The End of Art, Again: Systems and the
Aesthetics of Dispersion
A discussion between Francis Halsall
and Rachel O’Dwyer
Friday 16th June, 6pm, Temple Bar Gallery and
Studios, Dublin
To mark the
publication of Contemporary Art, Systems and the Aesthetics of Dispersion (Routledge,
2023) please join us for a conversation and refreshments with the author and
Rachel O’Dwyer.
This
book considers five artists who exemplify contemporary art practice:
Seth
Price; Liam Gillick; Martin Creed; Hito Steyerl; and Theaster Gates.
Given the
diversity of materials used in art today, once-traditional artistic mediums and
practices have become obsolete in describing what artists do today. Instead of
stable mediums practitioners now be use whatever systems of distribution and
display are available to them. The two central arguments are: any understanding
of what art is will always be underwritten by a related view of what a human
being is; and that these both have a particular character in late capitalism
or, as is named here, The Age of Dispersion.
Rachel
O’Dwyer is a lecturer in
Digital Cultures in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She is the
author of Tokens, (Forthcoming Verso October 2023). She was formerly a
research fellow in Connect, the Centre for Future Networks and Communications
in Trinity College Dublin and a Fulbright scholar in collaboration with the
Future of Money project in University of California, Irvine. Her research
focuses on the intersection of cultural and digital economies and has published
widely on this and other topics.
