Situation Aesthetics: The Work of Michael Asher

by Kirsi Peltomaki

Overview

The first book-length study of this influential artist's work, focusing on the participatory role of the human subject rather than the art object.

Michael Asher doesn't make typical installations. Instead, he extracts his art from the institutions in which it is shown, culling it from collections, histories, or museums' own walls. Since the late 1960s, Asher has been creating situations that have not only taught us about the conditions and contexts of contemporary art, but have worked to define it.

In Situation Aesthetics , Kirsi Peltomäki examines Asher's practice by analyzing the social situations that the artist constructs in his work for viewers, participants, and institutional representatives (including gallery directors, curators, and other museum staff members). Drawing on art criticism, the reports of viewers and participants in Asher's projects, and the artist's own archives, Peltomäki offers a comprehensive account of Asher's work over the past four decades. Because of the intensely site-specific nature of this work, as well as the artist's refusal to reconstruct past works or mount retrospectives, many of the projects Peltomäki discusses are described here for the first time.

By emphasizing the social and psychological sites of art rather than the production of autonomous art objects, Peltomäki argues, Asher constructs experientially complex situations that profoundly affect those who encounter them, bringing about both personal and institutional transformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262526081
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/14/2014
Series:	The MIT Press
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kirsi Peltomäki is Associate Professor of Art History at Oregon State University and the author of Situation Aesthetics: The Work of Michael Asher (MIT Press).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: The Experiential Matrix 1

1 Viewing Experiences 21

2 Contracted Participation 67

3 In the Name of the Artist 119

4 Institutional Support 151

Notes 181

Index 211

What People are Saying About This

Alexander Alberro

With a cunning and critical intelligence Michael Asher probes the visible and conceptual components of exhibition spaces not only to reveal the underlying social relations within art institutions, but also, as Kirsi Peltomaki so convincingly demonstrates, to facilitate an array of affective experiences that lead to personal and institutional changes. Peltomaki's book is balanced, insightful, and intelligent, and it should place Asher at the center of debates about strategies and directions of modern and contemporary art.

From the Publisher

"With a cunning and critical intelligence, Michael Asher probes the visible and conceptual components of exhibition spaces not only to reveal the underlying social relations within art institutions but also, as Kirsi Peltomäki so convincingly demonstrates, to facilitate an array of affective experiences that lead to personal and institutional changes. Peltomäki's book is balanced, insightful, and intelligent, and it should place Asher at the center of debates about strategies and directions of modern and contemporary art." Alexander Alberro, author of Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity

Alex Alberro

"With a cunning and critical intelligence Michael Asher probes the visible and conceptual components of exhibition spaces not only to reveal the underlying social relations within art institutions, but also, as Kirsi Peltomaki so convincingly demonstrates, to facilitate an array of affective experiences that lead to personal and institutional changes. Peltomaki's book is balanced, insightful, and intelligent, and it should place Asher at the center of debates about strategies and directions of modern and contemporary art."—Alexander Alberro, author of Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity