Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name held at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, January 28-May 6, 2018. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
The narrative conceit / Aram Moshayedi -- Plates -- The shining / Bruce Hainley -- The morality of things / Emanuele Coccia -- Itinerary / Julie Ault -- Newspaper on a dubious patio / Wayne Koestenbaum -- Dancing with and for objects / Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi -- Hallowers / Jay Chung and Q Takeki Maeda -- Untitled / Hannah Black -- Case study in care: fingernails / Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer -- Mount Monadnock transmissions / Caconrad -- Writing from the shores / Gabriela Jauregui -- Readymade as still life / Helmut Draxler -- Inventory of thirteen effects / Dan Fox -- Mayoral chandelier / Wayne Kostenbaum -- Art, artifact, and commodity in the Natural History Museum / Alaka Wali -- Myths, not mythologies / Donatien Grau -- Heart of glass / Mayer Rus -- No object in mind / Lynne Tillman -- Keep the faith: on the curatorial object and the promise of contemporary art / Sohrab Mohebbi -- Pillow and Tom / Wayne Koestenbaum -- Unsettled evidence: the story of seventeen Tasmanian Aborigines / Daniel McClean -- Blankets / Chris Kraus -- Self-portrait / Charles Ray -- Contemporary art as production of the past / Boris Groys -- Align / Akira Mizuta Lippit -- A disquieting muse / Linda Norden -- The diplomatic rock / Wayne Koestenbaum -- An archivist from below on the top of the world / W.J.T. Mitchell -- Derision / Hassan Kahn.
Summary:
"This book addresses how artifacts and objects of contemporary art create meaning and mythology in equal measure. What challenges does exhibiting a work pose to the inherent muteness of objects? How do artists choose to speak on behalf of inanimate artifacts and byproducts of material culture and the natural world? This volume coincides with an exhibition that examines these questions and is organized around the idea that objects possess narrative histories that the conventions of display can only, at best, approximate. In recent years, the continued emphasis on an art of ideas--inherited from the legacies of Conceptual and post-Conceptual art--has sought to broaden the function of everyday objects. Artists have, as a result, developed textual and non-textual approaches that reveal a faith in objects to communicate as well as skepticism of the promises of unmediated expression. The book is illustrated with works by Darren Bader, Kasper Bosmans, Carol Bove, Andrea Buttner, Jason Dodge, Haris Epaminonda, Iman Issa, Hassan Khan, Antonio Vega Macotela, Jill Magid, Dave McKenzie, Christodoulos Panayiotou, and others"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.