Contemporary Absurdities, Existential Crises, and Visual Art

An investigation of 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 truth and confront it, rather than flee from it, are thereby introduced to the political writ large.

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. This edited collection, featuring contributions by well-known artists and scholars, 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.

Katherine Guinness is a theorist and historian of contemporary art. She is a lecturer in art history at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Charlotte Kent is associate professor of visual culture at Montclair State University, editor-at-large for The Brooklyn Rail, and an arts writer.