Page 205 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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176 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

too, expressing different attitudes about with a newspaper advertisement asking for
morality, ethics, politics and aesthetics. donations of old T.V. sets with the idea of
Gamboni’s research in this area began with replacing the work himself, heaping insult
a study of a 1980 outdoor exhibition of onto injury from the point of view of the
modern sculpture in Bienne, Switzerland in artist by implying that anyone could remake
which over half the works were willfully this work of art.
damaged or destroyed. This was surprising
because outdoor art exhibitions had been
held there for 25 years without incident. Transgression and the ‘rules of the
There were no simple explanations. Gamboni game’ in contemporary art
(1983) examined events leading up to the
show and the context. Publicized conflicts Art controversies are forms of social interac-
among the exhibition’s organizers, and tion frequently associated with ‘successful’
reports of large expenditures in this town of recent art. Nathalie Heinich (1998c) main-
skilled labourers badly hit by rising unem- tains that controversies are intrinsic features
ployment had set the stage for public outrage. of recognition processes in the field of the
The exhibition was installed in a public park contemporary visual arts. She identified a
making regular park users (largely working three-fold process that is reminiscent of a
class men) a captive audience and intruding French children’s game called ‘the hot hand’.
on their leisure space. Purchase of a hard-to- The game involves keeping one’s hand on
find exhibition catalogue was necessary for top of others in a frantic rules-oriented game
informed viewing. Gamboni found many dif- of transgression (of norms by artists), rejec-
ferent explanations for the rejection of spe- tion (of works by publics) and integration (of
cific works. For example, works made of new art into artistic canons by peers and gate-
expensive materials displaying technical keepers). New art deliberately challenges
skills valued in industry suffered less damage boundaries between good taste and bad,
than pieces in less conventional materials, between art and non-art, fomenting conflict
perhaps due to the anger of unemployed fac- between uninitiated publics and art-world
tory workers at the use of public funds to insiders. Consequently, new forms of con-
subsidize what they saw as poor craftsman- temporary art have become increasingly
ship. Nude sculptures (which are common- provocative as avant-gardes compete and art
place in art museums) were surprising and professionals collaborate in innovation
offensive to some members of the general processes that become difficult for publics
public. to understand. Heinich maintains that indif-
One case attracted considerable publicity: ference is purgatory for contemporary artists.
the destruction of an installation by Gerald Negative public reactions are preferable
Minkoff called ‘Video Piece’ by the town’s to indifference for artistic careers. Successful
chief gardener who was taken to court. The contemporary art generates social conflict
work consisted of painted television sets that but it must receive critical acclaim from art
had been partly buried in a design that professionals and thus entails collaboration
spelled out in Braille the equivalent of too (to establish consensus in art worlds).
‘I see’. The pattern could only be perceived As well as the ‘game’ of transgression,
from an aerial view making the work inac- rejection and assimilation produces an esca-
cessible to the blind (or sighted viewers with- lating sense of alienation in the general
out an airplane and knowledge of Braille). public because many tastes and values
The gardener claimed he had mistaken the expressed in contemporary art worlds are
work for garbage. When ordered by the judge to irreconcilable with widely-held standards in
pay the artist damages, the gardener countered civil society.