Mind the gap
Encountering contemporary art through play
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18998399 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David J Scott (0000-0002-6726-2078, Independent Scholar (non‐affiliated), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 101-114 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Australian Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1035-8811 • E-ISSN: 1757-6547 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/taja.12347 |
| OpenAlex | W3026762121 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
Knowing how to approach and experience contemporary art is a challenge to many people outside the art world. Emerging contemporary art, as the newest of this genre, is often the most challenging. This article recounts my own early struggles as a researcher in this field, and proposes a way of understanding the interaction between artist, artwork and perceiver based on my observations of how contemporary artists encounter each others' work. I argue that contemporary art, and especially emerging contemporary art, creates a space to play by creating an intentional gap in the physical form and/or the semantic structure of the artwork. The object of play is the co‐investigation of an idea initiated by the artist, facilitated by the form of the work and furthered by the encounter. Play, it is argued, is essential to emerging contemporary art as an activity, a communicative frame and a disposition. I draw from earlier theoretical connections between art, play and liberation, challenging some of these assertions, and bringing others into relevance in the contemporary context
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Art methodology · Contemporary art · Contemporary society · Epistemology · Installation art · Linguistics · Social science · Sociology · Studio art · Visual arts · Work of art · Art Education and Development · Art, Politics, and Modernism · History · Philosophy · Visual Culture and Art Theory
| Highly cited | No |
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