Contemporary Absurdities, Existential Crises, and Visual Art: Relevance to Propagation, Conservation and Crop Improvement

Some have called this an age of absurdity, and as such Contemporary Absurdities, Existential Crises, and Visual Art presents the contributions of artists, theorists, and scholars whose words and works investigate the absurd as a condition of, a tactic for, and a subject in the contemporary. The absurd is a lens on the disturbances of our moment and a challenge to the propositions about and solutions for the world. The absurd shakes off the paralysis that what we know must be the only thing we (re)produce. Those willing to recognize that and confront it, rather than flee from it, are thereby introduced to the political writ large. This edited collection adopts ideas and practices associated with the absurd to explain how the contemporary moment is absurd and how absurdity is a useful, potentially radical tool within the contemporary. Critical art allows the absurd a space within which audiences can observe their own tendencies and assumptions. The absurd in art reveals our inculcation into hegemonic belief structures and the necessity to question the systems to which we subscribe. Today we see the absurd in memes, performative politics, and art, expressing the confusion and disorientation wrought by the endless, emerging crises of our 24/7 relations.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures  Introduction    1. Anatomical Bitransversal Symmetry Axiswerks: Inter-orificial Economics of Evolutionary Body Plan Development Adam Zaretsky 2. Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape: Revised and Redacted Andy Holden 3. Landscape Fictions and Future Realities Aroussiak Gabrielian 4. Why I Should Learn From Our Masters! Bager Akbay 5. The Absurd Isn’t It Ironic? A Vestigial Tale : ‘Vestigial Tale’ About 6740 Google Results Carla Gannis 6. The Absurd and an Agonistic Opportunity Charlotte Kent 7. Eight Variants of Tactical Absurdity in (Post)Conceptual Art: An Overperformance of Typological Exactitude Dave Ball 8. The Weird and the Absurd Graham Harman 9. Absurd Temporalities Grant Bollmer 10. Reflections on Camus’ Absurd Jennifer Lyn Morone 11. Feeling is Funny Katherine Guinness 12. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Amy Coney Barrett Cross-Examined Absurdly by the Medusan French Feminist Philosopher Hélène Cixous Maggie Hennefeld 13. From Planetary Core to the High Seas Mary Mattingly 14. Exulting in the Ab-surd: Artaud to Arp Mary Ann Caws   Appendix: The Janks Collective Archives

About the Author :
Katherine Guinness is assistant professor of critical studies in the Department of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Charlotte Kent is associate professor of visual culture at Montclair State University, editor-at large for The Brooklyn Rail, and an arts writer.