Reflections on contemporary art and the rhetoric of community

Unrestricted The way in which contemporary art participates in the rhetoric of community reflects an inherent ambiguity that makes the term vulnerable to problematic uses and misuses evident in many community-based art projects. This thesis situates questions concerning community apart from the traditional concept of a unified social formation, through a historical and theoretical analysis of its various configurations in order to forge more complex and fluid possibilities for art that engages the concept of community. Specifically, this investigation considers how Do Ho Suh’s Floor and Haegue Yang’s Series of Vulnerable Arrangements operate on a more abstract level and employ artistic strategies that do not necessarily involve participants to redirect normative notions of community towards an altogether different model of collectivity and subjectivity, one that draws upon heterogeneity rather than on a utopic ideal.