Arranged space : the arrangement of spatial interrelations as sculptural practice

• Main Author: Huber, Robert
• Published: University of Ulster 2012
• Subjects: 730
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.593876

This PhD project aims to investigate the use of social formats in the realm of sculpture and consists of a theoretical reflection on my artistic practice. Since 2008, I run a company called PaintSyndicate, which produces oil paintings in the People's Republic of China. This thesis is an attempt to explain how setting up and running a company can be considered as sculptural practice. Within this research, PaintSyndicate stands exemplarily for my practice and serves as rationale and context. Sculpture today is an ambivalent term describing specifically three-dimensional, artistic objects in the tradition of the statue, while a somehow expanded concept of sculpture is used as an umbrella term to cover a wide range of spatial related art. My argument aims to contribute to a conceptual clarification and develops alongside two main references: firstly, Rosalind Krauss' 'Sculpture in the Expanded Fie/d', as a main reference in a 'post-formalist' discourse, and secondly, Joseph Beuys' 'Social Sculpture', as an example for an expansion of the concept of sculptw-e in the practical realm. Using Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, I define sculpture as social system, considering space as the medium of sculpture and sculptural form as an arrangement of spatial relations. Such a definition of sculptural form shifts the focus from materiality or programmatic tasks to the observer's understanding of space. During the last century, the conception of space has undergone fundamental changes, from being defined as an absolute value, to the existence of a plurality of 'species of space' today. If sculptural form is the result of an engagement of sculptor and space, the existence of multiple 'species of space' corresponds to the actual variety in sculptural form. In this context, my research aims to contribute to a reconsideration of sculpture as a category of contemporary art practice.