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The sphinx contemplating Napoleon : global perspectives on contemporary art and difference / Gilane Tawadros.

By: Publication details: London : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.Description: xv, 333 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 26 cmISBN:
  • 9781501363337
Subject(s):
Contents:
Part 1: The Leftovers of Translation : But What is the Question? Art, Research and the Production of Knowledge -- Extra-Extra: Interview with Raul Ortega Ayala -- Dissonant Chorus -- Shen Yuan: The Leftovers of Translation -- Voices Off: Interview with Susan Hiller -- Part 2: The Banality of Difference : 'We are the Martians...' -- Van Leo: Self-Portraits -- Shirani Shahbazi: The Banality of Difference -- A Case of Mistaken Identity: Notes from the Scene of the Crime -- Electrifying Eve -- Part 3: Re-siting the City : The Real Me -- Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting -- Alfred's Favourite Tree -- The Leopard -- Maps of Desire -- Part 4: Studies in a Post-colonial body : The Revolution Stripped Bare -- Studies in a Post-colonial Body -- Veil: Veiling, Representation and Contemporary Art -- Part 5: Relocating the Remains: History and Representation : Strangers and Barbarians: Representing Ourselves and Others -- Telling Tales: Keith Piper's Relocating the Remains -- Sweet Oblivion -- Godville: Interview with Omer Fast -- Part 6: Going Global : Going Global: 4th International Istanbul Biennial -- Detonations: Jonathan Hernández and the Rongwrong series -- Modern Europeans -- Slipping Away (or Uncompliant Cartographies) -- Part 7: Transmission Interrupted : Interruption in Four Acts, or Disappearing Irises, Broken-down Buses and Ceramic Citroens -- Egypt at the Venice Biennale: 1967 and The Year That Changed Everything -- From Zero to Infinity: The Work of Adel Abdessemed -- Reading (and Curating) from Right to Left -- Dissonant Divas: Sonia Boyce, Sound and Collaboration -- A Thousand and One.
Summary: Built upon the politics of difference, The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon examines artistic practice through an international lens. This vibrant collection of essays and writings - produced in different cultural contexts and collected over two decades - introduces the reader to the thought, method of analysis and everyday experiences that have emerged from an increasingly globalized world, presenting a potentially radical frame through which to understand contemporary art. Gilane Tawadros experiments with methodology to draw cultural difference to the surface: from traditional criticism to fictional narratives, this critical variety mirrors her embrace of different perspectives and hints to the myriad ways in which contemporary art is created and presented. Using these techniques she explores the work of leading artists such as Adel Abdessemed, Richard Avedon, Sonia Boyce and Frank Bowling, offering expert guidance on the rich cultural and historical contexts of global and contemporary art through intimate engagement with lived experience. Playing with forms of writing, from critical analyses to fictional narratives, The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon functions as a practice-based meditation on how to write about contemporary art.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1: The Leftovers of Translation : But What is the Question? Art, Research and the Production of Knowledge -- Extra-Extra: Interview with Raul Ortega Ayala -- Dissonant Chorus -- Shen Yuan: The Leftovers of Translation -- Voices Off: Interview with Susan Hiller -- Part 2: The Banality of Difference : 'We are the Martians...' -- Van Leo: Self-Portraits -- Shirani Shahbazi: The Banality of Difference -- A Case of Mistaken Identity: Notes from the Scene of the Crime -- Electrifying Eve -- Part 3: Re-siting the City : The Real Me -- Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting -- Alfred's Favourite Tree -- The Leopard -- Maps of Desire -- Part 4: Studies in a Post-colonial body : The Revolution Stripped Bare -- Studies in a Post-colonial Body -- Veil: Veiling, Representation and Contemporary Art -- Part 5: Relocating the Remains: History and Representation : Strangers and Barbarians: Representing Ourselves and Others -- Telling Tales: Keith Piper's Relocating the Remains -- Sweet Oblivion -- Godville: Interview with Omer Fast -- Part 6: Going Global : Going Global: 4th International Istanbul Biennial -- Detonations: Jonathan Hernández and the Rongwrong series -- Modern Europeans -- Slipping Away (or Uncompliant Cartographies) -- Part 7: Transmission Interrupted : Interruption in Four Acts, or Disappearing Irises, Broken-down Buses and Ceramic Citroens -- Egypt at the Venice Biennale: 1967 and The Year That Changed Everything -- From Zero to Infinity: The Work of Adel Abdessemed -- Reading (and Curating) from Right to Left -- Dissonant Divas: Sonia Boyce, Sound and Collaboration -- A Thousand and One.

Built upon the politics of difference, The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon examines artistic practice through an international lens. This vibrant collection of essays and writings - produced in different cultural contexts and collected over two decades - introduces the reader to the thought, method of analysis and everyday experiences that have emerged from an increasingly globalized world, presenting a potentially radical frame through which to understand contemporary art. Gilane Tawadros experiments with methodology to draw cultural difference to the surface: from traditional criticism to fictional narratives, this critical variety mirrors her embrace of different perspectives and hints to the myriad ways in which contemporary art is created and presented. Using these techniques she explores the work of leading artists such as Adel Abdessemed, Richard Avedon, Sonia Boyce and Frank Bowling, offering expert guidance on the rich cultural and historical contexts of global and contemporary art through intimate engagement with lived experience. Playing with forms of writing, from critical analyses to fictional narratives, The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon functions as a practice-based meditation on how to write about contemporary art.