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Introduction: Visibility, Difference and Excess
Author(s) -
Perry Gill
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
art history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8365
pISSN - 0141-6790
DOI - 10.1111/j.0141-6790.2003.02603001.x
Subject(s) - visibility , interpretation (philosophy) , irish , britishness , ethnic group , psychic , aesthetics , sociology , visual arts , art , anthropology , political science , geography , linguistics , law , philosophy , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , politics , meteorology
This introductory essay explores some of the complexities and ambiguities which underpin a concept of ‘difference’ in the production and interpretation of recent art. Issues within the current discourse on gender and ‘women's art’ are considered, including concerns with cultural, curatorial and psychic mechanisms of in/visibility, with an emphasis on developments in British art. The essay examines some of the institutional and cultural reasons for the increasing visibility of work by (some) British women artists, while also seeking to problematize the notion of ‘Britishness’. By mapping out the range of subjects (including American and Irish artists), and strategies of interpretation included in this collection, the introduction suggests ways in which gender and ethnicity might figure in an exploration of ‘difference’ in contemporary art theory and practice.