 305.

2) The meaning behind this piece is that, though Red 23 Martineau and Ritskes, “Fugitive Indigeneity,” 7. 24 Ritter and Willard, " 1 1&,+, 11. 25 Martineau and Ritskes, “Fugitive Indigeneity,” 7.

Banditâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture is struggling

are formed, be they in urban

to remain strong and present

or rural spaces, on buildings

within the Canadian context,

she and the people of her

is fundamentally based on

culture

power

land-acquisition and resource

cultural

extraction for capital gain,

have

reclaim

the their

the

land.

Colonization

identity.26 This piece depicts

4%& % % 0 1%" &+1"+!"! "ČŹ" 1

a very traditional Northwest

of dispossessing Indigenous

Coast symbol, but alters it

-",-)"0

represent

situation

that

ČŠ,*

1%"

) +!F

the

present

Thus, â&#x20AC;&#x153;decolonization must

her

culture

involve forms of education

faces, which is representative

that

too of the struggles that she

peoples to land and the social

faces with her own cultural

relations,

identity.

) +$2 $"0 1% 1 /&0" ČŠ,*

Red

Bandit

reconnect

Indigenous

knowledges

and

therefore contemporizing her

the land.â&#x20AC;?27 The education,

cultural traditions and is, by

in this context, is provided

virtue of creating street art,

through street and land art,

making her identity as an

which

Indigenous woman visible in

artists to reconnect with their

daily urban spaces in order

land-based

GreyEyes, an interdisciplinary

make

herself

and

her

allows

Indigenous

identities.

Tom

nation present and relevant

&+Ä¨ q 3 ',r /1&01 ČŠ,*

This

Arizona, makes art as a way of

constitutes a resistance to the

reclaiming a part of his own

enduring colonial structures

identity.28 He explains that he

that

erase

the

visibility

creates street art in order to

Indigenous

peoples

make it accessible to people

the

modern

Canada,

day.

through

such

processes as â&#x20AC;&#x153;urbs nullius.â&#x20AC;? Identities are tied to the land on which those identities 26

Decolonizing Street Art, â&#x20AC;&#x153;ITW #4.â&#x20AC;?

living in reserves, because 27 Matthew Wildcat et al., â&#x20AC;&#x153;Learning ČŠ,* 1%" +!I +!&$"+,20 +! 0"! "! $,$6 and Decolonization,â&#x20AC;? " ,),+&7 1&,+I +!&$"+"&16H !2 1&,+ ] , &"16 3.3 (2014): 1. 28 Tom GreyEyes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Outside Art,â&#x20AC;? last *,!&Ä˛"! "-1"* "/ =H 9A8:H http://greyeyesart. com.

these communities do not

This mural (Figs. 3 and 4)

necessarily

galleries

incorporates many traditional

where they can see artwork.

Diné symbols. For instance,

These

places

the hummingbird “represents

become

spaces

“the

have

therefore to

message,”

spread is

manifestation of a blessing.”31

,Ȫ"+ ,+" ,# !" ,),+&7 1&,+F29

The man and woman in the

GreyEyes was integral

centre of the mural represent

in the Fuzzy Mountain Mural

the male-female duality that

Project, the aim of which

is the essence of Diné life and

was to turn an abandoned

existence. The hair of both the

community

the

man and the woman is tied

in a bun (tsiyeel) to represent

into

pride in the Diné way of life,

remote Navajo, a

which

perseverance and is a physical

centre

community New

Mexico

“community

canvas.”

29 Jarrett Martineau, “An Interview with Tom GreyEyes on Street Art, Honor the Treaties and ‘Dreaming a New World Into Being,’” " ,),+&7 1&,+I +!&$"+"&16H !2 1&,+ ] Society 3.1 (2014): 227. 30 “Outside Art.”

as hair in Diné culture holds knowledge and wisdom. The squash, which is a central 31

Ibid.

food in many North American Indigenous

cultures,

holds

a political message: namely, of

â&#x20AC;&#x153;the

seeds

change

we must plant in order to revitalize our traditional food systems as a means to assert food sovereignty.â&#x20AC;?32 The bear represents protection and the need to protect the DinĂŠ way of life. The principal tenets of DinĂŠ philosophy are written out, such as +&10Ä&#x201D;%Ä&#x201D;(""0 (critical thinking and mental strength) and iinĂĄ (the importance of DinĂŠ standards of living for quality of life). Finally, in 32

Ibid.

Figure 3. q "ČŞr ,* /"6 6"0H 2776 ,2+1 &+ 2/ ) /,'" 1, Spray paint on building, Navajo, "4 "5& ,J "00"! " F 8H 9A8; ČŠ,* 1%" Tom GreyEyes website <http://greyeyesart.com/ tagged/greyeyesartoutside>. Figure 4. Tom GreyEyes, 2776 ,2+1 &+ 2/ ) /,'" 1, Spray paint on building, Navajo, New "5& ,J "00"! " F 8H 9A8; ČŠ,* 1%" ,* GreyEyes website <http://greyeyesart.com/ tagged/greyeyesartoutside>.

large red print there is the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;DECOLONIZE.â&#x20AC;? This mural the

therefore

decolonization

promotes of

the

DinĂŠ way of life through the integration of traditional practices daily This

and

living mural

beliefs

into

(GreyEyes).33 accomplishes

1%/"" &*-,/1 +1 1%&+$0I Ä˛/01H it once again highlights the 33

Ibid.

dynamic nature of Indigenous

general

identities

was colonized for its natural

introducing

really.

[…]

traditional symbols onto a

resources,

contemporary

-",-)" /" 02Ȭ"/&+$ ȩ,*

structure

and

Canada

Indigenous

community centre). Second, it

genocide

makes traditional Diné beliefs

wants to remain in control

central in the community,

over these resources and strip

presenting a Diné worldview.

them of their rights.”34 For

Third,

Bose, Indigenous rights, and

incorporates

because

Canada

principles of Diné education,

thus

Indigenous

identities,

which

are

inherently

connected

would

argue

represents that education is

to the land. One mural that

central to the decolonization

he presented at the 2014

project.

Decolonizing

This

mural

Street

Art

therefore contemporizes and

convergence depicts salmon

decolonizes the Diné identity

swimming in a river that

by reconnecting this identity

gradually

to the land and to physical

and

structures (such as community

5) This piece, he says, is a

centres) that exist on the land.

political

A artist art

third

who

Chris

Indigenous

creates Bose

street of

becomes

polluted.

statement

(Fig.

against

mining. In August 2014, a mine spill at Mount Polley

the

in British Columbia leaked

N’laka’pamux nation. Though

toxic materials into Quesnel

his street art is presented in

Lake, some of which may

2/ + 0- "0H %" ,Ȫ"+ - &+10 "3"+12 ))6 /" % 1%" &Ĳ scenes of the land. He argues

Ocean. Bose explains that this

that all forms of colonial

environmental disaster will

violence are connected: “The

Ȭ" 1 +!&$"+,20 -",-)" ,#

way we treat the earth is

the interior and south-central

the way we treat Indigenous

British Columbia, because they

women,

34 “ITW #6 – Chris Bose,” YouTube video, 3:51, posted by “Decolonizing Street Art,” September 5, 2014.

and

women

4&)) "&1%"/ " " 1&+$ 1,5& Ĳ0%H the landscape, symbolically ,/ 4&)) +,1 % 3" +6 Ĳ0% )"Ȫ claiming space.”36 The land to eat whatsoever. Above the

mural, a Secwepemc prayer

maintaining

is written, expressing thanks

identities

to the Creator for giving life

and asking that the Creator

peoples on the land. Cheryl

help keep all living beings

L’Hirondelle,

strong, even in the face of

artist of mixed Indigenous

environmental

destruction.35

(Métis and Cree) and European

This mural presents ways in

(French, German, and Polish)

which Indigenous identities

heritage and member of Beat

may be connected to the

Nation, creates land art in

land, and demonstrates why

order to mark her continued

it is important to achieve

presence on the land. Her

environmental

piece

order

justice

achieve

justice

therefore

integral

Indigenous

and

presence

of a

claiming

Indigenous multimedia

2/,++!+) +! q4 - %1

œ* &0(,+&( + 0(&6)

for Indigenous peoples, in

was

both rural and urban areas.

rocks on the shoulder of the

While

created

(2004) stacking

some

TransCanada highway, where

Indigenous artists incorporate

it cuts through the Stoney

the land into their street

reserve (Fig. 6).37 The stones

art, others incorporate art

write out in Cree syllabics

into their land. Indigenous

“4 - % 4 - %1 œ* &0(,+&( +

cultural knowledge reinforces

0(&6H” which means, “look at

the

notion

land

and

that

both

the

1%&0 )"Ȫ,3"/ q01/&- ,# r ) +!FW38

people

are

This is a political statement

connected. Thus, Indigenous

that emphasizes how small the

land art “strip[s] down the

36 Ritter and Willard, " 1 1&,+, 12. 37 Though this art was done directly on the land, it resembles street art in that it /" 1"0 V1 $HW 4%& % &0 $/ ȯ1& 1"/* 20"! 1, mean an anonymous signature of one’s name or a representation of one’s identity. Thus, although 01/""1 +! ) +! /1 20" !&Ȭ"/"+1 +3 0"0 #,/ their art, they can be very similar in their meanings and purposes. 38 Ibid., 86.

the

urban environment to reveal the roots of places; cultural narratives are etched onto 35

Decolonizing Street Art “ITW #6.”

Figure 5. Chris Bose, UntitledH -/ 6 - &+1 ,+ /& ( 4 ))H ,+1/" )J "00"! ,3F :AH 9A8; ȩ,* 1%" Decolonizing Street Art website <http://decolonizingstreetart.com/artists/chris-bose/>. Figure 6. Cheryl L’Hirondelle, 2/,++!+) +! q4 - %1 œ* &0(,+&( + 0(&6rH 2004, Stacked stone on gravel, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, by Kathleen Ritter and Tania Willard (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with Grunt Gallery, 2012) 87.

land allotted to Indigenous -",-)"0

Ȫ"/

dynamic in its traditionalism

,),+& )&0* and

contemporaneity,

one

was (and is), compared to

that is informed by the land,

the size of the land that they

+! ,+" 1% 1 &0 + ȯ/* 1&,+

inhabited pre-contact and that

of her continued existence

4 0 02 0".2"+1)6 1 ("+ ȩ,* as them

colonial

therefore

the

land

by In

addition,

person.

Though museums and

highlights

galleries perpetuate harmful

and

experienced

Indigenous

settlers.

injustices

dispossession

peoples.

L’Hirondelle

notions of authenticity and erroneous

perceptions

Indigenous art and cultures, street

and

land

art

draws a connection between

contemporary culture have

her contemporary land art

0"/3"! 0 "Ȭ" 1&3" *"!& #,/

practice and the land art

Indigenous artists to assert

created by ancient peoples –

their continued presence in

namely, the art of petroglyphs

Canada and to create their

and pictographs. In so doing,

own identities outside of the

she has created an artwork

,),+& ) ,+Ĳ+"0 ,# *20"2*

that is at once traditional

and gallery spaces. Indigenous

and contemporary in its use

artists achieve this through

of stone. She explains that

their

her art is meant to “make a

land, both urban and rural, in

mark

the

which they create decolonized

continued existence of who I

spaces within communities.

commemorating

re-appropriation

* +! 4%"/" Ĳ+! *60")# The land serves as a way using this language that is old

and alive, resilient and ever-

!&Ȭ"/"+1 + 1&,+ )&1&"0F +6

present as the stones I pick up

Indigenous street artists, such

and stack.”39 The identity that

as Chris Bose, believe that the

L’Hirondelle presents through

decolonizing project unites

the land is therefore one that is

Indigenous

Ibid., 86.

connecting

people

(and

perhaps

even

non-Indigenous)

project as a whole in that it

peoples across the country.

subverts the colonial invention

Indeed, Indigeneity can be

understood

position

Ultimately, Indigenous street

marginalization

and land art is a strong tool

and

political

oppression,

rather

national

political

boundaries.

resistance

and

than simply as a marker of

activism. It is also a tool of

origin on land, which unites

unity, in that the art is not

Indigenous peoples globally.

only used as a way to connect

Forming a global community

Indigenous peoples with one

of Indigenous street artists

another, but also with other

can therefore act as a means

cultures

of advancing the decolonizing

without concern for borders

40 Decolonizing Street Art, “ITW #6.” 41 Dorothy L. Hodgson, "&+$ 0 &H " ,*&+$ +!&$"+,20 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), 37.

or institutional limitations.

and

communities,

Mélanie Wittes —

Mélanie Wittes is a U2 student pursuing Honours in Anthropology and a double minor in International Development Studies and Indigenous Studies. She is interested in contemporary Indigenous issues and representations of Indigeneity in the Canadian ,+1"51F 0&!" ȩ,* %"/ !"*& -2/02&10H Ĩ) +&" is VP External for the KANATA Indigenous studies community at McGill and an active member of H + &+1"/+ 1&,+ ) "1%+,$/ -%& Ĳ)* #"01&3 )F

Bibliography Bose, Chris. Untitled, Spray paint on brick wall, Montreal; Accessed Nov. 30, 2014 ȩ,* 1%" " ,),+&7&+$ 1/""1 /1 website <http://decolonizingstreetart. com/artists/chris-bose/>. Classen, Constance, and David Howes. “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts.” In Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture, edited by Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Godsen, and Ruth Phillips, 199-222. New York: BloomsburyAcademic,2006. Cole, Douglas. Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1995. Dion,

Susan D., and Angela Salamanca. “inVISIBILITY: Indigenous in the CityIndigenous Artists, Indigenous Youth and the Project of Survivance.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3.1 (2014): 159-188.

")!* +H

"ȳ"6 3&!F V ,+1 1 ,&+10I Museums and the Lost Body Problem.” In Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture, edited by Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Godsen, and Ruth Phillips, 245-267. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2006.

GreyEyes, Tom, Fuzzy Mountain Mural Project, Spray paint on building, Navajo, New Mexico; Accessed " F 8H 9A8; ȩ,* 1%" ,* /"6 6"0 website <http://greyeyesart. com/tag ged/greyeyesartoutside>. GreyEyes,

Tom. “Outside Art.” Last *,!&Ĳ"! "-1"* "/ =H 9A8:F http://greyeyesart.com.

Hodgson, Dorothy L. Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. Ignace, Marianne, and George Ignace. “Tagging, Rapping, and the Voices of the Ancestors: Expressing Aboriginal Identity Between the Small City and The Rez.” The Small Cities Book: On the Cultural Future of Small Cities, 303-318 Vancouver: New Star Books, 2 0 0 5 . “ITW #4 – Red Bandit,” YouTube video, 3:32. Posted by “Decolonizing Street Art,” August 31, 2014. <https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPZwOVQK6nY>. “ITW #6 – Chris Bose,” YouTube video, 3:51, posted by “Decolonizing Street Art,” September 5, 2014. <https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=yv1mCfcydC8>. L’Hirondelle, Cheryl. uronndnland (wapahta ôma iskonikan askiy), 2004, Stacked stone on gravel, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, by Kathleen Ritter and Tania Willard (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery in c o l l a b o r a t i o n with Grunt Gallery, 2012) 87.

Martineau,

Jarrett. “An Interview with Tom Greyeyes on Street Art, Honor the Treaties and ‘Dreaming a New World Into Being.’” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3.1 (2014): 225-231.

Martineau, Jarrett, and Eric Ritskes. “Fugitive Indigeneity: Reclaiming the Terrain of Decolonial Struggle Through Indigenous Art.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3.1 (2014): I-XII. Ouzman, Sven. “The Beauty of Letting Go: Fragmentary Museums and Archaeologies of Archive.” Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture, edited by Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Godsen, and Ruth Phillips, 169-301. New York: Bloomsbury Academic,2006. Red

Bandit, “Red Bandit: Decolonizing Streetart.” Decolonizing Street Art. Accessed Nov. 30, 2014. < http://decolonizingstreetart.com/>.

Red Bandit, Untitled, Spray paint on cement wall, ,+1/" )J "00"! " F 8H 9A8; ȩ,* the Decolonizing Street Art website <http://decolonizingstreetart. com/artists/red-bandit/>. Red Bandit, Untitled, Wheatpaste on stucco wall, Montreal; Accessed Nov. 30, 2014 ȩ,* 1%" " ,),+&7&+$ 1/""1 /1 website <http://decolonizingstreetart. com/artists/red-bandit/>. Ritter, Kathleen Virginia and Tania Willard. Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with Grunt Gallery, 2012. Wildcat,

Matthew, Mandee McDonald, Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, Glen Coulthard. “Learning f r o m the Land: Indigenous Land Based Pedagogy and Decolonization.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3.3 (2014): I-XV.

The Grotta Grande: The Dissolution of Boundaries Between Art and Nature

By Klea Hawkins

The Grotta Grande: The Dissolution of Boundaries Between Art and Nature

Figure 1. Bernardo Buontalenti, and Giorgio Vasari, Exterior view of the façade Grotta Grande, Boboli Garden, Florence, 1556 – 60 and 1583 – 89.

With the Renaissance revival classical in

and

celebration

antiquity,

the sixteenth-century Italian

garden sought to revive the

gardens

glory and culture of classical

sixteenth-century

Italy

antiquity, it simultaneously

became a prominent feature of

sought to claim superiority

the villas, palaces and estates

over it.01 This notion becomes

and

evident in the seventeenth-

inspiration

century cliché that referred

for the Renaissance garden

to Italy as “the garden of the

the

nobility.

upper While

classes

) /$")6 *" ȩ,* ) 00& ) world.”

The Renaissance

sources such as Pliny the

garden was a place where

Elder’s

the reborn classical and the

Ovid’s

12/ ) &01,/6 and "1 *,/-%,0"0H

the

0 )" +! * $+&Ĳ "+ " ,# 1%" sixteen-century Italian garden was unprecedented. Although

01 Claudia Lazzaro, “Introduction,” in %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) +1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%" / +!

/!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ ) 1 )6 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990), 5. 02 John Dixion Hunt, “The Garden on the Grand Tour,” in /!"+ +! /,3"I %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+ &+ 1%" +$)&0% * $&+ 1&,+I 1600-1750 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 9.

modern

came

into

being.

I wish to argue that, in the

The common topos of art and

late

nature, which played out in

seventeenth-century

classical antiquity, becomes

consciousness

paramount in the sixteenth-

/&$&!&Ĳ"!HW04 the Grotta Grande

century

had the ability to transform

the garden not only did art

the mind of the visitor by

and nature collide, but art

immersing him or her into

had the ability to disguise

an alternate or other-worldly

itself as nature, and nature

reality – an illusionistic world

dissolving

where art and reality collided.

demarcations between art and

Through an analysis of the

nature particularly dominate

sensory

the garden grotto. Whereas

4&1%&+ 1%" Ĳ/01 % * "/ ,#

the Renaissance Italian garden

the three-chambered Grotta

traditionally

Grande we will see how the

art.

Italian

These

garden.

exuded

order,

sixteenth-

and

early “when

was

elements

less

play

rationality, and restraint in

Ȭ" 1&3" -,4"/ ,# 1%" $/,11,

organization and layout, the

had the ability to perceptually

grotto was a zone of chaos

deceive

and irrationality.03

visitor, particularly through

The Grotta Grade (Fig. 1 & Fig. 2), situated in the in

Florence,

early

modern

the interpenetration of art and nature.

northeast corner of the Boboli Garden

its

Between

1556

and

1560, the artist Giorgio Vasari

prime example of this chaotic

2+(+,4&+$)6 "$ + 1%" Ĳ/01

irrationality. Art and nature

stage of what would become

become

the Grotta Grande when he

indistinguishable

ȩ,* ,+" +,1%"/ 4&1%&+ 1%" erected

classical

portico

Grotta Grande: it is a place

&+ ȩ,+1 ,# 0* )) Ĳ0%-,+!

of mystery and confusion.

03 Naomi Miller, “Humanist Conceits: Renaissance Gardens,” in " 3"+)6 3"0I "ĳ" 1&,+0 ,+ 1%" /!"+ /,11, (New York: George Braziller, 1982), 53.

the

Boboli

Garden.

was only with the death 04 Joscelyn Godwin, “Garden Magic,” in %" $ + /" * ,# 1%" "+ &00 + " (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2002), 153.

Cosimo

de’

Medici

“wrought by no artist’s hand.

1574 and the ascension of

But

grand-duke

cunning

Francesco

de’

Nature

had

her

imitated

own art;

Medici that Vasari’s portico

for she had shaped a native

saw

development.

arch of the living rock and

architect-engineer

0,Ȫ 12Ȫ .”06 While the arch

Bernardo Buontalenti added

of Diana’s grotto was shaped

an additional level to the

by nature in imitation of

classical portico in order to

art, the arch of the façade of

accommodate the proposed

Buontalenti’s Grotta Grande is

construction of the three cave-

shaped by art in imitation of

like chambers of the Grotta

nature. The chalky limestone

Grande. The realization of the

spunga that drips over the edge

grotto’s completion in 1593,

,# ,1% 1%" / % +! /,,ĳ&+"

with its rustic architecture

further 1583

the

grotto’s

exterior

1% 1 ,+ " )"! /1 ȩ,* + 12/" recalls the natural stalactites +! + 12/" ȩ,* /1H 4 0 1%" found in caves. The dripping epitome of the illusionism and

stalactitic forms of the upper

irrationality characteristic of

level of the grotto stand in

Mannerist art.

stark

The

ambiguity

contrast

Vasari’s

and

classically inspired façade of

confusion between art and

Tuscan columns and statuary

nature that the Grotta Grande

below.

addresses was not only a

forms

concern raised by modern

Renaissance man, but one

however,

which had also preoccupied

*"/$&+$ 4&1% 1%" /1&Ĳ " ,#

the ancients. Ovid in his

what appear to be the natural

"1 *,/-%,0"0

forms of the stalactites. The

describes

the grotto of Diana as one 05 Pamela Coombes, “The Medici Gardens of Boboli and Luxemburg: Thoughts on their Relationship and Development (Master’s thesis, McGill University, 1992), 36-37.

The of

the

the façade

architectural upper

level

transform,

intersecting

and

06 Quoted in Claudia Lazzaro, “Ornaments of Nature,” in %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + "

/!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) 1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%" / +! /!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ ) 1 )6 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990), 61.

Figure 2. Bernardo Buontalenti, Interior of the Grotta

/ +!"H 4&1% ȩ"0coes by Bernardino , "11&H Ĳ$2/"0 by Piero Mati, and plaster cast copies of Michelangelo’s /&0,+"/0, Boboli Garden, Florence, 1583-1585.

Figure 3. Bernardo Buontalenti, Interior of the Grotta Grande, View of the , 2)20 4&1% ȩ"0coes by Bernardino Pocetti, 1583-1585.

Figure 4. Michelangelo, /&0,+"/0, marble, Accademia, Florence, 1520-1534 (installed in the Grotta Grande in 1585 and removed to the Accademia in 1908 – plaster casts currently replace them)

ambiguity generated between

which combine a variety of

architectural

/1&Ĳ & ) +! + 12/ ) * 1"/& )0

and

natural

forms – the aforementioned

– stucco, terracotta, 0-2+$ H

illusionistic play between art

and /, &))"H to list a few –

and nature – announces the

merge, creating a multimedia

intention of the entire grotto,

environment where art and

and foretells what awaits the

nature become indiscernible

visitor in its interior.

ȩ,* ,+" +,1%"/F V +0-&/"!

Traversing the Grotta

by nature, [the Grotta Grande]

Grande’s threshold, moving

also imitate[s] the vestiges of

ȩ,* 1%" "51"/&,/ &+1, &10 ancient rustic grottoes that interior, the visitor would

still survived,” states Lazzaro.07

% 3" *,3"! ȩ,* 4% 1 4,2)! Leon

Battista

Alberti’s

have perhaps been a hot and

familiarity with the ancient

bright Florentine day into the

practices of decorating and

dark, cool and damp world of

designing grottoes is revealed

the grotto. The participatory

in a passage in his "+ ,,(0

dimension

on Architecture: “the ancients

moving

the

through

visitor is

used to dress the Walls of

a necessary element when

their Grottoes and Caverns

attempting

understand

with all Manner of rough

the fully immersive, bodily,

Work, with little Chips of

and sensory experience the

Pumice.”08 This play between

visitor would undergo upon

+ 12/ ) +! /1&Ĳ & ) &0 )0,

entering this other worldly

employed by Bunotalenti in

environment.

the Grotta Grande in order to

architecture

space

The and

rustic dripping

/" )) +! /" 1" 1%" "Ȭ" 1 ,#

01 ) 1&1"0 Ĳ/01 "+ ,2+1"/"! an ancient ruin rediscovered on

the

grotto

exterior

here

the

and resurrected. “It is the idea

dominate

and

of antiquity incarnate,” argues

overwhelm the space. The man-made stalactitic forms

07 58. 08

Lazzaro, “Ornaments of Nature,” Miller, “Humanist Conceits,” 35.

Naomi Miller.09 Thus, upon "+1"/&+$ 1%" Ĳ/01

) /$"

/601 ) ,4) Ĳ))"!

% * "/ with water and stocked with

of the Grotta Grande, the

Ĳ0%H 4%& % 4 0 020-"+!"!

visitor is immediately thrust

ȩ,* 1%" $/,11,T0 , 2)20 q &$F

into by

world

dominated

3).11 This novel experiment

“theatrical

illusion.”10

4,2)!

The seemingly rational and

% 3"

Ĳ)1"/"!

1%"

exterior daylight through the

orderly space of the garden

/601 ) Ĳ0% ,4) +! ,+1, 1%"

gives way to the irrationality

$/,11,T0 4 ))0F %" /"ĳ" 1&,+0

characterized by the grotto’s

and

interior.

1%" *,3"*"+1 ,# 1%" Ĳ0%

Art’s

mimicry

shadows

caused

the natural is in this space

in the crystal bowl would

paramount.

have

However,

further

heightened

before

the seemingly magical play

visually

of light and shadow across

comprehend or attempt to

and throughout the grotto’s

make sense of the natural

interior.

the

visitor

could

With

+! /1&Ĳ & ) ")"*"+10 1 movement play

within

added

the

visitor

Grotta

through the space of the

Grande’s interior, his or her

grotto, the entire room would

senses

been

seem to be in motion. This

Carefully

constant play of shimmering

would

overwhelmed.

the

have

hidden in the walls were

)&$%1H /"ĳ" 1&,+0 ,# 0% !,40

thin tubes dripping water

and water across the grotto’s

over the stucco stalactites.

surfaces, as well as the visitor’s

%" ĳ,,/H -2+ 12 1"! 4&1% own movement through the hidden

water

jets,

would

space not only animated the

soak the unsuspecting visitor.

entire room, but made it

Although it only remained

come alive. Added to this was

in place for a short time, Buontalenti’s design included 09 Ibid., 37. 10 Coombes, “The Medici Gardens of Boboli and Luxembourg,” 37.

11 Claudia Lazzaro, “The Source for Florence’s Water in the Boboli Garden,” in The

1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) 1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%" / +! /!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ ) 1 )6 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990), 201.

the sound of water: constant,

between art and nature would

intense, and echoing, dripping

not only have confused and

!,4+ +! ,Ȭ 1%" 01 ) 1&1& deceived forms.

This

would

visitors

their

have

traditional understandings of

added an auditory dimension

the two, but would have also

to a total immersive bodily

triggered unexpected wonder

and

and delight. Like the early

illusionary

The

experience.

man-made

and

the

modern

the

Grotta Grande would become

Grotta Grande would have

ever more intriguing when

thus elicited multi-sensorial

the “wonders of art and the

natural

elements

2+!"/( **"/H the

/"0-,+0"0 ȩ,* 3&0&1,/0J +!H wonders of nature”14 were if Mannerism in the arts was,

fused

as Jocelyn Godwin suggests,

boundaries obscured.

“partly

for

and

their

new

The

challenges, one of which was

boundaries

the imitation of living and

and nature is evidenced in

moving nature,”12 the Grotta

Francesco Bocchi’s description

Grande realized this goal.

bodily,

together

the

dissolution

between

art

Grotta

Grande

This

other-worldly,

his guidebook to Florence

transcendental

ȩ,* 8<@8F " ,$+&7&+$ V1% 1

experience elicited by the

the

Grotta

Bocchi

Grande,

whose

vault

was

commented

ruins,” upon

meaning was “never spelled

the “animals and serpents

out by its creators,”13 can

"*"/$&+$ ȩ,* 1%" Ĳ002/"0

perhaps be best attributed to

and breaks in the structure.”15

the fact that art and nature

were in a constant state of

2+Ĳ+&0%"! * / )" 0 2)-12/"0H

ĳ25 The

saw

1/ +0#,/* 1&,+F /&0,+"/0 (Fig.

indistinguishable

play

12 Godwin, “Garden Magic,” 174. 13 Joscelyn Godwin, “Grotesqueries,” in %" $ + /" * ,# 1%" "+ &00 + " (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2002), 146.

Michelangelo’s 4), installed

14 Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park, “Wonders of Art, Wonders of Nature,” in ,+!"/0 +! 1%" /!"/ ,# 12/"I 88<AK8><A (New York: Zone Books, 1998), 260. 15 Lazzaro, “The Source for Florence’s Water,” 206.

in the four corners of the $/,11,T0 Ĳ/01

1%" + 12/ ) +! 1%" /1&Ĳ & ) &0

% * "/ &+ further evident in an analysis

1585, as attempting with all

,# 1%" /,11 / +!"T0 Ĳ/01

1%"&/ *&$%1 1, /" ( ȩ"" ,# chamber. Here the boundaries the stone which possessed

between

them in hopes of evading the

become ever more obscured.

structure’s

Bernardino

imminent

ruin.

art

and

nature Poccetti’s

While art’s mimicry of the

ȩ"0 ,"0 ,3"/&+$ 1%" 4 ))0

natural inspired delight, it

of the upper level and vault

too was capable of eliciting

this

terror. A similar passage is

naturalistic

found in the account of Fynes

setting for Piero di Tomasso

Moryson, who upon visiting

Mati’s stucco and stalactite

another

mythological

Buontalenti’s

chamber

provide landscape

and

pastoral

grottoes at Pratolino describes

scenes (Fig. 5 & Fig 6).19 While

it as a “cave strongly built, yet

the men, women, animals,

by art so made, as you feare

trees, and waterfalls depicted

to enter it, lest great stones

should fall upon your head.”

landscape slowly merge into

ability

naturalistic

the porous stalactitic rocks,

create the idea of illusionary

they simultaneously emerge

ruin can best be understood

ȩ,* 1%"*F

as a form of “clever deceit.”17

This

Buontalenti’s

Pocetti’s

John Dixon Hunt notes, “it is

transformation

constant or

/1T0 &+Ĳ+&1" - &16 1, ,21!, metamorphosis of art into natural

things,

still

stone and stone into art has

being seen to imitate them

provoked scholars such as

that is striking.”18

Hunt to suggest an Ovidian

Confusion

while

between

16 John Dixon Hunt, “Art and Nature,” in /!"+ +! /,3"I %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + "

/!"+ &+ 1%" +$)&0% * $&+ 1&,+I 8=AAK8><A (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 92. 17 Lazzaro, “The Source for Florence’s Water,” 206. 18 Hunt, “Art and Nature,” 93.

interpretation of the Grotta Grande’s visual and sculptural program. This interpretation 19 Lazzaro, “The Source for Florence’s Water,” 202.

becomes

particularly

appealing when applied to & %") +$"),T0

#,/"*"+1&,+"!

/601 ) Ĳ0%

bowl suspended beneath the

2+Ĳ+&0%"! vault’s oculus may then be

marble sculptures, /&0,+"/0.

interpreted as symbolizing the

While

“‘waters above the heavens’

Bocchi

understood

Michelangelo’s sculptures

+,+Ĳ+&1, which poured down in the

attempting

Deluge.”21

to evade disaster, the early

While Michelangelo’s

modern visitor would have

/&0,+"/0

also most certainly associated

11"*-1&+$ 1, "*"/$" ȩ,*

Michelangelo’s /&0,+"/0 with

the stone, like Tomasso Mati’s

the

012

mythological

tale

may

indeed

, +! 01 ) 1&1" Ĳ$2/"0H

Deucalion. According to Ovid

they also draw attention to

in his "1 *,/-%,0"0H the gods,

their production. That is, they

angered by the impiety of

V"5"*-)&ȫ 1%" -/, "00 ,#

human kind, destroy the world

creating art out of nature.”22

through the unleashing of a

Art is not only an extension of,

ĳ,,!F %" ,+)6 14, 02/3&3,/0H but rather inherent in nature. Deucalion

and

his

wife

In this view Michelangelo’s

Pyrrha, are then responsible

+,+Ĳ+&1, sculptures

for its regeneration. Out of

seen as imprisoned within the

the

and

stone, a notion suggested by

Pyrrha throw behind their

Michelangelo himself when

backs

he writes,

stones

Deucalion

slowly

emerges

the

can

this new civilization.20 The

The best of artists hath no thought to show Which the rough stone &+ &10 02-"/ĳ2,20 0%")) Doth not include. To /" ( 1%" * / )" 0-"))

0 )) 1%" % +! 1% 1

20 John Dixon Hunt, “Ovid in the Garden,” / %&1" 12/ ) 00, & 1&,+ &)"0H no. 3 (January 1983): 3-4.

21 Godwin, “Grotesqueries,” 146. 22 Lazzaro, “The Source for Florence’s Water,” 206.

world’s

new

& %") +$"),T0

civilization. 2+Ĳ+&0%"!

/&0,+"/0H in an attempt to /" ( ȩ"" ȩ,* 1%" 01,+" 1% 1 constricts them, may thus be interpreted

representing

Figure 5. Piero di Tomasso Mati, Pastoral Scene, North Wall, Grotta Grande, Boboli Garden, Florence, 1583-85. Figure 6. Piero di Tomasso Mati, Mythological Scene, South Wall, Grotta Grande, Boboli Garden, Florence, 1583-85.

0"/3"0 1%" / &+ + do.23

Renaissance garden as well as

The

oppositional

art and nature within a binary

categories of art and nature

system of antitheses suggests

developed

that the Renaissance garden

Aristotelian

1%" &+ &)&16 1, Ä˛5 ,/ ), 1"

thought, and still held by most

did

early

â&#x20AC;&#x153;prevailing

modern

Europeans,

not

cohere

with

the

epistemological

are in the Grotta Grande

and

discursive

structuresâ&#x20AC;?

shattered, for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;realms of art

of the period.26 While art

and nature [are] intertwined

and nature had traditionally

into single objects.â&#x20AC;?24 Jacopo

been seen as separate, in

,+# !&, Ä˛/01 ") ,/ 1"! ,+ the Renaissance garden this 1%"

,)) ,/ 1&3" ,/ Äł2&! categorization

relationship

between

art

opposites

could no longer be applied.

and nature in 1541 when he

Rather,

described

Renaissance

nature â&#x20AC;&#x153;produce something

garden as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;third nature.â&#x20AC;? This

that is neither one nor the

notion was later developed in

other, and is created equally

1559 by Bartolomeo Taegio in

by each.â&#x20AC;?27Art and nature are

his treatise &)) where he

united into an inseparable

wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;nature incorporated

whole.

the

together

art

and

with art is made the creator

The notion of a third

and connatural of art and

nature is particularly pertinent

ČŠ,* ,1% &0 * !" 1%&/! to the Grotta Grande, for it is nature, which I would not

best understood as a hybrid

know how to name.â&#x20AC;?25

entity.

The

Within

the

grotto

enigmatic character of the

art and nature contain one

23 Baldwin Brown, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Notes on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Introductionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to Sculpture,â&#x20AC;? in 0 /& ,+ " %+&.2" 6

&,/$&, 0 /& (New York: Dover Publications, Inc.), 180. 24 Daston and Park, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wonders of Art, Wonders of Nature,â&#x20AC;? 255. 25 Luke Morgan, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Monster in the Garden: The Grotesque, the Gigantic, and the monstrous in Renaissance Landscape Design,â&#x20AC;? 12!&"0 &+ 1%" &01,/6 ,# /!"+0 +! "0&$+"! +!0 -"0I + +1"/+ 1&,+ ) 2 /1"/)6 31, no. 3 (2011): 173.

another so perfectly that they are not only indistinguishable 26 Ibid., 177. 27 Claudia Lazzaro, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nature and Culture in the Garden,â&#x20AC;? in %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + "

/!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) 1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%" / +! /!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ ) 1 )6H (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1990), 9.

ȩ,* ,+" +,1%"/H 21H "3"+ contemporary

sixteenth-

more poignantly, they are

century French potter and

capable

garden

deceiving

the

designer,

Bernard

visitor about their origins.

Palissy imagined his wholly

The “raison d’être” of the

/1&Ĳ & ) $/,11, 1, " V0,

grotto’s

close to nature, that it would

“hybrid

objects

undermined the nature-art

opposition.”28 That which was

[…] holding no appearance

thought to be understood and

neither of form of art, nor

known was subverted in the

of sculpture, nor the labor

Grotta Grande. The constant

of the hand of man.”31 This

oscillation or transformation

also seems to be Buontalenti’s

of art into nature and nature

intent in his Grotta Grande.

into

was

describe

something

According to Joscelyn

Bartolomeo Taegio and others

Godwin, the “esoteric goal” of

did “not know how to name,”

1%" Ĳ/01 % * "/ ,# 1%" /,11

and thus, for a lack of a more

Grande would have urged the

adequate

was

more “philosophical pilgrim,”

described as a “third nature.”

or philosophical viewer, to

Language was incapable of

contemplate “the origin of life

describing that which the

on earth, of humanity, and of

passions felt and the “rational”

the rebirth of the true man.”

mind understood. Lorraine

Daston and Katherine Park

illusionary world of the Grotta

both

could

Grande, early modern visitors

and did trespass against the

would have been prompted to

boundary between art and

question their own ontological

nature,

with

understanding of what art

the impact of things seen

and nature were; and whether

with one’s own eyes.”30 The

they themselves, like the men

art

impossible

vocabulary,

assert,

but

“words

seldom

28 Daston and Park, “Wonders of Art, Wonders of Nature,” 280. 29 Luke Morgan, “The Monster in the Garden,” 173. 30 Daston and Park, “Wonders of Art,”

Thus immersed within the

and women who emerge out 277. 31 32

Ibid., 286. Godwin, “Grotesqueries,” 148.

of the pebbles thrown behind the backs of Deucalion and Phyrra, were in fact born of nature. These

questions

raised and provoked by the play and confusion between art and nature in the Grotta Grande

are

those,

which,

in the seventeenth-century, would lead to the birth of the Age of Reason. Both Francis Bacon and René Descartes, by “appealing to the stock objects of the 2+!"/( **"/+ and grottoes,” would attempt to dissolve the oppositional categories of art and nature Ĳ/01 -/,-,0"! 6 /&01,1)"F 33

art

This confusion between and

nature,

however,

would continue to inform philosophical debates well up into the eighteenth-century and beyond. 33 292.

Daston and Park, “Wonders of Art,”

Bibliography Brown, Baldwin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Notes on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Introductionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to Sculpture.â&#x20AC;? In 0 /& ,+ " %+&.2" 6 &,/$&, 0 /&H 179-199.Trans. Louisa S. Maclehose. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1960. Coombes,

Pamela. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Medici Gardens of Boboli and Luxembourg: Thoughts on their Relationship and Development.â&#x20AC;? Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thesis, McGill University, 1992.

Lazzaro,

Daston, Lorraine and Katherine Park. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wonders of Art, Wonders of Nature.â&#x20AC;? In Wonders +! 1%" /!"/ ,# 12/"I 88<AK8><AH 255302. New York: Zone Books, 1998. Godwin, Joscelyn. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Garden Magic.â&#x20AC;? In %" $ + /" * ,# 1%" "+ &00 + "H 153-180. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2002. Godwin, Joscelyn. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Grotesqueries.â&#x20AC;? In %" $ + /" * ,# 1%" "+ &00 + "H 127-152. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2002. Hunt, John Dixon. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Art and Nature.â&#x20AC;? In /!"+ +! /,3"I %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + "

/!"+ &+ 1%" +$)&0% * $&+ 1&,+I 8=AAK8><AH 90-100. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. Hunt,

Lazzaro, Claudia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introduction.â&#x20AC;? In %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) 1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%" / +! /!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ ) 1 )6H 1-7. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990.

John Dixon. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ovid in the Garden.â&#x20AC;? / %&1" 12/ ) 00, & 1&,+ &)"0H no. 3 ( January 1983): 3-11.

Hunt, John Dixon. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Garden on the Grand Tour.â&#x20AC;? In /!"+ +! /,3"I %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+ &+ 1%" +$)&0%

* $&+ 1&,+I 8=AAK8><AH 3-10. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.

Claudia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ornaments of Nature.â&#x20AC;? In %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) 1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%" / +!

/!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ )

1 )6H 47-68. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990

Lazzaro, Claudia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Source for Florenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Water in the Boboli Garden. In %" 1 )& + "+ &00 + " /!"+I /,* 1%" ,+3"+1&,+0 ,# ) 1&+$H "0&$+H +! /+ *"+1 1, 1%"

/ +! /!"+0 ,# &51""+1%K "+12/6 "+1/ ) 1 )6H 191-214. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990. Miller, Naomi. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Humanist Conceits: Renaissance Gardens.â&#x20AC;? In " 3"+)6 3"0I "Äł" 1&,+0 ,+ 1%" /!"+ /,11,H 35-58. New York: George Braziller, 1982. Morgan, Luke. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Monster in the Garden: The Grotesque, the Gigantic, and the monstrous in Renaissance Landscape Design.â&#x20AC;? In Studies in 1%" &01,/6 ,# /!"+0 +! "0&$+"! +!0 -"0I +

+1"/+ 1&,+ ) 2 /1"/)6 31, no. 3 (2011): 167-180.

Klea Hawkins â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

)" 4(&+0 4&)) " $/ !2 1&+$ 1%&0 6" / ČŠ,* McGill University with a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in art history and German language. She has always found the early modern period particularly fascinating, but

Professor

Vanhaelenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

seminar

course,

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Moving Image,â&#x20AC;? sparked her interest in Renaissance conceptions surrounding art and + 12/"F %" /,11 / +!"H + /1&Ä˛ & ) 3"/+H thus seemed the perfect object of analysis.

Where am I, Monet?: The Water Lilies of the Orangerie Through a Phenomenological Lens

By Anthony Portulese

Where am I, Monet?: The Water Lilies of the Orangerie Through a Phenomenological Lens The MusĂŠe de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Or-

historians tend to discuss the

angerie is a quaint art gallery

entire series as a homogenous

nestled deep within the pic-

* 00 ,# Äł,/ ) ) +!0 -"0F

turesque Tuileries Garden in

Produced during the last few

Paris. Hovering shyly over the

decades of his life, most of

right riverbank of the Seine,

the 1"/ &)"0 are said to re-

1%" / +$"/&" &0 ,ČŞ"+ ,21-

Äł" 1 %&0 -%60& ) %" )1% 1 1%"

shone by its neighbours, the

time. Accordingly, reputable

enormous Louvre and the

recorders of Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career,

exquisite Orsay. Visitors to

such as Steven Levine, Clara

1%" $ /!"+ /" ,ČŞ"+ 2+ 4 /" Rachman and John House, that an arresting exhibit by

have only ever assessed the

the renowned French impres-

artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works in a biographical

sionist Claude Monet resides

context. In this essay, I shall

within.

Entitled

6*-%Ä¨ 0H pursue a less traditional cri-

the collection consists of a

tique. Through careful obser-

series of oil paintings in-

vation the 6*-%Ä¨ 0 murals of

spired by the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back-

the Orangerie, I will attempt

yard garden in Giverny â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the

to interpret these works in a

last 1"/ &)&"0 murals ever

manner independent of the

to be created by the artist.

artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life and personal be-

However, tourists and

)&"#0F ,/" 0-" &Ä˛ ))6H 4&))

passersby are not the only

discuss the phenomenologi-

parties to overlook the Water

cal relationship between the

&)&"0 of the Orangerie; they

murals and the viewer and

/" 2/&,20)6 0"+1 ČŠ,* /1 attempt to understand the historical

discourse.

While

6*-%Ä¨ 0 in connection to

1%"6 /"-/"0"+1 ,+)6 ČŠ 1&,+ the observerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceptual exof the many 1"/ &)&"0 paint-

perience. Ultimately, I pro-

ings completed by Monet, art

pose that 1"/ &)&"0 locks the

spectator in an ontological

duced the murals housed in

limbo between imagination

1%" / +$"/&" #,/ 1% 1 0-" &Ä˛

and reality, triggering a pow-

display, helping to design the

"/#2) !&0"* ,!&*"+1 ČŠ,* room, establish the lighting the self. It is in this inter-

and request that the 6*-%Ä¨ 0

mediate space, where all cul-

remain

turally and politically biased

non-travelling

methods of interpretation are

According to biographer John

assuaged, that the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

,20"H -/&,/ 1, 1%" ,ČŻ & )

6*-%Ä¨ 0

obtains

permanent, exposition.01

its

phe-

grand opening, Monet told

worth.

This

,+" ,# 1%" "5%& &1T0 Ä˛/01 3&0-

essay will therefore be less

itors that the paintings â&#x20AC;&#x153;only

concerned with what these

acquire their full value by the

murals â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;sayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to the viewer, but

comparison and succession

more so with what they â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;doâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

of the whole series.â&#x20AC;?02 To this

through the physical and sen-

! 6H 1%,0" 0-" &Ä˛ 1"/ &)&"0

sual response they provoke.

survive in the same group-

nomenological

ing that Monet had intended Part I: The Exhibition What

distinguish-

es this particular 1"/ &)&"0

and planned when he painted them. As such, it is reasonable to argue that the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 6*-%Ä¨ 0 collection

consti-

,))" 1&,+ ČŠ,* 1%" !,7"+0 121"0 !"3& 1&,+ ČŠ,* ,+of others within Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rep-

ventional grouping of the art-

ertoire exists in the layout of

istâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s botanical-themed works.

the museum itself. When the

MusĂŠe

+ &*-,/1 +1 Ä˛/01 01"-

lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orangerie Ä˛/01 in unravelling the phenom-

,-"+"! &+ 8@9>H Ä˛+" /1 ,+-

enological undertones of the

noisseurs were surprised to

Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)&"0 is to

learn that Monet had played

discuss the role of the exhibi-

a large role in the exhibitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preparation. In fact, he pro-

01 Â John House, ,+"1I /,* 12/" &+1, Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 213. 02

Ibid.

tion space in the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ex-

en the real distance between

change with the works of art.

the images and the observer

The solid, unpresumptuous

and create the illusion of a

4%&1" 4 ))0H Äł,,/H +! "&)&+$ â&#x20AC;&#x153;single, continuous canvas.â&#x20AC;?03 eliminate distractions and di-

Accordingly, the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

rect the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s complete fo-

four 1"/ &)&"0 will be hereto

cus onto the artwork. A faint,

ČŞ"/ " /"#"//"! 0 0,)" &*-

scattered daytime light is dis-

age, painting, artwork, et cet-

sipated through a double-glass

era in order to demonstrate

"&)&+$ +! !&Čł 1"! &+ the idea of singular unity 4 6 1% 1 "+02/"0 +, /1&Ä˛ & ) among the individual pieces shadow is cast upon the sur-

of this particular collection.

face of the 6*-%Ä¨ 0, prevent-

The gaps between the

ing any distortion of colour

paintings heightens the con-

(Fig. 6). Displayed in thin gold

tinuity between them. While

ČŠ *"0 1% 1 ")&*&+ 1" 1%" /-

two of the gaps form arch-

rier between wall and paint-

ways to a white round cor-

&+$H 1%" *2/ )0 Ä˛)) 1%" 3&"4-

ridor, the other two consist

erâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entire perceptual space.

,# 0* ))H *,2Äł $"! !,,/0

In conjunction with

in the wall. When a viewer

expositional

features,

is inside the room, he or she

the ovular dimensions of the

perceives the ovular wall as

/,,* &10")# &+Äł2"+ " 1%" , -

a uniform white surface and

serverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiential encoun-

becomes optically trapped and

ter with the paintings. The

immersed within the space.

elliptical rondure of the space

This ultimate â&#x20AC;&#x153;garden rotun-

induces a strong panoram-

! W "ČŹ" 1 /" 1"0 - +,/ *-

these

& "ČŹ" 1 *,+$ 1%" *2/ )0F ic aesthetic, which places the The fact that all of the mu-

viewer inside the work of art,

rals share a common height

/ 1%"/ 1% + &+ ČŠ,+1 ,# &1F04

#2/1%"/ &+1"+0&Ä˛"0 1%&0 "ČŹ" 1F This feature helps to less-

03 Oliver Grau, &/12 ) /1I /,*

))201/ 1&,+ 1, **"/0&,+ (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003), 141. 04

Amanda Boetzkes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Phenomenology

Now that the role of

Part II: Colour

the exhibition space and the intentional continuity of the image has been established, we can begin a phenomenological analysis of Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artwork in the Orangerie. In order to better understand the perceptual exchange between the spectator and the painting, this essay will analyze two major components of the exhibition: colour and composition. This pair of distinct qualities will be explored in accordance with phenomenology, where meaning is de/&3"! ČŠ,* 1%" *,!" &+ 4%& % the viewer interacts with and interprets the work of art, or in other words, the subjective, reciprocal experience of the viewer with that work of art. This philosophy shall thenceforth be employed to explain the observerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship with the piece and elaborate on his or her experiential comprehension of the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)&"0. and Interpretation beyond the Flesh,â&#x20AC;? Journal of Art History 32, no. 4 (2009), 697.

As is the case with several Impressionist artists and their works, Monet employed a technique of contrast in the 6*-%Ä¨ 0. The many colours found in the mural evoke the appearance of changing light through

opposing

colours

without the use of dark tones or shadows.05 This creates the /"0-)"+!"+1 "ČŹ" 1 ,# + 12/ ) light on the waterscape of 1"/ &)&"0H which adds a tem-,/ ) Äł,4 1, 1%" &* $" +! gives life to the water. The painting presents a delicate and complex combination of various hues of pink, blue, green, yellow, brown and orange, which collectively contribute to the strong earthly sensuality of the whole piece. The

resemblance

these colours to those found in nature strike up a visceral response within the observer.06 The unique positioning of colours both beside and 05 Lionello Venturi, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism,â&#x20AC;? Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1, no. 1 (1941), 35. 06 Â Paul Crowther, %" %"+,*"+,),$6 ,# ,!"/+ /1I 5-),!&+$ ")"27" +! ))2*&+ 1&+$ Style (London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012), 111.

Figure 6. 6*-%Ĩ 0 permanent exhibition (facing the west wall), Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France.

within one another in Water

ings.08 These lone colours do

&)&"0 q4&1%,21 !"Ä˛+&1&3" ,/-

not exist in the same percep-

ders in the water-air space, as

tual complex as those placed

the strong colours of the tree

beside other colours, even if

bark and leaves are hugged by

they are optically identical.09

1%" 0,ČŞ"/ ,),2/0 ,# 1%" 4 -

In the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)-

1"/H Äł,4"/0 +! 0(6r /" 1"0 ies, a similar principle occurs ,)! -/"0"+ " 1% 1 &0 !&ČŻ-

through

cult to visually organize. The

,# ,+1/ 01H 4%& % *,!&Ä˛"0

piece transforms the care-

the actual colours observed

fully modulated colour pas-

in the natural landscape. The

sages into spatial masses and

challenge to visually isolate

relations that are expressed

and

through

lours gives rise to a sense of

facets

colour.07

this

phenomenon

contextualize

the

co-

Moreover, the 360Â° invasion

animated

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;atmosphereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

of this chromatic destabiliza-

breaking up the tones of the

tion allows the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes

painting and appearing to de-

to use the artworkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coalesc-

materialize the work in or-

ing array of colours to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;feelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

!"/ 1, Ä˛5 1%" 1"/ &)&"0 in

the nature rather than â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;seeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

1%" 3&"4"/T0 -"/ "-12 ) Ä˛")!F

it, thus permitting a sense of

It should be noted that

physical movement and cor-

several art historians have

poral relation to the painting.

taken a more biographical

discussed

approach, arguing that Mon-

French philosopher Maurice

"1T0 02ČŹ"/&+$ ČŠ,* 1 / 10 &0

Merleau-Ponty, the colours of

responsible for this degree of

any arbitrary image are not

visual distortion on his pan-

the same colours that are indi-

els. However, a curious para-

vidually applied onto the can-

dox presents itself, for Monet

vas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is, colours that are

underwent two surgeries in

&0,) 1"! ČŠ,* 1%"&/ 02//,2+!07 Crowther, %" %"+,*"+,),$6 ,# ,!"/+ /1, 117.

08 Crowther, %" %"+,*"+,),$6 ,# ,!"/+ /1, 111. 09 Venturi, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism,â&#x20AC;? 35.

1923 that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; according to noted

within the unity of the four

Monet historian Carla Rach-

actual paintings and their spe-

man â&#x20AC;&#x201C; alleviated his symp-

&Ä˛ ), 1&,+0 ,+ 1%" 4 ))0F

toms.10 Moreover, several Wa-

SÄł,4 ,# ,),2/ 3 )2"T /"#"/0 1,

1"/ &)&"0 pieces produced both

an optical spectrum of rela-

-/&,/ 1, +! ČŞ"/ %&0 !& $+,0&0 tive lightness and darkness of in 191211 contain stylistically

,),2/ 1% 1 0%&ČŞ0 +! !/&3"0

similar colour and structural

the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gaze all around

motifs. While the condition

the artwork12, enabling the

* 6 % 3" ČŹ" 1"! %&0 4,/( &+ 3&"4"/T0 11"+1&,+ 1, Äł,4 some way, it is contentious to

ČŠ,* *2/ ) 1, *2/ ) 4&1%,21

presume that the dense and

+6 "ČŹ,/1 ,/ ! * $" 1, 0"+0,-

jumpy brushstrokes are not

ry experience (for argumentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

simply a part of Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style

sake, only in this portion of

as an Impressionist painter,

the paper shall the 1"/ &)-

but rather the consequenc-

ies of the Orangerie be refer-

es of illness. It would be al-

enced in the plural). Let us

most

conclude

envision a viewer in the Or-

that Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cataracts were

angerie standing at the ovular

wholly responsible for the

roomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s centre, at the inter-

fuzziness of colour contours

section of a theoretical hor-

in 1"/ &)&"0 post-surgery,

izontal and vertical axis (the

particularly

%,/&7,+1 ) 5&0 /2+0 ČŠ,* 1%"

cavalier

those

murals

destined for the Orangerie. The

6*-%Ä¨ 0

not

west wall to the east wall, and 1%" 3"/1& ) 5&0 /2+0 ČŠ,* 1%"

only stir up feelings of inte-

north wall to the south wall),

gration into nature with its

4%"/" 1%" - +,/ *& "ČŹ" 1

colour contrast and assort-

of the garden rotunda would

*"+1H 21 - /1& 2) / SÄł,4 be at its maximum potential of colour valueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; seems to exist 10 Â Carla Rachman, ,+"1 (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1997), 340. 11

Rachman, ,+"1, 339.

(Fig. 5). If this viewer were to stare at one of the two â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;westâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 12 Venturi, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism,â&#x20AC;? 35.

and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;eastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1"/ &)&"0 paintings (Fig. 1 & Fig. 3), perceive its colour value, and then make a 180Â°-turn to the painting on the polar opposite end of the ovular room, his or her eye would perceive the polar opposite colour value. The same

Figure 1. West Wall: Claude Monet. 6*-%Ä¨ 0 M "Äł"10 !T / /"0, 1920-1926, oil on canvas 200 x 850 cm, MusĂŠe de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orangerie, Paris, France. Figure 2. South Wall: Claude Monet. 6*-%Ä¨ 0 M " * 1&+ ) &/ 25 0 2)"0, 1920-1926, oil on canvas, 200 x 1275 cm, MusĂŠe de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orangerie, Paris, France. Figure 3. East Wall: Claude Monet. 6*-%Ä¨ 0 M "0 !"25 0 2)"0, 1920-1926, oil on canvas, 200 x 1700 cm, MusĂŠe de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orangerie, Paris, France. Figure 4. North Wall: Claude Monet. 6*-%Ä¨ 0 M " * 1&+ 25 0 2)"0, 1920-1926, oil on canvas, 200 x 1275 cm, MusĂŠe de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orangerie, Paris, France.

"ČŹ" 1 --" /0 &# 1%" 3&"4-

viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gaze is perpendicular

er follows a similar rotation

to the horizontal axis), then

in observing the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;southâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and

make a 180Â°-turn to the oth-

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;northâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1"/ &)&"0 murals (Fig.

er long painting in the ovu-

2 & Fig. 4). However, if that

lar room, their eyes would

viewer were to observe one

perceive the exact same co-

of the north or south Water

lour value as they did on the

&)&"0 paintings in the room,

previous long painting. This

but this time at its centre (or

phenomenon illustrates the

any other point so long as the

existence of a continuous belt

101

of colour value that compels

liquescence of the structural

the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gaze around the

and compositional elements

room continuously without

of the mural. The brown

any beginning or end to the

tree trunks sweep vertically

optical value spectrum. This

across the imageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s docile wa-

sensation prompts a strong

ters; their willow leaves fall

experience of physical move-

ČŠ,* 2+0""+ / + %"0 +!

ment within the artwork and

slide down the canvas in long,

the spectator, enlivening the

powerful strokes of luscious

reciprocal

be-

greens. The trees help to con-

tween them.13 Furthermore,

stitute the foreground of the

the never-ending rotation of

painting and bring the viewer

the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus, trapped

into relative proximity to the

within the value spectrum of

scene of nature that encircles

the painting, temporarily in-

them. The background of the

activates the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s normal

lily pond dominates the art-

motor coordination by hin-

work and occupies most of

dering the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to

1%" 3&"4"/T0 -"/ "-12 ) Ä˛")!F

connection

!"Ä˛+" &10")# &+ /") 1&,+ 1, 1%" %" ČŠ $&)" )&)6 - !0H $"+space around it.14 Ultimately,

1)" Äł,4"/0H +! 1%"&/ ),,0"

the observer becomes disasso-

petals delicately caress the

& 1"! ČŠ,* %&*0")# ,/ %"/0")# 02/# " ,# 1%" 4&+!K/2Č˛"! â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lostâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the work of art. Part III: Composition

4 1"/H 4%& % /"Äł" 10 !2)) )&$%1 ČŠ,* 1%" ),2!6 0(6 +! humid air (which is evident

A second distinct fea-

through the moist quality of

ture of Impressionist art that

the colours). It is this aquatic

emerges when observing the

structural motif in 1"/ &)&"0,

Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)&"0 is the

the blurring of what is identi-

13 Boetzkes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Phenomenology and Interpretation beyond the Flesh,â&#x20AC;? 694, 708. 14 Crowther, %" %"+,*"+,),$6 ,# ,!"/+ /1, 124.

Ä˛ )" &+ 1%" *2/ ) +! 4% 1 is not15, that gives life to the 15 Forrest Williams, â&#x20AC;&#x153;CĂŠzanne and French Phenomenology,â&#x20AC;? Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 12, no. 4 (1954), 485.

102

painting’s illusive, bodily ef-

of natural environment and

fect. The water, sky, and even

the viewer’s mental impres-

the lilies lose all of their dis-

sion overcomes the laws of

tinct contours, and mesh into

gravity in the space of the

one

motif.

image, and permits an out-

In the futile attempt to com-

of-body experience for the

partmentalize these indiscrete

viewer.18 %" /"+!"/"! "Ȭ" 1

contours, the observer’s mind

is that the viewer feels as if

becomes entangled with the

1%"6 /" ĳ, 1&+$ ,3" 1%"

artwork in a sort of limbo

epicentre of the lake, rather

where subconscious contem-

than standing along its pe-

-) 1&,+ ĳ,2/&0%"0 +! )) -/"-

riphery or submerged within

conceived, conscious notions

it. The viewer does not travel

or assumptions of the artwork

around the lake. Instead, the

or its meaning are thereby

lake travels around the view-

non-categorical

eliminated. %" 3&"4"/ Ĳ+!0 er. As with the blurring con16

%&*0")# ,/ %"/0")# ,+ȩ,+1-

tours of colour and the value

"! 6 1%&0 4 1"/6 0 "+" ȩ,* spectrum contained within all angles and is immersed

the mural, the viewer is once

into the space of the image

again perceptually ‘lost’ with-

with an indeterminate per-

in 6*-%Ĩ 0 as he or she and

spective. Forced out of their

the artwork fuse together.

inner, secure distance – their

The observer has now giv-

sense of form, perspective

en up the distanced role of

and colour blurred, and their

‘viewer,’ who simply looks

familiar view of near and far

at a painting, to one encased

, 0 2/"! M 1%" 3&"4"/ !/&Ȫ0 within the orchestrated exinto the exclusivity of the water landscape . The synthesis 17

perience created by the artist. Part

16 Boetzkes, “Phenomenology and Interpretation beyond the Flesh,” 691. 17

Grau, &/12 ) /1, 142.

IV:

Closing

Colour 18

Remarks

and

Grau, &/12 ) /1, 142-3.

compo-

103

sition have both played predominant roles in evaluating the meaning of the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)&"0. A major way in which a viewer interprets a work of art is in his or her physical reaction to the art-

Figure 5. Colour Value Spectrum of the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 6*-%Ä¨ 0

1"/ &)&"0â&#x20AC;&#x2122; various uses of colour and valueH along with its structural obscurity and indecisiveness, allows for the spectator to lose his or her

work itself. It is clear that

awareness of self while tem-

within the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s psyche of

seum, yet not quite in Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)&"0 porarily existing in an intergenerate a dynamic struggle mediate place: not in the muperception and sensual experience and what is realistic and objective versus what is

garden. This disembodiment of the viewer, summoned by a removal of perceived rational-

illusionistic and subjective.19

ity, leads to the development

19 Forrest Williams, â&#x20AC;&#x153;CĂŠzanne and French Phenomenology,â&#x20AC;? 485-6.

4%, Ä˛+!0 %&*0")# ,/ %"/0")#

of a single image-observer

104

encapsulated in a realm that

cernment and appreciation of

is somewhere between our

works beyond the time con-

world and the world of the

straints and stylistic bound-

painting. As the viewer is ab-

aries of the postmodern age.

sorbed within the quasi-natural biosphere of the mural, the Orangerieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1"/ &)&"0 collection lures the observer into an ambiguous place between his or her sense of imagination and his or her sense of reality. It is my hope that this essay has illuminated the unexplored methods of study for this famous collection of iconic Impressionist works, and quite possibly for all of the 1"/ &)&"0 panels that Monet produced during his lifetime. Moreover, I hope to have provided new insight into phenomenological techniques that are clearly applicable to Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and the works of other artists ČŠ,* 1%" *-/"00&,+&01 "/ F Undoubtedly, the MusĂŠe de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orangerie is a predecessor of installation art and aids in deducing the relevance of subjective experience in our dis20 Boetzkes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Phenomenology and Interpretation beyond the Flesh,â&#x20AC;? 710.

105

Bibliography Boetzkes, Amanda. “Phenomenology and Interpretation beyond the Flesh.” Journal of Art History 32, no. 4 (September 2009): 690-711. Crowther, Paul. %" %"+,*"+,),$6 ,# ,!"/+ /1I 5-),!&+$ ")"27" +! ))2*&+ 1&+$ Style. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012. Grau, Oliver. &/12 ) /1I /,* ))201/ 1&,+ 1, **"/sion. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. House, John. ,+"1I /,* 12/" &+1, /1F New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Rachman,

Carla. ,+"1F on Press

London: Limited,

Phaid1997.

Venturi, Lionello. “The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1, no. 1 (Spring 1941): 34-45. Williams, Forrest. “Cézanne and French Phenomenology.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 12, no. 4 ( June 1954): 481-492.

Anthony Portulese —

Anthony Portulese is a second-year Pharmacology student

with

minor

Art

History.

),+$0&!" %&0 0 &"+1&Ĳ * &1&,+0H %" !"3"),-"! #"/3&! &+1"/"01 +! --/" & 1&,+ #,/ /1 ȩ,* + early age and throughout his youth spent much time reading about Monet and the Impressionists. He is immensely excited to share his thoughts on 1%" Ĳ+ ) 4,/(0 ,# %&0 # 3,2/&1" /1&01 &+ +3 0F

107

Who Carries the Big Stick? The Regulation of Canadian Pornography

By Vidal Wu

Who Carries the Big Stick? The Regulation of Canadian Pornography It may come as a sur-

regulatory system.01 The com-

prise to note that the Canadi-

bination of social conserva-

an Radio-television and Tele-

tism and legislative inertia

communications Commission

has led to the scattershot con-

is involved in the production

sideration of pornography by

and regulation of Canadian

various government bodies.

pornography (or in broad-

Moreover, pornography and,

casting parlance, “adult con-

subsequently, societal stan-

1"+1WrJ Ȫ"/ ))H &1 &0 0&*-)6 dards for pornography and another type of content that

other adult content, is a polit-

is distributed through tele-

& ) *&+"Ĳ")! 4&1% # / *,/"

vision,

telecommunications,

-,)&1& ) -&1# ))0 1, " 02Ȭ"/"!

radio and other communica-

1% + -/,Ĳ10 1, " "+',6"!F

tive technologies, thus fall-

In this essay, I would

ing under the jurisdiction of

like to survey the overlapping

the Broadcasting Act of 1991.

/"$2) 1,/6 ȩ *"4,/(0 1% 1

However, an otherwise banal

work to control the produc-

administrative formality has

tion and distribution of Cana-

revealed the more surprising

dian pornography and sexual-

lack of legislation surround-

ly explicit content. By drawing

ing the production, distribu-

a conceptual map of the or-

tion, standards and regula-

ganizational bodies, I would

tion of pornography. This can

like to suggest a number of

partially be attributed to the

implications that suggest a

historical tendency of tech-

0%&Ȫ &+ 0, &"1 ) 3&"40 1,4 /!0

nology to outstrip the law’s

liberalization, or an otherwise

ability to deal with pornogra-

more tolerant view of sex and

phy, especially as new media

pornography. I would like to

falls outside of the Canadian

01 Michael Kanter, /,%& &1 ,/ "$2) 1"DI %" / 0"/ "-,/1 +! "4 --/, %"0 1, ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ (Toronto: Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 1985), 177.

109

make explicit the inconsis-

,+1"+1W &0 ,Ȫ"+ 20"! &+

tent way in which pornogra-

terms of community stan-

phy is irregularly regulated

dards and regulation, each

/,00 !&Ȭ"/"+1 '2/&0!& 1&,+0 with their own disadvantages. and in doing so, highlight

These semantic and termi-

some

turning

nological issues intersect in

points that have worked to

ways that complicate existing

inform how Canadians and

problems in federal jurispru-

our government think about

dence which “trickle down”

pornography. Through this, I

into

would like to suggest a new

important

provincial

approaches

pornography

regulation.

conception of pornography

The principal problem

that acknowledges its social

with “pornography” lies in

and economic contribution

its hazy etymology and per-

to the Canadian media land-

0&01"+1 /"0&01 + " 1, !"Ĳ+&-

scape, and call for its con-

tion; the resulting ambiguity

sideration

% 0 -/"3"+1"! &1 ȩ,* "&+$

alongside

other

forms of Canadian content. There

general

prudence, certainly a prob-

consensus that the legisla-

lem not unique to Canada.

tive and common vernacular

Established in 1983, the Spe-

used to discuss pornography,

cial Committee on Pornog-

obscenity or adult content is

raphy and Prostitution (oth-

either inadequate, antiquat-

erwise known as The Fraser

ed or both. Despite its wide-

Committee) declined to pro-

spread

3&!" 4,/(&+$ !"Ĳ+&1&,+ ,#

use,

"Ȭ" 1&3")6 !"-),6"! &+ '2/&0-

“pornography”

% 0 /"* &+"! 2+!"Ĳ+"! +! “pornography” for its public is perhaps, all the better for

hearings, stating that “[they]

it. That said, “pornography”

believed that one of the im-

and “obscenity” are general-

portant functions of the pub-

ly used in federal and crimi-

)& %" /&+$0 4 0 1, )" /+ ȩ,*

nal literature, whereas “adult

Canadians how they used the

110

term and what sort of material their usage encompassed.â&#x20AC;?02 Generally, pornography was seen to fall on either side of the spectrum; on one hand, pornography as merely sexually explicit with little to no emphasis on violence or forbidden (that is, illegal) acts, and on the other, pornography with a message of sexual exploitation and degradation, â&#x20AC;&#x153;with [a] portrayal of men as aggressors and women as subordinate.â&#x20AC;?03 A 2007 Parliamentary report summarizes the challenge:04

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some people consider any depiction of nudity ,/ 0"52 ) 1&3&16 1, " -,/+,$/ -%& F % 1 &0 , '" 1&,+ )" 1, ,1%"/0H %,4"3"/H &0 +,1 0"52 ) ,+1"+1 -"/ 0"H ,/ S"/,1& HT 4%& % !"-& 10 +,/* ) ,+0"+02 ) 0"52 ) 1&3&16H 21 * 1"/& ) &+ 4%& % ,+" ,/ *,/" - /1& &- +10 /" !"*" +"!H !"$/ !"! ,/ 20"! &+ 0,*" * ++"/F ,/+,$/ -%6H ,/!&+$ 1, 1%&0 3&"4H &0 * 1"/& ) 1% 1 ,+!,+"0 ,/ encourages sexual debasement. Such a distinc1&,+ 210 /,00 ,+3"+1&,+ ) !"Ä˛+&1&,+0 " 20" &1 *" +0 1% 1 3"/6 "5-)& &1 0"52 ) !"-& 1&,+0 + " ))"! S"/,1& HT 4%&)" 0"52 ) * 1"/& ) 4&1% /") 1&3")6 2+"5-)& &1 21 !"*" +&+$ ,+1"+1 + " ))"! S-,/+,$/ -%6FT 1 1%" 0 *" 1&*"H *2 % ,+3"+1&,+ ) -,/+,$/ -%6 !"-& 10 + ("! 4,*"+H and it is argued that such material perpetrates &* $"0 ,# 4,*"+ 0 0"52 ) , '" 10 +!H 1%20H + 3& 1&*&7" 4,*"+ !&/" 1)6 +! &+!&/" 1)6FW

02 Canada. ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ &+ + ! I "-,/1 ,# 1%" -" & ) ,**&11"" ,+ ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+F qOttawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1985) 9. 03 ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ &+ + ! H @F 04 Lyne Casavant and James R. Robertson, %" 3,)21&,+ ,# ,/+,$/ -%6 4 &+ + ! (Ottawa: Parliamentary Information and Research Service: Current Issue Review).

111

Current federal legislation re-

Ĳ+!0 ,*- / )" *"/& +

ĳ" 10 1%&0 ,+#20&,+H 4&1% 1%" example in the Miller test determ “pornography” only ap-

veloped in the &))"/ 3F )&#,/-

pearing once in Section 163.1

nia (1973), also known as the

of the Criminal Code of Canada

Three Prong Obscenity Test. It

in reference to child pornog-

consists of three parts: wheth-

raphy. Instead, “obscenity” is

er the average person would

,Ȫ"+ ") ,/ 1"! 0 /, !"/ Ĳ+! 1% 1 1%" 4%,)" 4,/( -category that while lacking in

peals to a “lewd curiosity,”

0-" &Ĳ &16H &0 0,*"4% 1 20"-

whether the work depicts or

#2) 0 ĳ"5& )" 01 +! /! 1% 1 !"0 /& "0H &+ + ,Ȭ"+0&3" 4 6H /"0-,+!0 1, 0%&Ȫ0 &+ -2 )& sexual conduct (or excretory acceptance: “Any publication

functions), and whether the

a dominant characteristic of

work lacks serious literary,

which is the undue exploita-

/1&01& H -,)&1& ) ,/ 0 &"+1&Ĳ

tion of sex, or of sex and any

3 )2"F &$+&Ĳ +1 %"/" &+ ,1%

one or more of the following

the Canadian and American

subjects, namely, crime, hor-

standards for obscenity is an

ror, cruelty and violence, shall

emphasis on contemporary

be deemed to be obscene.”05

community standards of tol-

What is considered “undue

erance, which informs much

exploitation” has been the

of the regulatory apparatus-

subject of cases like F 3F Butler

es surrounding adult con-

(1992), in which the Supreme

tent rather than the explicit

Court noted that the Commu-

act or depiction of sex itself.

nity Standards Test concerns

Other than the Crim-

itself primarily with what Ca-

inal Code, Canada Customs is

nadians would tolerate other

the only other federal means

Canadians to be exposed to.

for the control of sexually ex-

The Community Stan-

plicit material. In 1895, the

! /!0 1"01 ȩ,* F 3F 21)"/

department created an inter-

05 8.

Criminal Code of Canada, 1985 s 163-

nally circulated list of banned

112

books and periodicals that, by

&0 !"$/"" ,# % /* &+Äł& 1-

the listâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suspension in 1958,

ed by â&#x20AC;&#x153;obsceneâ&#x20AC;? materials, to

had accumulated more than

who or in what way is un-

1,100 titles. The list was nev-

clear. However, there is a fo-

er released publicly and had

cus on disproportionate harm

no organized review process

towards children and partic-

or any established criteria

ularly women. AdditionallyH

for determining material of

jurisprudence has provided a le-

â&#x20AC;&#x153;immoral or indecentâ&#x20AC;? char-

gal precedent similar to that of

acter.06 In 1985, these pow-

other countries for determin-

ers were deemed to apply

ing community standards of

to a broader range of mate-

tolerance. Canada Customs has

rials by administrative ac-

also been historically invested

tion than criminal prosecu-

in the control of sexually ex-

tion (or in other words, the

plicit material. Together, these

â&#x20AC;&#x153;obscenityâ&#x20AC;?

and

organized policies and bod-

thus incompatible with the

&"0N ),+$0&!" 1%" Canadian

Charter. The

201,*0 /&ČŹ

% /1"/ ,# &$%10 +! /""!,*0

was subsequently amended

and the /, ! 01&+$ 1Npro-

standard)

1, /"Äł" 1 1%" /&*&+ ) ,!"H 3&!" *2 % ,# 1%" )"$ ) ČŠ *"and i0 01&)) &+ "ČŹ" 1 1,! 6F07 , /&"Äły summarize, on the federal level, there are 0"3"/ ) 0&$+&Ä˛ +1 1,/0 +! policies that inform the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position on pornography and sexually explicit content. First, the Criminal Code acknowledges that there 06 Christopher Gudgeon, %" ("! /21%I %" +1,)! 1,/6 ,# "5 &+ + ! (Vancouver: Greystone Books) 164. 07 Lyne Casavant and James R. Robertson, %" 3,)21&,+ ,# ,/+,$/ -%6 4 &+ Canada.

work that informs more localized forms of regulation. Provincial

controls

more directly target the control of pornographic materials. There are currently seven -/,3&+ & ) Ä˛)* , /!0 1% 1 assign

ratings,

information

pieces, and license distributors, theatres and in some cases, retailers: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alber-

113

ta, Manitoba, Ontario, Que-

02/-/&0&+$)6 Ä˛"/ " -2 )& ,--

bec and the Maritimes (New

position, the OFRBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s powers

Brunswick, Nova Scotia and

were challenged under Sec-

Prince Edward Island). For-

tion 2(b)â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new provisions of

merly known as the provin-

the Charter. In March 1983,

cial Board of Censors, the

the Ontario Divisional Court

Ontario Film Review Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

found that the Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s power

policies and legal challenges

1, !")"1" ,/ + Ä˛)*0 *201 "

set the precedent for provin-

supported by explicit guide-

cial review agencies across

lines which do not abridge the

the country. Established by

% /1"/T0 ČŠ""!,* ,# "5-/"0-

the Theatres and Cinematog-

sion. The court upheld that

raphers Act of 1911, the Board

direct

dealt primarily with protect-

under the federal criminal

&+$ %&)!/"+ ČŠ,* 1%" V ,/-

jurisdiction, and as a result,

/2-1&+$ +! &**,/ )W &+Äł2-

the Board changed its focus

prohibition

remains

"+ " ,# Ä˛)*0H )" !&+$ 1, 1%" ČŠ,* "+0,/0%&- 1, ) 00&Ä˛ precedent-setting

establish-

tion. However, as Taryn Sirove

*"+1 ,# 1%" Ä˛)* ) 00&Ä˛ 1&,+ noted in her study of Ontario system in the 1940s and the

Ä˛)* /"$2) 1&,+H 1%" /"02)1&+$

more explicit censorship of

action by the Board mere-

&*-,/1"! Ä˛)*0 &+ 1%" 8@<A0F08

ly â&#x20AC;&#x153;cloaked the powers [the

It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until 1981 that the

OFRB] retained to cut and ban

Act was enforced in order

3&!", +! Ä˛)*H +! 1%" 02 0"-

to require that independent

quent enabling legislation, &))

Ä˛)*0H &+ !!&1&,+ 1, 4&!")6 ?9H + 1 1, *"+! 1%" +1 /&, !&01/& 21"! * &+01/" * Ä˛)*0H %" 1/"0 1H actually expanded undergo Board review pri-

the Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reach to include

or to screening.09 Sparking a

1%" ) 00&Ä˛ 1&,+ ,# )) %,*"

08 Eric Veilette, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The day Shakespeare was banned,â&#x20AC;? Toronto Star. August 20, 2010. 09 Taryn Sirove. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Freedom, Sex & Power: Film/Video Regulation in Ontarioâ&#x20AC;? I / !2 1" ,2/+ ) ,# /1 &01,/6H &02 ) /1 and Theory (2008): 32.

video.â&#x20AC;?10 To add to the secrecy, the Board has never pub10 Sirove, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Film/Video Regulation in Ontario,â&#x20AC;? 33.

114

licly released its criterion for

the notion of diversity as a

"+0,/&+$H ) 00&ȫ&+$ ,/ --

criterion of inclusion and ex-

-/,3&+$ Ĳ)*0 #,/ !&01/& 21&,+F clusion.”12 Third, censorship Sirove notes a number

amounts to a process of (de)

of critical issues that arose as

legitimation that among other

a result, namely the implicit

things, denotes a Western co-

institutionalization of value

lonial bias, especially towards

judgments about pornogra-

sexually

phy and art that the OFRB

used in artistic practices.13

represents, and the Board’s

explicit

The

other

content primary

tactic of limiting distribu-

issue raised pertains to the

tion through fee structures

OFRB’s practice of requiring

to avoid making those value

, /! --/,3 )H ) 00&Ĳ 1&,+

'2!$*"+10 "5-)& &1F %" Ĳ/01 and a fee for those services issue is articulated in three

prior to the distribution of a

points. First, the provision of

Ĳ)*F

exemptions to “high art” in-

website, the Board “screens all

stitutions reinforces a distinc-

!2)1 0"5 Ĳ)*0 &+

tion between art and everyday

with guidelines dealing with

life that depoliticizes alterna-

areas such as consent, physi-

tive images for their “artful-

cal abuse, coercion, humilia-

ness” and limits their use in

tion, degradation, and so on,”

active discourse.11 Second, in

echoing language used in the

response to right-wing femi-

Criminal Code regarding ob-

nist oppositions to all censor-

scenity. This regulatory mea-

ship, Sirove argues that “op-

02/" "Ȭ" 1&3")6 , 0 2/"0 1%"

position to censorship serves

value system implicit in the

,/!&+$ 1, 1%" ,/! + "

+,1 1, $2 / +1"" !&3"/0&16 ȩ"" approval process, supporting of censorship, but to regulate

Sirove’s suggestion that fee

membership in the critical

structures

community by appealing to 11 Sirove, “Film/Video Regulation in Ontario,” 36.

approximate

the

12 Sirove, “Film/Video Regulation in Ontario,” 41. 13 Sirove, “Film/Video Regulation in Ontario,” 44.

115

powers of federal jurisdic-

tual and emotional equality of

tion by exercising power over

both sexes in programming.â&#x20AC;?

Ä˛)*T0 !&01/& 21&,+ / 1%"/ While referencing the supple1% + /"$2) 1&+$ 1%" Ä˛)* &10")#F mentary Sex-Role Portrayal In addition to government

bodies,

Code for Television and Radio

industry

Programming, the CAB draws

associations also apply regu-

their conception of exploita-

lations and standards to the

1&,+ ČŠ,* )"$ ) -/" "!"+1H

distribution of adult content.

- /1& 2) /)6 ČŠ,* 1%" ,+ "-1

Chief among them is the Ca-

of â&#x20AC;&#x153;undue exploitationâ&#x20AC;? that is

nadian Broadcast Standards

thought to disproportionately

Council (CAB), an indepen-

ČŹ" 1 4,*"+ +! %&)!/"+ &+

dent, non-governmental or-

the Criminal Code. While there

ganization that administers

is a common perception that

standards to private broad-

there is a degree of â&#x20AC;&#x153;harmâ&#x20AC;?

casters. Of particular interest

01"**&+$ ČŠ,* 3&,)"+1 +!m

is their Code of Ethics, which

indirectly refers to adult con-

women, there is a lack of con-

tent in two instances: Sex-

sensus amongst feminist cri-

Role Stereotyping (Clause 3)

tiques as to the nature of this

and Television Broadcasting

harm, and moreover, it is rec-

(Clause 10). Clause 3 states that

ognized that statistical and ex-

â&#x20AC;&#x153;recognizing that stereotyp-

perimental evidence is unable

ing images can and do have a

to establish a causal link be-

demeaning

images

+"$ 1&3" "ČŹ" 1H &1 0% )) " 1%" tween pornography and harm responsibility of broadcasters

towards women.14 This repli-

to exhibit, to the best of their

cates the same issue of deter-

ability, a conscious sensitivity

mining what exploitation is,

to the problems related to sex-

and how it operates within a

/,)" 01"/",16-&+$H 6 /"ČŠ &+-

given

&+$ ČŠ,* "5-),&1 1&,+ +! 6 1%" /"Äł" 1&,+ ,# 1%" &+1"))" -

media. Clause 10, which con-

14 Casavant and Robinson, %" 3,)21&,+ ,# ,/+,$/ -%6 4 &+ + ! H 2-3.

116

cerns itself with television

1/""1 / *"! "0&/" and

broadcasting, requires broad-

01 +$, &+ /&0.15 The im-

casters to only air content

plicit (de)legitimation of se-

4&1% , /0" ,/ ,ČŹ"+0&3" ) +-

lect values are enforced by a

guage or that is sexually ex-

) 00&Ä˛ 1&,+ ČŠ *"4,/( 1% 1

plicit during the â&#x20AC;&#x153;late viewing

,*-)&0%"0 1%" 0 *" "ČŹ" 10

period,â&#x20AC;? otherwise known as

as a prohibition under federal

the â&#x20AC;&#x153;watershed hourâ&#x20AC;? of 9:00

jurisdiction. The CAB, on the

PM to 6:00 AM. During this

other hand, operates with-

time, broadcasters must take

in the industry to essential-

measures to warn their view-

ly reinforce existing regula-

ers of adult-oriented content,

tions on private broadcasters:

thus allowing viewers to make

to acknowledge harm under

informed decisions about the

the obscenity standard of the

content they wish to consume.

/&*&+ ) ,!"H and to enforce

Most of the complaints sub-

the â&#x20AC;&#x153;watershed hourâ&#x20AC;? that is

mitted to the CRTC regarding

a preexisting condition in a

adult content take issue with

majority of broadcasting li-

one or both of these claus-

censes awarded by the CRTC.

"0H 4%& % /" ,ČŞ"+ &+ )2!"! Here, we recognize that in adas conditions of broadcasting

dition to government policies

licenses issued by the CRTC.

and bodies that regulate sex-

Several

are

ually explicit content, there

Chief

are a host of â&#x20AC;&#x153;satelliteâ&#x20AC;? bodies

among them is that the pow-

that reinforce many policies

worth

points

noting

here.

"/0 ,# -/,3&+ & ) Ä˛)* /"3&"4 ,# 0&*&) / #,/ " +! "ČŹ" 1F boards have historically been

%" ,+Äł& 10 "14""+

subjectively applied without

federal, provincial and in-

any regulatory recourse or

dustry approached to regula-

'201&Ä˛ 1&,+J 0,*" +,1 )" tion were noted in the Fraser Ä˛)*0 4"/" out

"+0,/"! 4&1%-

explanation,

including

Committee Report of 1985, 15 banned.â&#x20AC;?

Veillete, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The day Shakespeare was

117

which has informed much of

and eliminate the need of the

our current policies towards

community standards test.16

pornography. Despite almost

In many ways, the

none of its recommendations

Fraser Report was ahead of

being enacted, the Report re-

its time. In a section devot-

mains a surprisingly balanced,

ed to broadcasting and the

thoughtful and sensitive ap-

CRTC, it reiterates the im-

proach that is invaluable to

portance

contemporary policy debates.

what

Among its many recommen-

or “indecent” content, as well

dations, it called for the re-

as an acknowledgement that

reconsidering

constitutes

“obscene”

*,3 ) ,# V, 0 "+"W ȩ,* emerging media is quickly criminal and federal legisla-

outstripping legislation’s reg-

tion, a revision of the Criminal

ulatory capacities.17 A review

Code with particular attention

of the Report notes that “it

paid to the eschewing of the

rejects simple deterrent-ori-

Community Standards test,

ented solutions” and that “the

and greater transparency in

Committee

Canada Customs with explicit

pornography

regulations (rather than in-

tion are symptoms of deeper

ternal policy guidelines or

social problems.”18 Even if al-

memoranda)

the

most none of the recommen-

distribution of pornographic

dations were implemented,

materials. The Report also out-

one can trace the nuanced,

lines a proposal for a three-ti-

fairly liberal attitudes of Ca-

er system for the regulation

nadians

material

phy: one that values individ-

which would, among other

ual liberty, an appreciation of

"+"Ĳ10H

,/!&+$)6 0"1 ,+-

a diversity of sexualities and

trols based on the type of con-

human dignity. The echoes of

regarding

pornographic

tent, protect values of equali16 +! ȩ""!,* ,# "5-/"00&,+

16 ! H 12. 17 ! H 24. 18

recognizes and

towards

that

prostitu-

pornogra-

,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ &+ + ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ &+ + Kanter, /,%& &1 ,/ "$2) 1"DH 194.

118

these are heard in the histo-

ing attitudes of the Canadian

ry of increasing liberalization

public, allowing the theory

that sees the production and

of an overall liberalization of

consumption

pornography

attitudes to be anchored in

"-1"!N&# +,1 0&$-

empirical and qualitative re-

+&Ĳ +1)6 !,4+-) 6"!N 0 1,)-

search. The Report makes this

erable community practices.

clear in asserting that “con-

1 &1)6

%" *,01 0&$+&Ĳ +1 certed action and attention to

implication of the Fraser re-

the issues is needed if we are

port is the relationship it pos-

to have lasting solutions to the

es between harm and the com-

problems which pornography

munity

Whereas

and prostitution engender.”19

the bulk of regulatory mech-

The overview of the

anisms assume that there is

regulatory environment and

some potential of harm in the

clear delineation of the tra-

unregulated distribution of

jectory of social attitudes en-

sexually explicit content, the

gendered in the development

Fraser report is the only doc-

of jurisprudence and the Fra-

ument that not only acknowl-

ser report serve to better ar-

"!$"0 1%" ĳ2&! + 12/" ,# ,*-

ticulate

munity standard, but actually

is perceived and regulated

outlines what that standard

today. From this, we can at-

&0 &+ &10 1&*"K0-" &Ĳ ,+-

tempt to understand the ap-

text and situates that within a

proval of licenses for private

history of changing attitudes

adult-oriented

towards

and

ers by the CRTC. Beginning

sexuality. Its interdisciplin-

with Hustler TV in 2004, the

ary account of public consul-

Adult Entertainment Chan-

tations and academic input

nel and Vanessa in 2007, and

makes the document one of

Northern Peaks in 2008, the

1%" 0,)" 11"*-10 1 &!"+1&ȫ-

move to allow pornography

standard.

pornography

ing and addressing the chang-

19 ! H 3.

how

pornography

broadcast-

,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ &+ + -

119

on public airwaves was not made with any explicit statement or change in policy; it simply happened. Considering the contentious role of pornography in the public sphere over the past century, this is an unprecedented move that suggests an increasing liberalization of the Canadian media environment. Adult services are granted Category 2 licenses, which requires that the services not be “bundled,” or in other words, do not obligate subscribers to purchase another service and to ensure that subscribers have the ability to not receive adult ,+1"+1F + /"3&"4 ,# 1%" /"$2) 1,/6 ȩ *"4,/( #,/ + dian broadcasting services, Dunbar and Leblanc note that:

V + ,2/ 3&"4H 1%" 1"$,/6 9 /2)" /"* &+0 3 )&! 0&+ " &1 -/,3&!"0 ,+02*"/0 4&1% 1%" ,-1&,+ ,# 02 0 /& &+$ 1, !2)1 -/,$/ **&+$ % ++")0H ,/ (""-&+$ 1%"* ,21 ,# 1%"&/ %,*"0H 4&1%,21 % 3&+$ 1, 0 /&Ĳ " ,1%"/ +,+K !2)1 % ++")0 1% 1 1%"6 *&$%1 4&0% 1, , 1 &+F q " 4,2)! +,1" &+ - 00&+$H %,4"3"/H 1% 1 ,1%"/ + !& + 0"/3& "0 /" * /("1&+$ !2)1 ,+1"+1 0 - /1 ,# 0"/3& "0 1% 1 #" 12/" * &+01/" * *,3&"0 1, )) $"0 ,# 3&"4"/0%&- M 0, 1%"/" &0 +,1 +6 ,+0&01"+ 6 &+ 1%" --)& 1&,+ ,# 1%&0 -/&+ &-)"Fr

V + 1%" ,1%"/ % +!H 1%" 1"$,/6 8 /2)" --" /0 1, run counter to consumer demand by forcing con02*"/0 1, 1 (" *,/" 0"/3& "0 1% + 1%"6 4 +1F %" *,20" 0%,2)! +,1 % 3" 1, 02 0 /& " 1, 1%"

+&- % ++") &+ ,/!"/ 1, 4 1 % 1%" %""0" % ++")FW20

20 Laurence J.E. Dunbar and Christian Leblanc, "3&"4 ,# 1%" "$2) 1,/6 / *"4,/( #,/ /, ! 01&+$ "/3& "0 &+ + ! H” 177.

120

Here, the report explicitly

another sector of the broad-

notes that the CRTC has a ten-

casting industry should be ex-

dency to permit the bundling

tended to its right to regulato-

of services in the absence of

ry measures that support the

-,1"+1& ) ,+ĳ& 1 4&1% 0,-

economic and cultural pro-

cietal values, to allow the

duction of Canadian content.

market to determine the best

It is necessary then,

way to package and distribute

to consider the position of

broadcasting services. I sug-

pornography in the Canadian

gest that this practice, while

media landscape. Here, we can

not explicit in any CRTC

look to the /, ! 01&+$ 1 of

policy, avoids potential skir-

1991, which outlines the crit-

mishes with public opinion

ical role of the broadcasting

while undermining the entire

system to operate in the pub-

-/"*&0" ,# 2+!)&+$N1% 1 lic interest, contribute to the &0H 1, ,Ȭ"/ ,+02*"/ 3 )2" creation and presentation of and allocate revenue towards

Canadian programming and

smaller private broadcasters.

be of a “high quality” that rep-

This can be understood as,

resents the diversity of Cana-

at best, an undervaluation of

da’s population and values.21

the

Canadian

pornography

Of particular interest

industry, and at worst, a hy-

is whether the pornography

pocrisy that denies Canadi-

can fall under Section 3(g) of

an pornography the right to

the /, ! 01&+$ 1’s mandate

“shelf space” as a competitive

to which “the programming

broadcasting enterprise, thus

originated

limiting its opportunities for

undertakings should be of

growth. The question of eval-

high standard.” Determining

uating the “cultural value” of

this seems imperative to mov-

Canadian pornography aside,

ing towards a reconsideration

pornography’s relatively ge-

of pornography in the Cana-

neric

dian media landscape, where

treatment

simply

broadcasting

2/ 2)12/ ) ,3"/"&$+16H 37-38.

121

a passive acknowledgement

en seriously as a distinctly

is no longer adequate in light

Canadian industry, product

of the industry’s (economic,

and labour force to be reck-

if not cultural) contributions

oned with. It is a disservice

to the Canadian media land-

that Canadian pornography

scape. The question, in light of

receives little attention and

the CRTC intervening in trivi-

support, despite it being a

al issues of Canadian content

-/,Ĳ1 )" +!

quotas, is not one of morality,

industry in a heavily saturat-

but of acknowledging por-

ed marketplace. Statistics are

nography on the same level as

!&ȯ 2)1 1, Ĳ+! +! /" ,Ȫ"+

other forms of Canadian con-

!&ȯ 2)1 1, 3"/&ȫH 21 9AA=

tent, and furthermore, con-

study estimates that Canada

sidering the role of regulation

draws in $1 billion per year

in the promotion and pro-

&+ /"3"+2" ȩ,* 1%" -,/+,$-

duction of that content. Can

raphy industry alone,22 with

pornography be in the public

production

interest? If so, what role does

primarily in Montreal and

regulation play in maintain-

Toronto. One of the largest

ing a competitive place for

digital distributors of pornog-

Canadian

mitigat-

raphy worldwide, Pornhub,

ing harm (if any) towards the

is actually based in Montreal;

vulnerable and marginalized,

while the lack of government

and asserting Canadian val-

acknowledgement may be at-

ues in the media landscape?

tributed to the general lack of

I am inclined to be-

regulation around new media

lieve that there is not only a

content, certainly the govern-

place in the media landscape

ment and the CRTC can take

for

pornography,

an interest in supporting the

but that due to the liberal-

undeveloped market poten-

ization of pornography and

tial of Canadian pornography.

content,

Canadian

sex, pornography can be tak-

,*-"1&1&3"

centers

based

22 Ropelato, Jerry. “Internet Pornography Statistics” 2006.

122

Economic consider-

legislation and implicit val-

ations aside, there is as much

ue systems dilute the clarity

potential in supporting por-

with which Canadians per-

nography as a distinctly Ca-

ceive

nadian cultural product. The

the overall media landscape.

historical discourses on sex-

This also weakens the pow-

uality, gender, representation

er of regulatory bodies when

and

implications

jurisdictions are so closely

generated by censorship mea-

aligned with one another as

sures are proof enough that

to be nearly indistinguishable.

Canadians are invested in sex.

Additionally,

Canada has a wealth of unique

move towards the licensing of

linguistic and racial histories

adult content channels is an

that have all contributed to the

overall positive one. Not only

conversation, and documents

!,"0 &1 !"*,+01/ 1" 0%&Ȫ &+

like the Fraser Report suggest

attitudes regarding sex and

that Canadians have a general

its representations, but it also

consensus that the expression

recognizes the existence and

of these ideas is aligned with

potential of broadcast and dis-

material

pornography

within

the

,+ "-1&,+0 ,# ȩ""!,* ,# tribution undertakings that speech and personal liberty,

may yet prove to be a boon to

both of which are entrenched

the Canadian media industry

in the legal and social foun-

as a whole. To that end, the

dations of Canadian society.

history of regulation is a rel-

To some extent, the

atively tame one without sig-

overlapping and contradicto-

+&Ĳ +1 ,+ĳ& 10 1% 1 % 3" !"-

ry regulatory bodies have had

railed the liberalization of sex

1%" "Ȭ" 1 ,# *&0/"-/"0"+1-

+! ,!&"0 ȩ,* ,+0"/3 1&3"

ing the dangers of pornog-

value systems. This can only

raphy in society. That is not

be read as a victory for rights

to say that there is no harm;

entrenched in both the Fraser

simply that the scattershot

Report and the Charter, specif-

123

ically those pertaining to liberty over one’s body and one’s claim to deploy their material sexuality as they please without

state As

intervention.

societal

values

change over time, we may hopefully look to the Canadian pornographers to lobby government agencies for the right to claim “shelf space” as a uniquely Canadian export, a 0&*-)" ȯ/* 1&,+ ,# 1%" " ,nomic practices already taking place in urban centers across the country. This may lead to regulatory support for space, equipment, the development of labour and the catalyzing of the Canadian porn economy. Where the regulatory system has created a broadcasting industry, perhaps the pornography industry can take a more active role in shaping its niche within jurisprudence and the public sphere.

Bibliography Casavant, Lyne and Robertson, James R.. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Evolution of Pornography Law in Canada.â&#x20AC;? /)& *"+1 /6 +#,/* 1&,+ +! "0" / % "/3& "I 2//"+1 002" "3&"4 84-3E. Ottawa: Library of Parliament, 2007. Print.

Sirove, Taryn. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Freedom, Sex & Power: Film/Video Regulation in Ontario.â&#x20AC;? I

/ !2 1" ,2/+ ) ,# /1 &01,/6H &02 ) Art and Theory 2:1 (2008): 31-54. Print. Veillette, Eric. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The day Shakespeare was banned.â&#x20AC;? Toronto Star. 20 Aug 2010. Print.

Dunbar, Laurence J.E. and Leblanc, Christian. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Review of the Regulatory Framework for BroadcastingServicesinCanada.â&#x20AC;?31August2007.Print.

KKK V 2/3"0H 200&+$ +! ""/I +1 /&, Ä˛)* censorship in the 1940s.â&#x20AC;? Silent Toronto. 26 Sep 2011. Web.

Gudgeon, Christopher. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Porn to Be Wild.â&#x20AC;? The ("! /21%I %" +1,)! 1,/6 ,# "5 &+ Canada. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2003: 160-185. Print.

KKK V "01/& 1"!I +1 /&, Ä˛)* "+0,/0%&- &+ 1%" 1950s.â&#x20AC;? Silent Toronto. 30 Nov 2011. Web.

Kanter, Michael. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prohibit or Regulate?: The Fraser Report and New Approaches to Pornography andProstitutionâ&#x20AC;? 0$,,!" )) 4 ,2/+ ) 23.1 (1985): 171-194. Print. &+ ,)+H )&ČŹ,/!F V %" /, ! 01&+$ 1 and its Public Policy Principles.â&#x20AC;? 2/ 2)12/ ) ,3"/"&$+16I %" " ,+! "+12/6 ,# + !& + /, ! 01&+$F Ottawa: Standing CommitteeonCanadianHeritage,2003.Print. ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+ &+ + ! I "-,/1 ,# 1%" -" & ) ,**&11"" ,+ ,/+,$/ -%6 +! /,01&121&,+F Ottawa, Canada: Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1985. Print. Ropelato, Jerry. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Internet Pornography Statistics. ,- "+ "3&"40F 2006. Web.

Vidal Wu â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Vidal Wu is a Cultural Studies and Commu+& 1,+0 12!&"0 012!"+1 &+ %&0 Ä˛+ ) 6" / 1 McGill.

His

research

focuses

interdisci-

plinary approaches to new media, queer identity

and

sexuality,

disability

and

fashion.

125

127

A Biography of Abundance: A Study of the Unseen Lives Behind the Commodities Depicted in SeventeenthCentury Dutch Still-Life

By Lexi Stefanatos

A Biography of Abundance: A Study of the Unseen Lives Behind the Commodities Depicted in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Still-Life

V 1&))K)&#" -/,2!)6 -/"1"+!0H 21 ,+)6 -/"1"+!0H 1% 1 &10 0,)21" 2+/" )&16 &0 1%" 0&*2) /2* ,# /" ) -/"0"+ "F 1 - / !"0 1%" ,*-)"1")6 # (" 0 1%" ,-6 ,# ,*-)"1")6 /" ) ,/&$&+ )F 21 &1 )"10 20 020-" 1 &1 * 6 " )6&+$F 10 "*-% 0&0 &0 ,+ 1%" ,*-)"1"+"00H 1%" â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

,+0-& 2,20+"00H ,# &10 # ("/6FW

Harry Berger, Caterpillage

%"+

,+ČŠ,+1"! To borrow the Dutch idiom,

with Floris van Dijckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s &! the

still-life

genre

claims

Table with Cheese and Fruit [c.

to be + "/ %"1 )"3"+H VČŠ,*

1615] (Fig. 1), one wonders

)&#"W ,/ V ČŞ"/ )&#"HW02 but in

about the possibility of this

what way does seventeenth-

table existing in real life.01

century Dutch still-life really

To what extent is the viewer

exist

to believe that a family has

disappeared

just

as copy,

representation + "/ %"1 )"3"+?

moments

Since its enormous rise

before, leaving a neatly twisted

in popularity in Netherlandish

apple peel precariously falling

culture over the course of the

over the edge of the table?

seventeenth century, Dutch

01 It must be noted that this painting is not signed or dated, but that its attribution to Floris van Dijck has generally been accepted. Scholars have suggested that there seems to have been very little stylistic change between his earlier and later works, allowing them to approximate the date of this painting to around 1615, placing it between two similar works dated 1610 and 1622, the latter of which is on loan to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Alan Chong and Wouter Kloek, 1&))K &#" &+1&+$0 ČŠ,* 1%" "1%"/) +!0 8<<AK8>9A (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1999), 130.

still-life has been renowned #,/ &10 * $+&Ä˛ "+1 /" )&0*H intricate detail, and admirable 02 Harry Berger, Jr., 1"/-&)) $"I "Äł" 1&,+0 ,+ "3"+1""+1%K "+12/6 21 % 1&))K &#" &+1&+$ (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011), 5.

129

rendering of texture.03 Yet,

viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention by way of

according

the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own choices about

Harry has

art

Berger,

been

historian

the

genre

â&#x20AC;&#x153;hamstrung

pictorial

conventions.

Svetlana Alpers has articulated,

iconography.â&#x20AC;?04 As such, the

seventeenth-century

body of art historical discourse

art is unique in that it is

pertaining

has

an art of describing. Alpers

narrow

distinguishes descriptive art

recent

by placing it in opposition

scholarship has reinterpreted

to the tradition of narrative

the

art in Italy, and suggests that

been in

still-life

exceedingly

scope.

However,

traditional

0&$+&Ä˛ + "

3 +&1 005

11/& 21"!

Dutch

1, the Dutch presented their

still-life, and demonstrated

art as describing the world

1% 1 01&))K)&#" - &+1"/0 ,ČŞ"+ as it appears to be seen.08 Yet, showcase a commitment to

such

describing

can

only

truthiness06 and realism while

happen through the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

)0, "+$ $&+$ &+ /"Äł" 1&3" "6"0 +! 1%/,2$% %&0 / ČŞ ,# form of irony in which they

representation.

Description

showcase their showcasing.07

never is reality â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it can only

0 /"02)1H 1%" /1&Ä˛ & ) 0-" 1 be reality as it is -"/ "&3"!. It of still-life is brought to the 03 Chong and Kloek, 1&))K &#" &+1&+$0 ČŠ,* 1%" "1%"/) +!0, 39. 04 For more on iconography see "&+/& % Ĺ&#x201D;)ČŻ+ +! /4&+ +,#0(6F "/$"/H Caterpillage, 1. 05 The term 3 +&1 0 refers to the ephemerality and emptiness of worldly pos0"00&,+0H +! &0 ,ČŞ"+ --)&"! 1, 01&))K)&#" 0 reminder of the transience of life on earth. This is observed through the common motif of the skull, but also in representations of dead Äł,4"/0H &+0" 10H * 1"/& ) -,00"00&,+0H "1 F "" Linda DeGirolami Chenyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Symbolism of +&1 0 in the Arts, Literature, and Museumâ&#x20AC;? for further discussion. 06 Truthiness is a term coined by Stephen Colbert on %" ,) "/1 "-,/1 in 2005. It refers to a quality of evasiveness: â&#x20AC;&#x153;truthiness is what you want the facts to be, as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer as opposed to what reality will support.â&#x20AC;? Harry Berger applies this term to the project of iconography in his book Caterpillage. Berger, Caterpillage, 5. 07 Berger, Caterpillage, 6.

is clear then, that the word S!"0 /& &+$T &0 ČŹ,/!"! 0"+0" of ambiguity. If description is subjective, how does its elusive quality relate to the seemingly triumphant realism characteristic of Dutch stilllife? To provide an answer, I will explore Floris van Dijckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s &! )" 4&1% %""0" +! /2&1 [c.1615] and Jan Jansz van 08 Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describ&+$I 21 % /1 &+ 1%" "3"+1""+1% "+12/6 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), xx.

130

131

Figure 3. (Top) Claes Jansz Visscher – +orama of Amsterdam, 1611, engraving. Figure 2. (Bottom) Jan Jansz van de Velde – Glasses, Smoking Implements, and Cards, 1653, oil on canvas.

Figure 1. (Pages 126-127) Floris van Dijck – Laid Table with Cheese and Fruit, c.1615, oil on wood.

133

de Veldeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ) 00H *,(&+$ tumultuous religious and

*-)"*"+10H

/!0 political

change.

Despite

[1653] (Fig. 2) in order to

their

illuminate the observable

&+!"-"+!"+ " ČŠ,* - &+

tension between the seen

in 1581, the Dutch endured

and the unseen. Ultimately,

!" !"0 ,# ,+Äł& 1 "#,/"

I would like to suggest

- &+ ,ČŻ & ))6 /" ,$+&7"!

that still-life painting is

their

both representative of, and

1648.

a product of, the social,

the

cultural,

and

achieved an unprecedented

position of power in the

power that were present

seventeenth-century global

trade industry. As a result,

political,

economic

discourses

the

century

seventeenth-

Dutch

Republic.

Throughout

the

declaration

independence

Simultaneously,

Dutch

Republic

a wealthy merchant class rose to prominence, and

sixteenth and seventeenth

the

centuries,

the

Dutch

became one of the most

Republic,

also

known

as the United Provinces of

the

underwent

Netherlands, a

period

Amsterdam

important ports

harbour European

receiving

exotic

09 Julie Berger Hochstrasser, Still &#" +! / !" &+ 1%" 21 % ,)!"+ $" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), xv.

134

$,,!0 ČŠ,* /, !F10 Claes Jansz

Visscherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

depicted in still-life painting.12

engraving,

In claiming to be naer

+,/ * ,# *01"/! * [1611]

%"1 )"3"+, one might suggest that

(Fig. 3), illustrates the bustle

still-life is devoid of narrative.

of interaction between traders

However, I will attempt to

ČŠ,* /,2+! 1%" 4,/)!F demonstrate in what follows The Maid of Amsterdam sits

that, in fact, the reality is

across the bank and â&#x20AC;&#x153;receives

entirely the opposite. Every

with great pleasure all the

object depicted in still-life

most prominent people of

painting has its own cultural

the world, all with their most

history â&#x20AC;&#x201C; its own â&#x20AC;&#x153;trajectory,â&#x20AC;?

excellent

trading

goods.â&#x20AC;?11

borrow

%" Ä˛ 1&,+ /" 1"! 6 1%&0 Arjun engraving

operates

anthropologist

Appaduraiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

project,

then,

term.13 is

similar way as still-life; both

enliven three of the most

work to conceal the true

prominent objects depicted

nature

in still-life paintings â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Dutch

and

the

histories

provenance of

exchange

cheese,

Chinese

porcelain,

surrounding the commodities

+! 1,

, ČŠ,* 1%" V "4

they depict. By having the

Worldâ&#x20AC;?14 N 6 /" 1&+$ #,/

Maid of Amsterdam passively

1%"* 4% 1 $,/ ,-61,ČŹ ))0

/" "&3" $,,!0 ČŠ,* /,2+! a â&#x20AC;&#x153;cultural biography.â&#x20AC;?15 Each the world, the exploitative

object evokes a contemporary

history

narrative of some facet of

expansion

Dutch is

colonial

obscured.

has cleverly been observed that the nature of the goods that the Dutch had access to during this period reads as though one were taking an inventory of all the objects 10 Chong and Kloek, 1&))K &#" &+1&+$0 ČŠ,* 1%" "1%"/) +!0, 19. 11 Ibid.

Dutch

culture,

economic

12 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 1. 13 Arjun Appadurai, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introduction: commodities and the politics of value,â&#x20AC;? in %" 0, & ) )&#" ,# 1%&+$0I ,**,!&1&"0 &+ 2)12/ ) -"/0-" 1&3", ed. Arjun Appadurai (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 5. 14 I have used the term â&#x20AC;&#x153;New Worldâ&#x20AC;? in quotations so as to emphasize the problematic nature of claiming the discovery of a land where there were already settled peoples. 15 $,/ ,-61,ČŹH V %" 2)12/ ) &,$raphy of things: commoditization as process,â&#x20AC;? in %" 0, & ) )&#" ,# 1%&+$0I ,**,!&1&"0 &+ 2)12/ ) -"/0-" 1&3", ed. Arjun Appadurai (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

135

prosperity,

politics.

biography for these goods,

Appadurai suggests, in order

4&))H 0 ,-61,ČŹ % 0

suggested,

fully

understand

the

ask

questions

human and social context of

similar to those I would ask

commodities, or â&#x20AC;&#x153;things,â&#x20AC;? we

about a person: what are the

must trace their trajectories

biographical

â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

their

inherent in the objectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s status

uses â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and focus on their

in Dutch culture? How are

historical circulation.16 I will

these

therefore focus on the unseen

Where does the object come

lives behind the abundance

ČŠ,* +! 4%, * !" &1D % 1

depicted

has been its career and what is

in Dutch still-life in order

considered an idea career for

to elucidate their status as

it?18 In doing so, I hope to make

social and cultural objects.

salient some of the cultural,

In considering the cultural

economic,

status of the material goods

narratives of the seventeenth-

depicted in these paintings,

century

their

forms

and

commodities

it is important to remember that

still-life

possibilities

realized?

and

political

Dutch

Republic.

Figured

most

paintings

prominently in van Dijckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

themselves also functioned

&! )" &1% %""0" +! /2&1

as commodities at this time.

is the pile of three large half-

As art historian Julie Berger

wheels of cheese at the center

Hochstrasser argues, still-life

of the table. Among the still-

paintings had an implicitly

life paintings of the early

/"Äł"5&3" #2+ 1&,+ &+ " /)6 decades of the seventeenth seventeenth century Holland;

century,

they celebrated the Dutch

locally available commodities

culture of commodities as

seem

commodities

imposing

themselves.17

In creating a cultural 16 Appadurai, â&#x20AC;&#x153;commodities and the politics of value,â&#x20AC;? 5. 17 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 6.

domestic have

and

held

positions

quite the

arrangements of goods.19 The 18 ,-61,ČŹH V %" 2)12/ ) &,$/ -%6 of things,â&#x20AC;? 66-67. 19 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 24.

136

economic importance of the

sustaining the Dutch economy

dairy industry was widely

and trade relations. It has

acknowledged,

been noted that there were

mentioned

"3"+ &+ 1%" 0 &"+1&Ä˛ ,+1"51 * +6 !&ČŹ"/"+1 3 /&"1&"0 +! of

seventeenth-century

specialties of Dutch cheese

medical treatises addressing

at the time. On any given day

1%" %" )1% "+"Ä˛10 ,# 3 /&,20 at the market, one could buy foods.20 Hochstrasser points

sheep or goat cheese, gepersde

to Dordrecht physician Johan

(pressed) cheese, spits (sharp),

van

(,*&'+!" (cumin), soetmelcsehe

Beverwyckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

popular

manual on animal byproducts,

(sweet-milk),

which opens with a series of

tafel (table) cheese, and ontbeyt

verses extolling Dutch dairy

(breakfast)

goods with an unmistakable

these

sense of pride; â&#x20AC;&#x153;but what

been distinctive and easily

the cow gives is above all to

recognizable, and therefore

be prized; whoever doubts

able to evoke a strong sense

this just look at Holland,

of pride in the city or region

that send their rich product

where it was manufactured.23

to all distant lands, since it

Historian

is serviceable for all willing

has noted a certain level of

teeth; they send it in all

â&#x20AC;&#x153;dietary

!&/" 1&,+0H ČŠ,* 1%"&/ #2)) ) -H existed

pollen

(balls),

cheese.22

cheeses

All

would

Simon

have

Schama

democracyâ&#x20AC;?

that

Dutch

society,

the

poorer

classes

useful sustenance, food when

where

in need.â&#x20AC;?21 The high honour

conferred upon the humble

and artisans, as well as the

dairy

underlines

Č˛2"+1 /&01, / 6H )) 0 1

importance.

down to consume a breakfast

Perhaps most importantly, it

that consisted of more of

also highlights the role played

less the same ingredients â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

its

by 20 21

product economic

the

dairy Ibid., 25. Ibid.

industry

seasonal

farm

workers

in 22 27-28. 23

Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", Ibid., 28.

137

bread, butter, and cheese.24

commodity all together, or

The

/"*,3"! ČŠ,* 1%"&/ 202 )

seventeenth-century

saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;( 0 ,)) +!0 /,,!H commodity sphere.27 Dutch ( 0 ,)) +!0 /&'(!,*â&#x20AC;? (cheese

cheese was exchanged in the

Hollandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

bread,

cheese

domestic as well as global

Hollandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

riches)

reminds

market; as such, there was

us of its value for the Dutch

a sense of deep gratitude

people.25 It is clear that the

and

prominence

terms of achieved prosperity

given

the

accomplishment

cheese in van Dijckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still-

/"Äł" 1"! &+ 1%" -/"0"+ " ,#

life echoes its status as a

the humble wheel of cheese.28

source of pride in the Dutch diet and agrarian economy. Contrary

Igor

What

makes

van

Dijckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still-life particularly interesting

are

the

subtle

,-61,ČŹT0 02$$"01&,+ 1% 1 elements

disorder

that

culture

rupture

the

works

resist

threaten

,**,!&Ä˛ 1&,+H &+ 1%" 0" otherwise

harmonious

of Dutch cheese, its status as

arrangement of objects. As

both a commodity with high

Norman Bryson has noted,

exchange value, as well as a

the degree of disorder in

cultural object of national

Dutch

pride

increase

was

celebrated.26

still-life

seems

proportionally

,-61,ČŹ 02$$"010 1% 1 &+ 1%" Č˛2"+ " +! 4" )1% order

for

objects

depicted in the scene.29 Here,

0 / )&7"!H 1%"6 *201 Ä˛/01 " a Venetian-style wine glass singularized â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is, either

is tipped over, spilling its

-/"3"+1"! ČŠ,* " ,*&+$ contents onto an assortment 24 Simon Schama, %" * // 00*"+1 ,# 1%" & %"0I + +1"/-/"1 1&,+ ,# 21 % 2)12/" &+ 1%" ,)!"+ $" (Berkley: University of California Press, 1988), 174. 25 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 30. 26 A clear example of this phenomenon is the case of public monuments. They are -/"3"+1"! ČŠ,* "&+$ ,**,!&1&7"! 6 "/1 &+ groups of interested individuals in order to pre0"/3" 1%"&/ 01 120 0 2)12/ ) , '" 10F ,-61,ČŹH â&#x20AC;&#x153;The cultural biography of things,â&#x20AC;? 73.

of broken walnuts, hazelnuts, and breadcrumbs haphazardly strewn across the crisp white 27 Ibid. 28 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 33. 29 Norman Bryson, ,,(&+$ 1 1%" 3"/),,("!I ,2/ 00 60 ,+ 1&)) &#" &+1&+$ (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 121.

138

damask.

pewter

plate

teeters dangerously upon the

1%"6 -/,3,("! /"Äł" 1&,+ ,+ the material wealth that was

"!$" ,# 1%" 1 )"H /"Äł" 1&+$ acquired, and the dilemma a

halved

yellow

apple

such acquisition of wealth

its smooth surface. To the

posed for the predominant

)"ČŞH /,4+&+$ --)" -"")H Calvinist values at the time. deliberately twisted to reveal

Without a doubt, the engine

both he interior and exterior

that spurred the spectacular

sides, falls over the edge of the

increase

table. Whereas the browning

the seventeenth century the

peel shows signs of age, the

most was global trade.32 In

halved apple is still crisp and

the coming paragraphs, I will

wealth

during

4%&1" 0 &# ČŠ"0%)6 21H %&+1&+$ explore the narratives within at a tension between order

the trade industry through

and disorder. It has been

the

suggested

porcelain

and

tobacco

ČŠ,*

V "4

,/)!FW

that

the

drastic

changes experienced during the

seventeenth

examples 1%"

Chinese

century

In van Dijckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s &!

inspired a period of renewed

Table with Cheese and Fruit,

0")#K/"Äł" 1&,+

both the olives and apples are

0")#K

determination in the Dutch

contained

population

style

that

manifested

within

porcelain

orientaltableware.

itself in a palpable anxiety

Due to interest in its â&#x20AC;&#x153;exoticâ&#x20AC;?

about identity in the art that

nature and striking blue color,

was produced.30 As Bryson

0& + -,/ ") &+ 4 0 ČŠ".2"+1)6

articulates, still-life paintings

depicted in Dutch still-life.33

established

Prior

dialogue

the

seventeenth

"14""+ 1%" +"4)6 Č˛2"+1 century, porcelain was rarely society

and

its

material

possessions.31 In many ways, 30 Angel Vanhaelen, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introductionâ&#x20AC;? (lecture, McGill University, Montreal, QC, September 2, 2014). 31 Bryson, ,,(&+$ 1 1%" 3"/),,("!, 104.

seen in Europe. As a very costly

commodity,

was

usually only found in royal 32 33 122.

Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 4. Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !",

139

collections.34 However, with

Dutch Republic was due to

the establishment and entry

,,16 -12/"! ČŠ,* 1%" /&3 )

Portuguese.38

the

Dutch

East

India

Company into Asian trade,

porcelain

-,/ ") &+ 4 0 &*-,/1"! ČŠ,* that China through exchange of

for

The

was

captured

produced

export

type solely

Jingdezhen,

/1 +! / ČŞH )),4&+$ 1%" China, under the emperor Dutch to become the principal

Wan-li.39 Within the Dutch

suppliers of the commodity

Republic, a steady market

throughout Europe.35 As well,

for porcelain was sustained

the presence of and fascination

with Asian porcelain all over

the

wealthy

) 00 4%,

merchant

,2)! ČŹ,/!

2/,-" &+Äł2"+ "! 1%" ), ) certain measure of luxury. Dutch ceramic industry to

Eventually,

the point where the style

demand for porcelain began

became known as something

1, &+Äł2"+ " -/,!2 1&,+ &+

characteristically

Dutch.36

%&+ 1, /"Äł" 1 2/,-" +

sixteenth

tastes.40 An example of this is

Portuguese

the tall, straight-sided bowl

Throughout

the

century,

the

&*-,/1"!

-,/ ") &+

China.

Many

the

European

ČŠ,* Ä˛$2/"! &+ 3 + &' (T0 - &+1&+$ and

containing the Dutch apples.

such

It was known as a (/ &K(,-

as King Philip II of Spain,

(crow-cup), and was produced

Duke

in China purely for export.41

humanist

scholars,

Albrecht

Archduke

rulers

Ferdinand

Bavaria, II

In order to understand

Tirol, Emperor Rudolph II of

the appeal of goods with distant

Prague, and Queen Elizabeth I

geographic origins, I return to

of England, collected it.37 The

38 Ibid., 124. 39 Further research into the conditions of production of Chinese porcelain and the internal dynamics of producing commodities purely for export is outside of the scope of this paper, but would be important to consider in terms of porcelainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;cultural biographyâ&#x20AC;? in a more detailed study. Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! Trade, p. 126. 40 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 128. 41 Ibid.

Ä˛/01 //&3 ) ,# 0&$+&Ä˛ +1 amount of porcelain in the 34 35 36 37 123.

Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !",

140

Arjun Appadurai, who argues

control in the trade industry.

that commodities have social

Dutch trade was an example of

lives and that politics create

what Appadurai calls â&#x20AC;&#x153;cultural

the link between the act of

economies of distance,â&#x20AC;? where

exchange and the attribution

!&ČŹ"/"+ " 4 0 ,+" ,# 1%"

of value.42 The seventeenth-

most important preconditions

century European conception

of trade.45 It was because the

of the world considered the

porcelain was made in such

crossing of transoceanic and

an exotic and foreign location,

transcontinental

and

space

that

transcended

be central in the creation of

distance and time, that is was

value.43

determination

endowed with such value.

of what can be exchanged,

While porcelain was

The

where, when, and by whom,

1%" Ä˛/01 ,**,!&16 ,# V"5,1& W

as well as what drives the

origins to attract the eye of

demand for the goods of

Dutch traders and merchants,

â&#x20AC;&#x153;others,â&#x20AC;? is entirely a social

it was not the last.46 The

problem.44 Not only is it a

Dutch Republicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s competition

social problem, but this is also

with

what Appadurai is referring

European

to when he suggests that the

necessitated the creation of

process of value creation is

the West India Company. It

political. Evidently, the power

was

of the European market in its

successful than its Eastern

demand for Chinese porcelain

counterpart, but nevertheless

Spain

far

and

trading

less

other empires

economically

1, 20" 0%&ČŞ &+ -/,!2 1&,+ brought a vast array of new in order to serve European

commodities to the Dutch

+""!0 +! 1 01"0 /"Äł" 10 table.47 Chief among them their privileged position and

was tobacco.48 Van de Veldeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

42 Appadurai, â&#x20AC;&#x153;commodities and the politics of value,â&#x20AC;? 3. 43 Byron Ellsworth Hamann, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Interventions: The Mirrors of 0 "+&+ 0: Cochineal, Silver, and Clay,â&#x20AC;? /1 2))"1&+ XCII, no. 1-2 (2010) : 14. 44 Appadurai, â&#x20AC;&#x153;commodities and the politics of value,â&#x20AC;? 11.

45 Arjun Appadurai, ,!"/+&16 1 ) /$"I cultural dimensions of globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 71. 46 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 148. 47 Ibid., 159. 48 Ibid., 171.

141

) 00"0H *,(&+$ *-)"*"+10H 1% 1H V1%"6 !, 1%&0 0 ,Ȫ"+ 0 and Cards is an example of

they like, and they call this:

the still-life sub-genre – the

drinking a person’s health

1 ('"0H ,/ 1," ('"0 – created

with a Pipe of Tobacco.”50

tobacco’s

Emanuel van Meeteren also

exceptional popularity. The

noted the foreign origins of

painting depicts a long and

tobacco in his history of the

result

Ĳ /,20 %"*- 4& ( 4&1% "1%"/) +!0H 01 1&+$H Vȩ,* burning tip lying across a

/ 7&) +! ȩ,* 1%" %,/"0

straight white pipe, out of

of Peru, there was brought

4%& % )2*- ,# Ĳ"/6 0% a dried herb which we call has fallen onto the table. The

Nicotiana.”51 In the same text,

round bowl of the pipe echoes

van Meeteren records that

the shape of the hazelnuts

tobacco arrived in Europe

behind it. A pewter plate

“in many shapes, wound and

containing rolled tobacco sits

rolled.”52 Indigenous labour

on the table next to a glass of

wine, a tall, cylindrical glass

in this observation, as he

of beer, and a deck of playing

notes that tobacco arrived

cards. The simple table and

in Europe already prepared,

near pitch-black background

to some degree, to smoke.53

leave the

suggestion

implicitly

context

space.

encountered

Tobacco

was

grown

the

in the “New World,” where &+!&$"+,20

-",-)"0

referenced

21 %

Caribbean,

tobacco and

Ĳ/01 in began

&*-,/1&+$ &1 ȩ,* -/"0"+1K

Ĳ/01 day Trinidad and Tobago and

,Ȭ"/"! ,)2* 20 -&-"H "+"72") 0,,+ 1%"/" Ȫ"/F + thereby

introducing

Europeans.49 sources

Contemporary described

indigenous

practice

the of

smoking tobacco by noting 49

Ibid., 173.

North America, circa 1620, 50 Ibid. 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid. 53 Similar to the case of the Chinese porcelain, further research into the cultivation of tobacco in North and South American, both prior to Dutch arrival and during the period of colonization, is important to this study but is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss at length.

142

the Dutch began trading for

and eastern Dutch Republic

tobacco

English

was growing very rapidly,

colony of Virginia.54 Despite

and the excess workforce was

some

utilized for labour-intensive

its

with

the

skepticism

addictive

volatile

regarding

qualities

economic

and

value,

tobacco

cultivation.57

compelling

links

Such

between

tobacco became fashionable

trade,

and acceptable in the Dutch

tobacco resulted in powerful

Republic by the middle of the

commercial and governmental

century â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a fact corroborated

interests working to improve

by its appearance in van de

the social stigma associated

Veldeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still-life.55 Throughout

with

the

been hypothesized that the

seventeenth

century,

prosperity,

smoking.58

and

has

,-&+&,+0 /"$ /!&+$ 1%" "ČŹ" 10 creation of the still-life subof tobacco on physical health

genre known as the 1 ('"0

were

provides

very

divided.

evidence

that

reveling to note that medical

smoking did in fact become

opinions about tobacco use

socially respectable in the

0""*"! 1, 0%&ČŞ &+ -,0&1&3" latter half of the century, but direction as it became more

how is this represented in

socially acceptable and, as a

van de Veldeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ) 00"0H *,(&+$

result,

economically

*-)"*"+10H

valuable. Between 1610 and

The

1620,

more The

Dutch

began

revealing

/!0?59 narratives

tobaccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

exotic

cultivating their own tobacco

origins are downplayed in

domestically, which allowed

this painting as the smoking

1%"* 1, &+Äł2"+ " 1%" -/& " implements are presented as of foreign tobacco on the

simply one component of a

Amsterdam

The

typically Dutch social evening

rural population in the middle

of drinking and playing cards.

54 174. 55 56

market.56

Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", Ibid., 177. Ibid., 180-181.

A local beer is presented in a 57 58 59

Ibid., 181. Ibid., 184 Ibid., 185.

143

- 0$) 0H commonly associated

painting, and is presented

with a game which required

1, /"Äł" 1 &10 0, & ) 01 120

the glass to be passed around

within the Dutch Republic.

"14""+ ČŠ&"+!0H " % ,#

much

still-

whom were expected to drink

life strives towards realism

down to the next ring in one

in its painterly technique,

gulp.60 The only commodities

the objects depicted, in one

depicted

painting

not

way or another, are always

domestically

are

representative of social and

the hazelnuts and the wine.

cultural narratives that are

However, it is important to

)"ČŞ ,+ " )"! &+ 1%"&/ 01 120

note that both of these goods

as material goods, as well as

were sourced form within

in the paintingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own status

Europe, and, therefore, would

as a commodity. In looking

not

back

produced

have

this

been

associated

the

trajectory

with as much foreign or

these objects, we have seen

exotic appeal.61 The narratives

local pride and industry, a

and

fascination with the exotic,

indigenous labour are here

production changes in China

assimilated into a humble and

as a result of the power of the

familiar Dutch drinking scene,

Dutch trading empire, and

encouraging the viewer to

assimilation of foreign rituals

associate tobacco and the act

within domestic culture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all

of smoking with his own daily

of which have become salient

realities, while obscuring the

in considering their cultural

cultural origins and political

biographies. Contrary to what

discourses that allowed for

we have long been led to

tobacco to be present on the

believe, still-life paintings are

Dutch table at all. In this

not photographic snapshots.

way, tobacco is mediated as

Rather, they have social lives

a cultural object by still-life

of their own and are privy

60 Chong and Kloek, 1&))K &#" &+1&+$0 ČŠ,* 1%" "1%"/) +!0, 206. 61 Hochstrasser, 1&)) &#" +! / !", 61.

to the cultural, economic,

trade,

prosperity,

144

and of

political power

discourses

that

the

artist

has been subjected to. As noted by art historian David Freedberg, “it is precisely in the area of the relationship between and

epistemology

visual

representation

that the art historian has distinctive

contribution

Beyond

make.”62

simply

epistemological

understanding

the

historical backgrounds of the goods depicted in still-life, the representation of objects in Dutch visual culture allows for the elucidation of their status as commodities with social lives. While Svetlana Alpers has argued that much of this epistemological

knowledge

is presented in art through the act of describing, I would argue instead that the visual language

commodities

is far more of a social and cultural construction than a representation + "/ %"1 )"3"+F 62 David Freedberg, “Science, Commerce, and Art: Neglected Topics at the Junction of History and Art History,” in /1 &+ %&01,/6H &01,/6 &+ /1I 12!&"0 &+ 0"3"+1""+1%K "+12/6 21 % culture, ed. David Freedberg and Jan de Vries (Santa Monica: The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1991), 415.

145

Bibliography Alpers, Svetlana. %" /1 ,# "0 /& &+$I 21 % /1 &+ 1%" "3"+1""+1% "+12/6. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Appadurai, Arjun. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introduction: commodities and the politics of value.â&#x20AC;? In The 0, & ) )&#" ,# 1%&+$0I ,**,!&1&"0 &+ 2)12/ ) -"/0-" 1&3", edited by Arjun Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. ----------

Berger,

,!"/+&16 1 ) /$"I 2)12/ ) !&*"+0&,+0 of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Harry Jr. 1"/-&)) $"I "Äł" 1&,+0 ,+ "3"+1""+1%K "+12/6 21 % 1&))K &#" &+1&+$. New York: Fordham University Press, 2011.

Bryson, Norman. ,,(&+$ 1 1%" 3"/),,("!I ,2/ 00 60 ,+ 1&)) &#" &+1&+$. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Hamann,

Byron Ellsworth. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Interventions: The Mirrors of 0 "+&+ 0: Cochineal, Silver, and Clay.â&#x20AC;? /1 2))"1&+ XCII, no. 1-2 (2010).

Hochstrasser, Julie Berger. 1&)) &#" +! / !" &+ 1%" 21 % ,)!"+ $". New Haven: YaleUniversityPress,2007. ,-61,ČŹH $,/F V %" 2)12/ ) &,$/ -%6 ,# 1%&+$0I commoditization as process.â&#x20AC;? In %" 0, & ) )&#" ,# 1%&+$0I ,**,!&1&"0 &+ 2)12/ ) -"/0-" 1&3", edited by Arjun Appadurai. Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1986. Schama,

Simon. %" * // 00*"+1 ,# & %"0I + +1"/-/"1 1&,+ ,# 21 % 2)12/" &+ 1%" ,)!"+ $". Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Vanhaelen,

Angela. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introduction.â&#x20AC;? Lecture at McGill University, Montreal, QC, September 2, 2014.

Chong, Alan, and Wouter Kloek. 1&))K &#" &+1&+$0 ČŠ,* 1%" "1%"/) +!0 8<<AK8>9AF Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1999. Freedberg, David. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Science, Commerce, and Art: Neglected Topics at the Junction of History and Art History.â&#x20AC;? In /1 &+ %&01,/6H &01,/6 &+ /1I 12!&"0 &+ 0"3"+1""+1%K "+12/6 21 % culture, edited by David Freedberg and Jan de Vries. Santa Monica: The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1991.

Lexi Stefanatos â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Lexi Stefanatos is a third-year undergraduate student, majoring in Art History with minors in Philosophy and Economics. She was initially drawn to still-life painting by its elusive qualities and the precarious nature of the objects it depicts. In taking an interdisciplinary approach, Lexi uses this paper as an opportunity to look at the â&#x20AC;&#x153;thingsâ&#x20AC;? in still-life paintings as worthy objects of analysis in their own right.

147

All Eyes on CBC/RadioCanada: A Critical Analysis of Hubert Lacroixâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spring 2014 Strategy Announcement

By Krystin Chung

All Eyes on CBC/Radio-Canada: A Critical Analysis of Hubert Lacroixâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spring 2014 Strategy Announcement On

June

2014,

cratic ideals that structure the

released

nation strongly informs its

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us All,â&#x20AC;? a strate-

mandate. As such, the mes-

$6 ++,2+ "*"+1 ČŠ,* -/"0&-

sage in â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us Allâ&#x20AC;?

dent and CEO Hubert Lacroix

merits

that articulated a commit-

because its content implicates

ment to the legacy of CBC as

all members of the public

â&#x20AC;&#x153;the public space at the heart

broadcasterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vast audience.

of our conversations and our

While the goals of this plan

experiences as Canadiansâ&#x20AC;? in

appear transparent, success-

light of a changing media en-

fully attaining them means

vironment. The plan is char-

that the Canadian population

acterized by an emphasis on

must assume a watchdog role,

implementing a number of

observing the measures of ex-

transformations that will con-

" 21&,+ / 1%"/ 1% + Ä˛+!&+$

tribute to the ability of CBC to

satisfaction in the mere prom-

CBC/Radio-Canada

26,

critical

examination

,ČŹ"/ V ,*-"))&+$ + !& + ise of an open public space. content across all genres, and

Bearing in mind that the way

adapt to audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preferenc-

in which we as users are in-

es.â&#x20AC;?

Äł2"+ &+$ 1%" 3 01 +! # 01

In its constitution as a

Canadian Crown corporation,

changes in the media market

the pressure on CBC to act in

actually demands this kind of

accordance with the demo-

/"0-,+0" ČŠ,* ,2/ -2 )&

Â Hubert Â Lacroix, Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Â Space Â For Â Us Â All,â&#x20AC;? Â CBC/Radio-ÂCanada Â vid-Â eo, Â 13:21, Â June Â 26, Â 2014, Â http://www. cbc.radio-Âcanada.ca/en/explore/strate-Â gies/2020/. 02 Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Â Space Â For Â Us Â All,â&#x20AC;? Â last Â PRGLÂżHG -XQH KWWS FEFUF-Â blog.com/strategic-Âplanning/a-Âspace-Â for-Âus-Âall-Â2/?lang=en.

broadcaster, this essay com-

pels readers to consider that the true nature of â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us Allâ&#x20AC;? as a plan born of an alarming necessity for CBC to modernize and stabilize is

149

obscured by the reassuring

bly linked to the government;

rhetoric of the video message.

its very existence depends on

Rather than a synthesis, the

taxpayer dollars. Not only

following essay will function

does this mean that CBC goals

as a critical analysis of “A

must correspond to federal

Space For Us All” and CBC at

legislation dating back to the

large. Its purpose is to both

1991 Broadcasting Act, but it is

&!"+1&ȫ &+1"/0" 1&,+0 4&1% the sole broadcaster amongst theoretical concepts and as-

its private competitors to feel

sess these connections by pin-

1%" +"$ 1&3" "Ȭ" 10 ,# $,3"/+-

pointing nuances unique to

mental cuts in public broad-

the circumstances of CBC. To

casting funding. Nonetheless,

begin, “A Space For Us All”

CBC claims to serve as Cana-

will be situated vis-à-vis three

da’s foremost collective voice.

key actors in the Canadian

By purporting to represent

media realm: the state, the

Canadian perspectives, CBC

market,

society.

has become a prime source of

Next, the strategy will be re-

national consciousness. How-

lated to the notion of the pub-

ever contrived it may be, this

lic sphere. Finally, I will con-

relationship to Canadian con-

clude with an examination of

sumers has endowed CBC

14, 0-" &Ĳ 4")# /" $, )0 "+-

with a considerable degree of

compassed in “A Space For Us

power

and

civil

the

media

))W +! /"ĳ" 1 ,+ 1%" 4 60 &+ landscape over the course which they connect to serving

the

public

its

existence.

interest.

Social theorist Michel

It is the duty of CBC to

Foucault posits that power, a

respond to the ever-changing

0%&Ȫ&+$ !6+ *& -/"0"+1 &+

needs of its nation in a way

all sorts of human relations, is

that is reliable, adaptive, and

unstable. According to Fou-

up to date. As Canada’s public

cault, the key to gaining and

broadcaster, CBC is inextrica-

maintaining power is the ac-

150

.2&0&1&,+ ,# 0-" &Ĳ (&+!0 ,# by the corporation’s Executive knowledge.03 When Lacroix

Vice President of English Ser-

asserts that CBC must “pay at-

vices, Heather Conway, as fol-

tention to the business envi-

lows: CBC’s costs continue to

ronment” and “have the cour-

outweigh its revenues.05 How-

age and conviction to change

ever, a more detailed investi-

[its]

gation is necessary to better

awareness of the transitory

understand why this is the

nature of power dynamics

case. “A Space For Us All” ac-

and the need to constantly re-

knowledges that government

plan,”

reveals

ĳ" 1 ,+ +! 00"00 -/,$/"00 &+ spending on public broadcastorder to stay on track.04 Ac-

ing has waned considerably

quiring the knowledge neces-

in recent years. In addition to

sary to succeed in today’s

this, the revenue model of the

business

broadcasting

environment

re-

industry

has

quires a comprehensive un-

changed. Television subscrip-

derstanding of the means of

tions – once the largest reve-

communication

which

nue generator for Canadian

market actors are drawn. As

broadcasting – are no longer a

CBC sets out to secure a stable

0&$+&Ĳ +1 0,2/ " ,# #2+!-

+! 0201 &+ )" Ĳ+ + & ) #2-

ing.06 In addition to this, as

ture, it is responding to the

companies looking to allocate

- / !&$* 0%&Ȫ0 $,3"/+&+$ 1%" marketing funds turn increasmanner in which people consume information. The current market circumstances of CBC have been summarized Michel Foucault, “The History of Sexuality,” in Power/ Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), 188. 04 Lacroix, “A Space For Us All.” 03

Hubert Lacroix, Heather Conway and Louis Lalande, “Why Is A Transformation Required At CBC/ Radio-Canada?” CBC/Radio-Canada video, 5:19, June 25, 2014, http://www. cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/explore/strategies/2020/resources/. 06 “A Space For Us All Sum- mary,” CBC/Radio-Canada, accessed October 24, 2014, http://www.cbc.ra- GLR FDQDGD FD B¿OHV FEFUF GRFXPHQWV explore/transforming/a-space-for-us- all-summary-v12-en.pdf. 05

151

ingly to global Internet play-

"5 *-)"H 1%" +,+K-/,Ĳ1 ,/$ -

ers, the broadcasting land-

nization Friends of Canadian

scape

Broadcasting

looks

drastically

recently

con-

!&Ȭ"/"+1 &+ 1"/*0 ,# !3"/1&0-

demned Prime Minister Ste-

ing revenues.07 In light of

phen Harper’s treatment of

these conditions, CBC plans

CBC, accusing Harper of lac-

1, --/, % /&0( !&Ȭ"/"+1)6 &+ ing its Board of Directors with 1%" #212/" 6 0%&Ȫ&+$ &10 &+-

Conservative

vestments and entering into

and making excessive funding

new

relationships

cuts.08 Such criticisms may at-

with partners whose support

test to why CBC can never

could

business help

temper

any

fully

Party

allied

donors

with

the

tensions that arise while the

notion of civil society and

corporation implements its

&10

new

state

strategy

goals.

+ +,1%"/ "Ȭ,/1 1,

0"- / 1&,+ and The

the

ȩ,*

1%"

market.

aforementioned

* &+1 &+ -,4"/H &0 0%&Ȫ-

approach of styling content

ing its focus towards the indi-

towards the individual exem-

vidual to help guide invest-

-)&Ĳ"0 1%" ,11,*K2- ,+3"/-

ments

relevant

gence concept described by

content. Presumably, an ap-

media studies scholar Henry

proach that is dedicated to

Jenkins when he states “Con-

forming

02*"/0 /" &+ĳ2"+ &+$ 1%"

strong

individual

bonds aligns with the aspect

production and distribution

of civil society that insists on

of media content.”09 What is

governmental accountability. “Free the CBC: Harper Can’t Drown Us All Out!” Friends CBC and the Canadian gov- of Canadian Broadcasting, accessed "/+*"+1 -/" )2!"0 ȩ,* October 24, 2014, http://www.friends. ca/freethecbc/. being a completely nonparti- 09 Henry Jenkins, “The Cultur- san voice in civil society. For al Logic of Media Convergence,” In- ternational Journal of Cultural Studies 07 “A Space For Us All Sum- 7:33 (2004): 36, accessed October 22, mary.” 2014, doi: 10.1177/1367877904040603.

Still, the connection between

152

unique about CBC’s current

surpassed the limits of con-

situation is that while the

ventional

bottom-up model is seen to

terms of its traditional char-

be at play, so too is Jenkins’

acteristic of one-way trans-

top-down convergence mod-

mission and shortcomings in

el, wherein “media compa-

content variety.11 Interestingly,

nies are learning how to ac-

Jenkins states that “some-

broadcasting

")"/ 1" 1%" ĳ,4 ,# *"!& times, corporate and grasscontent”.10 On one hand, CBC

roots convergence reinforce

is working to increase its rev-

each other, creating closer,

enue potential by resorting to

more rewarding relations be-

new methods of delivering

tween media producers and

content. As the corporation

consumers.”12 In the case of

0%&Ȫ0 ȩ,* "&+$ -/,!2 "/ CBC and Canadian consumto a multiplatform broadcast-

"/0H 1%&0 0""*0 1, " Ĳ11&+$

er, its scale – in terms of both

description, so long as the lat-

&+ȩ 01/2 12/" +! 4,/(#,/ " ter remains alert in the rela– will decrease. On the other

tionship. The ‘rewarding’ as-

hand, these measures are be-

pect

ing taken in order to cultivate

manifests in the following

a more committed viewer-

way: in working to respond to

ship, and consumers are the

the technological demands of

ones driving this goal. Lac-

consumers, CBC’s promise to

roix’s characterization of Ca-

also

nadians as “digitally sophisti-

the individual fosters an on-

cated

hungry”

going dialogue that promotes

underscores the widespread

innovative conversation and

and

this

consider

relationship

the

will

ability of Canadians to use a variety of digital platforms,

which indicates to CBC that

the national population has Jenkins, “The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence,” 37. 10

Lacroix, “A Space For Us

All.” Henry Jenkins, “Introduc- tion: Worship at the Altar of Con- vergence,” in Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: NYU Press, 2006), 18.

153

collaborative

creation.

role in public political dis-

Here, we reach the so-

courseâ&#x20AC;?.14 As much as CBC

cial and cultural core of what

would like to create an ideal

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us Allâ&#x20AC;? is really

public sphere, the fact that its

about: an open public space.

space would be one facilitated

In overseeing the three key

areas of vision, listening, and

means it would not develop

storytelling, CBC sets out to

organically and is therefore

bolster a fundamental agent

already

,# !"*, / 6I ČŠ""!,* ,# "5-

ČŠ,* 1%" &!" )F %&)" &1 * 6

pression. Its vision can be in-

respond to the need for dia-

terpreted as a reinvigoration

logue

of the original public sphere,

said dialogue will be guided

developed to encourage the

by the content CBC chooses to

expansion of the media sys-

produce. Granted, by catering

tem as well as critical think-

more towards the individual,

ing. However, scholars like

this content should already be

national

one

step

between

institution

removed

Canadians,

"1/,0 ,0&Ä˛!&0 % 3" &!"+1&Ä˛"! &+ /" 0&+$)6 /"Äł" 1&3" ,# ,+why this ideal is virtually un-

sumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; concerns. It is there-

attainable today, citing the

fore pertinent to consider

critique by JĂźrgen Habermas

how this individualized ap-

that the public sphere has

proach intends to have a two-

been damaged due to the ex-

#,)! "ČŹ" 1F &/01)6H + )67&+$

tension of the state and capi-

,+02*"/ ! 1 $ 1%"/"! ČŠ,*

talism.13 ,0&Ä˛!&0 /"&1"/ 1"0 tools like online questionmedia studies scholar Stig

naires would allow for a more

Hjarvardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s criticism that â&#x20AC;&#x153;it is

tailored system where output

national media that continue

is concerned. Secondly, this

to play the most important

approach provides augmented

3HWURV ,RVLÂżGLV Âł0HGLD Policy Â in Â the Â Public Â Interest,â&#x20AC;? Â in Â Glob-Â al Â Media Â and Â Communication Â Policy Â (New Â York: Â Palgrave Â MacMillan, Â 2011), Â 31.

opportunity to Canadian sto-

rytellers. In this way, CBC en ,RVLÂżGLV Âł0HGLD 3ROLF\ LQ the Â Public Â Interest,â&#x20AC;? Â 37. 14

154

visions Canadians in their

judged not only on a national

public

both

basis, but according to subna-

responsive participants and

tional, regional, ethnic, or lin-

active

creators.

guistic categories.”16 As such,

At this point, we can

this political welfare goal is

piece together that “A Space

also a social one. Not only

For Us All” aims to work in

does this goal intend to allow

the public interest. Two of its

more Canadians to have a

aims, which are categorized

voice, it also aligns with me-

here as welfare goals, attest to

dia studies scholar Jonathan

this. Firstly, the corporation

Hardy’s description of what

&+1"+!0 1, ,Ȭ"/ 0")&+" 0"/-

scholar Graham Murdock sees

vices to each region in which

as a necessity in the modern

it has a presence, making in-

public sphere: “to have access

cremental

where

to the broadest range of view-

necessary. Importantly, this

points, expressed in the wid-

,Ȭ"/ &+ )2!"0 0"/3& " 1, *&-

est range of possible voices

nority language communities

and forms.”17 Another rele-

as one such addition. This is a

vant goal is CBC’s promise of

political welfare goal insofar

variety

as it pertains to the value of

gramming that is “distinctive-

egalitarian provision.15 At the

ly Canadian” as well as “smart,

same time, communications

!&Ȭ"/"+1 ȩ,* 1%" -/&3 1"

theorists Jan van Cuilenburg

broadcasters, creatively ambi-

and Denis McQuail describe

tious, and risky.”18 It is clear

space

additions

providing

pro-

acts of social welfare as valuing “social order and cohesion Jan van Cuilenburg and Denis McQuail, “Media Policy Shifts: Towards a New Communications Policy Paradigm,” European Journal of Communication 18:181 (2003): 185, accessed October 22, 2014, doi: 10.1177/0267323103018002002. 15

Van Cuilenburg and Mc- Quail, “Media Policy Shifts,” 185. 17 Jonathan Hardy, “Media Cultures, Media Economics and Media Problems,” in Critical Political Econ- omy of the Media: An Introduction (London;; New York: Routledge, 2014), 69. 18 Lacroix, “A Space For Us All.” 16

155

why this goal would be of so-

the

& ) "+"Ĳ1 1, + !& +0I

public

interest.

0 #2)Ĳ))0 &10

greater variety in program-

goals for 2015, it will have to

ming

" ,-"+ 1, 1%" "3"/K0%&Ȫ&+$

would

undoubtedly

make for a richer exchange of

dynamics of the Canadian

cultural expression. However,

media landscape. Transition-

the way that CBC plans to ex-

&+$ ȩ,* ,+3"+1&,+ ) -/,-

ecute

content-related

ducer to a multi-platform

$, ) &0 6 0&$+&Ĳ +1)6 /"!2 -

broadcaster is not an easy

ing their labour force. Conse-

task. Although the Canadian

quently, the welfare aspect of

population

this

highly

1%&0 $, ) &0 )"00 3& )" ȩ,* + competent in terms of digital economic standpoint. While a

access, it cannot be denied

smaller workforce might be

that

*,/" "ȯ &"+1H 4"

existing

demographic

++,1 obstacles lie in the way of

deny that as far as innovation

total and smooth transition.

and employment opportuni-

reassuring

new

1&"0 $,N14, ("6 0-" 10 ,# strategy might sound it is economic welfare, according

imperative to critically assess

to van Cuilenburg and Mc-

the

contents

“A

2 &)N1%" 2+!6&+$ 2+&3"/0 ) Space For Us All”, for only logic has always seemed to be

that two minds are better

than one.19 Each of these goals

and the initiative to remain

demonstrates that, while it

watchful

sometimes

the

struggle faced by many organizations to act in conjunction with its principles at every

turn,

CBC is

indeed

concerned with catering to Van Cuilenburg and Mc- Quail, “Media Policy Shifts,” 185. 19

our

understanding

Ĳ+!

1%" as

(+,4)"!$" consumers.

156

Bibliography CBC/Radio-Canada. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us All Summary.â&#x20AC;? Accessed October 24, 2014. http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/_files/cbcrc/documents/ explore/transforming/a-spacefor-us-all-summary-v12-en.pdf. CBC/Radio-Canada. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us All.â&#x20AC;? Last *,!&Ä˛"! 2+" 9=H 9A8;F %11-Imm cbcrcblog.com/strategic-planning/a-space-for-us-all-2/?lang=en. Foucault, Michel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The History of Sexuality.â&#x20AC;? In ,4"/m +,4)"!$"I ")" 1"! +1"/3&"40 +! 1%"/ /&1&+$0 8@>9K8@>>, 183-193. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Free the CBC: Harper Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Drown Us All Out!â&#x20AC;? Accessed October 24, 2014. http://www.friends.ca/freethecbc/. Hardy, Jonathan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Media Cultures, Media Economics and Media Problems.â&#x20AC;? In /&1& ) ,)&1& ) ,+,*6 ,# 1%" "!& I + +1/,!2 1&,+, 57-76. London; New York: Routledge, 2014.

,0&Ä˛!&0H "1/,0F V "!& ,)& 6 &+ 1%" 2 lic Interest.â&#x20AC;? In ), ) "!& +! ,**2+& 1&,+ ,)& 6, 23-44. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011.

Jenkins, Henry. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introduction: Worship at the Altar of Convergence.â&#x20AC;? In ,+3"/$"+ " 2)12/"I %"/" )! +! "4 "!& ,)lide, 1-24. New York: NYU Press, 2006. Jenkins, Henry. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence.â&#x20AC;?

+1"/+ 1&,+ ) ,2/nal of Cultural Studies 7:33 (2004): 33-43. Accessed October 22, 2014. doi: 10.1177/1367877904040603. Lacroix, Hubert. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Space For Us All.â&#x20AC;? CBC/Radio-Canada video, 13:21. June 26, 2014. http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/explore/strategies/2020/. Lacroix, Hubert, Heather Conway and Louis Lalande. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why Is A Transformation Required At CBC/Radio-Canada?â&#x20AC;? CBC/Radio-Canada video, 5:19. June 25, 2014. http:// www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/explore/strategies/2020/resources/. Van Cuilenburg, Jan and Denis McQuail. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Media ,)& 6 %&ČŞ0I ,4 /!0 "4 ,**2nications Policy Paradigm.â&#x20AC;? 2/,-" + Journal of Communication 18:181 (2003): 181-207. Accessed October 22, 2014. doi: 10.1177/0267323103018002002.

Krystin Chung â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Krystin Chung majors in Art History and minors in Communication Studies at McGill University. Currently in her third year of study, she has unearthed a passion for researching issues related to Canadian media policy and understanding how they may be situated with respect to our national history as well as the global media environment in which we exist.

159

The Elation of the Low: Andy Warhol’s and Jeff Koons’s Bouleversement of High Art

By Willa Meredith

%" ) 1&,+ ,# 1%" ,4I +!6 /%,)T0 +! "ČŹ ,,+0T0 Bouleversement of High Art Following the era of post-abstract

the ordinary person.01 One no

expressionism,

longer had to defer to the

during which the Modernist

â&#x20AC;&#x153;good eyesâ&#x20AC;? of those in the

theories of Clement Green-

ranks of Clement Greenberg.02

berg reigned high, Pop artists

The

widespread

ap-

such as Andy Warhol began to

peal and accessibility of both

breach high modernismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ten-

Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work

uously maintained creed that

has led some critics to refer to

/1 " 21,+,*,20 ČŠ,* )&#"F them as populist artists. Yet it The Pop art movement ush-

&0 !&ČŻ 2)1 1, /" ,+ &)" + )-

ered â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; culture into the

leged populist cause with the

privileged space of the gallery

massive sums demanded by

N 0- " ČŠ,* 4%& % &1 % ! their work. Importantly, how ""+ -/"3&,20)6 "5 )2!"!F "ČŹ

ever,

Koons, following in the Pop

Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

tradition pioneered by War-

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; categories of

hol, has integrated popular

art, the certainty of the values

culture and Greenbergian no-

of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;goodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;badâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; taste with

tions of kitsch into his work.

which they are aligned be-

In their embrace of the every-

come,

day, Warhol and Koons have

categories. I argue that, by el-

"ČŹ" 1&3")6

")"3 1"!

through

Warhol

subversion

altogether,

and the

unstable

1%" evating the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

high-Modernist category of

within the symbolic space of

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; culture into the conse-

the gallery, Koons and Warhol

crated space of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; art. Ar-

01 â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ordinary person,â&#x20AC;? in this &+01 + "H + " !"Ä˛+"! 0 0,*",+" 2+# *&)& / with the terms associated with high-Modernist art theory and criticism. Much of high-Modernist art was, and to a certain extent still is, inaccessible because people unversed in its theories 4"/" "5 )2!"! ČŠ,* --/" & 1&+$ 0&+$2) / work of art. 02 Arthur Danto, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Banality and Cel" / 1&,+I %" /1 ,# "ČŹ ,,+0HW &+ ++ 12/ ) ,+!"/0I 00 60 ČŠ,* 1%" - "14""+ /1 and Life (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005), 295.

thur Danto has argued that Pop art, by the 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, had become â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; art because it could be easily understood by

161

overthrow the authority held

% *- !/ * 1& ))6 /"!"Ĳ+"!

by the elite03 1, .2 )&ȫ S$,,!T notions of what art was. His taste and displace it to the

insertion of a banal everyday

masses, thereby exposing the

object into the realm of ‘high’

vulnerabilities of cultural hi-

/1 /"3" )"! 1% 1 1%" ) 00&Ĳ-

erarchy

cation of art as ‘high’ or ‘low’

and

value

0601"*0 N 1%,0" 4%& % was not a quality inherent in Greenberg’s high modernist

an art object, but rather one

terms

.2 )&Ĳ"! 6 &10 "5&01"+ " &+

sought

avow.

The system in ques-

the space of the gallery. Foun-

tion would be the ‘art world,’

tain further implied that ‘high’

or more precisely, the art

art, too, was ultimately a

market. As Thierry de Duve

commodity.

and Rosalind Krauss have ar-

"01%"1& ȩ,* 1%" 3"/+ 2) /

gued, the art market – as it is

of consumer culture, Warhol

indeed a market – treats

reiterated

works of art as commodities

language of the readymade

and therefore absorbs their

with his 1964 /&)), ,5 (Fig. 2)

aesthetic quality into the sole

0 + ȳ,+1 1, /""+ "/$T0

value of exchange.04 Marcel

ȩ 2$%1 ) &* 1% 1 1%" /" )*

Duchamp proposed the inter-

of art was autonomous. By de-

minable question “What is

ploying the aesthetics of com-

art?” with his 1917 readymade

mercial art, Warhol more suc-

work, a white porcelain uri-

Borrowing

the

his

Duchampian

&+ 1)6 ,+ĳ 1"! 1%" 1"/*0 ,#

nal entitled Fountain (Fig. 1).

art and commodity that Du-

champ’s 1917 Fountain Ĳ/01

displacing

mundane,

#2+ 1&,+ ) , '" 1 ȩ,* &10 suggested. Warhol’s new yet original setting to the privi-

familiar language spoke the

leged space of the gallery, Du-

vernacular of mass culture

03 “The elite” in this instance refers both to art and cultural critics as well as the wealthy patrons of the arts whose values create a given cultural discourse that assumes hegemony over another, i.e. Clement Greenberg. 04 Thierry de Duve and Rosalind Krauss, “Andy Warhol, or The Machine Perfected,” October, vol. 48 (1989): 9.

and worked to include the ev"/6! 6 &+1, 1%" !"Ĳ+&1&,+ ,# ‘high’ art, further complicat-

162

ing conceptions of ‘high’ and

the sensual anesthesia pre-

‘low’

culture.

scribed by Duchamp, it none-

Duchampian

theless retains the sensibility

0-&/&1 ,# "01%"1& &+!&Ȭ"/-

of the readymade in that it

ence, Warhol extended the

resembles its referent. It does

readymade paradigm by quot-

so, however, in an up-scaled,

ing the visual culture of mass

stainless steel rendition. In

consumerist society. By creat-

spite of his unorthodox use of

ing a generic surface that did

the readymade, it is only

not claim authenticity, origi-

through

the

artist’s

nality or autonomy, Warhol

above-mentioned

artistic

disavowed

Greenbergian

forebears that viewers and

terms of aesthetic judgment

critics alike are prepared to

the

N 1"/*0 1% 1 0""( 1, !"Ĳ+" accept Koons’s work as art.05 ‘high’ art. Any inclination to

Though Duchamp would like-

judge the artistic merit of

ly be critical of the visual

/&)), ,5 would be a false

-)" 02/" ,Ȭ"/"! 6 )),,+

start. Its commercial aesthetic

,$H I argue that the object’s

and

visual appeal and accessibility

standardized production

mode any

revitalizes

are

ception of the creative act, in

not hinged on its conception

that it enacts a more impas-

0&,+"! /"0-,+0" ȩ,* %&0

value

arrest

judgments a

that

commodity.

While Warhol’s art is

viewership

Duchamp’s

than

con-

Fountain

emphatically banal, Koons’s

would, for example. It is pre-

work is uncomplicatedly ap-

cisely the concept of the cre-

pealing. Though Warhol’s art

ative act that shapes Koons’s

is indeed fun and appealing,

artistic production with ref-

/&)), ,5 resides in the realm

erence to the politics of taste

,# "01%"1& &+!&Ȭ"/"+ "F )-

1% 1 !&Ȭ"/"+1& 1" S%&$%T ȩ,*

though Koons’s )),,+ ,$

‘low’ art. Koons himself stated

(Fig. 3) does not subscribe to

05 287.

Danto, “Banality and Celebration,”

163

that he “was telling the bour-

cept of the art object, rather

geois to embrace the thing

than its aesthetic value.08 Dan-

that it likes, the thing it re-

to’s

sponds to.”06 Rather than po-

meanings’ dictates that the

sitioning his work as a point

artist’s

of communion between the

should emerge through the

artist

artwork’s formal and aesthet-

and

his

audience,

concept

‘embodied

intended

qualities.09

message

Koons’s )),,+ ,$ is a tran-

Concerning

sponder: its bright and shiny

Warhol’s /&)), ,5, its com-

02/# "0 --" ) 1,H /"ĳ" 1H +! mercial aesthetic implies its ȯ/* 1%" 1 01"0 ,# %&0 -/"-

,**,!&Ĳ"! &!"+1&16F +"

sumably kitsch-loving public.

could not ground, in visual

The symbolic space of the gal-

terms, a distinction between

lery confers a ‘high’ status to

art and reality, between /&)),

)),,+ ,$, and in turn, ele-

and Brillo. While the former

vates the mass appeal with

is a work of art, the latter is a

which it registers. The taste of

throwaway

container,

1%" * 00"0 % 0 ""+ ȯ/*"! /%,)T0 0&*2) / ) by the massive sums the elite

and ,+ĳ -

tion of the two raises the

classes have deemed )),,+ question of the dual identity Dog to be worth – 58.4 mil-

lion dollars, to be precise.07 Danto

has

claimed

art. We can situate War-

hol’s /&)), ,5 in dialogue

that Warhol’s /&)), boxes ush-

with

Duchamp’s

ered in “the end of art” for

readymade,

they introduced the idea that

launched as a form of institu-

anything could, in fact, be art.

tional critique in order to

Artistic merit was now de-

evince the art establishment

/&3"! ȩ,* 1%" &!" ,/ ,+-

as the primary determinant of

06 Danto, “Banality and Celebration,” 290. 07 “Koons’s Puppy Sets $58 Million Record for Living Artist,” http://www. bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-13/koons-s-puppysets-58-million-record-for-living-artist.html accessed 3 Nov 2014).

08 Arthur Danto, “The End of Art: A Philosophical Defense,” History and Theory, vol. 37, no. 4 (1998): 129. 09 Arthur Danto, “Introduction: Art /&1& &0* Ȫ"/ 1%" +! ,# /1HW &+ ++ 12/ ) ,+!"/0I 00 60 ȩ,* 1%" - "14""+ /1 and Life (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005),13.

which

original was

164

art.10 However, Warhol’s /&)), !&Ȭ"/"+1& 1"0 ȩ,* 2 % *-T0 Fountain in that it is a simulacral rendering of its referent, while Fountain is simply an isolated commodity taken out of its regular circulation. By mapping a commercial aesthetic on Ĳ+" /1 , '" 1H /%,) ), 1"0 /&)), ,5 simultaneously in the landscape of consumerist society and in the realm of ‘high’ /1F /%,)H #,)),4&+$ ȩ,* Duchamp, breached the aura of ‘high’ art by making direct address to the consumer within the viewer. De Duve has argued 1% 1H 6 ,+ȩ,+1&+$ 3&"4"/0 with a consumer good in an art-context, Warhol “registers... in any case what [viewers] have already become: they are consumers and the painting is commodity.”11

Warhol uses

commercial, or ‘low’ art not so as to elevate its status to ‘high’ /1H 21 &+01" ! 1, ,+ĳ 1" 1%" two and symbolically level the categories. occupation

/&)),Ts in

the

gallery

10 David Cottington, “Modern Media, Modern Messages,” Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 31. 11 de Duve, “Andy Warhol,” 9.

165

Figure 1. / ") 2 % *-H ,2+1 &+H 8@8>F %,1,$/ -%"! 6 )ȩ"! 1&"$)&17H 8@8>F ) 7"! ceramic with black paint, 15 x 19 1/4 in. x 24 5/8 inches.

Figure 3. (Top) Balloon Dog (Orange), 1994, high chromium stainless steel with transparent colour coating, 121 x 143 x 45 inches. Figure 5. q ,11,*r %&1+"6 Äł6"/0 " /&+$ 1%" 0),$ + V BW Figure 2. (Right) Andy Warhol with Brillo Box (Soap Pads), 1964. Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen on wood, 17 1/8 x 17 x 14 inches.

167

demonstrated was

not

but

that

art

turned.”13 If the art world

autonomous,

holds such a ‘privileged

fact

position,’ as Greenberg

within

the

would have it, Warhol’s

same capitalist system

engagement with ‘mass

goods

culture triviality’ is to

Brillo.

enact an aesthetic bou-

saw

leversement of the terms

circulated

consumer

like Greenberg

pop culture as the arche-

1% 1 !"Ĳ+"! S%&$%T +!

typal commodity. Gilles

‘low’ culture in order to

Deleuze has argued that

reveal the parallels be-

“the simulacra is the ave-

tween consumer society

nue by which an accept-

and the art market. The

ed ideal or privileged po-

art historian Robert Pin-

sition

challenged

could

cus-Witten has claimed

over-

that Koons, too, “recog-

12 Christina Chang, “Beyond Pop’s Image: The Immateriality of Everyday Life,” Bulletin of the University of Michigan Museum of Art and Archaeology 15 (2003): 7, accessed November 20, 2014.

nizes that works of art in 13 Gilles Deleuze and Rosalind Krauss, “Plato and the Simulacrum,” October, vol. 27 (Winter 1983): 9.

168

a capitalist system are inevita-

of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;kitsch:â&#x20AC;&#x2122; )),,+ ,$ can be

bly reduced to the condition

considered the embodiment,

of commodity.â&#x20AC;?14 Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art

or even the epitome of kitsch.

is the banal commodity of the

&10 %H 0 !"Ä˛+"! 6 /""+-

everyday. Koons, on the other

berg, is the avenue through

% +!H /" 1"0 Äł 4)"00)6 "5"-

4%& % 1%" ,2/$",&0&" 0 1&0ČŤ

cuted luxury consumer objet

their desire to acquire cultur-

!T /1F While Warhol referenc-

) -&1 ) N )1%,2$% &1 4 0

es the commodity in simu-

not genuine culture, but only

lacral

form,

masqueraded as such, it was

with

the

Koons

begins

commodity:

his

thus understood as being of

readymades are made of tra-

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;badâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; taste.16 Koons is emphat-

!&1&,+ ) %&$% /1 * 1"/& )0 N ic in that he wants to make materials that were eschewed

art that appeals to his viewer-

by Duchamp and Warhol in

shipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taste. He makes work

favor of the ordinary, trivial,

essentially without pretense.

and

prosaic.

In other words, Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ap-

The May 2013 issue of

peal to the masses is deliber-

New York Magazine declared

ately

transparent,

and

Koons the most successful

* ("0 +, "ČŹ,/1 1, 3"&) 1%"

American artist since Warhol.

,**,!&Ä˛"! 01 120 ,# %&0

The article claims that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Koons

4,/(F %&0 1 "ČŹ" 1&3")6 &+-

has made a name for himself

verts

Greenbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

manufacturing toys for rich

that

kitsch

,60 N "5 1&+$ - $ + *,+2-

as genuine.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work

ments to mass culture trivial-

polemic

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;masquerades

cunningly

sincere.

ity.â&#x20AC;?15 His â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;paganismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is in ref-

Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s silk-screened

erence to his appropriation of

work engages with the mod-

the Greenbergian conception

"/+&01 &!" ) ,# Äł 1+"00 q4&1%

14 V ,4 "ČŹ ,,+0 " *" 2-"/star,â&#x20AC;? http://www.artnews.com/2007/11/01/top1"+K /1+"40K01,/&"0K%,4K'"ČŹK(,,+0K " *"K K superstar/ accessed 24 November 2014. 15 /) 4 +0,+H V "ČŹ ,,+0 &0 1%" Most Successful American Artist since Warhol. So Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Art World Got Against Him?â&#x20AC;? in New York Magazine May 2013, 35.

attention to surface) while simultaneously integrating elements which had previously 16

Chang, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beyond Popâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Image,â&#x20AC;? 7.

169

been denied â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; art status

58.4 million dollars â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the

by the hegemony of modern-

highest sum ever paid for the

ist theory.17 /%,)T0 Äł 1 02/-

work of a living artist.18 This

face seamlessly references the

unprecedented sale begs ques-

consumer culture that the

tions of how we critically

*,!"/+&01 &!" ) ,# Äł 1+"00 evaluate and attribute value to sought to remain autonomous

art. What has allowed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;kitschâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

ČŠ,*F )),,+ ,$Ts aggran-

to enter the privileged space

dized scale emphasizes its

of the Whitney, and further,

perfectly

why

executed

veneer,

has

the

Whitney

echoing Modernist paintingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

ordained

the

emphasis on surface. Koons

S0")Ä˛"K1 (&+$T

has thus twisted the Modern-

the

art

practice 0

- /1

experience?

&01 &!" ) ,# Äł 1+"00 &+1, %6-

The advent of Pop in

perbolized rendition of kitsch.

the sixties enacted a revolu-

Warhol and Koons both ap-

tion in taste. By bringing ac-

pear not only to subvert and

cessible, appealing, and fun

,+Äł 1" *,!"/+&01 1"/*0 ,# art into the museum and galâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; art and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;kitsch,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; but in

lery

doing

breached the high modernist

also

negate

any

claims to cultural hegemony

space,

Pop

artists

2/ +! "ČŹ" 1"! 1%" ),00 ,#

!"Ä˛+"! ),+$ 1%"0" )&+"0F power and authority that critKoonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of

what

monumentalization Greenberg

ics like Greenberg held over

would

what constituted art as im-

likely categorize as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cul-

portant and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;goodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.19 Cultural

ture heightens the tensions

hierarchy, in regard to taste,

Ä˛/01 /" 1"! 6 /%,)T0 !&0-

had been overturned. While

tension of modernist catego-

Warhol and Koons both claim

ries. Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s )),,+ ,$ was

to give their viewership what

very recently purchased for

they want to see, very few

17 Alex Kitnick, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Andy Warhol: Surface Tension,â&#x20AC;? in Pop Art: Contemporary Perspectives, exh. cat. (Yale, New Haven, and London: Princeton University Art Museum and Yale University Press, 2007),104.

18 V "ČŹ ,,+0 &0 (BW %11-Imm444F 3 +&16# &/F ,*m 2)12/"m9A8;mA>m'"ČŹK(,,+0K4%&1ney-retropective# accessed 25 November, 2014. 19 Danto, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Banality and Celebration,â&#x20AC;? 296.

170

members of the audience are

mass ego.â&#x20AC;?22 The mirrored

likely to be buyers. However,

surface of )),,+ ,$ symbol-

it is with reference to their

ically acts as a receptor. Rob-

responses that purchases in

ert Rauschenberg pushed the

1%" *&))&,+0 /" '201&Ä˛"!F20 It

concept of art as a receptor in

is at this juncture where Du-

opposition to the Abstract Ex-

champâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concept of the cre-

pressionist

ative act is updated: it is not

treated a work of art like a

only the meaning of the work

communication device. His

that is completed by the view-

%&1" &+1&+$ series (Fig. 4) of

er â&#x20AC;&#x201C; its actual valuation hing-

1951

es upon the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s response.

events

In 2004, /1 "40 listed Koons

than imposing any artistic vi-

as one of the ten most expen-

sion on the viewer.â&#x20AC;?23 The ex-

sive living artists of all time.

pressive brushstrokes of Ab-

In the article, Tobias Meyer,

stract Expressionist painting

Sothebyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worldwide head of

were meant to convey the in-

contemporary art, stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If

teriority of the artist, whose

there is a consensus among

* +&#"01 0-" &Ä˛ &16 ,+#"//"!

the larger public that an artist

their work a unique status.

is important, the collecting

,)),4&+$ ČŠ,* ,+ "-12 )

community will support the

artists

market.â&#x20AC;?

Meyer

/%,) !"- /1"! ČŠ,* 1%&0

direct

impetus in favor of imparting

correlation between price and

his art with a generic quality.

perceived

Unlike the paintings of Ab-

contribution to art history.21

stract Expressionists, Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imperative is

silk-screened canvases are not

claims

Further, there

artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

tradition

â&#x20AC;&#x153;registered and

activity

that

external rather

Rauschenberg,

1% 1 %&0 4,/( V/"Äł" 10 1%" vessels of self-expression that 20 K &!FH 9@<F 21 â&#x20AC;&#x153;The 10 Most Expensive Living Artists,â&#x20AC;? http://www.artnews.com/2004/05/01/ the-10-most-expensive-living-artists/ accessed 6 Nov 2014.

22 V "ČŹ ,,+0HW%11-Imm444F' K,+)&+"F com/koons.html accessed 1 Nov 2014. 23 David Hopkins, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Re-Thinking the 2 % *- ČŹ" 1HW &+ ,*- +&,+ 1, ,+1"*porary Art since 1945 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006),147.

171

are meant to imply his own

#,/ 02 1)" 3 /& 1&,+0 ČŠ,* ,+"

psychological space.24 He saw

copy to the next. Alex Kitnick

art as being nothing more

has

than a mere commodity. This

silk-screening mode of pro-

philosophy guided the mode

duction as suggestive of the

of production at his famed

artist functioning as a corpo-

Factory. The silk-screen pro-

rate

cess used to render Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

claiming a corporeal connec-

multiple /&)), boxes not only

tion to his work, his detached,

allowed the artist to be physi-

serialized mode of production

described

entity.26

Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Rather

than

))6 !"1 %"! ČŠ,* %&0 /1 instead implies a corporate production

but

also

relationship to his art. Similar

approximated the depersonal-

to commercial modes of pro-

ized

duction, Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artistic out-

production.

put is entirely predicated on

machinery

assembly-line

While )),,+ ,$ and

his

viewershipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

response.

/&)), ,5 are each conceived

This plays into the Ducham-

of as multiples, )),,+ ,$Ts

pian dictum that privileges

mode of production strays

the viewer as fundamental to

ČŠ,* /%,)T0 &+ 1% 1 &1 "*-

the creative act. Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mode

ploys an expensive, lengthy

of production may approxi-

process under the hands of

mate that of a corporate enti-

hundreds of variously skilled

ty, but his imperative that â&#x20AC;&#x153;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

artisans and technicians.25 The

all about youâ&#x20AC;? implies a popu-

mathematical precision with

list

which it is rendered departs

cause

its

impetus.

Concerning what ac-

ČŠ,* 1%" 01 +! /!&7"! *,!" tually happens between his of the silk-screen process em-

work and the viewer, Koons

ployed by Warhol that allows

has claimed that the universal

24 Alex Kitnick, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Andy Warhol: Surface Tension,â&#x20AC;? 102. 25 V "ČŹ ,,+0 +1"/3&"4"! 6 ,*& Campbell,â&#x20AC;? http://www.interviewmagazine.com/ /1m'"ČŹK(,,+0K+ ,*&K *- "))m "00"! 9? ,3 2014.

appeal and accessibility of his work is predicated on his desire to liberate the â&#x20AC;&#x153;bourgeois 26

Kitnick, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Surface Tension,â&#x20AC;? 102.

173

Figure 4. Robert Rauschenberg, White Painting [seven panel], 1951. Oil on canvas, 72 x 125 x 1 1/2 inches.

174

guiltâ&#x20AC;? that is a reminder of his

kitsch aspect of )),,+ ,$H

viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class position.27 The

while simultaneously turning

creative act he conceives of

ostensibly intends to suspend

cultural

awareness of ones implicitness in the class system and enact a moment of liberation ČŠ,* &1F ,4"3"/H 0""&+$ 0 S(&10 %T N 1"/* 4%,0" &*plications

Koons

surely

4 /" ,# N --" )0 1, ,2/geois !"0&/"H does this encounter not then instill a wish for upward

mobility?

Meyer

claims, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The desire that Koons creates with people is very much about possession.â&#x20AC;?28 Of )),,+ ,$H Koons has been said to have made the perfect object, one of â&#x20AC;&#x153;industrial perfection

and

uncomplicated

beauty.â&#x20AC;?29 If everyone wants to possess this object, do its elite upper class buyers not absorb the desires and tastes of the masses, while their acquisition symbolically serves to !&ČŹ"/"+1& 1" 1%"*D +! 6 virtue of the price paid â&#x20AC;&#x201C; do the elite not legitimate the 27 ,11 ,1%(,-#H "ČŹ ,,+0I "1rospective (Yale University Press, 2014), 223. 28 4 +0,+H V "ČŹ ,,+0W &+ "4 ,/( Magazine May 2013, 32. 29 Ibid., 30.

into

valuable good?

Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current retrospective at the Whitney is one of the most buzz worthy events in the art world. The /"Äł" 1&3"

%/,*"

02/# -

es of )),,+ ,$ and other 4,/( ČŠ,* %&0 Celebration series have invited many a selfie-taker to upload a picture of 1%"&/ /"Äł" 1&,+ 1, 0, & ) *"dia, attesting to the age-old bourgeois desire to not only attain cultural capital but to also be seen consuming it. It also harkens back to the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;desire to possessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mentioned by Meyer. While galleries and museums traditionally have a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;no-photoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; policy, the Whitney has encouraged the prac1& "H !&01/& 21&+$ Äł6"/0 1% 1 exclaim â&#x20AC;&#x153;KOONS IS GREAT FOR SELFIES!â&#x20AC;? (Fig. 5) on site. 30

While Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work might

be capitalizing on mass appeal, the Whitney appears to 30 V ,,+0 &0 --6 1, " 1%" ")Ä˛" of Summer,â&#x20AC;? http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/07/ '"ČŹK(,,+0K&0K% --6K1,K "K1%"K0")Ä˛"K,#K02**"/F html, accessed 30 Nov, 2014.

175

be making an appeal to the

remains: is he critical of or

bourgeois desire to be seen

complicit with the art es-

consuming art. The buzz gen-

tablishment? The Whitneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

erated by the online collection

Äł6"/0 +,1 ,+)6 &+3&1" -2 )&

,# ,,+0K0")Ä˛"0 +,1 ,+)6 -/,-

participation, but also sanc-

liferates Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand, but

tion the exhibitionist bour-

also will eventually be used

geois

as a variable that art dealers

quiring cultural capital. This

and auction houses will use

inclusive approach helps to

to measure the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contri-

buttress

bution to art history. Thomas

claims. However, his osten-

Crow has described Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

sibly populist cause is com-

/&)), ,5 display within the

plicated by his apparent cap-

gallery space as an â&#x20AC;&#x153;exposĂŠ of

italization

complacent

and bourgeois desire, which

consumption.â&#x20AC;?31

performance

Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

ac-

populist

mass

appeal

While Warhol implicates the

0""*0 1, ČŻ/* %&0

viewer as a passive consum-

plicity with the art market.

er, Koons activates his view-

Both

,*-

Duchamp

and

ersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; desire (to possess or to be

Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seminal positions in

seen consuming art) to stim-

the history of art are charac-

ulate the sale of his art. Has

terized by their oppositional

,,+0H 1%"+H /"!"Ä˛+"! 1%" attitudes toward the art esâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;creative actâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as being the mo-

tablishment. Fountain mocked

ment in which one captures

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; art by bringing the low-

an upload-able image of him

"01 ,# ),40 N -/"3&,20)6

or herself consuming art?

#2+ 1&,+ ) 2/&+ ) N &+1, 1%"

Though Koons wants to and indeed does make art

consecrated

gallery

space.

Warhol sought to disavow

1% 1 .2&1" )&1"/ ))6 /"Äł" 10 artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s noble content by makthe mass ego, the question 31 Hal Foster, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Return of the Real,â&#x20AC;? in The Return of the Real: Avant-Garde at the End of the Century (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 277.

ing its commercial character blatantly conspicuous. Having established their respective

176

artistic practices as the points

success for it inspires critical

Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

debate,33 only adding to the

own, we might be inclined

buzz around his work. Koons

to see Koons as sharing their

has called his )),,+ ,$ a

antagonistic attitudes towards

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Trojan Horse.â&#x20AC;?34 He has cun-

the art establishment. Koons,

ningly exploited the art mar-

however,

that

("1 &+ ,/!"/ 1, !")&3"/ $&ČŞ

his work is â&#x20AC;&#x153;anti-criticism

whose impetus is to symboli-

[and] anti-judgment.â&#x20AC;?32 In any

cally dismantle cultural hier-

case, as Kelly Devine Thom-

archy by reconstituting high

as has argued, Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crit-

art through bourgeois appeal.

departures

for

emphatic

ical ambiguity is vital to his 32 V "ČŹ ,,+0 +1"/3&"4"! 6 ,*& Campbell,â&#x20AC;?http://www.interviewmagazine.com/ /1m'"ČŹK(,,+0K+ ,*&K *- "))mH "00"! 9? November, 2014.

33 V %" "))&+$ ,# "ČŹ ,,+0HW %11-Imm www.artnews.com/2005/05/01/the-selling-of'"ČŹK(,,+0mH "00"! 8 ,3H 9A8;Fr 34 300.

Danto, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Banality and Celebration,â&#x20AC;?

Willa Meredith â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Willa Meredith is currently in her third year of study in the Art History department at McGill. In light of "ČŹ ,,+0T0 2+-/" "!"+1"! 0 )"H &)) 2+!"/1,,( the research for this paper in the hopes of answering her own questions about the contemporary art * /("1F %" 01&)) +T1 Ä˛$2/" ,21 4% 1 "5 1)6 0%" thinks of Koons, but a few of her favorite artists /" & "& "&H %/&0 Ä˛)&H +! & % /! ,00"F

177

Bibliography V ,4 "ČŹ ,,+0 " *" 2-"/01 /HV /1 "40H http://www.artnews.com/2007/11/01/ top-ten-artnews-stories-howj e f f - k o o n s - b e c a m e - a - s up e r s t a r / (date of last access 24 Nov., 2014). V %" "))&+$ ,# "ČŹ ,,+0HW /1 "40H %11-Imm w w w. a r t n e w s . c o m / 2 0 0 5 / 0 5 / 0 1 / 1%"K0"))&+$K,#K'"ČŹK(,,+0m q! 1" of last access 1 Nov., 2014).

V "ČŹ ,,+0HW ,2/+ ) ,# ,+1"*-,/ /6 /1 +)&+"H http://www.jca-online.com/koons. html (date of last access 1 Nov., 2014). V "ČŹ ,,+0 +1"/3&"4"! 6 ,*& *-bell,â&#x20AC;? Interview Magazine, http:// w w w. i n t e r v i e w m a g a z i n e . c o m / a r t / j e f f - k o o n s - n a o m i - c a mp b e l l / (date of last access 28 Nov., 2014)

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Ten most Expensive Living Artists,â&#x20AC;? /1 "40H http://www.artnews.com/2004/05/01/ the-10-most-expensive-living-artists/ (date of last access 6 Nov., 2014).

Kitnick, Alex. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Andy Warhol: Surface Tension,â&#x20AC;? in ,- /1I ,+1"*-,/ /6 "/0-" 1&3"0H exh. cat., 96-111, Yale, New Haven, and London: Princeton University Art Museum and Yale University Press, 2007.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Koonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Puppy Sets $58 Million Record for Living Artist,â&#x20AC;? ),,* "/$H http:// www.bloomberg.com/news/201311-13/koons-s-puppy-sets-58-million-record-for-living-artist.html (date of last access 3 Nov., 2014).

V "ČŹ ,,+0 &0 --6 1, " 1%" ")Ä˛" ,# 2**"/HW "4 ,/( $ 7&+"H http://nymag.com/ thecut/2014/07/jeff-koons-is-hap-6K1,K "K1%"K0")Ä˛"K,#K02**"/F%1*) (date of last access 30 Nov., 2014).

Chang, Christina. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beyond Popâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Image: The Immateriality of Everyday Life.â&#x20AC;? 2))"1&+ ,# 1%" +&3"/0&16 ,# & %&$ + 20"2* ,# /1 +! Archaeology 15 (2003): 5-23. Accessed November 20, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0054307.0015.101. Danto, Arthur. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Banality and Celebration: The /1 ,# "ČŹ ,,+0HW &+ Unnatural ,+!"/0I 00 60 ČŠ,* 1%" - "14""+ /1 +! &#", 286-302, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005. Danto,

Arthur. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Introduction: Art Criticism ČŞ"/ 1%" +! ,# /1HW &+ Unnatu/ ) ,+!"/0I 00 60 ČŠ,* 1%" - "14""+ /1 +! &#"H 3-18, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005.

Danto, Arthur. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The End of Art: A Philosophical Defense,â&#x20AC;? in History and The,/6H vol. 37, no. 4, (1998): 127-143. de Duve, Thierry, and Rosalind Krauss, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Andy Warhol, or The Machine Perfectedâ&#x20AC;? in 1, "/H vol. 48 (1989): 3-14. Deleuze, Gilles and Rosalind Krauss, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Plato and the Simulacrum,â&#x20AC;? 1, "/H vol. 27 (MIT press, Winter 1983):. 45-56. Cottington,

David. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Modern Media, Modern Messages,â&#x20AC;? in ,!"/+ /1I "/6 %,/1 +1/,!2 1&,+H 56-83, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Foster, Hal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Return of the Real,â&#x20AC;? in The Return of the Real: Avant-Garde at the End of the Century, 127-168, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whitney Museum Earnestly Proclaims â&#x20AC;&#x153;KOONS IS GREAT FOR SELFIES!â&#x20AC;? Gizmodo, http://gizmodo.com/whitneymuseum-earnestly-proclaimskoons-is-great-for-1648869927 (date of last access 1 Nov., 2014). David

Hopkins, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Re-Thinking the Duchamp ČŹ" 1HW &+ ,*- +&,+ 1, ,+temporary Art since 1945 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 145-163.

4 +0,+H /)F V "ČŹ ,,+0 &0 1%" ,01 2 "00ful American Artist since Warhol. So Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Art World Got Against Him?â&#x20AC;? in "4 ,/( $ 7&+" May 2013. Rothkopf, Scott. "ČŹ ,,+0I "1/,0-" 1&3"F New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. V "ČŹ ,,+0 &0 (BW +&16 &/H http://www. vanityfair.com/culture/2014/07/ jeff-koons-whitney-retropective# (date of last access, 25 Nov., 2014

178

Editorial Board Karly Beard is both an Art History and English Literature Major, and has been editing for Canvas for two years. She loves being a part of Canvas because it fosters community within the Art History/Communications department, and because she enjoys exchanging ideas and critical theory on visual culture. She is graduating McGill this year and is very excited to have more ȩ"" 1&*" 1, "+',6 -,"1/6H /1H 4/&1&+$ +! 1/ 3")F

Carolyn Buszynski is a fourth year Cultural Studies major, minoring in Com*2+& 1&,+ 12!&"0F %&0 &0 %"/ Ĳ/01 6" / ,+ +3 0T0 "!&1&+$ , /!F %" )0, "!&10 #,/ ) 1"H 1%" +"4 Ĳ)* 2+!"/$/ !2 1" ',2/+ )H +! &0 &+3,)3"! &+ 1%" McGill Students’ Cancer Society as VP Communications. Carolyn does not yet know what her life post-graduation will look like, but she hope it will &+ ,/-,/ 1" %"/ ),3"0 ,# 1/ 3")&+$H !"0&$+H )&1"/ 12/"H +! Ĳ)*F

Krystin Chung approaches editing for Canvas the same way she does dipping into a dessert: with an open mind and plenty of enthusiasm. Sweet tooth aside, she loves travelling, strolling the streets on a Sunday, and standing before a Monet painting for hours on end. She is in her third year, majoring &+ /1 &01,/6 +! *&+,/&+$ &+ ,**2+& 1&,+ 12!&"0 +! Ĳ+!0 /" !&+$ essays by her peers to be enriching, enlightening, and so very enjoyable!

Ben Demers is a second-year Cultural Studies and Urban Systems student, with Minors in Communication Studies and Management. Though Art &01,/6 +! ,**2+& 1&,+0 /" 1 1&*"0 + ,!! * 1 %H %" Ĳ+!0 +3 0 + insightful location to explore the blend of their theories on representation.

179

Jemma Elliott-Israelson is in her second year of an honours degree in Art History with minors in Classics and Italian. Her research includes text-image connections in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, female portraiture of the sixteenth-century Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco, British coronation portraiture, and the declining roles of the British aristocracy in the nineteenth century through John Singer Sargent’s portraits.

Erin Havens is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree with majors &+ ,1% /1 &01,/6 +! ,*-21"/ &"+ "F %,2$% 1%" - &/&+$ * 6 1 Ĳ/01 0""* ,!!H /&+ 4&)) /$2" 1% 1 )&+(0 "14""+ 1%" 14, Ĳ")!0 /" " ,*&+$ increasingly pertinent as the relationship between art and technology blurs. She hopes to further explore this intersection and its implications, especially within the context of a world that dwells increasingly in the hyperreal.

Klea Hawkins will be graduating this year with an art history major and a German language minor. She joined Canvas because she values good writing, and wanted to better understand the editing and publication process. Her interests include Medieval and Renaissance art, as well as early twentieth-century art, literature and culture.

Catherine LaMendola is a U2 Art History student minoring in Anthropology, ,/&$&+ ))6 % &)&+$ ȩ,* )) 0H "5 0F ),+$ 4&1% "!&1&+$ #,/ +3 0 1%&0 6" /H she currently serves as co-president of McGill’s Fridge Door Gallery. She is most interested in contemporary art and hopes to one day curate for a living, 21 #,/ +,4 0%" + *,01 ,Ȫ"+ " #,2+! Ȭ"&+ 1&+$ %"/0")# 1 + 5 4%&)" complaining about how cold it is outside.

180

Nancy Li is currently in her third year of pursuing a Joint Honours degree in Art History and Political Science at McGill. Contemporary East Asian art captures a special place in her heart and encompasses a wealth of potential for further research. Through her interdisciplinary training in art history and politics, she hopes to further explore the nuances of the increasing intersection and mĂŠlange of Eastern and Western cultures and its dynamic political reverberations.

Erica Morassutti will be graduating this spring with a major in Art History and minors in Italian and Communication Studies. Her research interests include early modern visual culture, postcolonial art history, medieval architecture and feminist theory.

Jennifer Mueller is an undergraduate studying art history and international relations at McGill. She is a research assistant at the Burney Centre and is interested in the visual culture of the long eighteenth century in Britain and France, especially so-called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;conversation piecesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and portraiture. In her other studies she has focused on the protection of world heritage sites and ethics in contemporary museum practice. Jennifer hopes to pursue her graduate studies in art history.

181