10. Mutations and Transgressions: Post Human, Abject Art and the YBA’s

Question 1

POST HUMAN ART - BASIC TRAITS

1990s

Answer 1

• A new type of human being.
• Body modifications produced by technology, science and media.
• Jeffrey Deitch curated Artificial Nature (1990) and Post Human (1992).
• Influences from science fiction.
• Blending of visual arts and pop culture.
• Major figures: Matthew Barney, Mariko Mori, Chris Cunningham.

Question 2

ABJECT ART - BASIC TRAITS

Answer 2

• Abject (Julia Kristeva): fragmented identity.
• Uncanny (Sigmund Freud): something familiar that becomes terrifying.
• Feeling of repulsion and disgust.
• Controversial topics (e.g. death, illness, sexual perversions, abuses).
• References to the body and bodily fluids (e.g. blood, urine etc.).
• Recurring production of sculptural works based on mannequins and dolls.
• Inspired by Surrealism.
• Theoretical references to psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva.
• Major figures: Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman.

Question 3

THE UNCANNY - Sigmund Freud

Answer 3

“The ‘uncanny’ is that class of the terrifying
which leads back to something long known to
us, once very familiar. […] an uncanny effect is
often and easily produced by effacing the
distinction between imagination and reality, such
as when something that we have hitherto
regarded as imaginary appears before us in
reality, or when a symbol takes over the full
functions and significance of the thing it
symbolizes, and so on. […] It may be true that
the uncanny is nothing else than a hidden,
familiar thing that has undergone repression and
then emerged from it, and that everything that is
uncanny fulfills this condition.”

“The quality of uncanniness can
only come from the circumstances
of the ‘double’ being a creation
dating back to a very early mental
stage, long since left behind, and
one, no doubt, in which it wore a
more friendly aspect. The ‘double’
has become a vision of terror, just
as after the fall of their religion the
gods took on daemonic shapes.”

Question 4

YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS (YBAs) – BASIC TRAITS

Answer 4

• Art movement quintessentially British, late 1980s–1990s.
• Works based on provocative issues and imagery: shock tactics.
• Recurring topics: death, sex, drugs.
• Supported by advertising agency owner Charles Saatchi.
• Often these artists ended up on UK tabloid press coverage.
• Use of materials drawn from mass media and mass culture.
• Conceptual works presented in a spectacular accessible form.
• Influenced by Surrealism and Punk.
• Major exhibitions: Freeze (1988), Young British Artists (1992) and Sensation (1997).
• Major figures: Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin.