Paper Title
Feminist Conceptual Art & Pedagogy of the Indexical Present
Location
Room 221, DiGiorgio Campus Center (DiGs)
Keywords
feminist pedagogy; conceptual art; Adrian Piper; Emma Sulkowicz, Regina José Galindo; Gran Fury; indexical present
Start Date
2-4-2016 2:00 PM
End Date
2-4-2016 3:15 PM
Abstract
Conceptual artist Adrian Piper describes the “indexical present” as a concrete moment to which she invites viewers to enter when encountering her work, and as a mode through which it becomes possible to direct attention to a specific point of interrogation, wonder, and/or confrontation. Several elements characterize Piper’s idea: the use of direct address, a focus on interpersonal dynamics, and a confrontation of oppressive modes of perception. Historically, Piper has used the indexical present to encourage her viewers to interrogate their own relationships to intersectional oppressions of race and gender, and to lay the foundation for new ways of perceiving and knowing.
In this paper, I explore the indexical present as a pedagogical mode through which artists such as Emma Sulkowicz, Regina José Galindo, and arts collective Gran Fury have historically taken up issues relevant to feminist pedagogy, such as the oppression of women and LGBTQ+ people within institutions of both higher education and the state. By better understanding their works as pedagogical, it becomes possible for feminist teachers and student to borrow from the strategies they use in order to become more attentive to and empowered to address asymmetrical relations to power as they manifest is specific moments.
Feminist Conceptual Art & Pedagogy of the Indexical Present
Room 221, DiGiorgio Campus Center (DiGs)
Conceptual artist Adrian Piper describes the “indexical present” as a concrete moment to which she invites viewers to enter when encountering her work, and as a mode through which it becomes possible to direct attention to a specific point of interrogation, wonder, and/or confrontation. Several elements characterize Piper’s idea: the use of direct address, a focus on interpersonal dynamics, and a confrontation of oppressive modes of perception. Historically, Piper has used the indexical present to encourage her viewers to interrogate their own relationships to intersectional oppressions of race and gender, and to lay the foundation for new ways of perceiving and knowing.
In this paper, I explore the indexical present as a pedagogical mode through which artists such as Emma Sulkowicz, Regina José Galindo, and arts collective Gran Fury have historically taken up issues relevant to feminist pedagogy, such as the oppression of women and LGBTQ+ people within institutions of both higher education and the state. By better understanding their works as pedagogical, it becomes possible for feminist teachers and student to borrow from the strategies they use in order to become more attentive to and empowered to address asymmetrical relations to power as they manifest is specific moments.
Comments
References
Berger, M. (1999). Styles of radical will : Adrian Piper and the indexical present. In
Piper, A., Berger, M., Fisher, J., University of Maryland, Baltimore County., &
New Museum of Contemporary Art (Eds.) Adrian Piper: A retrospective. (pp. 12
-32) Baltimore, Md: Fine Arts Gallery, University of Maryland, Baltimore
County.
Piper, A. (1993). Art talk: Xenophobia and the indexical present. Seminole
Community College in Florida. Retrieved from: http://sounds.bl.uk/
Arts-literature-and-performance/ICA-talks/024M-C0095X0817XX-0100V0
Piper, A. (2015). Why I Am No Longer Discussing My Artwork. Adrian Piper Research
Archive Foundation Berlin. Retrieved from: http://www.adrianpiper.com/docs/
Piper2015OnNotTalkingAboutMyArtworkWebsite.pdf