2023, Vol.69, No.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.81

pISSN : 1229-0246
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ksasa

After the outbreak of the Black Death, pictorial representations of the pain caused by the plague became increasingly popular, the zenith of which was between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. These images have attracted scholarly attention mainly as historical records describing the symptoms of the disease and its medical treatments. The goal of the present study, however, is to demonstrate that they played an “unexpected” role in comforting contemporary viewers: for those who were already contaminated, the images gave shape to their current pain, while for the noninfected, they materialized the fear of possible infection and the following pain. Here, the images can be understood as “objectified pain” in Elaine Scarry’s term, allowing an otherwise inexpressible inner state to be communicated to the external world, and thereby offering emotional catharsis. In the images of pain, the viewers also discovered the fact that they were not alone in suffering ― a crucial mechanic of consolation particularly emphasized by modern practices of bibliotherapy. Lastly, adopting Aby Warburg’s ideas, these images are to be considered as a kind of Pathosformel embodying Europeans’ efforts in the age of the bubonic plague to sublimate the inexplicable crisis as well as to orient themselves in that chaotic world.

In 2023, the world is slowly emerging from the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. However, the coronavirus has spread the universal perception of a different way of life to people around the world. This study examines the process in which the characteristics of divisive subjects are recognized by modern people from the elements of mask wearing and online non-face-to-face activities forced by the COVID-19 era, and analyzes the appearance of borderline subjectivity in contemporary art. The COVID-19 situation promoted life in a completely non-face-to-face environment. Many face-to-face activities were converted to non-face-to-face activities, and the importance of an online environment that replaces reality was highlighted. Each individual was given the opportunity to create an alternative self and be freed from various constraints in reality. In an online environment that differentiates time-space into a multilayered style, art acts as a place where various identities are projected, which has differentiated the artist himself beyond the formal aspect of the artwork. The coronavirus situation strengthened this online environment, revealing different boundaries in terms of setting relationships between writers and avatars, and making art as a multilayered self-projection body.

This paper analyzes the emergence of pathogenic mediums in contemporary art ― saliva, sweat, blood, odor, fungus, and bacteria ― and seeks to articulate the messages such art conveys in this pandemic era through the insights of Jean-Luc Nancy and his community theory. The artists discussed in this paper are Anicka Yi, Pierre Huyghe, and Sun Choi, whose works have been commonly framed in relational aesthetics, post-human discourse, or Anthropocene theory. Considering such frames to be a little off the point, this paper suggests that the rise of pathogenic mediums has to do with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the dire reality our community faces in this global crisis. In order to find a connection between viral infection and communal affection, this paper examines the notion of community Nancy formulated in his writings Inoperative Community, An All-Too-Human Virus and Intruder. In other words, the outbreak of COVID-19 is an event that awakens the essence of our community as a space for “exposition,” for the “singular plural” actualized through a certain “infection or affection” by which the innermost otherness of the subject comes to light. As this paper claims, the pathogenic artists provide an opportunity to lead us back to the community by awakening the inherent otherness in all of us distressed long enough in social distancing and lockdown.