The topic of this thesis is Richard Mosse’s colour infrared photography. He documents the ongoing conflict in the DR Congo, but in a way that confuses the spectator: his pictures are beautiful and...Show moreThe topic of this thesis is Richard Mosse’s colour infrared photography. He documents the ongoing conflict in the DR Congo, but in a way that confuses the spectator: his pictures are beautiful and pink. The main question is what the images in the projects Infra and The Enclave can address and what they can mean, and in more concrete terms how they relate to notions of truth and reality as used in photography at large and documentary, journalistic and art photography in specific, and what role the infrared film emulsion has in this relation. The first chapter explains that Mosse’s images turn pink because of using colour infrared, a film once designed for the US Air Forces to make the invisible enemy visible. Mosse uses it as a metaphor for making the invisible visible; the conflict in Congo is neglected, hard to grasp and invisible. Colour infrared also has a history of anti-military sentiments, because it was later appropriated by hippie musicians for album artwork. Mosse counters the seriousness and literalness of regular journalistic and documentary photography by using cross processed infrared film, which connotes kitsch and experiment. Mosse’s photography is a turn away from photojournalism as decisive moment and a dissociation from superficial videojournalism, technically by returning to an analogue, slow medium and conceptually by focusing on the aftermath rather than the event. The second chapter shows how Mosse’s images relate to the realism and truth claims of documentary and journalism, on the basis of indexicality and iconicity. Mosse counters the conventions of realism and supposed indexicality by taking the documentary subject out of its context of ‘truth’, both literally by taking it from the press into the museum, and figuratively by employing a totally different, and overt style. His open, ambiguous images are overtly staged, larded with a seemingly constructed beautiful pinkness, and show a distanced, still world, with neutral looking, hard to typify subjects. Mosse forwards how subtly deceitful the ‘truth claim’ of photography is, and contrasts it by openly showing beautiful pink lies. No image, whether indexical and seemingly objective or not, cannot convey anything ‘truthful’ about the abstract nature of war and the complexity of human experience. He draws attention to the iconic elements openly, which may render his images more ‘truthful’. The pinkness of the photos looks iconic, but is inherently indexical. It appears that it is hard to define ‘truth’ on the basis of indexicality, because it is apparently hard to make a clear distinction between indexical and iconic elements. Chapter 3 discusses truth from a meta-perspective. As an answer to the crisis of representation in war photography Mosse opts for more conceptual modes of representation. He deconstructs the possibility to objectively and immediately represent reality by drawing attention to the constructedness of the photographic surface: he makes us aware of the fallacy of photographic representation. The ambiguous and indeterminate meaning of the photographs leaves room for the viewer’s imagination and complicates the possibility to understand. This way, he does justice to the idea of truth, while actually deconstructing it. Mosse’s images carry a risk of losing touch with reality. Their deconstruction and estrangement may destroy any link to the real world ‘out there’ in Congo. The reversal between surface and horrible subject may be amplified by the extreme beauty of the surface, but it may also cause the viewer trouble to see or imagine past it. The viewer’s sense of surprise and puzzledness when seeing Infra and The Enclave derives exactly from the function of a photograph as an ‘image of reality’. Mosse’s images amaze because they give such a new, beautiful, different image of war.Show less
The observation of evolutionary processes in cultural expression and art can be traced back to antiquity and has played an important role in historiography and the human sciences in general for...Show moreThe observation of evolutionary processes in cultural expression and art can be traced back to antiquity and has played an important role in historiography and the human sciences in general for centuries. However, over time the notion of directed cultural development towards a point of hypothetical perfection, as well as the corresponding belief in cultural developmental stages, came to be considered out-dated and suspect.The 20th-century abandonment of evolutionist art history is mainly due to the insight that one cannot establish what constitutes ‘improvement’ or ‘increasing complexity’ in the visual arts. Up until the Modern period a sense of directed progress was seen in the perceived improvement in mimetic quality of the artworks. The famous 20th-century art historian Ernst Gombrich in particular strongly believed in an ascending line towards ever-increasing realism. The present thesis concerns the uses of the metaphor of Darwinian evolution for the study of art history. How did evolutionism, before and after Darwin, develop in art historical writing? And how can a renewed analysis of the resemblances between biological evolution and art history resolve earlier problems with evolutionism and result in a reappraisal of the metaphor? The structure of the thesis is twofold. Firstly, we will look at the role of evolutionism in art history, both with respect to a pre-Darwinian, general sense of evolution and to a Darwinian, specifically biological sense. This historical overview will describe the general tendency to read art history as a process of gradual development towards ‘improvement’ and the role biological evolution has played in this perspective. Secondly, this thesis proposes a new role for the metaphor of biological evolution within the field of art history.Show less
The shy and mysterious YouTube-star Magibon provides unsettling perspectives on the social- and visual impact of reality television. Being subjected to the gaze of the unknown viewer, Magibon’s...Show moreThe shy and mysterious YouTube-star Magibon provides unsettling perspectives on the social- and visual impact of reality television. Being subjected to the gaze of the unknown viewer, Magibon’s case serves to investigate concepts of representation and consequently visual appropriation linked to the contemporary phenomena of online voyeurism.Show less
Mede door mijn stage bij DutchCulture (TransArtists heb ik mij afgevraagd welke visies er op de leerervaring en ontwikkeling van jonge kunstenaars bestaan in de wereld van de artist in residences...Show moreMede door mijn stage bij DutchCulture (TransArtists heb ik mij afgevraagd welke visies er op de leerervaring en ontwikkeling van jonge kunstenaars bestaan in de wereld van de artist in residences en hoe (Nederlandse) artist in residence programma’s zich verhouden tot de ontwikkeling van jong kunstenaarschap in vergelijking met Nederlands kunstonderwijs. Met deze bachelor scriptie wil ik de aard van de mogelijke bijdrage van Nederlandse artist in residence programma’s aan de ontwikkeling van jong kunstenaarschap onderzoeken en hun doelstellingen hiervoor vergelijken met verschillende visies op de beroepsvoorbereiding in het kunstonderwijs in Nederland.)Show less
Om te voorkomen dat de inherent subjectieve ervaring van Minimal Art slechts omschreven wordt met persoonlijke en dus mogelijk arbitraire gevoelsoordelen, is voor dit onderzoek uitgegaan van het...Show moreOm te voorkomen dat de inherent subjectieve ervaring van Minimal Art slechts omschreven wordt met persoonlijke en dus mogelijk arbitraire gevoelsoordelen, is voor dit onderzoek uitgegaan van het soort ervaring dat tot stand komt door enkele concrete aspecten van het toeschouwerschap, zoals beweging, tijd en waarneming. Deze condities, allen extern aan het object, dienden als houvast om tot enkele concrete ijkmeters te komen waarmee de ervaring van Minimal Art te objectiveren valt. Ongeacht de focus op de ruimte, op het lichaam of op een groepering kunstwerken bij elkaar, blijken enkele aspecten ontegenzeggelijk van toepassing in een analyse van de ervaring. De verstreken tijd, de vereiste of gemaakte beweging en enkele formele aspecten blijken ontegenzeggelijk van belang in de ervaring van Minimal Art en zouden zodoende niet mogen ontbreken in een objectivering van de complexe ervaring van deze verder zo eenvoudige vormen.Show less
This thesis intends to follow Walker in her quest of opening up discussions toward a renegotiation of history; its pasts and presents; ambiguities and openendedness. The main question of this...Show moreThis thesis intends to follow Walker in her quest of opening up discussions toward a renegotiation of history; its pasts and presents; ambiguities and openendedness. The main question of this thesis is how Walker's book rendition of After the Deluge connects discussions on racial inequalities and the visualization of narratives with a reworking of the divide between the socio-cultural and natural realm through the use of 'muck'. One of the most important aspects of Walker’s work is an interrogation - through art - of the ways in which we tell and visualize our histories; stories which are entanglements of fact and fiction, of desire and shame. In After the Deluge specifically, this is combined with a renegotiation of how we look at the divide between the socio-cultural and the natural realm. In witnessing a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, it becomes apparent that there is no such divide. The messiness of life as both social, cultural and natural, is explored in Kara Walker’s work in ways that also rematerialize notions such as race, sexuality and history.Show less
Lucio Fontana schreef een brief in 1965 aan een jongere collega waarin hij in het kort uiteenzette hoe hij tegen de kunst van dat moment aankeek. Hij schreef onder meer dat de kunst zijn sociale...Show moreLucio Fontana schreef een brief in 1965 aan een jongere collega waarin hij in het kort uiteenzette hoe hij tegen de kunst van dat moment aankeek. Hij schreef onder meer dat de kunst zijn sociale functie verloren had en hij voorspelde einde van de kunst. Is er een relatie tussen die uitspraken en het werk dat Fontana in die tijd maakte?Show less
