Jenny Holzer's text-based projects have attracted the attention of critics, historians, and curators from Des Moines to Dresden. An understanding of the complex interplay between language, gender, power, and site within Holzer's work demonstrates how a singular interpretive approach is insufficient for discussing the multitude of meanings her projects produce. Perhaps most significantly, a fresh analysis of Holzer's work and critical reactions to it challenges the story of modernism and postmodernism and the relationship between these two terms.

Texte remanié de: Th. État--Lettres--Paris 7, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 371-396.

abstract: This thesis explores the ways two contemporary artists engage the archive to challenge ideas calcified through visual culture. Steven Yazzie and Lorna Simpson respond to constructions of history through art making strategies and practices. Yazzie's photogravure Tsosido Sweep Dancer (2009) presents a carefully constructed image of a ceremony drawing on symbols of Indianness to provoke a critical dialogue that questions the role of the American Indian stereotype in the United States imaginary. Simpson's Counting (1991) is a multilayered work that juxtaposes text and image to address the capriciousness of memory, power and other issues found at the intersection of race and gender. These photography-based works draw on the histories of ethnographic and criminal photography to deconstruct the same knowledge that photography helped to construct. Throughout the thesis I examine the relationship of the photographic archive to colonial histories by considering whose history is represented through photography. These thoughtful and challenging artworks contribute to a growing body of work that proposes new narratives drawing on embodied knowledge and experience to create a counter-archive. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Art History 2011

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Essa dissertação propõe-se a refletir sobre o enigmático encontro intersubjetivo com a arte por ser este um acontecimento vivo de troca entre espectador e obra, em ato. O ponto de partida deste trabalho é de que, apesar de não haver dúvidas quanto à verdade humana que permeia a experiência da arte, entramos constantemente na banalização de querer prová- la ou direcioná-la a outro domínio que não o da arte ela mesma, o que faz com que a significância dessa questão fique ameaçada. Com o objetivo de discutir isso, que desdobra-se na inesgotabilidade da transmissão pela arte, faz uma articulação com a psicanálise, principalmente no campo das intensidades afetivas que se referem a ordem da pré-linguagem verbal, justamente objetivando pensá-las em sua relação com a arte pelo juízo estético, o conceito de senso comum e seus desdobramentos contemporâneos. Trata também da incompletude da obra como força de movimento que a coloca em perpétuo acabamento, na busca incessante de significação, e da crítica de arte como parte desse movimento, como transmissão da verdade do encontro com a arte sendo em si outro encontro, pela palavra, também em perpétuo acabamento / With the dissertation we aim to reflect upon the enigmatic intersubjective encounter between observer and work of art. This encounter starts an endless journey in which the experience of art keeps changing also remaining the same at its core that allows the continuity of art through the ever-present. But even if we agree that one of the most important truths about art lie on this human experience, we still often try to direct it to other competencies in order to prove it right, which tends to diminish the relevance of such an encounter. With this in mind, well carefully apply some concepts of psychoanalysis, mainly in the field of affective intensities related to pre-verbal language (as the Uncanny), articulating its relation to art as aesthetic experience. The never ending process of completeness puts the relationship between observer and work in perpetual search for an end that never comes. This paradox, far from being something that stops us, is what really puts us on the move, in search for new significations for what we dont know. And writing about art, in this sense, is part of this movement towards the unknown, is what allows us to create from its shadows still keeping its mystery alive

abstract: Shirin Neshat is recognized as the most prominent artist of the Iranian diaspora. Her two photographic series, Women of Allah (1993-97) and The Book of Kings (2012), are both reactions to the socio-political events and the change of female identity in Iran. The search for Iranian identity has a long tradition in Iranian photography. Neshat's figures, with their penetrating gazes, heavy draperies, and body postures, make reference to nineteenth-century Qajar photography. Through various cultural elements in her artworks, Neshat critiques oppression in Iranian society. Neshat employs and inscribes Persian poetry to communicate contradiction within Iranian culture. To read Neshat’s photography, it is crucial to register her use of Persian language and historical poetry. Although the reading and understanding of the Persian texts Neshat inscribes on her photographs plays a fundamental role in the interpretation of her work, Neshat’s artworks are not entirely conceptual. The lack of translation of these included texts in Neshat’s exhibitions indicates a decorative use of Persian calligraphy. The Western eye can aesthetically explore this exotic Eastern decorative calligraphy. The formal qualities of Neshat’s photographs remain, even if the viewer is unable to read or understand the Persian texts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Art History 2015

abstract: This dissertation focuses on the study of Western esotericism in European culture and forms a method of discovering esoteric topics in cultural artifacts. Using the definition as a corpus of knowledge historically divided between esoteric, reserved for the intellectual and power elite, and exoteric, available for everybody, I argue that esotericism represents the knowledge that always accompanied the cultural production of the Mediterranean zone, adding a spiritual meaning to any visual or written work of art. The contemporary novels of the past decade by the Spanish author Javier Sierra are fully based on a historical investigation, in which esotericism appears as a nuclear topic, revealing the great interest of the public in the mysteries of the past. Through the postmodern cultural theories, together with sociological and historical methods, the dissertation explores the cultural processes that lead to the shift of esoteric knowledge in the 20th century from secretive to publically available. The study defines the purpose of recreating the European past and investigates the secrets of European cultural formation. Through an insider-outsider perspective, it analyzes the cultural artifacts, that appear in the novels in the form of reference or as a nuclear part of the plot. It presents the scope of esoteric currents, that are divided between the discipline of religion, science, and philosophy, which form the tetrahedron of knowledge as a theoretic model for this study. The constructed model reveals the interaction of the three disciplines throughout the history and examines the reasons for the religious disenchantment of the 20th century, proven through Digital Humanities’ research as the predominance of science over the Catholic Church, which allowed the esoteric knowledge to reappear. The study explores the affiliation of esotericism with science through the scientific-cultural inquiries between the ancient myths and reality, by showing that man’s consciousness had always been dependent on the scientific perception of the world. It explores the pagan symbolism that is mixed with Christian traditions and reveals the stories, hidden behind the representation of the greatest works of art, by combining and analyzing the wisdom of the past and the contemporary spiritual inquiries in their philosophical meaning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2017

abstract: Effective Altruism (EA), a moral philosophy concerned with accomplishing the greatest possible good in one’s lifetime, sees little utilitarian and/or humanitarian value in the arts. EA suggests that amidst so much global strife, the time, energy, and finances expended to create fleeting art would be put to better, more practical use in the fight against poverty. However, EA has yet to sufficiently account for sustainable art practice — an art form deeply rooted in utilitarianism and humanitarianism — and the possibility of its accompanying aesthetics as a constituent of utilitarian/humanitarian theories. The first chapter of this thesis illustrates an intersection of EA, sustainability, and aesthetics, detailing ways in which sustainable art and EA philosophy overlap, as well as problematizing EA’s dismissal of contemporary art practice. This chapter also points to sustainable art as one possible alternative art route for practicing artists with EA interests. Chapters two and three present case studies of Danish art collective SUPERFLEX and an American non-profit called the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) and how their sustainable goals fit the utilitarian and humanitarian scope through which EA functions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Art History 2017

abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the materiality of a unique text, Random House and The Illustrated Modern Library’s 1946 Don Quixote, illustrated by Catalonian painter Salvador Dalí. It analyzes Dalí’s classical trajectory, how Dalí and the text were received in mid-twentieth century North America, and how they both fit into the print history of illustrated editions of Don Quixote. Each is revealed to be unique in comparison with the history of the genre due to the publishing house’s utilization of Dalí’s high-quality illustrations in a small-sized text. Lavish illustrations traditionally have been reserved for larger, collectible editions. The contemporary material significance of the 1946 edition is revealed by examining organizations, people, and circumstances that were necessary for its production in the United States, and by contextualizing the text’s reception by North American popular culture, high art echelons, and art critics. The overarching history of illustrated editions of Don Quixote is examined, comparing Dalí and his illustrations with important thematic and methodological benchmarks set by illustrators within this 400-year period, especially regarding renderings of reality and fantasy. Analyses of the first three watercolor illustrations of Dalí’s 1946 Don Quixote reveal how the painter forms mythological imagery and composes the quixotic dichotomy of reality and fantasy through the metaphoric gaze of an inanimate figure representing the protagonist. Dalí at times renders the “real” Don Quixote as incapacitated, omitting from his illustrations universalized iconography utilized in previous centuries achieved by rendering Don Quixote’s perspective, gaze, and heroic interpretation of events. In these three illustrations, Dalí forms Don Quixote as a deflated figure based in burla (mockery) and engaño (self-deception) by negating Don Quixote’s gaze within the compositions, without compromising the painter’s trademark surrealist style. The text therefore challenges the genre’s print history while Dalí challenges French and German Romantic illustrators’ universalized iconography that traditionally highlights the nobility of the knight errant. By focalizing fantastic madness as interacting with burlesque reality, Dalí creates a new episteme within the genre of illustrated editions of Don Quixote, establishing his unique niche as an illustrator in this genre. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2017

Comoumsótrabalho - sobre os projetos de escala geográfica de Nelson Felix investiga um conjunto específico de obras do artista, precisamente aquelas cuja construção envolve deslocamentos geográficos extremos, uma experiência dilatada de temporalidade e a premissa do entrelaçamento contínuo entre os trabalhos. Marcada pelo rigor construtivo e por uma série de determinações simbólicas, a produção de Felix recorre a formas orgânicas, a ciclos planetários, à música, à poesia escrita, em um jogo de equivalências e rebatimentos que se manifesta em uma forma constelar, simultaneamente atenta e insubordinada aos paradigmas estéticos contemporâneos. Assim, partindo de reflexões que problematizam a relação ambivalente da obra de Nelson Felix com a tradição da escultura a pesquisa encontra, nos processos de construção dos projetos do artista, os conceitos que irão nortear a discussão em pauta. Essas reflexões se atêm, basicamente, à contiguidade entre os trabalhos, à temporalidade supra-humana a que são submetidos e à monumental invisibilidade da obra. / Comoumsótrabalho (Asasinglejob) - about the geographic scale works of Nelson Felix - investigates a specific set of works by the artist, precisely those whose construction involves extreme geographic dislocation, a dilated temporal experience and the premise of continuous interconnection between all of the artist\'s works. Marked by the constructive rigor and by a series of symbolic determinations, Felix\'s production turns to organic forms, planetary cycles, music and written poetry, in a game of equivalences and reverberation that presents itself in a stellar way, simultaneously aware of and unsubordinated to the contemporary aesthetic paradigms. Thus, starting from reflections that problematize the ambivalent relations between the work of Nelson Felix and the tradition of sculpture, the research finds, in the processes of construction of projects by the artist, the concepts that will guide this discussion. These reflexes basically rely on continuation of works, on the super-human temporality to which they are submitted and on the monumental invisibility of the work.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Essa dissertação propõe-se a refletir sobre o enigmático encontro intersubjetivo com a arte por ser este um acontecimento vivo de troca entre espectador e obra, em ato. O ponto de partida deste trabalho é de que, apesar de não haver dúvidas quanto à verdade humana que permeia a experiência da arte, entramos constantemente na banalização de querer prová- la ou direcioná-la a outro domínio que não o da arte ela mesma, o que faz com que a significância dessa questão fique ameaçada. Com o objetivo de discutir isso, que desdobra-se na inesgotabilidade da transmissão pela arte, faz uma articulação com a psicanálise, principalmente no campo das intensidades afetivas que se referem a ordem da pré-linguagem verbal, justamente objetivando pensá-las em sua relação com a arte pelo juízo estético, o conceito de senso comum e seus desdobramentos contemporâneos. Trata também da incompletude da obra como força de movimento que a coloca em perpétuo acabamento, na busca incessante de significação, e da crítica de arte como parte desse movimento, como transmissão da verdade do encontro com a arte sendo em si outro encontro, pela palavra, também em perpétuo acabamento / With the dissertation we aim to reflect upon the enigmatic intersubjective encounter between observer and work of art. This encounter starts an endless journey in which the experience of art keeps changing also remaining the same at its core that allows the continuity of art through the ever-present. But even if we agree that one of the most important truths about art lie on this human experience, we still often try to direct it to other competencies in order to prove it right, which tends to diminish the relevance of such an encounter. With this in mind, well carefully apply some concepts of psychoanalysis, mainly in the field of affective intensities related to pre-verbal language (as the Uncanny), articulating its relation to art as aesthetic experience. The never ending process of completeness puts the relationship between observer and work in perpetual search for an end that never comes. This paradox, far from being something that stops us, is what really puts us on the move, in search for new significations for what we dont know. And writing about art, in this sense, is part of this movement towards the unknown, is what allows us to create from its shadows still keeping its mystery alive