A Constructed Situation and a Cotton Banner

In 2009, British artist Jeremy Deller’s work It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq entered the permanent collections of three US museums. It is described by the collecting institutions as a “constructed situation and cotton banner.” Curatorial research intended to address questions about its fu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Joey Orr
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Gothenburg 2021-08-01
Series:Parse Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://parsejournal.com/article/a-constructed-situation-and-a-cotton-banner/
Description
Summary:In 2009, British artist Jeremy Deller’s work It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq entered the permanent collections of three US museums. It is described by the collecting institutions as a “constructed situation and cotton banner.” Curatorial research intended to address questions about its future exhibition instead generated further questions about the banner’s condition and location, the status of the work’s material aspect, and the parameters of particular modes of dematerialized artwork more broadly. The analytical framework is based on notions of care and feminist contributions on the centrality of maintenance. This article posits that both material and immaterial aspects can remain at play in a work of social practice, and its operations exceed its exhibitionary phase.
ISSN:2002-0511
2002-0953