institutional critique

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Douglas Crimp’s “On the Museum’s Ruins”: Institutional Critique and the Postmodern Image

Douglas Crimp's On the Museum's Ruins is a foundational text of institutional critique. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The museum as the "ruins" of the modernist myth of originality; 2) The "Pictures Generation" (Sherman, Levine) and the use of "appropriation" to deconstruct authorship; 3) How photography, as an "outsider-core," rewrote the museum's grammar; 4) The exhibition as an "argument" rather than a neutral display. Complements Krauss, Sekula, and Tagg.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

Martha Rosler’s “Decoys and Disruptions”: Images and Discourse as Social Intervention

Martha Rosler's Decoys and Disruptions is a workshop for social intervention. This analysis breaks down its 4 cores: 1) Critiquing liberal documentary, arguing for "alliance with others"; 2) Using feminism to deconstruct domesticity, the body, and media (e.g., "Semiotics of the Kitchen"); 3) Reframing the exhibition as a public forum for policy ("If You Lived Here..."); 4) The "politics of editing" (captions, layout). A key text in institutional critique alongside Sekula and Tagg.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

John Tagg’s “The Burden of Representation”: An Archaeology of Evidence and Governance

John Tagg's The Burden of Representation is an archaeology of the photographic archive. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) A photo's "evidentiary power" is not inherent but is produced by institutional archival procedures (police, medical); 2) "Documentary" is not a neutral record but a tool of "governmentality" (a Foucauldian concept) for classifying and disciplining subjects; 3) How photography (e.g., police files) constructs and fixes social identity; 4) A methodology focused on documents and practices, not masterpieces.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

Rosalind Krauss’s “The Originality of the Avant-Garde”: A Machine for Deconstructing Modernist Myths

Rosalind Krauss's The Originality of the Avant-Garde is a critical machine for deconstructing modernist myths. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) How "originality" is a discursive and institutional effect; 2) The "index" (trace) theory, using Peirce to redefine photography and conceptual art; 3) The "Expanded Field" model for remapping sculpture; 4) The "Grid" as a self-mythology of modernism. A key text for understanding art, photography, and institutional critique.
2025.11.05
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