Contemporary Sculpture and the Critique of Display Cultures: Tainted Goods (Routledge Focus on Art History and Visual Studies)

In this book, Dan Adler addresses recent tendencies in contemporary art toward assemblage sculpture and how these works incorporate tainted materials – often things left on the side of the road, according to the logic and progress of the capitalist machine – and combine them in ways that allow each element to retain a degree of empirical specificity. Adler develops a range of aesthetic models through which these practices can be understood to function critically. Each chapter focuses on a single exhibition: Isa Genzken’s "OIL" (German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007), Geoffrey Farmer’s midcareer survey (Musée d’art contemporain, Montréal, 2008), Rachel Harrison’s "Consider the Lobster" (CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, 2009), and Liz Magor’s "The Mouth and Other Storage Facilities" (Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2008). In this book, Dan Adler addresses recent tendencies in contemporary art toward assemblage sculpture and how these works incorporate tainted materials - often things left on the side of the road - and combine them in ways that allow each element to retain a degree of empirical specificity. Adler develops a range of aesthetic models through which these practices can be understood to function critically. Each chapter focuses on a single exhibition: Isa Genzken's "Oil" (German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007), Geoffrey Farmer's midcareer survey (Musee d'art contemporain, Montreal, 2008), Rachel Harrison's "Consider the Lobster" (CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, 2009), and Liz Magor's "The Mouth; and Other Storage Facilities" (Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2008) Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction The Promise and Presentness of Pleasure Subverting the Seamless and Setting the Stage Crafting Crappy Characters: Humorously Holding on to the Human Predicaments: Crucial Combinations of Contexts and a Selected Set of Sculptural Sources Face It, You’re a Formalist: Allow the Abstraction Notes 1 Rachel Harrison: “Consider the Lobster” Notes 2 Isa Genzken: “OIL” Notes 3 Geoffrey Farmer: “Me into Many” Notes 4 Liz Magor: “The Mouth and Other Storage Facilities” Notes Conclusion Unwork the Network Face (Sculptural) Facts: Formats are Foul Muster the Marginal (or a Moment), Deal with (Some) Doubt, Relish (a Bit of) Redundancy Notes Index