A Posthuman Interpretation of Wolfgang Laib’s Work with Pollen as an Ecological Proposition.

Silvia Battista

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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 languageEnglish
JournalPerformance Research
VolumeVol.17
Issue number4 ‘On Ecology’.
Publication statusAccepted/In press - Aug 2012

Keywords

  • POSTHUMANISM
  • PERFORMATIVITY
  • ECOLOGY
  • WOLFGANG LAIB
  • POLLEN

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