James Voorhies
Beyond Objecthood, 2017

For quite some time now I’ve been exploring sharing of responsibility for artistic experience between the artist and the audience and any other parties involved, and my thinking about art has been more in terms of experiences and encounters rather than objects. Thus, Voorhies book appeared relevant already from its title. He explores rise of exhibition as artistic and critical form.

Interestingly, this is yet another occasion where I am inclined to agree on the mechanics, but not as much on the meanings or ideological underpinnings. He writes: ‘It should arrest the spectator’s attention by modelling situations of strangeness and confusion that disrupt expectations without literally instructing how participation transpires’ (Voorhies 2017, 10). And I totally agree – that’s exactly what I am aiming for with my works. However, he uses those words to describe critique and not artwork. Well, critique inherent in an artwork, for sure, but nevertheless the focus is on critique with art serving just as its vehicle. I find this very tiresome. I don’t mind criticality. In philosophical terms everything can be analysed as critical stance – even refusal to assume one. But fetishisation of critique to the extent where art is only interesting in terms of its critical contents – that inescapably are assessed through a particular ideological lens – is a slippery slope to propaganda art that I do not care much for.

So yeah, I put on my bs-filtering glasses and keep reading, curious about the facts and mechanics of artistic experience beyond the objecthood.

Reference

Voorhies, James. 2017. Beyond Objecthood. Cambridge (MA) / London: The MIT Press.