Art and aesthetics as a social construction: Drawing as a sociological approach.
‘Still, aesthetics had been too closely associated with art since it first became a topic for philosophy in ancient times to be entirely disregarded in a definition. And as my experiences with the Brillo Box demonstrates, the aesthetics of artworks has a place in an account of why they please us, even if it is not much different from the way aesthetics functions in everyday choices—in selecting garments or choosing sexual partners or picking a dog out of a litter or an apple out of a display of apples.’ (Danto, 2003)
This essay examines ways in which Drawing might be used as a social tool to prove that it can create a positive social identity in prisons. It also studies non-invasive ways to approach different kinds of people, especially those inside institutions. I explore aesthetics as a social construction and look at the stigmatized person, especially the one categorized by Goffman as ‘blemishes of individual character perceived as weak’. Much of my investigation was carried out at HM Prison Pentonville. To understand Drawing as a social tool, it is necessary to take into consideration two different points of view. The first theory I set out to test is the view of Art as a social process or social construction. The second theory is that put forward by scholars whose viewpoint is that every artwork represents only individual interests and is, thus, a selfish act which is a result of the anti-democratization of art itself. (Clark, 1945)
The paper will look at these theories through two case studies. First, Art in hospitals and the significant experience. I used the work of contemporary artists whose practice is related to the collective creativity of people, who see this as a springboard for the creation of a project. The work of Amalia Pica, an Argentinian artist who explores communication and participation of society in different contexts is important to explain in my arguments. Second, works of art as ‘incurably aristocratic.’ (Clark, 1945). After explaining my methodology, I focus on the heart of my project, Portraiture. I developed my idea of perceiving it as a way of recalling my models, since I feel indebted to the prisoners for allowing me to draw them. A non-invasive way to approach them was absolutely necessary because my goal was to create strong bonds between us.
Amongst the theorists whose work informed this paper is Austin Harrington’s Art and Social Theory (2004) which takes a historical approach to sociological studies of the Arts. Art as a Social System (2004) by Niklas Luhman, Germany’s leading social theorist, was included because it is a deep analysis of Art as a perceptual system. To understand aesthetics, I studied the work of Mark Wallinger Capital (1990) due to similarities in our projects and because it is a good example to understand aesthetics in a contemporary way. Finally, Erving Goffman’s book Stigma (1990) was chosen since it is a study of how a stigmatized person can develop a positive social identity. ‘A stigma, then, is really a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype, although I don’t propose to continue to say so, in part because there are important attributes that almost everywhere in our society are discrediting.’ (Goffman, 1990, p.14). In order to analyze this study in a contemporary way, I have added sociological references to this book such as the studies of Graham Scrambler.
To comprehend the empirical sociology of contemporary Art institutions it is necessary to study Becker. For him, ‘art is less a history of outstanding creations by visionary individuals than a social configuration of practices guided by social conventions. (Becker, 1982, in Harrington, 2004, p. 29). An example of this is my first case study related to Catsou Roberts, Director of Vital Arts, and his perception of Art as a healing tool. The second one is associated to John-Paul Clark, art historian and writer, and his understanding of artworks as antidemocratic objects. Roberts conceives Art as a therapeutic tool because he witnessed evidence of it that helped to reduce stress, minimize the number of prescribed analgesics, and a particular acceleration of recovery. On the contrary, John-Paul Clark agrees with the idea of Stonard that affirms that Art is ‘incurably aristocratic, and (more controversially), an outstanding example of the rule of the many by the few.’ (Clark, 1945, in Stonard, 2018, p. 17). I conducted a research to prove that in certain cases Drawing can develop a positive social identity[1].
Roberts’ example was Pica’s installation since it took a long time for the artist to familiarize herself with the institution, patients, and staff, before creating her idea. ‘Pica’s installation is one such example of carefully considered art…’ (Roberts, 2018, p.19). We can see certain similarities in the work of Rasheed Araeen. In his project Documenta 14 (2017) he mentioned that these kinds of projects seek to work with the creative potential of the people, but they also want to produce a new world collectively. (Whiles, 2018)
Pica’s work was installed through the oncology isolation ward at Barts Hospital. She presented 65 Drawings and all of them were made using rubber stamps. She decided to use only three colours, black, red, and blue to create recognizable similarities. Some of them were abstract, others were ‘a network of stamp markings which read, in various languages, “paid”, “private & confidential”, “received”, “canceled”, along other official directives. Given the repetition and tangle of stamps, one can imagine an office worker drove to distraction by piles of paperwork.’ (Vital Arts, 2016). Pica’s installation was a big success because it created a sense of identity and it helped patients to overcome their difficulties. For me, this example is probably one of the best to realize that it is possible to create positive identities through Art and overcome difficulties. Nevertheless, it is necessary to study the institution and also the problems that the patients may have in order to create considered Art.
When an artist tries to create such a big project he/she needs to consider certain conditions. Becker believes that there are conditions for sociologists to explain the creation of artworks. Especially the whys and in which ways artists produce specific works. For Harrington (2004), there are four scenarios and they are known as social relations. The first one is shared conventions and norms of art worlds. The second one is material media and technologies of production. The third one is patrons, sponsors and art markets; and the last one is public tastes and public channels of reception. (Harrington, 2004, p. 29). But what happens when Art is too complicated to understand, as the case of many contemporary art objects that people do not take the time to digest. We may try to use it as a way to create new bonds, but if this is too hard to decode or even to appreciate, these bonds may be difficult or impossible to create.
The viewer seeks for certain qualities in an object, in order for it to be called Art. In the past, it used to be simpler to understand aesthetically an artwork since we used to rely on certain properties such as beauty, imitation of nature, and likeness. Harrington’s analyses discovered that Art gives pleasure to the eye and for that reason, it was enough to call them Art. Nevertheless, nowadays, many objects possess the same qualities and they are not considered artworks. (Harrington, 2004, p. 28). When our eyes fail, Aesthetic Content and Aesthetic Norms must prevail. Its importance is related to what is meaningful behind the physicality of the object and the internal reasons of the artist of considering such an object or idea as an artwork. (Harrington, 2004, p. 37).
Before aesthetics became an official terminology, some authors considered Art as a new form of language created to extend oral and written communication, as Luhman explored in his sociological studies. (Luhman, 2000, p15). In spite of what people believe, there are differences between communication and perception, both created a fresh field for aesthetics, but this field is outside language. Art is a pure form that integrates perception and communication without distorting their functions. ‘By participating in communication via perception, the physic system might generate intensities of experience that remain incommunicable as such. In order to produce such experiences, it must be able to perceive differences between the forms created in the social system of art for the purpose of communication.’ (Luhman, 2000, p.48)
Aesthetically speaking, Mark Wallinger dressed his friends up as homeless to make portraits and then these works were bought by Charles Saatchi. The author, Martin Herbert, puts it: ‘his work is tied together by consistent, if evolving, thematic concerns, and, furthermore, by a conscientious outlook that has real bearing on his long-term resistance to commodifying his art via the adoption of a signature style.’ (Wroe, 2011)
Wallinger tries to make Art that establishes bonds with the world and with the public. His work began to attract notoriety when he painted oil portraits of homeless people and started to deal with the subject of land and property. His long-term strategy is related to ‘the production of a diverse body of work that has nevertheless coalesced around a coherent set of preoccupations that have been characterized – as befits someone for whom wordplay is itself one of those preoccupations – as "the politics of representation and the representation of politics”.’ (Wroe, 2011). Wallinger’s work gives us an understanding of human condition and is the first approach to start talking about Stigma and the stigmatized person. Its importance is the conception of an artwork that gives pleasure to the eye but at the same time has a valuable meaning behind the precision of the technique.
After discussing the relationship between Art, Sociology, and Aesthetics, I will talk about the stigmatized person because it was necessary to understand the difficulty of the inmates at Pentonville. Scrambler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College London, explores the contemporary conception of the stigmatized person. According to him, nowadays the terminology Stigma is one of the main interest of contemporary sociologist since it has been recast.
On the other hand, in the sixties until the eighties, it was considered only as a personal tragedy as Goffman used to say ‘Today, the term is widely used in something like the original literal sense, but is applied more to the disgrace itself than to the bodily evidence of it.’ (Goffman,1990, p.11). Now, studies do not only explore ‘the label’ but also ‘the labelist’ and ‘the political view of the shame attached.’ (Egerton, Taylor, Scrambler, Morris, 2018). According to Scrambler, ‘the discredited’ are those who have a conspicuous difference. This allows people to treat them differently. The discreditable can easily use the terminology ‘passed as normal’ but there is always a risk. One of them is the risk they have to manage information. Epilepsy, for instance, we don’t have the capacity to predict when it might happen.
Goffman began his research describing how we categorize people. Society is the one that establishes these categorizations and complement of attributes. He mentions three different types of stigma. The first one is called ‘abominations of the body’ and we can understand it in a literal way due to is related to physical deformities. The second one is called ‘blemishes of individual character perceived as weak’. Goffman includes here: ‘domineering or unnatural passions, treacherous and rigid beliefs, and dishonesty, these being inferred from a known record of, for example, mental disorder, imprisonment, addiction, alcoholism, homosexuality, unemployment, suicidal attempts, and radical political behavior. The third one, ‘tribal stigma’ is associated with race, nation, and religion.’ (Goffman, 1990, p.14)
Scrambler’s first study was related to Epilepsy. ‘It encourages me to make a distinction between an Enacted Stigma[2] and Felt stigma which was the fear of that kind of discrimination and maybe a sense of shame. And what we found was that Felt Stigma was more disruptive in people’s lives than in Enacted Stigma.’ (Egerton, Taylor, Scrambler, Morris, 2018). He makes a distinction between shaming and blaming since in present days Stigma is being weaponized. For him, it is also considered a political activity related to abandoned people. For instance, the apparition of ghettos or people left alone. After studying Stigma, I realized that I had the necessary tools to interact with the prisoners and to be aware of the layers of protection that they need. It was also an ethical approach and a way to be more sensible.
In conclusion, the book Art and Social Theory gives us a way to understand Aesthetics and Sociology of the Arts in a contemporary context (especially in the Chapter: Empirical Sociology of Contemporary Art Institutions). To comprehend Art nowadays it is useful to know the importance of Aesthetics especially if we want to know what is behind the artwork and who is the artist. It was my intention to comprehend Drawing as a social tool, consequently, the cases described previously gave us two completely different perspectives to analyze and appreciate Art. Nevertheless, it was necessary to conduct a research to support the theory that I decided to investigate (Art as a social construction). My results demonstrate that concerned Art is a powerful tool that can create or direct the life of people inside institutions in a positive way.
I needed to familiarize myself with ethics about how best to carry out my research. The prisoners are stigmatized people who need protection and different considerations when dealing with them. Protecting their identities, their interests, and creating knowledge without hurting them was a hard task. Thus, part of the investigation was related to the stigmatized person and how to develop a positive identity through Drawing. In consideration of these ideas, my work seeks to create a non- invasive way to approach my models in order to make portraits. My goal was to form strong bonds with them and go beyond the representation of the subject. I realized that Felt stigma was something that terrified my models, but Drawing was a way to overcome it and create a sense of identity.
[1] Please see Pentonville Research to see how I carried out my investigation
[2] An enacted Stigma is considered as the experience of unfair treatment and it is also an external stigma.
Bibliography
Danto, A. C. (2003) The abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21). Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Egerton, J., Taylor, L., Scrambler, G., Morris, L. (2018) Stigma [Podcast]. 31 January.
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09pmbdf (Accesses: 27 April 2018)
Harrington, A. (2004) Art and Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goffman, E. (1990) Stigma: Note on the Management of Spoiled Identity. London: Penguin Book.
Luhman, N. (2000) Art as a Social System. Translated by E. Knodt. California: Stanford University Press.
Pica, A. (2016) Joy in Hospital Paperwork #1-65 [installation]. Available at: http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/commissions/amalia-pica/
(Accessed: 21 March 2018)
Roberts, C. (2018) ‘Art in hospitals can be a culturally significant experience if the approach is right, argues Catsou Roberts, Director of Vital Arts’, Tate ETC., (March 2018), p.19.
Stonard, J-P. (2018) ‘John-Paul Stonard responds to Ai Weiwei’s quotation on art’s relation to democracy’, Tate ETC., (March 2018), p.17.
Vital Arts (2016) Amalia Pica Joy in Hospital Paperwork. Available at: http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/commissions/amalia-pica/
Wallinger, M. (1990) Capital.
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/510384570250386267/
(Accessed: 21 March 2018)
Whiles, V. (2018) ‘Rasheed Araeen interview by Virginia Whiles’, Art Monthly, (February 2018), p.5.
Wroe, N. (2011) A life in art: Mark Wallinger. The Guardian [e-journal]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/sep/29/mark-wallinger-life-in-art
Contextography
Primary sources
Danto, A. C. (1996) After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Danto, A. C. (2003) The abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21). Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Garner, S (2008) Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice and Research. Bristol: Intellect Books Ltd.
Foucault, M (1991) Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by A. Lane. London: Penguin.
Foster, H. (2015) Bad new days: art, criticism, emergency. London: Verso.
Groĭs, B. (2016) In the flow. London: Verso.
McKee, Y. (2016) Strike-art: contemporary art and the post-Occupy condition. London: Verso.
Osborne, P. (2013) Anywhere or not at all: philosophy of contemporary art. London: Verso.
Rancière, J. (2009) The emancipated spectator. London: Verso.
Sartre, J-P. (1989) Being and nothingness: an essay on phenomenological ontology. London: Routledge.
Sartre, J-P. (1990) Nausea. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Sullivan, G. (2005). Art Practice as Research, an Inquiry in the Visual Arts. London: Sage.
Secondary Sources.
Camus, A. (2005) The myth of Sisyphus. Translated by J. O’Brien. London: Penguin.
Camus, A. (2006) Exile and the kingdom. Translated by C. Cosman. London: Penguin
‘Still, aesthetics had been too closely associated with art since it first became a topic for philosophy in ancient times to be entirely disregarded in a definition. And as my experiences with the Brillo Box demonstrates, the aesthetics of artworks has a place in an account of why they please us, even if it is not much different from the way aesthetics functions in everyday choices—in selecting garments or choosing sexual partners or picking a dog out of a litter or an apple out of a display of apples.’ (Danto, 2003)
This essay examines ways in which Drawing might be used as a social tool to prove that it can create a positive social identity in prisons. It also studies non-invasive ways to approach different kinds of people, especially those inside institutions. I explore aesthetics as a social construction and look at the stigmatized person, especially the one categorized by Goffman as ‘blemishes of individual character perceived as weak’. Much of my investigation was carried out at HM Prison Pentonville. To understand Drawing as a social tool, it is necessary to take into consideration two different points of view. The first theory I set out to test is the view of Art as a social process or social construction. The second theory is that put forward by scholars whose viewpoint is that every artwork represents only individual interests and is, thus, a selfish act which is a result of the anti-democratization of art itself. (Clark, 1945)
The paper will look at these theories through two case studies. First, Art in hospitals and the significant experience. I used the work of contemporary artists whose practice is related to the collective creativity of people, who see this as a springboard for the creation of a project. The work of Amalia Pica, an Argentinian artist who explores communication and participation of society in different contexts is important to explain in my arguments. Second, works of art as ‘incurably aristocratic.’ (Clark, 1945). After explaining my methodology, I focus on the heart of my project, Portraiture. I developed my idea of perceiving it as a way of recalling my models, since I feel indebted to the prisoners for allowing me to draw them. A non-invasive way to approach them was absolutely necessary because my goal was to create strong bonds between us.
Amongst the theorists whose work informed this paper is Austin Harrington’s Art and Social Theory (2004) which takes a historical approach to sociological studies of the Arts. Art as a Social System (2004) by Niklas Luhman, Germany’s leading social theorist, was included because it is a deep analysis of Art as a perceptual system. To understand aesthetics, I studied the work of Mark Wallinger Capital (1990) due to similarities in our projects and because it is a good example to understand aesthetics in a contemporary way. Finally, Erving Goffman’s book Stigma (1990) was chosen since it is a study of how a stigmatized person can develop a positive social identity. ‘A stigma, then, is really a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype, although I don’t propose to continue to say so, in part because there are important attributes that almost everywhere in our society are discrediting.’ (Goffman, 1990, p.14). In order to analyze this study in a contemporary way, I have added sociological references to this book such as the studies of Graham Scrambler.
To comprehend the empirical sociology of contemporary Art institutions it is necessary to study Becker. For him, ‘art is less a history of outstanding creations by visionary individuals than a social configuration of practices guided by social conventions. (Becker, 1982, in Harrington, 2004, p. 29). An example of this is my first case study related to Catsou Roberts, Director of Vital Arts, and his perception of Art as a healing tool. The second one is associated to John-Paul Clark, art historian and writer, and his understanding of artworks as antidemocratic objects. Roberts conceives Art as a therapeutic tool because he witnessed evidence of it that helped to reduce stress, minimize the number of prescribed analgesics, and a particular acceleration of recovery. On the contrary, John-Paul Clark agrees with the idea of Stonard that affirms that Art is ‘incurably aristocratic, and (more controversially), an outstanding example of the rule of the many by the few.’ (Clark, 1945, in Stonard, 2018, p. 17). I conducted a research to prove that in certain cases Drawing can develop a positive social identity[1].
Roberts’ example was Pica’s installation since it took a long time for the artist to familiarize herself with the institution, patients, and staff, before creating her idea. ‘Pica’s installation is one such example of carefully considered art…’ (Roberts, 2018, p.19). We can see certain similarities in the work of Rasheed Araeen. In his project Documenta 14 (2017) he mentioned that these kinds of projects seek to work with the creative potential of the people, but they also want to produce a new world collectively. (Whiles, 2018)
Pica’s work was installed through the oncology isolation ward at Barts Hospital. She presented 65 Drawings and all of them were made using rubber stamps. She decided to use only three colours, black, red, and blue to create recognizable similarities. Some of them were abstract, others were ‘a network of stamp markings which read, in various languages, “paid”, “private & confidential”, “received”, “canceled”, along other official directives. Given the repetition and tangle of stamps, one can imagine an office worker drove to distraction by piles of paperwork.’ (Vital Arts, 2016). Pica’s installation was a big success because it created a sense of identity and it helped patients to overcome their difficulties. For me, this example is probably one of the best to realize that it is possible to create positive identities through Art and overcome difficulties. Nevertheless, it is necessary to study the institution and also the problems that the patients may have in order to create considered Art.
When an artist tries to create such a big project he/she needs to consider certain conditions. Becker believes that there are conditions for sociologists to explain the creation of artworks. Especially the whys and in which ways artists produce specific works. For Harrington (2004), there are four scenarios and they are known as social relations. The first one is shared conventions and norms of art worlds. The second one is material media and technologies of production. The third one is patrons, sponsors and art markets; and the last one is public tastes and public channels of reception. (Harrington, 2004, p. 29). But what happens when Art is too complicated to understand, as the case of many contemporary art objects that people do not take the time to digest. We may try to use it as a way to create new bonds, but if this is too hard to decode or even to appreciate, these bonds may be difficult or impossible to create.
The viewer seeks for certain qualities in an object, in order for it to be called Art. In the past, it used to be simpler to understand aesthetically an artwork since we used to rely on certain properties such as beauty, imitation of nature, and likeness. Harrington’s analyses discovered that Art gives pleasure to the eye and for that reason, it was enough to call them Art. Nevertheless, nowadays, many objects possess the same qualities and they are not considered artworks. (Harrington, 2004, p. 28). When our eyes fail, Aesthetic Content and Aesthetic Norms must prevail. Its importance is related to what is meaningful behind the physicality of the object and the internal reasons of the artist of considering such an object or idea as an artwork. (Harrington, 2004, p. 37).
Before aesthetics became an official terminology, some authors considered Art as a new form of language created to extend oral and written communication, as Luhman explored in his sociological studies. (Luhman, 2000, p15). In spite of what people believe, there are differences between communication and perception, both created a fresh field for aesthetics, but this field is outside language. Art is a pure form that integrates perception and communication without distorting their functions. ‘By participating in communication via perception, the physic system might generate intensities of experience that remain incommunicable as such. In order to produce such experiences, it must be able to perceive differences between the forms created in the social system of art for the purpose of communication.’ (Luhman, 2000, p.48)
Aesthetically speaking, Mark Wallinger dressed his friends up as homeless to make portraits and then these works were bought by Charles Saatchi. The author, Martin Herbert, puts it: ‘his work is tied together by consistent, if evolving, thematic concerns, and, furthermore, by a conscientious outlook that has real bearing on his long-term resistance to commodifying his art via the adoption of a signature style.’ (Wroe, 2011)
Wallinger tries to make Art that establishes bonds with the world and with the public. His work began to attract notoriety when he painted oil portraits of homeless people and started to deal with the subject of land and property. His long-term strategy is related to ‘the production of a diverse body of work that has nevertheless coalesced around a coherent set of preoccupations that have been characterized – as befits someone for whom wordplay is itself one of those preoccupations – as "the politics of representation and the representation of politics”.’ (Wroe, 2011). Wallinger’s work gives us an understanding of human condition and is the first approach to start talking about Stigma and the stigmatized person. Its importance is the conception of an artwork that gives pleasure to the eye but at the same time has a valuable meaning behind the precision of the technique.
After discussing the relationship between Art, Sociology, and Aesthetics, I will talk about the stigmatized person because it was necessary to understand the difficulty of the inmates at Pentonville. Scrambler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College London, explores the contemporary conception of the stigmatized person. According to him, nowadays the terminology Stigma is one of the main interest of contemporary sociologist since it has been recast.
On the other hand, in the sixties until the eighties, it was considered only as a personal tragedy as Goffman used to say ‘Today, the term is widely used in something like the original literal sense, but is applied more to the disgrace itself than to the bodily evidence of it.’ (Goffman,1990, p.11). Now, studies do not only explore ‘the label’ but also ‘the labelist’ and ‘the political view of the shame attached.’ (Egerton, Taylor, Scrambler, Morris, 2018). According to Scrambler, ‘the discredited’ are those who have a conspicuous difference. This allows people to treat them differently. The discreditable can easily use the terminology ‘passed as normal’ but there is always a risk. One of them is the risk they have to manage information. Epilepsy, for instance, we don’t have the capacity to predict when it might happen.
Goffman began his research describing how we categorize people. Society is the one that establishes these categorizations and complement of attributes. He mentions three different types of stigma. The first one is called ‘abominations of the body’ and we can understand it in a literal way due to is related to physical deformities. The second one is called ‘blemishes of individual character perceived as weak’. Goffman includes here: ‘domineering or unnatural passions, treacherous and rigid beliefs, and dishonesty, these being inferred from a known record of, for example, mental disorder, imprisonment, addiction, alcoholism, homosexuality, unemployment, suicidal attempts, and radical political behavior. The third one, ‘tribal stigma’ is associated with race, nation, and religion.’ (Goffman, 1990, p.14)
Scrambler’s first study was related to Epilepsy. ‘It encourages me to make a distinction between an Enacted Stigma[2] and Felt stigma which was the fear of that kind of discrimination and maybe a sense of shame. And what we found was that Felt Stigma was more disruptive in people’s lives than in Enacted Stigma.’ (Egerton, Taylor, Scrambler, Morris, 2018). He makes a distinction between shaming and blaming since in present days Stigma is being weaponized. For him, it is also considered a political activity related to abandoned people. For instance, the apparition of ghettos or people left alone. After studying Stigma, I realized that I had the necessary tools to interact with the prisoners and to be aware of the layers of protection that they need. It was also an ethical approach and a way to be more sensible.
In conclusion, the book Art and Social Theory gives us a way to understand Aesthetics and Sociology of the Arts in a contemporary context (especially in the Chapter: Empirical Sociology of Contemporary Art Institutions). To comprehend Art nowadays it is useful to know the importance of Aesthetics especially if we want to know what is behind the artwork and who is the artist. It was my intention to comprehend Drawing as a social tool, consequently, the cases described previously gave us two completely different perspectives to analyze and appreciate Art. Nevertheless, it was necessary to conduct a research to support the theory that I decided to investigate (Art as a social construction). My results demonstrate that concerned Art is a powerful tool that can create or direct the life of people inside institutions in a positive way.
I needed to familiarize myself with ethics about how best to carry out my research. The prisoners are stigmatized people who need protection and different considerations when dealing with them. Protecting their identities, their interests, and creating knowledge without hurting them was a hard task. Thus, part of the investigation was related to the stigmatized person and how to develop a positive identity through Drawing. In consideration of these ideas, my work seeks to create a non- invasive way to approach my models in order to make portraits. My goal was to form strong bonds with them and go beyond the representation of the subject. I realized that Felt stigma was something that terrified my models, but Drawing was a way to overcome it and create a sense of identity.
[1] Please see Pentonville Research to see how I carried out my investigation
[2] An enacted Stigma is considered as the experience of unfair treatment and it is also an external stigma.
Bibliography
Danto, A. C. (2003) The abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21). Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Egerton, J., Taylor, L., Scrambler, G., Morris, L. (2018) Stigma [Podcast]. 31 January.
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09pmbdf (Accesses: 27 April 2018)
Harrington, A. (2004) Art and Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goffman, E. (1990) Stigma: Note on the Management of Spoiled Identity. London: Penguin Book.
Luhman, N. (2000) Art as a Social System. Translated by E. Knodt. California: Stanford University Press.
Pica, A. (2016) Joy in Hospital Paperwork #1-65 [installation]. Available at: http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/commissions/amalia-pica/
(Accessed: 21 March 2018)
Roberts, C. (2018) ‘Art in hospitals can be a culturally significant experience if the approach is right, argues Catsou Roberts, Director of Vital Arts’, Tate ETC., (March 2018), p.19.
Stonard, J-P. (2018) ‘John-Paul Stonard responds to Ai Weiwei’s quotation on art’s relation to democracy’, Tate ETC., (March 2018), p.17.
Vital Arts (2016) Amalia Pica Joy in Hospital Paperwork. Available at: http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/commissions/amalia-pica/
Wallinger, M. (1990) Capital.
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/510384570250386267/
(Accessed: 21 March 2018)
Whiles, V. (2018) ‘Rasheed Araeen interview by Virginia Whiles’, Art Monthly, (February 2018), p.5.
Wroe, N. (2011) A life in art: Mark Wallinger. The Guardian [e-journal]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/sep/29/mark-wallinger-life-in-art
Contextography
Primary sources
Danto, A. C. (1996) After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Danto, A. C. (2003) The abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21). Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Garner, S (2008) Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice and Research. Bristol: Intellect Books Ltd.
Foucault, M (1991) Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by A. Lane. London: Penguin.
Foster, H. (2015) Bad new days: art, criticism, emergency. London: Verso.
Groĭs, B. (2016) In the flow. London: Verso.
McKee, Y. (2016) Strike-art: contemporary art and the post-Occupy condition. London: Verso.
Osborne, P. (2013) Anywhere or not at all: philosophy of contemporary art. London: Verso.
Rancière, J. (2009) The emancipated spectator. London: Verso.
Sartre, J-P. (1989) Being and nothingness: an essay on phenomenological ontology. London: Routledge.
Sartre, J-P. (1990) Nausea. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Sullivan, G. (2005). Art Practice as Research, an Inquiry in the Visual Arts. London: Sage.
Secondary Sources.
Camus, A. (2005) The myth of Sisyphus. Translated by J. O’Brien. London: Penguin.
Camus, A. (2006) Exile and the kingdom. Translated by C. Cosman. London: Penguin