Part Object Part Sculpture Symposium

This international symposium investigates the historical and theoretical foundations of Part Object Part Sculpture from multiple points of view.

Panel sessions that focus on rethinking the readymade, the psychoanalytic interpretation of art, and the diverse sculptural practices represented in the exhibition feature distinguished art historians Hal Foster, David Joselit, Molly Nesbit, and Stephen Melville, among others. The symposium also includes gallery conversations with artists Josiah McElheny and Allan McCollum and a concluding plenary session.

See the complete schedule on the next page or download a pdf version. Follow the related links to information about area accommodations and restaurants or download a pdf guide.

REGISTRATION
The symposium is free and open to the public, but advance registration is strongly encouraged.

To register, please call 614 292-6493 or e-mail edweb@wexarts.org with your name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation (if applicable), number attending, and days you plan to attend.


SCHEDULE: FRI, NOV 18

9:30 am
Welcome and remarks

10am–12 pm
Session One: A Different Kind of Readymade

Part Object Part Sculpture presents a very different model of the readymade, one that is handmade, bodily, and erotic, and a narrative that runs counter to the more prevalent understanding of the readymade as an industrially produced object that sets into motion the logic of minimalism and conceptual art. This session seeks to further unpack the implications of rethinking the readymade in specific and the oeuvre of Marcel Duchamp more generally.

Speakers
David Joselit, Professor of History of Art, Yale University
David Deitcher, Independent scholar and writer
Rachel Haidu, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History, University of Rochester

Moderator: Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator of Exhibitions, Wexner Center for the Arts and curator of Part Object Part Sculpture

1:30–2:30 pm
Gallery Conversation with Louise Neri, independent curator and writer, and artist Allan McCollum

3–5 pm
Session Two: Part Object

By entering the erotic and the bodily into the field of postwar sculpture, Part Object Part Sculpture deploys psychoanalysis as a primary methodology for thinking through both object relations and the problem of sculpture. This session further explores the implications of psychoanalysis for the exhibition and specific artists and works.

Speakers
Briony Fer, Reader in History of Art, University College, London
Hal Foster, Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University.
Mignon Nixon, Senior Lecturer, Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Moderator: Lisa Florman, Associate Professor of History of Art, Ohio State University

5–6:30 pm
Reception for all attendees


SCHEDULE: SAT, NOV 19

10 am–12 pm
Session Three: Part Sculpture

There is no conceivable way that only one methodological apparatus, even one as rich (and as problematic) as psychoanalysis, can encompass the range of sculptural practices deployed by artists in Part Object Part Sculpture. This session seeks other narratives and ways of thinking about object relations and the practice of contemporary sculpture, sometimes in ways that are at odds with the discursive formations of the exhibition.

Speakers
Stephen Melville, Professor of History of Art, The Ohio State University
Molly Nesbit, Professor of Art, Vassar College
Peggy Phelan, Ann O'Day Maples Chair in the Arts and Professor of Drama, Stanford University

Moderator: Michael Mercil, Associate Professor of Art, The Ohio State University

1:30–2:30 pm
Gallery Conversation with Louise Neri, independent curator and writer, artist Josiah McElheny; and David Weinberg, Professor of Astronomy, The Ohio State University. McElheny developed An End to Modernity, his blown-glass sculpture of the Big Bang featured in Part Object Part Sculpture, during a Wexner Center creative residency in which he worked with several departments on campus, including astronomy.

3–4 pm
Plenary session with all presenters

Please note: Rosalind Krauss, previously announced as one of the panelists for the symposium, is unable to attend.


image credits

Eva Hesse
Ringaround Arosie, 1965
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fractional and promised gift of Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr., 2005
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Zurich London
© The Estate of Eva Hesse, Hauser & Wirth Zurich London

Lucio Fontana
Concetto spaziale, Natura, 1959/60
Cast bronze
Collection of Maxine and Stuart Frankel, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Yayoi Kusama
Blue Spots, 1965
Sewn stuffed fabric on wood
Becht Collection, Naarden, The Netherlands