John C. Welchman – författare

The condition of borders has been crucial in exhibitions, conferences and publications. This text aims to offer a frame for the discussion of border discourses. It develops important contexts in art and architectural theory, contemporary film-making, criticism and cultural politics, for the proliferation of "border theories" and "border practices" that have marked a new stage in the debates over postmodernism, cultural studies and postcolonialism.

Vitrines and glass cabinets are familiar apparatuses that have in large part defined modern modes of display and visibility, both within and beyond the museum. They separate objects from their contexts, group them with other objects, both similar and dissimilar, and often serve to reinforce their intrinsic or aesthetic values. The vitrine has much in common with the picture frame, the plinth and the gallery, but it has not yet received the kind of detailed art historical and theoretical discussion that has been brought to these other modes of formal display. The twelve contributions to this volume examine some of the points of origin of the vitrine and the various relations it brokers with sculpture, first in the Wunderkammer and cabinet of curiosities and then in dialog with the development of glazed architecture beginning with Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851). The collection offers close discussions of the role of the vitrine and shop window in the rise of commodity culture and their apposition with Constructivist design in the work of Frederick Kiesler; as well as original readings of the use of vitrines in Surrealism and Fluxus, and in work by Joseph Beuys, Paul Thek, Claes Oldenburg and his collaborators, Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley, Dan Graham, Vito Acconci, Damien Hirst and Josephine Meckseper, among others. Sculpture and the Vitrine also raises key questions about the nature and implications of vitrinous space, including its fronts onto desire and the spectacle; transparency and legibility; and onto ideas and practices associated with the archive: collecting, preserving and ordering.

It develops important contexts in art and architectural theory, contemporary film-making, criticism and cultural politics, for the proliferation of 'border theories' and 'border practices' that have marked a new stage in the debates over postmodernism, cultural studies and postcolonialism.

Vitrines and glass cabinets are familiar apparatuses that have in large part defined modern modes of display and visibility, both within and beyond the museum. They separate objects from their contexts, group them with other objects, both similar and dissimilar, and often serve to reinforce their intrinsic or aesthetic values. The vitrine has much in common with the picture frame, the plinth and the gallery, but it has not yet received the kind of detailed art historical and theoretical discussion that has been brought to these other modes of formal display. The twelve contributions to this volume examine some of the points of origin of the vitrine and the various relations it brokers with sculpture, first in the Wunderkammer and cabinet of curiosities and then in dialog with the development of glazed architecture beginning with Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851). The collection offers close discussions of the role of the vitrine and shop window in the rise of commodity culture and their apposition with Constructivist design in the work of Frederick Kiesler; as well as original readings of the use of vitrines in Surrealism and Fluxus, and in work by Joseph Beuys, Paul Thek, Claes Oldenburg and his collaborators, Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley, Dan Graham, Vito Acconci, Damien Hirst and Josephine Meckseper, among others. Sculpture and the Vitrine also raises key questions about the nature and implications of vitrinous space, including its fronts onto desire and the spectacle; transparency and legibility; and onto ideas and practices associated with the archive: collecting, preserving and ordering.

Stopgap Measures presents an exciting selection of essays, interviews and shorter pieces written over more than three decades by noted art historian and cultural critic John C. Welchman. It includes reflections on specific works including Kelley’s early performances Confusion (1981-84) and Monkey Island (1982-83); Liquid Diet (1989/2006), the artist’s only extended reflection on the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland; Fresh Acconci (1995, with Paul McCarthy); Petting Zoo created for Skulptur Projekte Münster, 2007; the landmark installation Day Is Done (2005); and Kelley’s final work Mobile Homestead. The volume features a signature series of pathbreaking essays on Kelley’s innovations in photography, writing, physical comedy and verbal humor; memory, popular culture, dress-up and Americana; the uncanny, imaginative projection and dark fantasy; appropriation and giving; authorship and self-construction; and the artist’s little-remarked negotiation with histories of and ideas about Asia. The book concludes with a new essay connecting the refrain disappearances that punctuate Kelley’s career with specters of social catastrophe and nuclear annihilation.

This extensive appraisal of Richard Jackson's œuvre is a key resource on one of America's major contemporary artists, combining critical analysis of Jackson's work with wit and wisdom from the artist himself.This massive appraisal of Jackson’s art, authored by art historian John C. Welchman and featuring an in-depth illustrated chronology by Dagny Corcoran, layers analysis of Jackson's work with reflections by the artist himself, drawn from extensive interviews and placed alongside new materials from Jackson's archive. Welchman’s text is the primary resource on the career of one of America's major contemporary artists.Corcoran’s chronology―pulling from extensive new research and interviews with figures such as Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman and Rosamund Felsen―traces the important events in Jackson’s life.