Situation Aesthetics: The Work of Michael Asher

by Kirsi Peltomäki

The first book-length study of this influential artist's work, focusing on the participatory role of the human subject rather than the art object.

Michael Asher doesn't make typical installations. Instead, he extracts his art from the institutions in which it is shown, culling it from collections, histories, or museums' own walls. Since the late 1960s, Asher has been creating situations that have not only taught us about the conditions and contexts of contemporary art, but have worked to define it.

In Situation Aesthetics, Kirsi Peltomäki examines Asher's practice by analyzing the social situations that the artist constructs in his work for viewers, participants, and institutional representatives (including gallery directors, curators, and other museum staff members). Drawing on art criticism, the reports of viewers and participants in Asher's projects, and the artist's own archives, Peltomäki offers a comprehensive account of Asher's work over the past four decades. Because of the intensely site-specific nature of this work, as well as the artist's refusal to reconstruct past works or mount retrospectives, many of the projects Peltomäki discusses are described here for the first time.

By emphasizing the social and psychological sites of art rather than the production of autonomous art objects, Peltomäki argues, Asher constructs experientially complex situations that profoundly affect those who encounter them, bringing about both personal and institutional transformation.

Genres: Art

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2010

About the author

Kirsi Peltomäki is Associate Professor of Art History at Oregon State University and the author of Situation Aesthetics: The Work of Michael Asher (MIT Press).

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written book on the work of Mid-Century artist Michael Asher. Peltomaki situates him very clearly pointing out how though he does certain things in his work he does not exactly fall into any movements -one such movement being institutional critique. This is a good book to read to get an insight into institutional critique, light and space movement, and the LA art scene post-1960. It is also a great read for anyone interested in the formation of situations. I found it helped me to constructively reflect on my own practice.

[yuefei · Rating 4 out of 5]

love the work, not so much the writing (informative, but typically dry)

[Karen]

Found within the pictures of Frank Ghery's Architecture page for NYC