Hayward Conversations

Taru Elfving will discuss the act of witnessing and the address of the viewer in contemporary visual culture. Elfving with argue that when the viewer is addressed, or called to witness, the habitual positions and conventional modes of viewing are momentarily unsettled. Yet the viewer becomes simultaneously implicated through the act of witnessing, entangled with(in) the narratives and events witnessed, allowing for a rethinking of active spectatorship and the viewer’s sense of responsibility. Follow this link to access ‘The Viewer Interrupted’.

Oliver Harris will introduce his research on the myth of Actaeon as the starting point for an exploration of shame, guilt and voyeurism. Drawing on other myths of transgressive sight – Orpheus and Pentheus in particular – as well as contemporary debates regarding pornography and the law, Harris will also address the recent exhibition and closure of Richard Prince’s installation ‘Spiritual America’ (1983) at Tate Modern. Follow this link to access ‘The Trial Of Actaeon’.

Contextual material for further reading:

Haraway, Donna, Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.Femaleman©_Meets_OncoMouse™, Routledge, New York and London, 1997

Vivian Sobchack, The Address of the Eye. A Phenomenology of Film Experience. Princeton, new Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1992

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Ovid, The Metamorphoses

Pierre Klossowski, Diana at her Bath/ The Women of Rome, Marsilio, 1998

Jacques Lacan, ‘The Signification of the Phallus’ in Écrits, Routledge, 1977

Benvenuto Bice, Concerning the Rites of Psychoanalysis, or The Villa of Mysteries, Routledge, 1994

SPEAKERS BIOS:

Taru Elfving is an independent curator and writer based in London (UK) and Turku (FIN). She has written extensively on the figure of the girl as well as on the encounter between art works and their viewers, and has just completed her PhD research on this with a focus on Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s video installations at Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College. Her curatorial practice concentrates on artistic research and exchange as well as site-specific exhibitions internationally. She teaches in art academies in Scandinavia and the UK.

Oliver Harris gained a BA in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare studies at UCL. In between, he studied creative writing at UEA. He writes for the TLS and Bad Idea magazine. His PhD concerns the place of psychoanalysis in relation to myth, philosophy and science.