Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art volume calls attention to the unexpected prevalence of ventriloqual motifs and strategies within contemporary art.
Engaging with issues of voice, embodiment, power, and projection, the case studies assembled in this volume span a range of media from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation, performance, architecture, and video. Importantly, they both examine and enact ventriloqual practices, and do so as a means of interrogating and performatively bearing out contemporary conceptions of authorship, subjectivity, and performance. Put otherwise, the chapters in this book oscillate seamlessly between art history, theory, and criticism through both analytical and performative means. Across twelve essays on ventriloquism in contemporary art, the authors, who are curators, historians, and artists, shine light on this outdated practice, repositioning it as a conspicuous and meaningful trend within a range of artistic practices today.
This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, contemporary art, media studies, performance, museum/curatorial studies, and theater.
Introduction: Voiceovers Jennie Hirsh and Isabelle Wallace 1. Voice, Vivification, and Subjectivity: Jasper Johns Ventriloquist Isabelle Loring Wallace 2. Over My Dead Body: Puppets, Performance, and Paralysis in Cardiff and Miller’s The Marionette Maker Jennie Hirsh 3. Not All Objects that Look Have Eyes Courtney McClellan 4. Dislocated Voices: Wael Shawky’s Cabaret Crusades Kate O’Connor 5. García’s Games (1978-1979): Puppets, Trauma, Immunity Juan Guerrero-Hernandez 6. Dialectic Silence: Schizophonia in Juan Muñoz’s Ventriloquist Dummy Cintia Gutiérrez Reyes 7. Tadeusz Kantor’s Dead Dummies Katie Geha 8. I remember: On Modern Living Nora Wendl 9. Embolalia Jane Blocker 10. Re-Siting Marx Kerr Houston 11. In a Manner of Speaking Catherine Clover 12. The Lithic Record Nina Elder and nicholas b. jacobsen
Jennie Hirsh is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Isabelle Loring Wallace is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Georgia.
Reviews for Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art
"""Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art is a fascinating collection of essays on the use of ventriloquism and puppetry in contemporary art. The writing, research, and arguments are exemplary. The editors and writers make a compelling case for considering the topic of ventriloquism in relationship to painting, sculpture, installation, performance, video, and even architecture."" --Jennie Klein, Ohio University"
