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The Expanded Concepts of "Institutional Critique" Michael Asher's "Project"

Yoonseo Kim 1

1홍익대학교 현대미술관

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ABSTRACT

The paper explores the work of American artist Michael Asher (b. 1943-2012) in order to outline the larger context in which the shift in the meaning of Institutional Critique came about. This paper attempts to shed new light on the meaning of Institutional Critique by analyzing the work of Asher for the following reasons. Firstly, Asher continued his practice from the late 1960s, establishment of Institutional Critique, thereby providing a gateway into the entire development of Institutional Critique. If the existing studies analyzed the first generation Institutional Critique artists-such as Daniel Buren, Marcel Broodthaers, Michael Asher and Hans Haacke-as a unified group, this paper discusses Asher’s work from his earliest to more recent ones in order to expand the meaning of Institutional Critique and synthesize the previously scattered analyses of Asher’s project. Secondly, the work of Asher effectively reveals the strengths and strategies of Institutional Art. His attitude towards art takes on the meaning of “working” rather than “art work.” If an art work as a physical entity is independent from the situation in which it exists, art work is merely made up of materials, or exists as the situation as such. In this paper, the term “project” shares similarity with “working” but at the same time signifies “art practice” of Institutional Critique. Such understanding of “project”highlights that the methods of “project” are linked to the questioning, and subverting,the operating logic of art. Ultimately the work of Asher springs from the critical reflection on author-based art, and operates as a question of “what can we call as art”rather than replicating the existing definition of “art work.” In this way, Asher seeks to locate various possibilities of art that can only come to the surface when the structure in which art work remains as a byproduct is subverted. By exploring the work of Asher, this paper redefines the systemic function of institution and the role of art, even when the work of art does not reveal the artist or the institution or is not recognized as “art work.” Through the works of Institutional Critique that Asher has made for the past forty years, this paper ultimately emphasizes--the processes by which the issues brought forward by art have changed and expanded,while interacting within social contexts, revealing that what art can do is none other than provide an opportunity to ‘critically reflect’ on our everyday life.

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