Ai-Weiwei
I am going to analyse the performance and incident Ai-Weiwei created at the Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin 2016 using the concept of performativity.
The original definition of performativity set out by language philosopher J L Austin encompasses the idea that words we speak are not only used for describing things but can also be responsible for actions that occur as a result of their utterance. He later redefined this to explain that all utterances are performative in some manner.
This particular Ai-Weiwei work of getting celebrities attending the gala to take selfies wearing metallic emergency blankets does not use spoken language per se but selfies and additional photos of the entire audience taken by journalists to act as a type of performative language. In much the same way that philosopher Andrew Pickering has proposed a shift from a representative idiom to a performative idiom in the field of economics so to can we use the concept of performativity on photos instead of only speech.
It was the selfies and journalist photos of the event that effectively 'caused' the 'incident' that then occurred publicly in artnet and other publications such as the UK Independent newspaper. Both these organs show photos of the celebrities in a glittering room wearing gold and silver blankets along with a relatively few short paragraphs describing what happened. Both articles additionally feature a quote from Berlin's culture senator Tim Renner describing the work as "obscene". So we can see how the actual performance itself has then been photographed and then how the photos transfer the performance from the event to the critics standing by. They then transfer this performativity into their articles adding the Tim Renner quote so that their stories then perform the the act of denigrating the work and the celebrities. At the same time readers cannot help to be reminded of the refugee crisis occurring (ostensibly what Al-Weiwei's main intention would be).
So does Al-Weiwei intend the outrage that the journalists report? Are we offended by the crass nature of celebrities playing at being political activists or the refugee crisis itself? According to the way critics have interpreted the performance it surely is the former. The refugee crisis takes second place to the obscene nature of celebrities wining and dining in expensive style at the same time as being cajoled into a performance art piece by Al-Weiwei. The performance (and accompanying photos) then have succeeded in producing outrage at the celebrities more than any direct influence on the causes of the refugee crisis. The refugee aspect has almost nothing to do with the artist's intention and is simply being used as a tool to cause outrage at its participants. The refugee crisis could in fact be replaced with any other crisis of a similar nature.
We can also look to philosopher Judith Butler when she cites the “reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains." (Butler, Judith 1993). The reiteration of the original act via the photos, articles and dissemination through the internet make the idea of these celebrities as obscene gain more power. This reiteration is obviously important to Ai-Weiwei as he needs the celebrities to be taking photos of themselves to then be spread via their social media accounts. The art needs to occur at an event covered by journalists worldwide for it to work. If their were no reiteration beyond the guests at the event then the work loses all of its power. In this sense performativity is key to the success of this particular Ai-Wewei work.
The original definition of performativity set out by language philosopher J L Austin encompasses the idea that words we speak are not only used for describing things but can also be responsible for actions that occur as a result of their utterance. He later redefined this to explain that all utterances are performative in some manner.
This particular Ai-Weiwei work of getting celebrities attending the gala to take selfies wearing metallic emergency blankets does not use spoken language per se but selfies and additional photos of the entire audience taken by journalists to act as a type of performative language. In much the same way that philosopher Andrew Pickering has proposed a shift from a representative idiom to a performative idiom in the field of economics so to can we use the concept of performativity on photos instead of only speech.
It was the selfies and journalist photos of the event that effectively 'caused' the 'incident' that then occurred publicly in artnet and other publications such as the UK Independent newspaper. Both these organs show photos of the celebrities in a glittering room wearing gold and silver blankets along with a relatively few short paragraphs describing what happened. Both articles additionally feature a quote from Berlin's culture senator Tim Renner describing the work as "obscene". So we can see how the actual performance itself has then been photographed and then how the photos transfer the performance from the event to the critics standing by. They then transfer this performativity into their articles adding the Tim Renner quote so that their stories then perform the the act of denigrating the work and the celebrities. At the same time readers cannot help to be reminded of the refugee crisis occurring (ostensibly what Al-Weiwei's main intention would be).
So does Al-Weiwei intend the outrage that the journalists report? Are we offended by the crass nature of celebrities playing at being political activists or the refugee crisis itself? According to the way critics have interpreted the performance it surely is the former. The refugee crisis takes second place to the obscene nature of celebrities wining and dining in expensive style at the same time as being cajoled into a performance art piece by Al-Weiwei. The performance (and accompanying photos) then have succeeded in producing outrage at the celebrities more than any direct influence on the causes of the refugee crisis. The refugee aspect has almost nothing to do with the artist's intention and is simply being used as a tool to cause outrage at its participants. The refugee crisis could in fact be replaced with any other crisis of a similar nature.
We can also look to philosopher Judith Butler when she cites the “reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains." (Butler, Judith 1993). The reiteration of the original act via the photos, articles and dissemination through the internet make the idea of these celebrities as obscene gain more power. This reiteration is obviously important to Ai-Weiwei as he needs the celebrities to be taking photos of themselves to then be spread via their social media accounts. The art needs to occur at an event covered by journalists worldwide for it to work. If their were no reiteration beyond the guests at the event then the work loses all of its power. In this sense performativity is key to the success of this particular Ai-Wewei work.
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