John Knight VS MFA Thesis 2013

The Ridiculized Pigs

This paper considers how the activities of the contemporary artist must encompass an ever-expanding field of practice. I have concentrated primarily on aspects surrounding the collision of art and alternative models for its display: combining anti- hierarchical perceptions and political affixations, anti-aesthetic philosophies with attitudes of ambivalence and indifference, and my own activities that mimic portions of the arts industry.

By interrogating the field in which I participate, my goal is to generate resistance through various parasitical operations.

The subsequent concepts of this paper weave together theories and histories that have directed my activities as an artist, critic, curator, collaborator, dealer, gallerist, promoter, and writer. These activities emerge under two frameworks: H. Klum Fine Art, a gallery that I co-founded, as well as my own parasitical operations. This paper proceeds through a series of self-reflexive chapters concentrating my affiliation to the field of art. These examine the current social and economic relationships that exist between images, objects, players, and audiences in art. This approach positions both frameworks as operations that are related to other anti-aesthetic tendencies, culminating with an attitude of ambivalence towards the aesthetic function of art. Instead, this perception presupposes that the entire field of art is commodity culture.

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Spring 2013

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MFA in Visual Studies Thesis Works