This Book examines an interplay between discourses on the city that stress theneed for rational-functional order and art’s imaginative deviations from the topdownstructures of urban life. Moving between theory and praxis, the booksituates the city as both a concept and physical construct through which lives andpossibilities are shaped or defined. In response, certain modalities of art createspontaneous, non-rational and playful interludes that risk escape from the urbanapparatus and a hyper-valorisation of rational order. A three-part framework isused to discuss this push-pull dynamic and to assess the strategies of shock,performative embodiment and intervention that emerged in post-war artmovements and in contemporary performance and participatory art practices.The book examines how the disturbances introduced by artists throw the cityconstruct into sharp relief, making it visible and activating momentary encounterswhere new modes of expression can emerge.This Book offers a new approach to interdisciplinary studies of art and urbanity.The book aims to delineate how the city—as concept and construct—is madevisible through artistic practice and in turn challenged or interrogated. Students,researchers and professionals with an interest in the interaction between art andurban studies will discover a new perspective on how urban conditions and issueshave been addressed through artistic practice. The book contributes to anevolving discourse in the urban humanities through an exposition of the city’sdefault construct that is made visible or reimagined through visual art in publicspaces.
Elisha Masemann is an independent researcher and educator and holds a PhDin art history from the University of Auckland (2018). Masemann has lectured inthe medical humanities at the University of Auckland and has received researchawards in New Zealand and Germany, including the Kate Edger Charitable TrustPostdoctoral Research Award and a Women in Research (WiRe) PostdoctoralFellowship at Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster. With Cameron Cartiere(Emily Carr University of Art + Design) and Leon Tan (Unitec), Masemann coauthored‘Mapping art in the public realm 2008-2018’ in The Routledge companionto art in the public realm (2021).
This Book examines an interplay between discourses on the city that stress the
need for rational-functional order and art’s imaginative deviations from the topdown
structures of urban life. Moving between theory and praxis, the book
situates the city as both a concept and physical construct through which lives and
possibilities are shaped or defined. In response, certain modalities of art create
spontaneous, non-rational and playful interludes that risk escape from the urban
apparatus and a hyper-valorisation of rational order. A three-part framework is
used to discuss this push-pull dynamic and to assess the strategies of shock,
performative embodiment and intervention that emerged in post-war art
movements and in contemporary performance and participatory art practices.
The book examines how the disturbances introduced by artists throw the city
construct into sharp relief, making it visible and activating momentary encounters
where new modes of expression can emerge.
This Book offers a new approach to interdisciplinary studies of art and urbanity.
The book aims to delineate how the city—as concept and construct—is made
visible through artistic practice and in turn challenged or interrogated. Students,
researchers and professionals with an interest in the interaction between art and
urban studies will discover a new perspective on how urban conditions and issues
have been addressed through artistic practice. The book contributes to an
evolving discourse in the urban humanities through an exposition of the city’s
default construct that is made visible or reimagined through visual art in public
spaces.
Elisha Masemann
Urban art intervention Socially-engaged art Concept city Urban humanities