Interpreting Archival Art Through a Paired Reading of Relational Aesthetics and the Archival Impulse: An Analysis of Group Material

Seminar Paper; DECEMBER 2016

Abstract: In 1998, Nicolas Bourriaud coined the term Relational Aesthetics in order to describe and contextualize artwork that relies on socially activated art. Bourriaud and Claire Bishop set their focus of Relational Aesthetics on the activity itself, but pay little attention to the objects used and the space they are in. This material is equally as important when studying the discourse of relational aesthetics and to do that, I have elected to combine this discourse with the study of archival art. Critic Hal Foster identifies the Archival Impulse as a means to discuss the trend of artists using historical objects in the realm of installation. In this act of making history present, the archival artist is animating the archival document from something that is a simple record of a past time and place to a loaded art object that can be used to engage a social discourse. The presentness of displaces or forgotten historical information cannot be looked at as a static object, but one that requires a social interaction from the viewer, or group of viewers. This animation of the archival object for social means leads one to connect the ideas of Foster to those of Bourriaud and Bishop through the combination of these two discourses. I would conclude that the collective Group Material, who created archival installations with the desire to bring about critical social conversations, can be discussed under the umbrella of relational aesthetics as their work. Based on Group Material’s statements, they sought for their work to spark social interactions amongst the viewer in order to bring about a drive for social change. Could we not hypothesize that the social interactions that resulted from the staging of one of their installations was the center of their art practice, and without it their collection is simply a record of time, an unactivated historical record? Through engaging in their work with the ideas of Bourriaud, Bishop, and Foster in mind, the practice of Group Material gains a purpose that was unseen before.