Navigating the void : international contemporary art and the triangle network

Crane, Emily (2015) Navigating the void : international contemporary art and the triangle network. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the artist-led initiatives associated with the Triangle
Network in the United States, United Kingdom, Southern Africa and South
Asia, between 1982 and 2015. It considers how artists have set up artist-led
initiatives as a response to different circumstances in these regions, and how
the idea of a network has influence this development. It is specifically
concerned with how artist-led initiatives have contributed to shifts in art-world
infrastructures and the writing of contemporary art histories.
In particular it shows how the idea for international artist-led workshops
spread from an intitial workshop in Upstate New York to an international
network of partner-workshops across the world. It demonstrates how these
workshops often led to: the creation of new spaces for artists to work and host
visiting artists for residency programs; new exhibitions and publications; and a
cosmopolitan sense of international artistic exchange. It also shows how
these artistic exchanges have been concerned with better regional and South-
South connectivity. It examines why and how such artist-led initiatives have
been initiated and run, and what impact belonging to a network has had on
the artists and artworks.
The purpose of this thesis is to argue that an understanding of these
types of organisations is a useful contribution to international contemporary
art history, as they often represent moments of transformation and
emergence. Using the notions of assemblages and networks as analytical
tools, the thesis explores the possibilities these approaches have to art
historical writing. Such an approach allows for analysis of heterogeneous
actancts including artworks, materials, artists, institutions, books, spaces,
websites, and funding streams. The intention of this thesis is to contribute an
approach to writing about contemporary art history from the perspective of
‘grass-roots globalization’ (Appardurai, 1999) that can counter readings of
global contemporary art based only on hegemonic institutions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies
Depositing User:	Jackie Webb
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2016 15:31
Last Modified:	19 Jul 2016 15:31
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/59668
DOI:

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