32nd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (CIHA)
January 13, 2007 - January 18, 2007
University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Dick Averns will be presenting original research on contemporary war art at this major international art history conference. The following information (and full program details) are sourced via the CIHA website: http://www.cihamelbourne2008.com.au
The history of the International Committee of the History of Art suggests what many people throughout the world have recognized: art and the discourses around it are increasingly global. Art and its history are not only created, but discussed in one form or another on all the inhabited continents of the earth.
Globalism has thus also assumed an art historical aspect: indeed it has been described as art history's most pressing issue. But how can global issues in art history take form in theory or practice? What are the possibilities for a world art history?
Sessions have been developed that explore major themes as they unfold across time and space. Subsections lend themselves to period and regional subdivisions
Panel: ART & WAR
Presenter: DICK AVERNS, Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary, Canada
Title: Art in the Face of The Project for The New American Century: A Postmodern Rake’s Progress
‘The Project for the New American Century1 ... [believes] that American leadership is good both for America and for the world [and] that such leadership requires military strength.’ 2
‘ideological terrorism … can be divided into three stages: (1) crisis of confidence, (2) conflict of legitimacy, and (3) crisis of legitimacy.’ 3
In the 1700s, William Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress artistically translated the British “Bloody Code”. Emotive depictions of insecurity, morality and state-sponsored death were influential. Socio-political visions created a public tableau rasa, spectacle came alive through death: "art, performance and capital punishment blended irreverently."4 In today's global context, I argue that the hegemonic Project for the New American Century (PNAC) constitutes a new Bloody Code. But what artistic manifestations exist to translate the PNAC’s concomitant War on Terrorism?
A Postmodern Rake’s Progress researches trans-cultural, geo-political artworks relating to war, security and terrorism; primarily Huang Yong Ping’s Bat project, the Critical Art Ensemble’s Marching Plague, and the interstices connecting political performance and performative art. These works validate Boris Groys’ claim that "The borderline between art and politics is leaky and constantly crossed in both directions.”5 As proof, the aforementioned artists have catalysed political fragmentation, diplomatic intervention and even charges under the Patriot Act. Yet few have artistically focussed on the PNAC –with its claim on world leadership– as a “crisis of legitimacy”.6 Hence, referencing Kristol, Donnelly, Arendt, Foucault and Said, this paper demonstrates why the PNAC should be re-considered as postmodern rakes. The artistic and historical outcomes are identical: War Art Now.
- www.newamericancentury.org
- Kristol, Statement of Principles
- Sprinzak, p. 79.
- Mitchell, p.11.
- Groys, p.21.
- Sprinzak, p. 79.
