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Eight Variants of Tactical Absurdity in (Post)Conceptual Art:

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This chapter lays out a typology of absurd operations identifiable within works of (post)conceptual art. Dispensing with the intellectual and artistic baggage that clings to existential and literary absurdity, it proceeds instead through a notion of “tactical absurdity”: a mode of operation understood as part of the toolkit of the contemporary visual artist. Proposed as distinct “variants” of absurdity, the works discussed are divided into eight categories, characterized through their use of tactics such as fallacious reasoning, breaching norms of social behavior, and violating generic expectations. Exemplified through the works of artists such as Fischli & Weiss, Pilvi Takala, and William Pope.L, the typological exactitude is knowingly overperformed in a spirit of experimentation that aims to establish provisional coordinates for the longer game.

Keywords: breaching ; comic incongruity ; Fischli & Weiss ; humour ; Jorge Luis Borges ; meaning ; Michel de Certeau ; performance ; Pilvi Takala ; sense ; tactics ; video art ; William Pope.L

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Eight Variants of Tactical Absurdity in (Post)Conceptual Art:
Intellect , 126 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389067_9
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References

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References

  1. Absurde Routinen [Routinized Absurdity] (2018), Exhibition Guide, Berlin: Kindl Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Alÿs, Francis (2010), ‘Francis Alÿs: A to Z’, in M. Godfrey, K. Biesenbach, and K. Greenberg (eds), Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, London: Tate Publishing, pp. 34–43.140
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Camus, Albert (2005), The Myth of Sisyphus (trans. J. O'Brien), London: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Carr, C. (2002), ‘In the discomfort zone’, in M. HC Bessire (ed.), William Pope.L: The Friendliest Black Artist in America, Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, pp. 48–53.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Cocker, Emma (2010), ‘Over and over, again and again’, in I. Loring Wallace and J. Hirsh (eds), Contemporary Art and Classical Myth, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 265–92.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. de Certeau, Michel (1984), The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Fabricius, Jacob (2009), ‘Interview with Kirsten Pieroth’, in N. Dietrich and J. Fabricius (eds), Little Theatre of Gestures, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, pp. 126–27.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Fischli, Peter and Weiss, David (2005), ‘Interview: Beate Söntgen in conversation with Peter Fischli and David Weiss’, in R. Fleck, B. Söntgen, and A. C. Danto (eds), Peter Fischli David Weiss, London and New York: Phaidon, pp. 6–37.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Godfrey, Mark (2010), ‘Politics/Poetics: The work of Francis Alÿs’, in M. Godfrey, K. Biesenbach, and K. Greenberg (eds), Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, London: Tate Publishing, pp. 8–33.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Goldmann, Renate (2006), Peter Fischli David Weiss: Ausflüge, Arbeiten, Austellungen: Ein offener Index, Cologne: Walther König.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Heiser, Jörg (2008), All of a Sudden: Things that Matter in Contemporary Art, Berlin and New York: Sternberg Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Herbert, Martin (2014), The Uncertainty Principle, Berlin: Sternberg Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Higgie, Jennifer (2016), ‘These foolish things: Dada's centenary and the importance of absurdity’, Frieze, no. 177, n.pag.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Kennedy, Randy (2016), ‘Fischli and Weiss: Anarchy at the Guggenheim’, New York Times, 2 February, n.pag.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Land, Peter (2000), ‘Dear Reader: Some notes about my work’, in R. Wiehager, B. Ruf, and K. Nievers (eds), Peter Land, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, pp. 113–19.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. LeWitt, Sol (2002), ‘Sentences on conceptual art’, reprinted in P. Osborne (ed.), Conceptual Art: Themes and Movements, London and New York: Phaidon Press, p. 222.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Metahaven (2013), Can Jokes Bring Down Governments? Memes, Design and Politics, Moscow: Strelka Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Ratcliff, Carter (2016), ‘Fischli/Weiss: Masters of the Glum “Eureka!”’, Art in America, 2 February.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Roth, Moira (2005), ‘Interview with John Baldessari’, X-TRA, 8:2, Winter, n.pag., http://x-traonline.org/article/interview-with-john-baldessari-1973. Accessed 24 November 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Thompson, Nato (2004), ‘Trespassing relevance’, in N. Thompson and G. Sholette (eds), The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life, Cambridge and London: Mass MoCA Publications and MIT, pp. 13–22.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Trainor, James (2002), ‘Poisoned arrow’, Frieze, 66, April, n.pag.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Tucker, Maria (1981), ‘John Baldessari: Pursuing the unpredictable’, in M. Tucker, R. Pincus-Witten, and N. Drew, John Baldessari, New York: New Museum and Dayton: University Art Galleries, pp. 7–50.141
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Watts, Jonathan P. (2016), ‘Born under Saturn: Mortality, madness and misgivings in the work of Bedwyr Williams’, Frieze, no. 177, March, n.pag.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Welzer, Harald (2014), ‘Without words: Roman Signer's (and Buster Keaton's) perception of reality’, in K. Bitterli and A. Fiedler (eds), Roman Signer, Berlin and Cologne: Kunstmuseum St Gallen/KINDL Zentrum für Zeitgenössiche Kunst and Walther König, pp. 132–37.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Williams, Bedwyr (2006), ‘Chydig Bach yn Too Much’, in A. Pleass (ed.), Bedwyr Williams: Chydig Bach yn Too Much, Llandudno: Oriel Mostyn Gallery, pp. 4–35.
     [Google Scholar]

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