Object – Event – Performance: Art, Materiality, and Continuity since the 1960s
2018 CAA | College Art Association, Los Angeles, Feb 21-24, 2018 - call for papers
In the 1960s, the art world and its objects began to experience a dramatic shift in what and how art can be. New modes of artistic expression articulated through Fluxus activities, happening, performance, video, experimental film and the emerging practices of media art questioned the idea of a static object that endures unchanged and might thus be subject to a singular interpretation. Different from traditional visual arts, the blending genres and media in art since the 1960s began to transform not only curatorial and museum collecting practices, but also the traditional function and mandate of conservation, now augmented to accept the inherent dynamism and changeability of artworks.
How do these artworks endure over time despite their material and conceptual changes? How do their identities unfold contingent on ruling knowledge, values, politics, and culture? Forging an examination of the physical and immaterial aspects of artworks at the intersection of art history and theory, material culture studies, and conservation, our session proposes to interrogate artworks that evade physical stability and fixity familiar from traditional works often conceived in a singular medium and meant to last “forever.” Intrinsically changeable and often short-duration, these artworks challenge art, conservation, and museological discourses. Not only do they test the standard assumptions of what, how and when an artwork is or can be, but they also put forward the notion of materiality in constant flux that plays a significant role in the creation and mediation of meaning.
[Send applications to:] Chair: Hanna B. Hölling, University College London, h.holling@ucl.ac.uk
The deadline for submissions is August 14, 2017. Please consult general guidelines for participants listed in the 2018 CAA Call for Participation (accessible here). A downloadable CFP for this session is available here.