Raoul Eshelman, author of Performatism, or The End of Postmodernism (link opens in new window, so click away!) applies the theories laid out in his text to the work of Ukrainian photographer Alina Kisina .
It’s worth a watch, if you’re at all interested in current trends in aesthetic theory, or if you’ve ever asked yourself the question “what comes after irony?”
Eshelman’s commentary in this video is typical of his writing style, which is wonderfully clear and elegant, especially considering how subtle and complex his argument is. He also has a lovely speaking voice.
Happy Wednesday,
Emma
This is Kenny Millions : his work blew my mind last night. Genre classification is negative insofar as it assumes a single ground by which both artist and audience might began to derive meaning from the work. I was drawn to the performance via word of mouth about “some cool jazz thing”; because arts of improvisation fascinate me, I decided to go out for it.
In this case, genre classification added gravity to an experience that might have been better classified as simply “other”. Classifications and identification of qualities that inhere to any body - person, body of work, body of experience - assume staticity through time.
This problematizes dynamism and fluidity of experience; it concretizes memory, the operations of which are, I believe, not wholly divorced from the work of a memoirist. For greater poetry to exist in memory, genre classifications should be carefully considered before applied to the work of an art maker which holds singular meaning for the art lover.
