Year: 2024
Type: editorial
Abstract: In 2001, Julita Wójcik, a Polish visual artist, peeled 50 kilos of potatoes in one of the rooms of Zachęta -National Gallery of Art, a renowned institution specialising in contemporary art.The artist, dressed in her everyday garments, was assisted in this activity by, among others, visitors.After her performance ended, all that was left was the stool, the peeler, and the potato peels.Wójcik declared that she intended to make a reference to the tradition of genre art, that is, art that conveys everyday life; to demonstrate its role in the history of national art, as well as to show how everyday chores performed by a female artist debunk the sublime figure of the artist.She wanted to 'stage a coup, a personal revolution out of the kitchen'.1 Wójcik's work is a good example of what is involved in an artistic 'transfiguration of the commonplace', including the controversies it can provoke.Arthur C. Danto's famous expression refers to, among other things, Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes . 2 There is a conspicuous difference between Wójcik's performance consisting of actually peeling potatoes and Warhol's artefact, which looked like a 'mere real thing' (Danto's words) alluding to tidying up.Wójcik's did not create a look-alike of an everyday activity, but she literally performed it.At the same time, however, she did transfigure it, turning potato peeling into something eventually characterised by 'aboutness', to use another Dantoesque term, namely that peeling potatoes can be about peeling potatoes.
Source: Aesthetic Investigations
DOI: 10.58519/n16jh153
Author: Mateusz Salwa
Institution: University of Warsaw
Language: English
Topic: Art, Politics, and Modernism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4405940810