Adrian Piper's aesthetic agency: Photography as catalysis for resisting neo-liberal competitive paradigms | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 10, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2040-3682
  • E-ISSN: 2040-3690

Abstract

Abstract

Contemporary neo-liberal society is ruled by the market. Davies, Chen and Lentin and Titley show that its objectification and categorization founds a competitive notion of agency that disables subjective construction of self and intersubjective understanding of the world. As the market's rules and norms are set by white patriarchy, its competitive paradigm structurally disadvantages others. Art too is objectified and categorized by neo-liberal institutions, equally embedded in white patriarchal market structures and severely limiting democratic public access to a diverse artistic field, argue hooks, Mercer and Piper. Yet, Piper's artwork shows, art holds emancipatory potential. Defined as transforming experience, its ambiguity provides a structure for constituting agentic subjectivity and intersubjective signification processes, defying objective/objectifying market workings. Photography's specific qualities allow Piper to democratize access to the paradigm she proposes. Her artistic choices may thus found the potential to publicly construct a notion of aesthetic agency as resistance to the neo-liberal market.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/pop_00005_1
2019-04-01
2024-04-27
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Barthes, R.. ([1961] 1977);, 'The photographic message'. (trans. and ed. S. Heath.), Image, Music, Text, Glasgow:: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.;, pp. 15-31.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barthes, R.. (1980), Camera Lucida (trans. R. Howard.), London:: Vintage Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Black, H.. (2016);, 'The 9th Berlin Biennale' (review). , Artforum, 55:1, p. 350.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bowles, J. P.. (2011), Adrian Piper: Gender, Race, Embodiment, Chapel Hill:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Chen, E.. (2013);, 'Neoliberalism and popular women's culture: Rethinking choice, freedom and agency'. , European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16:4, pp. 440-52.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Davies, W.. (2017), The Limits of Neoliberalism. Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition, London:: Sage;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Dewey, J.. (1934), Art as Experience, New York:: Penguin Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Dewey, J.. (1958), Experience and Nature, New York:: Dover;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Freeland, C.. (1997);, 'Art and moral knowlegde'. , Philosophical Topics, 25:1, pp. 11-36.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Godfrey, T.. (1998), Conceptual Art, London and New York:: Phaidon Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. hooks, bell. (1995), Art on my Mind: Visual Politics, New York:: The New Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Iversen, M.. (2011);, 'What is a photograph'. , in G. Batchen. (ed.), Photography Degree Zero: Reflections on Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 57-74.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Krauss, R.. (1990), Le Photographique. Pour une théorie des écarts (trans. M. Bloch, and J. Kempf.), Paris;: Macula:.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Lentin, A., and Titley, G.. (2011), The Crisis of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age, London and New York:: Zed Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Mercer, K.. (1994), Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies, London and New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Piper, A.. (1968);, 'My art education'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 3-9.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Piper, A.. (1970-73);, 'Talking to myself: The ongoing biography of an art object'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 29-54.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Piper, A.. (1971);, 'Food for the spirit'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight, (1996) vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 55-57.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Piper, A.. (1973-74);, 'Preparatory notes for The Mythic Being'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 91-116.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Piper, A.. (1974-76);, 'Notes on The Mythic Being I-III'. , in A. Piper (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 117-40.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Piper, A.. (1981);, 'Performance and the fetishism of the art object '. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. II, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 51-62.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Piper, A.. (1983);, 'Power relations in existing art institutions'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. II, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 63-90.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Piper, A.. (1986-1990);, 'My calling (cards) #1 and #2'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 219-22.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Piper, A.. (1988);, 'Ways of averting one's gaze'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. II, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 127-48.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Piper, A.. (1989);, 'Xenophobia and the indexical present I: Essay'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 245-53.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Piper, A.. (1991);, 'Xenophobia and Kantian rationalism'. , Philosophical Forum XXIV, 1:3, pp. 188-232.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Piper, A.. (1992a);, 'Passing for white, Passing for black'. , in A. Piper. (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 275-308.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Piper, A.. (1992b);, 'Xenophobia and the indexical present II: Lecture'. , in A. Piper (ed.), Out of Order, Out of Sight (1996), vol. I, Cambridge:: MIT Press;, pp. 255-74.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Piper, A.. (2012);, 'News: September 2012'. , adrianpiper.com, 20 September, http://www.adrianpiper.com/news_sep_2012.shtml. Accessed 5 January 2018 .
  30. Piper, A.. (2013);, 'Removed and reconstructed Wikipedia biography', adrianpiper.com. , http://www.adrianpiper.com/removed-and-reconstructed-en.wikipedia-biography.shtml. Accessed 4 June 2018 .
  31. Piper, A.. (n.d.a);, 'The Research Archive', adrianpiper.com. , http://www.adrianpiper.com/research.shtml. Accessed 4 June 2018 .
  32. Piper, A.. (n.d.b);, 'The Berlin Journal of Philosophy', adrianpiper.com. , http://www.adrianpiper.com/berlinjphil/index.shtml. Accessed 4 June 2018 .
  33. Smith, C.. (2011), Enacting Others: Politics of Identity in Eleanor Antin, Nikki S. Lee, Adrian Piper, and Anna Deavere Smith, Durham and London:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Smith, C.. (2016);, 'Charleston, Dolezal & the "possessive investment in whiteness"', newblackmaninexile.net. , 6 July, https://www.newblackmaninexile.net/2015/07/charleston-dolezal-possessive.html. Accessed 10 May 2018 .
  35. Vandenbossche, M.. (2013), Religie na de dood van God: Een conversatie, Brussels:: VUB Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Puymbroeck, Gerlinde Van. (2019);, 'Adrian Piper's aesthetic agency: Photography as catalysis for resisting neo-liberal competitive paradigms'. , Philosophy of Photography, 10:1, pp. 41-58, doi: https://doi.org/101386/pop_00005_1.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/pop_00005_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error