Larne Abse Gogarty | University College London (original) (raw)
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Papers by Larne Abse Gogarty
Tate Papers, 2016
This article examines Sharon Hayes's video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represent... more This article examines Sharon Hayes's video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represents and mediates the often-painful psychic processes of group formation, in this case propelled by internal and external social pressures. Drawing upon the work of British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the philosopher Iris Marion Young, the essay analyses the artwork's exploration of 'womanhood' as the locus of collective subjectivity and political agency.
While some argue that LD50 gallery’s embrace of neoreactionary thought was an exercise in free sp... more While some argue that LD50 gallery’s embrace of neoreactionary thought was an exercise in free speech, the fact that access to its programme of events and talks was restricted suggests otherwise. Meanwhile, white supremacists are actively developing an aesthetic based on post-internet art in order to draw in new recruits, a development that needs to be directly challenged.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2018
Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a soc... more Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a social or political context clinging to the edges”. The article addresses Bradford’s exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day at the American Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and considers the artist’s claim through the critical reception of his work alongside central debates within the history of modernism. It then explores how dispossession and racialization can be figured in relation to modernist myths such as the grid. Finally, in addressing the “social” in Bradford’s practice, the study questions the collaboration Bradford embarked on with Rio Terà dei Pensieri, an organisation supporting the reintegration of prisoners and people under criminal judgment in Venice, arguing that the reformism of that project cuts against Bradford’s use of myth as a mode of resistance.
Third Text, 2019
Abstract Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contem... more Abstract Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary art, culture and emancipatory politics on the left, this roundtable article begins from the question: what concepts and ideas can be drawn into an anti-fascist art theory today? The discussion opens by considering the ambivalence towards speaking about fascism in current debates beyond art and the complex positioning of art between (or rather, across) the status quo and its subversion; proceeds by examining the current technological apparatus as regards the mediation of subjectivity; looks at the articulation of sexuality and whiteness; and concludes by proposing that anti-fascism as a complex political position that crosses an art field sustained also by an attention economy must address the field’s structural procedures of exclusion while also maintain its focus on the specificity of fascist politics.
Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2014
This article responds to the critique of Marxist thought in Alana Jelinek's This Is Not Art. ... more This article responds to the critique of Marxist thought in Alana Jelinek's This Is Not Art. Jelinek's aversion to theorising capitalism as a mode of production leads to limitations in how we push forward the compelling arguments advanced in her book about the supposedly a priori politicised nature of what the author describes as ‘lifelike art’. In particular, I propose that the concepts of hegemony, ideology and fetish are missing in her account in favour of an emphasis on power. These concepts, alongside dialectical thinking, can help us grasp what is specific about the present moment in which we see an increasing tendency within ‘lifelike art’ to embrace not only the state but also the market and capital more generally. Against Jelinek's vitalist emphasis on disciplinarity, however, I suggest that the analysis of artworks in our current moment necessitates a certain level of negative thinking. Not a negativity centred on the kind of dualistic antagonism derided in This Is Not Art, but rather one centre...
Historical Materialism, 2014
Steve Edwards’s book, Martha Rosler: The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, is a close... more Steve Edwards’s book, Martha Rosler: The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, is a close study of Rosler’s 1976 artwork. The book takes up the social and political coordinates of the work’s production, focusing on the San Diego Group of which Rosler was a member, New York City during the fiscal crisis, and the broader contribution Rosler makes to what Edwards calls ‘second-wave political modernism’. This review considers Edwards’s analyses of the work, and locates its importance within the discussion around Rosler, as well as the broader history of radical American art.
Third Text, 2019
Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary ar... more Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary art, culture and emancipatory politics on the left, this roundtable article begins from the question: what concepts and ideas can be drawn into an anti-fascist art theory today? The discussion opens by considering the ambivalence towards speaking about fascism in current debates beyond art and the complex positioning of art between (or rather, across) the status quo and its subversion; proceeds by examining the current technological apparatus as regards the mediation of subjectivity; looks at the articulation of sexuality and whiteness; and concludes by proposing that anti-fascism as a complex political position that crosses an art field sustained also by an attention economy must address the field’s structural procedures of exclusion while also maintain its focus on the specificity of fascist politics.
The article is the first to appear online from the forthcoming special issue of Third Text (May 2019) on anti-fascism/art/theory, edited by Angela Dimitrakaki and Harry Weeks.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2018
Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a soc... more Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a social or political context clinging to the edges”. The article addresses Bradford’s exhibition, Tomorrow is Another Day, at the American Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and considers the artist’s claim through the critical reception of his work alongside central debates within the history of modernism. It then explores how dispossession and
racialization can be figured in relation to modernist myths such as the grid. Finally, in addressing the “social” in Bradford’s practice, the study questions the collaboration Bradford embarked on with Rio Terà dei Pensieri, an organisation supporting the reintegration of prisoners and people under criminal judgment in Venice, arguing that the reformism of that project cuts against Bradford’s use of myth as a mode of resistance.
This article explores the emphasis on usefulness in contemporary art, focusing on social practice... more This article explores the emphasis on usefulness in contemporary art, focusing on social practice art in the United States and Europe through Cuban artist Tania Bruguera’s establishment of the ‘Asociación de Arte Útil’ in 2011, and the rebranding of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) as a ‘useful museum’. The article addresses the affirmation of usefulness and ‘use values’ within these case studies and beyond in relation to Marxist, post-Marxist, and feminist theories of social reproduction and the state. By attending to issues of citizenship, race, and migration, the article asks how we should approach the aesthetic and political stakes of artworks that strive to be ‘useful’ through performing tasks associated with social reproduction as they have historically taken place in the home or via the welfare state.
This article examines Sharon Hayes’s video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represents an... more This article examines Sharon Hayes’s video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represents and mediates the often-painful psychic processes of group formation, in this case propelled by internal and external social pressures. Drawing upon the work of British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the philosopher Iris Marion Young, the essay analyses the artwork’s exploration of ‘womanhood’ as the locus of collective subjectivity and political agency.
Talk given with E.C. Feiss at the Rematerialising Feminism event held at the ICA, London in Jul 2... more Talk given with E.C. Feiss at the Rematerialising Feminism event held at the ICA, London in Jul 2014. Published in the Rematerialisng feminism book. http://rematerialisingfeminism.org/
Article responding to recent developments in the field of social practice, focused on the US
Feature published in Art Monthly, April 2015, responding to recent attempts by artists to organis... more Feature published in Art Monthly, April 2015, responding to recent attempts by artists to organise for wages and better working conditions.
Tate Papers, 2016
This article examines Sharon Hayes's video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represent... more This article examines Sharon Hayes's video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represents and mediates the often-painful psychic processes of group formation, in this case propelled by internal and external social pressures. Drawing upon the work of British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the philosopher Iris Marion Young, the essay analyses the artwork's exploration of 'womanhood' as the locus of collective subjectivity and political agency.
While some argue that LD50 gallery’s embrace of neoreactionary thought was an exercise in free sp... more While some argue that LD50 gallery’s embrace of neoreactionary thought was an exercise in free speech, the fact that access to its programme of events and talks was restricted suggests otherwise. Meanwhile, white supremacists are actively developing an aesthetic based on post-internet art in order to draw in new recruits, a development that needs to be directly challenged.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2018
Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a soc... more Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a social or political context clinging to the edges”. The article addresses Bradford’s exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day at the American Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and considers the artist’s claim through the critical reception of his work alongside central debates within the history of modernism. It then explores how dispossession and racialization can be figured in relation to modernist myths such as the grid. Finally, in addressing the “social” in Bradford’s practice, the study questions the collaboration Bradford embarked on with Rio Terà dei Pensieri, an organisation supporting the reintegration of prisoners and people under criminal judgment in Venice, arguing that the reformism of that project cuts against Bradford’s use of myth as a mode of resistance.
Third Text, 2019
Abstract Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contem... more Abstract Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary art, culture and emancipatory politics on the left, this roundtable article begins from the question: what concepts and ideas can be drawn into an anti-fascist art theory today? The discussion opens by considering the ambivalence towards speaking about fascism in current debates beyond art and the complex positioning of art between (or rather, across) the status quo and its subversion; proceeds by examining the current technological apparatus as regards the mediation of subjectivity; looks at the articulation of sexuality and whiteness; and concludes by proposing that anti-fascism as a complex political position that crosses an art field sustained also by an attention economy must address the field’s structural procedures of exclusion while also maintain its focus on the specificity of fascist politics.
Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2014
This article responds to the critique of Marxist thought in Alana Jelinek's This Is Not Art. ... more This article responds to the critique of Marxist thought in Alana Jelinek's This Is Not Art. Jelinek's aversion to theorising capitalism as a mode of production leads to limitations in how we push forward the compelling arguments advanced in her book about the supposedly a priori politicised nature of what the author describes as ‘lifelike art’. In particular, I propose that the concepts of hegemony, ideology and fetish are missing in her account in favour of an emphasis on power. These concepts, alongside dialectical thinking, can help us grasp what is specific about the present moment in which we see an increasing tendency within ‘lifelike art’ to embrace not only the state but also the market and capital more generally. Against Jelinek's vitalist emphasis on disciplinarity, however, I suggest that the analysis of artworks in our current moment necessitates a certain level of negative thinking. Not a negativity centred on the kind of dualistic antagonism derided in This Is Not Art, but rather one centre...
Historical Materialism, 2014
Steve Edwards’s book, Martha Rosler: The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, is a close... more Steve Edwards’s book, Martha Rosler: The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, is a close study of Rosler’s 1976 artwork. The book takes up the social and political coordinates of the work’s production, focusing on the San Diego Group of which Rosler was a member, New York City during the fiscal crisis, and the broader contribution Rosler makes to what Edwards calls ‘second-wave political modernism’. This review considers Edwards’s analyses of the work, and locates its importance within the discussion around Rosler, as well as the broader history of radical American art.
Third Text, 2019
Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary ar... more Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary art, culture and emancipatory politics on the left, this roundtable article begins from the question: what concepts and ideas can be drawn into an anti-fascist art theory today? The discussion opens by considering the ambivalence towards speaking about fascism in current debates beyond art and the complex positioning of art between (or rather, across) the status quo and its subversion; proceeds by examining the current technological apparatus as regards the mediation of subjectivity; looks at the articulation of sexuality and whiteness; and concludes by proposing that anti-fascism as a complex political position that crosses an art field sustained also by an attention economy must address the field’s structural procedures of exclusion while also maintain its focus on the specificity of fascist politics.
The article is the first to appear online from the forthcoming special issue of Third Text (May 2019) on anti-fascism/art/theory, edited by Angela Dimitrakaki and Harry Weeks.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2018
Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a soc... more Mark Bradford describes his practice as “social abstraction”, defined as “abstract art with a social or political context clinging to the edges”. The article addresses Bradford’s exhibition, Tomorrow is Another Day, at the American Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and considers the artist’s claim through the critical reception of his work alongside central debates within the history of modernism. It then explores how dispossession and
racialization can be figured in relation to modernist myths such as the grid. Finally, in addressing the “social” in Bradford’s practice, the study questions the collaboration Bradford embarked on with Rio Terà dei Pensieri, an organisation supporting the reintegration of prisoners and people under criminal judgment in Venice, arguing that the reformism of that project cuts against Bradford’s use of myth as a mode of resistance.
This article explores the emphasis on usefulness in contemporary art, focusing on social practice... more This article explores the emphasis on usefulness in contemporary art, focusing on social practice art in the United States and Europe through Cuban artist Tania Bruguera’s establishment of the ‘Asociación de Arte Útil’ in 2011, and the rebranding of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) as a ‘useful museum’. The article addresses the affirmation of usefulness and ‘use values’ within these case studies and beyond in relation to Marxist, post-Marxist, and feminist theories of social reproduction and the state. By attending to issues of citizenship, race, and migration, the article asks how we should approach the aesthetic and political stakes of artworks that strive to be ‘useful’ through performing tasks associated with social reproduction as they have historically taken place in the home or via the welfare state.
This article examines Sharon Hayes’s video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represents an... more This article examines Sharon Hayes’s video work Ricerche: three 2013 and the way it represents and mediates the often-painful psychic processes of group formation, in this case propelled by internal and external social pressures. Drawing upon the work of British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the philosopher Iris Marion Young, the essay analyses the artwork’s exploration of ‘womanhood’ as the locus of collective subjectivity and political agency.
Talk given with E.C. Feiss at the Rematerialising Feminism event held at the ICA, London in Jul 2... more Talk given with E.C. Feiss at the Rematerialising Feminism event held at the ICA, London in Jul 2014. Published in the Rematerialisng feminism book. http://rematerialisingfeminism.org/
Article responding to recent developments in the field of social practice, focused on the US
Feature published in Art Monthly, April 2015, responding to recent attempts by artists to organis... more Feature published in Art Monthly, April 2015, responding to recent attempts by artists to organise for wages and better working conditions.
A response to Alana Jelinek's 'This is not Art', published in the journal of visual arts practice.
Steve Edwards’s book, Martha Rosler: The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, is a close... more Steve Edwards’s book, Martha Rosler: The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, is a close study of Rosler’s 1976 artwork. The book takes up the social and political coordinates
of the work’s production, focusing on the San Diego Group of which Rosler was a member, New York City during the fiscal crisis, and the broader contribution Rosler makes to what Edwards calls ‘second-wave political modernism’. This review considers Edwards’s analyses of the work, and locates its importance within the discussion around Rosler, as well as the broader history of radical American art.
This symposium is an interdisciplinary event that will address performance in an expanded sense a... more This symposium is an interdisciplinary event that will address performance in an expanded sense as a form of labour. Performance will be considered as an activity and a practice that takes place both within and outside the realm of art. The symposium will interrogate the physical and intellectual experiences of viewing and producing performances. These questions will be raised across the fields of art history, philosophy, performance studies, political economy, theatre and dance. Addressed in this expanded way, the aim of the symposium is to investigate the histories of mass performances and social choreographies in political contexts, to situate performance as a form of praxis and to interrogate the language of performance as a managerial strategy within late capitalism.
Counterhistory: Latent and Underground Currents in American Art July 13, 2019 Keynote: Professo... more Counterhistory: Latent and Underground Currents in American Art
July 13, 2019
Keynote: Professor Molly Nesbit (Vassar College)
Speakers: Larne Abse Gogarty (Slade School of Fine Art), Eric C. H. de Bruyn (Freie Universität Berlin), Afonso Dias Ramos (Forum Transregionale Studien, FU Berlin), Leigh Raiford (University California, Berkeley), Stephanie Schwartz (University College London), Blake Stimson (University of Illinois at Chicago), Andrew Witt (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Abstract: This conference spotlights the ways in which artists, critics, and historians have mobilised critical methods and methodologies against the rising tide of authoritarianism and illiberal populism. Featuring a wide range of projects — from the militant image to secret and clandestine works and networks — the one-day conference, Counterhistory: Latent and Underground Currents in American Art, aims to articulate new forms in the writing and research in art history. The goal of the event is to rethink the notion of the underground as an evocative terrain for thought and struggle, in particular, the peculiar ways through which images and objects are historically obscured and silenced but emerge, unexpectedly, out of states of latency. The conference seeks to make sense of these forms of delay, resurrection and survival.
The proposition to think counterhistorically presupposes a renewed engagement with method. The principle question this conference seeks to address is the following: how to reactivate repressed aesthetic projects and social forms as an act of political reorientation? As a way to rethink the standard narratives on modern American art, we encourage papers that closely consider the forking paths and broken links in the life world of objects and images. The project is premised on developing new strategies to respond to the countermovements demanded by the object of study as a means to identify and explore the elisions of official history.
Organized by Andrew Witt (Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow, Terra Foundation for American Art, HU Berlin) and Afonso Dias Ramos (Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices Fellow, Forum Transregionale Studien, FU Berlin).
Please direct any questions to: andrew.witt(at)hu-berlin.de or a.ramos.11(at)ucl.ac.uk
The event is wheelchair accessible.
Please register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/counterhistory-latent-and-underground-currents-in-american-art-tickets-62999006725
IKB - Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt Universität Berlin / Terra Foundation for American Art
