Counter-Realism - Rethinking Art's Histories by Tamara Trodd Hardcover

About the Book

Counter-realism shows the ways in which key features of contemporary art may be understood in relation to fundamental aspects of contemporary political and economic life.

Book Synopsis

An ambitious and original study with case studies focusing on the works of William Kentridge, Amalia Ulman, Melanie Gilligan, Ryan Trecartin and Elizabeth Price, Counter-realism shows the ways in which key features of contemporary art may be understood in relation to fundamental aspects of contemporary political and economic life.

From the Back Cover

An ambitious and original study of contemporary art, Counter-realism examines works by William Kentridge, Amalia Ulman, Melanie Gilligan, Ryan Trecartin and Elizabeth Price, and shows the ways in which they may be understood in relation to fundamental aspects of contemporary political and economic life.

Emerging from the period of economic global orthodoxy from the 1970s until the financial crisis of 2007-8, together these artists' films and videos protest the 'common sense' of neoliberalism and speak eloquently of the forms of distortion, haunting and decreation produced by the economic reality we habitually take for granted.

Looking to the future, as increased economic inequality, fraying social cohesion, and decay in democratic institutions prompt a global reckoning, some fear a return to the violent and repressive politics of the 1930s. In response, Counter-realism proposes a counter-model of return to artistic and critical strategies which bring to visibility the forces structuring the present. Convulsed by the spectre of historical return but to dynamic critical purpose, this is art which alienates and estranges audiences, awakening us to the forces distorting both our selves and the world around us.

About the Author

Tamara Trodd is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh