@article{ART003279038},
author={Ara Jo},
title={The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider},
journal={Journal of History of Modern Art},
issn={1598-7728},
year={2025},
volume={0},
number={58},
pages={383-405},
doi={10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016}
TY - JOUR
AU - Ara Jo
TI - The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider
JO - Journal of History of Modern Art
PY - 2025
VL - 0
IS - 58
PB - 현대미술사학회
SP - 383
EP - 405
SN - 1598-7728
AB - This study examines recent artistic practices in contemporary art that employ waste as a sculptural material, focusing on the transformative modes through which artists collect, process, and reconfigure discarded objects. While waste has appeared in modern art since the early twentieth century, the exponential increase in global waste production since the 1990s — alongside its transnational circulation and the rise of digital media — has positioned waste at the center of shifting social and ecological consciousness. Contemporary artists have responded by adopting new approaches to gathering and reworking discarded materials, thereby expanding the sculptural possibilities of waste. Focusing on the works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider, this paper analyzes three distinct modes of material transformation: the cutting and reassembly of electronic debris to visualize urban consumer culture; the melting and reformation of plastic waste into functional sculptural objects; and the collection and accumulation of heterogeneous waste to construct hybrid ecological assemblages. These practices demonstrate that waste in contemporary art is not reducible to environmental messaging, but instead acquires layered formal and social significance through various modes of material intervention. Together, these approaches illuminate how the transformative use of waste continues to open new conceptual and aesthetic spaces in contemporary art.
KW - waste;Contemporary Art;reconfiguration;discarded materials;Hyperobjects;Exform
DO - 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
ER -
Ara Jo. (2025). The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider. Journal of History of Modern Art, 0(58), 383-405.
Ara Jo. 2025, "The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider", Journal of History of Modern Art, vol.0, no.58 pp.383-405. Available from: doi:10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
Ara Jo "The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider" Journal of History of Modern Art 0.58 pp.383-405 (2025) : 383.
Ara Jo. The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider. 2025; 0(58), 383-405. Available from: doi:10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
Ara Jo. "The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider" Journal of History of Modern Art 0, no.58 (2025) : 383-405.doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
Ara Jo. The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider. Journal of History of Modern Art, 0(58), 383-405. doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
Ara Jo. The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider. Journal of History of Modern Art. 2025; 0(58) 383-405. doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
Ara Jo. The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider. 2025; 0(58), 383-405. Available from: doi:10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
Ara Jo. "The Reconfiguration of Waste in Contemporary Art: Focusing on the Works of Choi Goen, Mika Rottenberg, and Max Hooper Schneider" Journal of History of Modern Art 0, no.58 (2025) : 383-405.doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.016
