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