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For just a few seconds, I have put something sweet in someone’s mouth: On the materiality of Conceptual art
Larrea, Manuela
Larrea, Manuela
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Abstract
This thesis will attempt to question the definition of material in Conceptual (and Post-conceptual) art by analyzing Félix González-Torres’ candy spills from 1990 to 1993. Based on the fundamental differences between the “ready-made”, the use of found objects, and language-based Conceptual art (works like those of Joseph Kosuth), I plan to rethink the importance of material and materiality in these kinds of practices. Conceptual art has been defined by the predominant narrative of art history as a practice in which the material object produced is secondary to the idea that it represents. This has been accepted as its fundamental characteristic: what matters is neither the material nor object, but the idea. Radicalizing practices that come from rethinking Marcel Duchamp’s work, Conceptual art has questioned the relevance of materiality; not only considering its value as an institutional or social critique, but using it to examine the definition of art and of art-making altogether. Although there is much literature about these practices, it is all based on the underlying principle that the meaning of these works of art is not in the material choices of objects. There is no scholarship that deals with artists who are conceptual in process but who also depend on material to generate meaning, like, for example, Félix González-Torres. His work, which while operating under the “conceptual” lens, also permits further examining of this current in relation to how place or material function. This leads into an investigation of “site-specificity,” and site as crucial for the development of such works. In the practice of González-Torres these two issues sometimes go hand-in-hand; the candy spills sit in a paradoxical place with respect to the site-specific: they both are and are not. These issues construct a map that leads to a third inquiry: the role of the viewer as activator for the full realization of the artwork, both in relation to the material and the site. It is in the relation that the viewer has with the space, and the material through which they experience the artwork, that we can have a more complete understanding of artistic intent, and what the conceptual value of the work is through embodiment.
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Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Philosophy and Art and Design)--John Cabot University, Fall 2024.
Date
2024
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Keywords
Conceptual art, Modern art
Citation
Larrea, Manuela. "For just a few seconds, I have put something sweet in someone’s mouth: On the materiality of Conceptual art". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2024.