Invitation to the Defense of Laura Preston

The Examination Panel is made up of: Ruth Sonderegger (chair), Sabeth Buchmann (supervisor), and Susanne Leeb (external appraiser, Leuphana University Lüneburg).

Abstract

The thesis proposes that consideration of the sculptural dimensions of the conceptual artwork are placed alongside debates of dematerialization in the historiography of conceptual art and at its very center, New York, 1968–73. It aims to complement the historical focus on the negation of form by recognizing conceptual works that critically question the object yet present constitutive forms for art. The argument is based on the early performance works of African American artist Adrian Piper, in particular Catalysis, no. 3 (1970), related to the artist’s text “The Ongoing Autobiography of the Art Object.” A discussion of her work alongside artworks by other conceptual artists who shared the same space and time as Piper, including Sol LeWitt and Lucinda Childs, considers that conceptual art has a relation to the sculptural concerns of minimalism but extends beyond the primacy given to the appearance of the phenomenological object and further questions the association of conceptual art with the commodity. The theoretical references that support this critical review of conceptual art history and the recognition of the sculptural dimensions of the conceptual artwork come predominantly from the decolonial thinking of the Black radical tradition.

Short biography

Laura Preston is an artist, curator, and editor. She has served as an associate editor of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and documenta 14, Athens / Kassel. She was also a guest curator of Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, and curator, later curator-at-large, of Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington.

The thesis defense will be in English and will take place at the Academy at Schillerplatz in room M15b.

We are looking forward to welcoming you.