Abstract
Considering ecology as the study of the relations that organisms establish with one another and with their physical surrounding, a posthuman reading aims to look at those relations in order to problematize an exclusively human position in the world. This article offers a posthuman interpretation of the artist Wolfgang Laib’s method of work with pollen presenting it as a performative ecological proposition. I investigate Laib’s method of collection and presentation of pollen through the posthuman theory of agential realism conceived by the physic Karen Barad. Through this theoretical perspective I propose that Laib’s method constitutes a performative configuration of relationships within which both the artist and the pollen emerge as agentive. This is a proposition within which the artist emerges as entangled in a web of relations, that includes his creations, the cosmos and the environment where he dwells and all other living organisms inhabiting the same environment.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Performance Research |
Volume | Vol.17 |
Issue number | 4 ‘On Ecology’. |
Publication status | Accepted/In press - Aug 2012 |
Keywords
- POSTHUMANISM
- PERFORMATIVITY
- ECOLOGY
- WOLFGANG LAIB
- POLLEN