Aftershock: The Ethics of Contemporary Transgressive Art

Accused by the tabloid press of setting out to 'shock', controversial artworks are vigorously defended by art critics, who frequently downplay their disturbing emotional impact. This is the first book to subject contemporary art to a rigorous ethical exploration. It argues that, in favouring conceptual rather than emotional reactions, commentators actually fail to engage with the work they promote. Scrutinising notorious works by artists including Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Richard Billingham, Marc Quinn, Sally Mann, Marcus Harvey, Hans Bellmer, Paul McCarthy, Tierney Gearon, and Tracey Emin, "Aftershock" insists on the importance of visceral, emotional and 'ethical' responses. Far from clouding our judgement, Cashell argues, shame, outrage or revulsion are the very emotions that such works set out to evoke. While also questioning the catch-all notion of 'transgression', this illuminating and controversial book neither jumps indiscriminately to the defence of shocking artworks nor dismisses them out of hand.

Table of Contents:
CONTENTS Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction The Incompatibility of Aesthetics and Contemporary Art Transgression: the War against Disinterestedness The Ethics of Transgressive Art 1 Everyone Hates a Tourist The Ethical Analysis of Contemporary Art Disinterestedness and Cultural Tourism The Ethical Evaluation of Art: Autonomism versus Moralism A Difficult Case: Marc Quinn and Alison Lapper Transgressive Art Meets the Autonomist-Moralist Model Quinn and Lapper Revisited: A Contextualist Analysis Conclusion 2 Carte Blanche Marcus Harvey's Myra Preliminary Approaches to the Ethical Analysis of Myra 'Suffer Little Children': The Facts of the Case Myra: Portrait of a Serial Killer Postmodernism and the Absence of the Referent Thesis Contextualist Ethical Analysis of Myra Myra and Merited Response Theory Conclusion 3 Atrocity Exhibition Aesthetic Defences of the Work of Jake & Dinos Chapman The Canonic Defence and the Chapmans' Disasters of War The Transgressive Defence of Transgressive Art Hans Bellmer, Bataille and Authentic Transgression The Trivial Pursuit of Psychoanalysis Evaluation of the Aesthetic Defences of Transgressive Art Acknowledging the Immorality of the Chapmans' Work Contextual Ethical Evaluation of Zygotic Acceleration Conclusion 4 Fearless Speech Tracey Emin's Ethics of the Self 'With Myself Always Myself Never Forgetting': The Structure of Ethical Subjectivity Exposure without Reserve: Emotional Response and its Moral Significance Shame: An Existential Analysis Concluding Ethical Evaluation: Tracey Emin's Fearless Speech 5 Horrorshow The Transvaluation of Morality in the work of Damien Hirst Obscene Objects of Pleasurable Fascination Non-Human Animals and Ethical Inclusion Attending to the Other of the Animal: Art and the Ethics of Care Exquisite Corpse: Death and the Sublime Cognitive Immoralism The Artistic Transvaluation of Morality Aftershock: Tragic Sympathy and Meta-Ethical Significance Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Kieran Cashell is Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies at the School of Art and Design, Limerick Institute of Technology.