Plastic exists as a significant node in a network of cultural, economic, environmental and political interests. It takes on many roles: domestic servant, caretaker, medical support, kitchen aid, industrial worker. The material is pervasive, yet the cultural sentiment towards it in Anglo-American culture is ambivalent
When I speak of complexity, I am referring to the primary meaning of the Latin word “complexus,” “that which is woven together.” -Edgar Morin While the environmental issue has been and continues to be widely expressed in an alarmist context, many artists now believe that such an
The evolutionary span of Isabelle Hayeur’s photographic and videographic body of work is related to her capacity to cast an ever-deeper gaze at environmental issues (urban sprawl; the impact of the petroleum, housing, and tourism industries on the deterioration and destabilization of ecosystems). For fifteen
The term diorama entered the contemporary art lexicon in the 1990s, due mainly to a rising interest in realistic three-dimensional representations, at full or reduced scale, such as the striking works of Jake & Dinos Chapman and Paul McCarthy. Employed to designate a method rather
The dioramas that Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster created in New York for the DIA Art Foundation present us with heterogeneous temporalities and places. These display boxes, which are about the size of a small theatre stage, are fascinating because they captivate the gaze and project the body
The first dioramas to represent animals in their natural habitat were introduced into North American natural history museums at the end of the 1880s. Although these displays were directly inspired by the dioramas Louis Daguerre had devised in 1822, they differed with regard to one
In an 18th century Parisian drawing room, a fox sits enthroned on the divan of a duchess. The animal seems absorbed by a pigeon perched the decorative back moulding, wings spread, readying perhaps to fly off. In the centre of a reception hall with walls
Vicky Sabourin was headed for a career in the theatre before she turned to the visual arts. Each of her installation works combines a tableau vivant and a diorama in which she performs, so that viewers can appreciate them whether she is there or not.
Rethink sculpture? The question is addressed to us, obviously, those of us who reflect on art. Critical thought, somewhat like the fire brigade, always comes late: we try to keep up to date with reality’s transformations, its upheavals. But when we realize that critical thought
Prologue The history of every art form shows critical epochs in which a certain art form aspires to effects which could be fully obtained only with a changed technical standard, that is to say, in a new art form. The extravagances and crudities of art which
While it might seem futile to search out an exhaustive and unilateral (re)definition of contemporary sculpture given the varied directions it takes, it would appear a contrario necessary to rethink sculpture based on studies1 that together elucidate the scope of this constantly broadening field. By
What notions do we agree on today about the term “sculpture”? Painting is easily defined. Sculpture, on the other hand, does not refer, even etymologically, to a single category: to sculpt originally meant to notch, to carve in stone, but modelling, which is just as