Fictions of Autonomy: Photographing the Modern Sculptural Group
Summary:
How does a photograph frame an object's autonomy? This paper explores answers to this question through the photography of modern sculptor David Smith. Seen in his photographs, modern sculpture is defined not only through its formal structures and surfaces but also through its photographic stagings-images set in motion tensions between belong and non-belonging, individual and collective, location and detachment.
Description:
Lecture with Sarah Hamill, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oberlin College
How does a photograph frame an object's autonomy? This paper explores answers to this question through the photography of modern sculptor David Smith who staged his sculptures in evocative groups reminiscent of the displays of Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, and Louise Bourgeois. Seen in Smith's photographs, modern sculpture is defined not only through its formal structures and surfaces but also through its photographic stagings-images set in motion tensions between belong and non-belonging, individual and collective, location and detachment.
Co-sponsored by the Visual Studies Research Institute and the Department of Art History.