No medium just a shell: how works of art configure their medium

Abstract

In this article, I argue that the question of what works of art do is inextricably bound up with an ontological question of what it is that is doing the doing. In others words, the question of what is being done by the artwork cannot be answered without answering what the agency for that action is. First, I introduce the problem of medium in art after modernism. I argue that the terms ‘end of art’, ‘postmodern’ and ‘postmedium’ are commensurate, and that all require a rethinking of concept of medium in art practice. I then argue that Niklas Luhmann's account of medium (in his sociologically grounded systems theory) provides an answer to the question: What Work Does the Work of Art Do? My argument is that the work of art gives the medium form, configures it and thus actively constitutes it as a medium. As a concluding example, I turn to Pierre Huyghe and Phillipe Parreno's collaborative project No Ghost Just a Shell (1999–2002) and demonstrate how Luhmann's account of medium/form can be used to explain the work.

Keywords:

• medium
• postmedium
• end of art
• Luhmann