2021, Vol., No.49

Journal of History of Modern Art 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.77

pISSN : 1598-7728 / eISSN : 2733-9793
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kahoma

This paper critically examines Le Corbusier’s use of natural forms in Notre-Dame du Haut. Ronchamp chapel was designed at a time when modern architecture was criticized for dehumanization and standardization. Le Corbusier tried to overcome this criticism by reinforcing the plasticity of architecture, and based the crab-shaped roof of the chapel on a natural object. He called this ‘synthesis of the arts.’ Natural objects such as seashells, pebbles, and crab shells were at the center of his artistic practice. Le Corbusier sketched natural objects found on the beach and applied their forms to architecture. The ‘chance image’ created by nature was used in his design. He believed that the abundant forms of natural objects, which are difficult to define clearly, would give architecture poetic potential, and he successfully showed the artistic and aesthetic ‘molting’ of architecture in Ronchamp. Le Corbusier fulfilled modern aesthetic demands and simultaneously incorporated architecture into a new practice that could not be dealt with in the Platonic view of the world.

In this paper I read Mark Quinn’s Self series (1991–2011) is from an aesthetic perspective on the materiality of things. This series, which critically considers the problem of the self (Ego), is linked to ontological questions of abjection such as otherness, objectivity, and the emotion of disgust. In particular, the use of blood and its materiality deconstructs dichotomies such as life/subject and matter/object, and expresses conditions of subjectification from the inevitable dependence on others. The works represent Quin’s own Ego through a frozen head of blood. The works are embodied in typical forms of sculpture, creating an atmosphere different from that of the abject—art which appeals to strong intension of disgust. The Self elicits a vague feeling of ‘weak’ disgust and so suggests a new interpretation of the ‘vagueness of existence’. This representation by blood is ultimately possible only from a continuous reliance on abjective matter, the materiality of the extracted blood, the freezing systems, cooling silicon material, and so on. For the reason of this dependence from a ‘relational ontology’, Quin expresses his variable self-identity rather than as a solid entity. In the Self series, we come to understand the fluid co-existed life, not the solidified, isolated life. In the relational-ontological horizon, our lives meet the faces of many things that inevitably are connected with ourselves.

This thesis investigates the ways in which the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) has been represented by two Lebanese artists, Walid Raad (1967~) and Akram Zaatari (1966~). First, I problematize the ongoing censorship surrounding documenting and writing the histories of the civil war. (In Lebanon, complicated relationships among different religious and ethnic groups make it hard to agree on how to historicize the war.) Then, I analyze two different types of the artists’ archive—The Atlas Group Archive (1989-2004) by Raad is fictional, and the Arab Image Foundation(AIF, 1997~) where Zaatari was president, is real. Through analysis of the archives, I discuss how the artists have been intervening in writing history of war by questioning the power and authenticity of the archive itself. I then turn to the AIF and Zaatari’s uses of the archival materials. I argue that Zaatari employs Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical methods of history by examining the artist’s film and installation Letter to a Refusing Pilot(2013). Finally, I claim that Zaatari’s representation of the civil war, which is based on his experiences rather than objective data, delivers truer narratives than any other, by crossing the borders of faction and fact.