Memorials of Suffering - The human trace in artefacts by Doris Salcedo
(2012) KOVM12 20121Division of Art History and Visual Studies
- Abstract
- The aim of this study has been to enable a depiction of humanness without having recourse to the human body and to make it conceivable to relate to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism. Four artworks from as many installations by the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo have made up a base for the investigation: Atrabiliarios (Defiant, Bitterness), Untitled, La Casa Viuda
(The Widow House or The Widowed House) and Plegaria Muda (Silent Prayer or Silenced Prayer). These installations have been related to critics dealing with tropes, semiotics and anthropomorphism. Most critics relate their interpretations to literature, sometimes poetry, and the poet Paul Celan has been inserted as a subordinate subject matter. Human suffering turned into... (More) - The aim of this study has been to enable a depiction of humanness without having recourse to the human body and to make it conceivable to relate to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism. Four artworks from as many installations by the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo have made up a base for the investigation: Atrabiliarios (Defiant, Bitterness), Untitled, La Casa Viuda
(The Widow House or The Widowed House) and Plegaria Muda (Silent Prayer or Silenced Prayer). These installations have been related to critics dealing with tropes, semiotics and anthropomorphism. Most critics relate their interpretations to literature, sometimes poetry, and the poet Paul Celan has been inserted as a subordinate subject matter. Human suffering turned into reminiscence of the individual victim are conspicuous themes in Salcedo’s artistry as well as in Celan’s poetry.
A concise overview of the four installations as a whole, and a more detailed presentation of the artefacts have been related to tropes of allegory, metaphor and metonymy, as well as to semiotics, and more briefly to phenomenology. The human trace, or non-trace, have further been related to the absent victim and to those left behind in grief, including some Celan stanzas in their context. The trace indicating embodiment and the void in the installations and artworks have then as far as possible been related to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism. The notion of presence in absence turns obvious in the artworks as a whole, as well as in Celan’s poetry. This presence in absence - or absence in presence - have finally most concisely been related to metaphysics and surrealist points of view in order to find a way to relate the void to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism; a short discussion ending up in more of a starting point than of a conclusion. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/2542687
- author
- Streiffert, Christina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- KOVM12 20121
- year
- 2012
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- anthropomorphism, embodiment, human trace, metaphysics, semiotics, tropes, violence, void
- language
- English
- id
- 2542687
- date added to LUP
- 2012-08-20 10:37:53
- date last changed
- 2012-09-03 09:09:04
@misc{2542687,
abstract = {{The aim of this study has been to enable a depiction of humanness without having recourse to the human body and to make it conceivable to relate to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism. Four artworks from as many installations by the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo have made up a base for the investigation: Atrabiliarios (Defiant, Bitterness), Untitled, La Casa Viuda
(The Widow House or The Widowed House) and Plegaria Muda (Silent Prayer or Silenced Prayer). These installations have been related to critics dealing with tropes, semiotics and anthropomorphism. Most critics relate their interpretations to literature, sometimes poetry, and the poet Paul Celan has been inserted as a subordinate subject matter. Human suffering turned into reminiscence of the individual victim are conspicuous themes in Salcedo’s artistry as well as in Celan’s poetry.
A concise overview of the four installations as a whole, and a more detailed presentation of the artefacts have been related to tropes of allegory, metaphor and metonymy, as well as to semiotics, and more briefly to phenomenology. The human trace, or non-trace, have further been related to the absent victim and to those left behind in grief, including some Celan stanzas in their context. The trace indicating embodiment and the void in the installations and artworks have then as far as possible been related to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism. The notion of presence in absence turns obvious in the artworks as a whole, as well as in Celan’s poetry. This presence in absence - or absence in presence - have finally most concisely been related to metaphysics and surrealist points of view in order to find a way to relate the void to the aesthetics of anthropomorphism; a short discussion ending up in more of a starting point than of a conclusion.}},
author = {{Streiffert, Christina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Memorials of Suffering - The human trace in artefacts by Doris Salcedo}},
year = {{2012}},
}