| Moving
from deconstructionist architecture to deconstructionist conceptual art,
a work is deconstructionist if it deliberately presents then complicates
and fractures a meaning or set of meanings. For instance, Dan Graham's work
(not yet presented here) does this to disclose the possibility of a desirable
basic meaning, but one which is never reached in the creation or 'active
contemplation' of the work, because it remains to be created by observers...
Graham rearranges elements of one style or of several styles, and thus 'defamiliarises'
or alienates them so that the observer begins to perceive the possibility
of a, if not 'the', very different reality 'underlying' the seemingly secure
conventions by which we are said/shown to be enslaved. By superimposition,
the work may go on to suggest other conventions, more appropriate to our
condition. In some cases it is content to carry out the first step of defamiliarisation.(John
Griffiths) |
