Fillip

July 31, 2009 / Reimagining the art object as sharing some basic ontological qualities with the riddle, Maria Fusco will discuss the most precise methods for writing about or writing around the art object: to elicit, to unlock, to induce its essential obscurity with essential obscurity. Prospecting Maurice Blanchot’s observations on the image as cadaver into a potential “stylus” for the production of contemporary art criticism, she will investigate the textual plotting of judgment’s inscription and the subsequent difficulties in securing it.

This talk was originally presented on February 28, 2009, as part of Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism, a forum and month long speaker series organized with Artspeak.

Maria Fusco is a Belfast-born writer and lecturer based in London, England. She is currently Director of Art Writing in the Department of Art at Goldsmiths and has previously worked with organizations such as Book Works, General Public Agency, and the ICA, London. In 2004, she commissioned and edited Put About: A Critical Anthology on Independent Publishing (Book Works, 2004) and convened an accompanying symposium in collaboration with Tate Modern. She is a regular contributor to international visual culture magazines including Art Monthly, Circa, Dot Dot Dot, Frieze, 032c, sexymachinery, and Tema Celeste. She is founding editor of The Happy Hypocrite, a biannual journal for and about experimental art writing.