Gloria Sogl ~ Doing the Work Before the Work."Neutrality/Privilege" and "Artistic Production/ Productivity" within a Larger Concept of Unlearning

Thesis Supervisor: Ana Teixeira Pinto

Thesis: Doing the Work Before the Work. "Neutrality/Privilege" and "Artistic Production/ Productivity" within a Larger Concept of Unlearning

August 2024

Abstract 

In this thesis, I examine how neutrality is a privilege in artistic practice and how, as such, it is inherently impossible for the history of Art to be at all neutral. I explore the dynamics of artistic practice both as an unattainable form of labor and as a way for the artist to attempt to work through and disentangle themselves from what is his/her/their personal self-entangled assumed universal position. This attempt aims to register and expand art practices’ decay through “artistic” methods within its’ social modern nucleus.

 Applying the concept of “unlearning” as a method to deconstruct established practices, I question the practice of weaving as a procedure of aesthetic deviation from social norms with (un)certain outcomes. I find that this kind of “unweaving” challenges the supposed “universal” language of academic and artistic expertise and the “imperial” conquest of art. Drawing upon the ideas of German writer, art historian and socialist theorist, Lu Märten, and of German writer and art historian/critic, Carl Einstein, I aim to decenter some classic European capitalist and colonial premises within Art History; advocating instead for a more egalitarian design practice. This thesis perceives Art to be to some extent a product of colonizing enclosures/limitations that are largely characterized by the continuous valorization, appropriation and expropriation of a person’s artistic “life work” to sustain an institutionalized form and aesthetic category beyond its immediate context. By recognizing and questioning certain social constructs and what I consider to be privileges within my own artistic practice, I strive to disentangle myself from what I perceive to be entrenched narratives and social roles, desiring to engage in an artistic life practice that consciously acknowledges its’ social and personal dimensions (and limitations), thereby striving to contribute to a perspective shift in the concept of neutrality and complexity that I consider to be inherent in forms of artistic production.

Author Gloria Sogl