AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

This project explores the fissures and junctures between the utopian propositions that everyone has equal intelligence, that everyone is an artist, and that there is an art that the people can call their own. The project re-examines the tensions that exist between the high art world and the public, focussing on the potentials that might occur if these tensions were bridged using social sculpture and emancipatory discourse theories of Joseph Beuys, Jacques Ranciere et.al. These concepts are surveyed by means of participatory events and discourse, locating the events in diverse sites across New Zealand in order to test their capacity to function in the current cultural and art worlds.