Metaphysics of Shit

Jean Fisher, “Towards a Metaphysics of Shit,” in Documenta 11 Platform 5 The Catalog, Ostfildern-Ruit: Hajte Cantz, 2002, pp. 63-70.


Jean Fisher is a freelance writer on post-colonialism and contemporary art. She is an art theorist and professor of Fine Art and Transcultural studies at Middlesex University.

With the highly nihilistic title ‘Towards a Metaphysics of Shit’, Fisher questions the potential for art to effect in society in relationship to ethics and justice. Fisher considers weather art can function more than mere commodity dependent from capitalist market. Fisher (65) questions, ‘can art function as an effective mediator of change or resistance to hegemonic power, or is it doomed to be a decorative and irrelevant footnote to the more powerful than its capacity to confront?’ In addition, Fisher questions whether art or artist could operate as trickster to offer hope for protest art.

Fisher credits the tricksters in varied cultures around the world for their ability to present a lie that leads to the ultimate truth. Fisher (68) noted that trickster could articulate them through humour and joke. Trickster’s roles are often played out as a form of resistance. Therefore, Fisher is suggesting that art may contribute to the revolution of ethics through taking the position of the trickster.

I found Fisher’s view very interesting and convincing. Natalie Robertson, New Zealand artist and educator also proposed that artist and trickster shares common ideas from her article, ‘The 10 Predicaments of Maui: Notes on Tricksters’. Fisher and Robertson is dealing with similar idea that tricksters demonstrate the kind of attitude that contemporary artists can learn from. Robertson (20) argues trickster Maui from the Maori legends, could be seen as ‘example of the artist who challenges the norms of his culture; demonstrating inquisitiveness, curiosity and enquiry through his actions, he tests the boundaries of his world, all qualities associated with innovative creative practice’.


Robertson, Natalie. "The 10 Predicaments of Maui: Notes on Tricksters." Ed. Brian Butler. Volume 1. Auckland: Artspace & Clouds, 2008. 16-28.

age = value?

Thomas Hirschhorn interview with Hans Ulrich Orbist. Thomas Boutoux ed., Hans Ulrich Orbist: Interviews volume 1, Milan: Charta, 2003, pp.393-400


Hirschhorn is a Swiss artist, born in 1957. He studied graphic design but prefers to work as a visual artist. He was working in France at the time of this interview with Swiss curator and art critic, Hans Ulrich Obrist in 2001.

In the beginning of this interview, Obrist brings up the interesting conversation in relation to Hirschhorn’s 2001 project Archaeology of Engagement. This project is dealing with prehistoric excavation sites regarding issues of the objects’ value over time. Hirschhorn discusses how his project reinterprets the way we see the value of objects and the way we regard art.

‘A soccer fan in the south of France was charged a fine because he had sprayed the graffiti “Allez I’O.M.” onto a prehistoric excavation site’ (393). Hirschhorn (393) explained since the sprayed rock contained carved prehistoric signs, the fan was charged for damaging cultural patrimony. In addition, he argues that the judge failed to see the possibility of this graffiti could be, in 20,000 years worth as much, or more than the carved prehistoric signs.

This example given by Hirschhorn made me question the value of current objects I own versus objects I once had when I was a little child. In addition, without any thinking at all, obviously, I could say the value of the objects in the past is more valuable to me. But why are we so obsessed with the objects or relics of the past? I guess with my personal case, it is because of the objects like books I read, toys I played with have my memories within them and through those objects I could revisit my precious memories. I think this could be the one of most important reasons why I value them so much more than any of my objects in the present. Furthermore, I think similar reasons can be viewed with the value of graffiti in present versus prehistoric signs. However, maybe, in a much broader sense, our own desire to preserve our culture, our existence, our identity within our history and relics from the past could be the way which allows us to access them. To provide more information about my personal collection, I love collecting objects like stamps and coins. For example, I consciously collected a handful of five cents New Zealand coins when I heard the news about them just about to discontinue. I guess I collected them because I knew they will be highly valuable after hundreds or thousands of years. However, maybe this act could be seen as my unconscious desire to preserve our rational culture within history?

Hirschhorn (394) suggested the graffiti artist hasn’t destroyed anything but built another layer. He questions why are the wall drawings that were made thousands of years ago considered art and the recently sprayed slogan considered vandalism. Can age create the value of certain objects or sites? It is true that antiques from older periods of time have higher value than others. This could be because as objects age, so does their cultural value. Back to the graffiti issues, can graffiti art be recognized as documentation of the present as Hirschhorn argues that the judge failed to see in the example of the soccer fan story “Allez I’O.M.” in the south of France. But I believe spraying over the historical site is not a good act as I too believe the present is equally important to the past. Graffiti may be highly valuable in the future, however I believe if we cannot respect our prehistoric objects or sites, we cannot expect our future to value what we have right now. To conclude, I believe there is not a bigger difference between cave drawings from ancient times and graffiti art on the streets in a broad sense. There are lots of discussions about the recognition of graffiti as an art form. It is true that graffiti art can be seen as a lack of form or other base aesthetic elements and a bit of a problem of presentation with the space. However like in the origins of graffiti which goes back to the beginning of human societal living, graffiti has been found on uncovered, ancient, Egyptian monuments, and graffiti was even preserved on walls in Pompeii. [1]


[1] Stowers, George C. “Graffiti Art: An Essay Concerning The Recognition of Some Forms of Graffiti As Art.” Art Crimes The Writing on the Wall. September 2009. 22 September 09
http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html

Horrific Blindness

David Campbell, "Horrific Blindness: Images of Death in Contemporary Media", Journal for Cultural Research, Vol.8, No.1, Routledge, 2004.


David Campbell is a Professor of Cultural and Political Geography at Durham University. His academic research deals with visual culture and international politics in use of photographs, multimedia, in the representation of atrocity, famine and war.

In this essay Horrific Blindness, Campbell explores how death is imaged in contemporary media. He questions the power of media and photography of images of death and atrocity.

I personally found this article very powerful and interesting in relation to representation and morality in our world. It is true that we are constantly dealing with death through media and we become so familiar with images of war, violence and famine from overuse in the media. As result, even though photography still has its political power to move people into certain actions, it could be seen as it lost its power to mobilize us politically against the atrocities happening daily around the world. Like in Campbell’s view, what we see through photographs or media is mediated and what we see is a sanitized version. Therefore, photography has been acknowledged as a weak medium to make the public offended by crimes. In addition, because it has been shaped in this system for so long, now this system is unable to change the political structure of society.

In the conclusion of the essay Horrific Blindness, Campbell (70) noted the significance of context in relation to images. While he explained interplay of three contextual dimensions, he argues pictures alone will not change the situation in Sudan which explains the significance of the social context for the creation of pictorial meaning (71). His interplay of three contextual dimensions includes, ‘the economy of indifference to others, the economy of "taste and decency" whereby the media itself regulates the representation of death and atrocity, and the economy of display, wherein the meaning of images is produced by the intertextual relationship of captions, titles, surrounding arguments and sites for presentation’ (70).

I believe a haunting photograph of the Sudan famine by South African free-lance photographer Kevin Carter (1961-1994) fits well with the idea Campbell is exploring. Carter took his own life months after winning a Pulitzer Prize because of the heavy criticism he came under for just photographing the little girl who had to stop, and was struggling to get to a feeding center, being watched by a vulture.

"The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene."[1]

I believe this photograph is documenting the history of Sudan as well as lots of other contextual issues like economy, and also questioning the issue of morality, because of surrounding arguments relevant to the Sudan famine and issues of the artist’s morality creating the whole pictorial meaning.


[1] Macleod, Scott. "The life and death of Kevin Carter: Visiting Sudan, a little-known photographer took a picture that made the world weep. What happened afterward is a tragedy of another sort.” September 09 2009.
http://www.thisisyesterday.com/ints/KCarter.html

Artists as Tricksters

Natalie Robertson, "The 10 Predicaments of Maui: Notes on Tricksters", Brian Butler ed., Volume 1, Auckland: Artspace & Clouds, 2008, pp.16-28.


Natalie Robertson is a New Zealand photo media artist and educator. Over the past decade, Natalie has been making photographic and moving image art that involves mapping practices. Programme co-ordinator for Maori Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology, she is drawing connection between ‘Maui', the trickster from Maori legends with other tricksters in the world. In addition, by exploring with these mythological tricksters, she proposes that thr artist and trickster share common ideas.

The comparison between the trickster Maui and other tricksters worldwide demonstrates how this knowledge may help to understand the practice of Francis Alys. In addition, Robertson is giving the example of Francis Alys as being a trickster in a contemporary world. To make a comparison between artist and trickster, Roberson (20) noted, ‘tricksters demonstrated the kind of attitude that I think contemporary artists can learn from. Maui, of a Thousands tricks from Maui the Maori legends and its shape shifting abilities could be seen as example of the artist who challenges the norms of his culture; demonstrating inquisitiveness, curiosity and enquiry through his actions, he tests the boundaries of his world, all qualities associated with innovative creative practice'.

His quote is evidencing his view on what a creative practice could be about. Furthermore by making a comparison to Francis Alys practice which has a specific narrative yet plays around with the ideas of irrational and silliness. Alys is an artist who works across multi-disciplinary media, and lives and works in Mexico City. Robertson provides the example of Aly’s work The Ambassador at the Venice Biennale in 2001 where he used a live peacock as his representation. He used the peacock as a way of removing focus from him and at the same time to challenge the norms of the art culture. By doing this, Alys is taking trickster attitudes by challenging a silly and humours act in order to reveal reverse truths relevant to a political context.

There are many contemporary artists such as Alys who have the role of artist as trickster. They challenge our views of the world around us in a contemporary world. One of many contemporary artists as an example, I like to say Dorothy Podber because of her attitude toward creative practice. She was a New York artist in the 1950s and 60s who is best known for brandishing a pistol and putting a bullet through the forehead of Marilyn Monroe’s likenesses on a stack of Andy Warhol’s paintings. In a 2006 interview with the writer Joy Bergmann she said, “I’ve been bad all my life. Playing dirty tricks on people is my specialty.” [1]



[1] Kennedy, Randy. “Dorothy Podber, 75, Artist and Trickster, Is Dead” The New York Times. February 19 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/arts/19podber.html

being a brand name

Celia Lury, “‘Contemplating a Self-portrait as a Pharmacist’: A Trade Mark Style of Doing Art and Science”, Theory, Culture, Society, Vol.22(1), London: Sage, pp.93-110.


Lury, a professor of Sociology of Goldsmiths College discusses how Damien Hirst can ba viewed as a brand name by exploring the concept behind it.

She begins her article Contemplating a Self-portrait as a Pharmacist by mentioning Hirst’s quote, ‘Becoming a brand name is an important part of life. It’s the world we live in’ (93). His quote is clearly evidencing Hirst’s view of the significance of brand name and this makes me question the value of branding myself as an artist. In addition, how important could this ‘becoming a brand name’ be in relation to the value and success of the artist? I believe Hirst is suggesting that it is unavoidable in the world we live in. I cannot fully disagree with him. This is because, especially in the art world, trademark is an important part of an artist's to survival even though producing art is not all about a marketing strategy.

To make a contrast to Hirst’s view, Meg Cranston (7) once said, ‘we were taught not to trademark – that was unethical, to brand yourself.’ I won’t discredit artists who go deep, but go broad. I prefer to go from flower to flower. Having a particular style seemed hokey in a way...’ I believe her point of view is evidencing her pure passion toward art making outside of marketing field. However I believe having no particular style can also be seen as a typical style.

Damien Hirst is a successful artist famous for his series of dead preserved animals. He draws attention to the ways in which the transformation of the producer’s function or role in a brand name and in his practice. His practice may be seen as science, but he views himself as a scientist and also as a pharmacist drawing attention to an interdisciplinary field between art and science. I believe Hirst’s work cannot be read separately from his image. Furthermore, I wonder without his marketing process and his trademark, weather he would still be wealthy and famous as now.


Cranston, Meg, and Israel, Nico. "Running On Light Feet", Hot Pants In A Cold Cold World: Works 1987-2007, Auckland: Artspace and Clouds, 2008. 6-21.

What am I made of?

Tze Ming Mok, “Race You There”, Landfall 2008, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2004, pp.18-26.


Tze Ming Mok is an Auckland born, New Zealand Chinese writer who has huge a interest in politics, sociology, literature and humanity. Her work often discusses the cultural collection of the contemporary New Zealand populace. In her writing Race You There, she explores what it means to be Asian in New Zealand and her personal experiences are shared as an example.

As an immigrant from East Asia, I found this article very friendly and familiar. In addition, the concerns about race and culture were interesting in relation to me having a creative practice here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I was born in South Korea and educated and lived in New Zealand for more than half of my life. However, by walking around Auckland city, I still get that same boring question over and over again asking me where I am originally from. May be this is one of the reasons why I still find it a little bit difficult to blend in here? I agree with Mok’s view, the Asian label has become a strong collective identifier (22). Being Asian in appearance, I think, has a strong image of appealing as alienated and ‘Asian’ disregarding our life and who we really are.

Mok expresses Asian as invisible by bringing up journalist Phil Vine’s view point, migrants and their children are magical people (22). The word invisible and magical expresses what it meant to be Asian in New Zealand very well, especially at the time of her article was written. Then again, the issues of race and culture have been loosened and the population in New Zealand is now a collection of diverse immigrants creating a multicultural society. Within this system, it deals with the concept of originality, collecting and re-contextualisation. Comparing myself with artefacts in Clifford’s article On Collecting Art and Culture, I could consider myself as globalization in terms of object. I was removed from my original package and collected and collaged into a new field of culture. For me, 'belong' or 'don’t belong' is really not a big issue anymore. Instead of my desire to categorize myself into a complex situation, I see myself as cross-boundaries between two cultures like in broken boundaries of painting and sculpture in a contemporary field. I believe my identity and originality are inseparable and so as with my cultural environment in my life now which creates who I am.



Clifford, James. "On Collecting Art and Culture." The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth- Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambrigde, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988. 215-251.

Mok, Tze Ming. "Race You There." Landfall 208, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2004. 18-26.

Space as Material Entity

James Meyer, “The Functional Site; or, The Transformation of Site-Specificity,” in Space, Site, Intervention: Situating Installation Art, ed. Erika Suderberg, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000, 23-37.


James Meyer is an art historian and associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta specialised in Minimalism as well as other forms of American art. In this article, he explores site-specific art of the 1960s and 70s and how it has been resuscitated and explored in more recent practice. Site-specificity as Meyer distinguishes, concerns two notions of site: a literal and a functional site. A literal site refers to a physical location like monument. He mentions Richard Serra’s thought to this approach about site-oriented works, inseparable from their location (24). In contrast, the functional site may or may not incorporate a physical site. It is a temporary thing, a process occurring between sites.

Site-specific art, whether the work concerns a literal or functional site, it needs an actual location for various reasons and this makes me question the value of site within a contemporary art context. While my last three years studying at a contemporary art institution, I had a huge interest in sculpture and art installation. In addition, while producing artworks, I keep questioning what art is in a contemporary context, but I tend to care less about the site that contains the art. Maybe this is caused by my studio environment that art school provided for me. There are plain white walls waiting for me to engage with and this directly makes me think that I need to produce some work in it. In addition, plain white walls are obviously allowing the audience to interact with artworks without any interruption and this could be the reason why I look at white walls as neutral and forget their own value by themselves.

Meyer (25) noted that ‘site-specific work exposes space as material entity, a no longer neutral place, a backdrop for the merchandising of portable art objects’. Site-specifici art merged together with Land art, started off with idea of de-contextualisation of the gallery and museum space. Artworks challenged the notion to be made and viewed outside the gallery space breaking boundaries of the art world. For example, Spiral Jetty 1970 is one of most well known site-specific earthworks by American artist Robert Smithson located in the Great Salt Lake. This work is clearly showing one of his goals which was to place work in the land rather than on the land.[1] According to his view, land becomes part of the work and cannot be read inseparable. In addition, the value of space in site-specific art can be seen as the most important part of the artwork acting as material entity. Furthermore, if the functional aspect of the site or landscape is valued as material entity here, can site within an art institutional frame be any different? The relationship between art and site in a gallery setting could be expressed as artwork being with an empty white room rather than in it. The only difference could be the plain neutral site within the institutional frame functions as material to support artworks, like the people behind the stage have a hidden role for the show.


[1] Goldberg, Elyse. “About Robert Smithson." Robert Smithson. James Cohan Gallery. 13 May 2009 http://www.robertsmithson.som/introduction.html.

Art, Artist and Spectator

Bruce Barber, “Found Situations 1970-1972”, ZX #4: Situations, ed. Paul Cullen & Grant Thompson, Auckland: Manukau School of Visual Arts, 2008, pp. 10-14.


Bruce Barber is an artist, curator, writer, and educator. In his article Found Situations 1970-72, he discusses his background, interests, and influences in his art practice. Barber’s practice, particularly his early performance pieces were influenced by conceptual art, International Situationists, arte povera, Fluxus, and the Marcel Duchamp readymade.

Barber (10) noted that during his early career as an artist, he was challenged by Duchamp’s ‘rendezvous with the ready-made’ and his proposal, ‘artist only does part of the work which the spectator completes’. Readymade is produced by transforming a manufactured object in a process of cancelling its own function and giving new thought to the object. This process is giving the artist the power to call their choice of object or art. Duchamp's theory, "its art if you say it is" is evidence to the principle of what is art is defined by the artist. If making a choice is the artist’s role as an example, what is the spectator’s role towards the completion of the work? In addition, what is the artist’s responsibility to her or his spectator? For Duchamp, the artist is a 'mediumistic being' who does not really know what he is doing or why he is doing it. In addition, the spectator is the one who, through a kind of 'inner osmosis', deciphers and interprets the work’s inner qualifications, relates them to the external world (qtd. in Tomkins 3). For him, the role of the spectator is equally important to the role of the artist’s.

Duchamp’s theory "it's art if you say it is", has for years been influencing lots of artists untill the present bringing up many positive and negative issues. One of the issues can be seen in Emily Vey Duke’s article Suffering, Empathy, Art and the Greater Good written in 2005. Duke (9) argues that the influence of Duchamp’s theory creates problems in the contemporary art world because art is suffering such a crisis of irrelevance to the public at large. I cannot totally agree with this, but her point of view is convincing. It is true that work produced by contemporary artist is not appealing to many non-art-initiated viewers. This could be caused by the expanded field of modernism continuously developing from what is already available in the art world at present. The world of art gets more and more complex and harder to understand, it limits the spectators into those who have relevant knowledge to be able to actually engage with the work. Artists are producing work using their own personal skills and knowledge in a contemporary art field and spectators also needs their own personal knowledge and experience in order to engage and make interpretations of the work through their perception. I think this issue cannot be fixed within artist’s abilities, but are artists at least trying to take responsibility? Or is this problem even an issue to contemporary artists today? “Fuck-you-if you-don’t get-it” attitude is really not helping, neither is the equally popular “it-doesn’t-matter-if-it-means-anything-to-you-this-is-about-me (Duke 9)."



Duke, Emily V. “Suffering, Empathy, Art and the Greater Good.” C Magazine Issue 85 Spring 2005: 8-10.

Tomkins, Calvin. The Bride & the bachelors. New York: Viking press, 1965.

Sculpture in the Expanded Field

Rosalind Krauss, "Sculpture in the Expanded Field", October, Vol.8 (Spring, 1979), pp.30-44.


Rosalind Krauss is an American art critic, professor, and theorist. She attempts to understand the phenomenon of modernist art, in its historical, theoretical, and formal contexts. In her 1979 essay Sculpture in the Expanded Field, Krauss summarizes the development of American sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the main ideas from this article is showing the issues dealing with the category of sculpture, as it became almost infinitely malleable in the contemporary context (Krauss 30).

Krauss adopted the term ‘expanded field’ from Robert Morris as an extended physical and mental terrain for understanding ‘sculpture’ (Rendell 41). In the term ‘expanded field’, sculpture like in all other categories of art, lost its own logic. Sculpture was inseparable from the logic of the monument functioning as commemorative representation until the late nineteenth century. However in the expanded field as Krauss expresses, the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, sculpture and landscape, and landscape and architecture became unclear. The territory of sculpture has been, and still is continuously extending while artists are experimenting with its limits, seeking to understand what sculpture is. The field of sculpture with mode of practice are constantly evolving, therefore issues with territory are no longer seen as a big topic. For example, contemporary art institutions like Elam School of Fine art offer an interdisciplinary studio environment to allow students to experiment with a broad range of art and gain insight into developing infinite possibilities.

Furthermore, I agree with Krauss’s viewpoint of how the category of sculpture has been extended to include just about anything (30). This could be impacted by Duchampian paradigm, “Its art if you say it is.” A work by conceptual artist Martin Creed, Work No 79, some Blue-tack kneaded, rolled into a ball and depressed against a wall 1933, can be seen as extended physical and mental form in the contemporary sculpture. This installation piece is also dealing with the issue of art being dysfunctional outside of art an institutional frame. A piece of Blue-tack depressed against a wall can be easily found in our everyday life evidencing the idea of sculpture as being infinitely malleable. In addition, like in Duchampian paradigm, anything can be art if the artist says so? Today we are not so sure how to define sculpture. I think Krauss’s point of view is convincing especially in the context of the period it was written and some of the ideas and issues she discussed are clearly still valid in the world of contemporary art today.


Rendell, Jane. “The Expanded Field.” Art and Architecture: A Place Between. New York: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2006.

What is relationship between image and language?

W.J.T. Mitchell, excerpt from chapter “What Is An Image?”, Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986, pp. 40-46.


Mitchell, a professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago, explores the idea of imagery by questioning what an image is and what is the difference between image and word. The main idea from this article is showing the tension and struggle between image and word caused by varying arguments including the idea that image and word are fundamentally different in nature.

As a student studying contemporary art, I see image as visual language and word as symbol disregarding the context of being classified and categorised. I agree with Mitchell’s view, image and word immersed in each other, and his argument about the pictorial expression is capable to form an act of ventriloquism (41). In Renaissance art and religious iconography as examples, each artwork acts as visual language by creating a specific mood or feelings that allow viewers to form a narrative. Formal aspects like facial expression, gesture, composition, colour, and subject matter are functioning as hidden clues from the artist. In addition, in prehistoric times, people could not read or write. They used symbols and images as a form of writing system functioning as transmitting information.

Image may function as visual language, however like in Mitchell’s purpose of questioning how much the label would be worth without the picture and how much the picture would be worth without the label, both image and word are only capable of constituting part of thoughts. Each person sees an image differently and read and understands the word differently because of our prior knowledge and our independent experience.

Additionally, through studying contemporary art, I learned that communicating through artwork today could be considered limited to those who have a lack of knowledge about contemporary art theory. In American criticism Tom Wolfe’s book The Painted Word, he questions how Modern art could be literary. This is because art theory of Modern art is complex. Modern movements from approximately twentieth century began with the rejection of the literary nature of arts like nineteenth century and Renaissance paintings which painted scenes straight from literature to form a visual language.[1] In conclusion, I like to argue the relationship between image and word that can be seen as parallel to the relationship of the Egyptian Plover bird with a crocodile.

[1] Wolfe, Tom. “Tom Wolfe." The Painted Word. Picador. 19 March 2009 http://www.tomwolfe.com/PaintedWordExcerpt.html.