Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


10388.pdf (1.85 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Foregrounding a Contemporary Mode of Realism: The Work of Santiago Sierra

Archambault, Pauline
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397477607

Abstract Details

2014, MA, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Art History.
The thesis seeks to locate Spanish artist Santiago Sierra (b. 1960) in the realist tradition and examine how his work renews and furthers the realist model in art and philosophy. It concentrates on issues of performance and representation, and their relation to the economic, social, and political reality of global capitalism. The study identifies and discusses the stakes of this contemporary mode of realism, the premise of which is not to simply mirror, but to actually enact instances of capitalist exploitation, thereby confusing the realms of aesthetic fabrication and real occurrence. While Sierra offers a mode of responding to the contemporary world by doubling it, the contention of the thesis is that this doubling is radically destabilizing. In exploring the fundamental instability of subject positions in Sierra’s work, the study demonstrates that the artist disrupts the often comfortable habits of art viewers, leading them to reassess the ways in which they relate to their social environment, and consequently unsettling art-viewing and art-making practices. The thesis posits that Sierra’s work of destabilization simultaneously performs and hypothesizes the logic of capitalism. By denaturalizing prevalent notions of capitalism, Sierra deconstructs these conceptions as self-evident reality and exposes their contingent character.
Morgan Thomas, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Christine Mok, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kimberly Paice, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
81 p.
Art History
Santiago Sierra; Capitalism; Realism; Performance

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Archambault, P. (2014). Foregrounding a Contemporary Mode of Realism: The Work of Santiago Sierra [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397477607

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Archambault, Pauline. Foregrounding a Contemporary Mode of Realism: The Work of Santiago Sierra. 2014. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397477607.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Archambault, Pauline. "Foregrounding a Contemporary Mode of Realism: The Work of Santiago Sierra." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397477607

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1397477607
1,537
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.