Uncommon Goods : Global Dimensions of the Readymade.

By:

Hamilton, Jaimey

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Theory, culture & societyPublication details: Intellect, Limited 2013.Description: 136 pISBN:

9781841505725
1841505722

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

306.3 HAM

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Standard Loan	LSAD Library Main Collection	306.3 HAM (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		39002100466334

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Since Marcel Duchamp created his "readymades" a century ago--most famously christening a urinal as a fountain-- the practice of incorporating commodity objects into art has become ever more pervasive. Uncommon Goods traces one particularly important aspect of that progression: the shift in artistic concern toward the hidden ethical dimensions of global commerce. Jaimey Hamilton Faris discusses the work of, among many others, Ai Weiwei, Cory Arcangel, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Santiago Sierra, reading their artistic explorations as overlapping with debates about how common goods hold us and our world in common. The use of readymade now registers concerns about international migrant labor, outsourced manufacturing, access to natural resources, intellectual copyright, and the commoditization of virtual space.

In each chapter, Hamilton Faris introduces artists who exemplify the focus of readymade aesthetics on aspects of global commodity culture, including consumption, marketing, bureaucracy, labor, and community. She explores how materially intensive, "uncommon" aesthetic situations can offer moments to meditate on the kinds of objects, experiences, and values we ostensibly share in the age of globalization. The resulting volume will be an important contribution to scholarship on readymade art as well as to the study of materiality, embodiment, and globalization.

This book traces the shift from the installation art of the 1990s to the material turn of current practice. It is an important contribution to the scholarship on readymade art, as well as to the study of materiality, embodiment, and globalization. It aims to fill a gap in current literature, specifically dealing with the material nature of contemporary art. Since Marcel Duchamp created his \'readymades\' a century ago, most famously christening a urinal as Fountain, the practice of incorporating commodity objects into art has become ever more pervasive. Uncommon Goods traces one particularly important aspect developing since the 1990s: artistic concern with the hidden ethical dimensions of global commerce. Art historian and cultural theorist, Jaimey Hamilton discusses the work of Ai Weiwei, Cory Arcangel, Thomas Hirschhorn, Santiago Sierra, and many more, reading their artistic explorations as overlapping with debates about how common goods hold us and our world in common. In each chapter Hamilton introduces artists who exemplify the focus of readymade aesthetics on aspects of global commodity culture, including consumption, marketing, bureaucracy, labour and community. The resulting volume will be an important contribution to scholarship on readymade art as well as to the study of materiality, embodiment and globalization.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Acknowledgments (p. vii)
Preface (p. ix)
Introduction: Materializing the Commodity Situation, or Toward the Affectual Readymade (p. 1)
Chapter 1 Of Kula Rings and Commodity Chains (p. 21)
Chapter 2 Common Goods (p. 47)
Chapter 3 Apparel (p. 73)
Chapter 4 Digital Media (p. 101)
Chapter 5 Labor and Services (p. 129)
Chapter 6 Land and Natural Resources (p. 157)
Conclusion (p. 187)
Bibliography (p. 193)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jaimey Hamilton Faris is a contemporary art critic, historian, and aesthetic theorist. She is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Critical Theory at the University of 'Hawai'I, Manoa, and Director of the Intersections Visiting Artist and Scholar Program. She has published in Art Journal, October, and In_Visible Culture. She also runs an occasional pop-up culture salon in Honolulu, [OFF]hrs, which advocates for art as a lived and "applied" critical culture.