Reification and the ready-made artist: towards a sensate critique of neoliberalism

ABSTRACT

This essay examines an innovative approach to the Marxist concept of reification by the contemporary art collective Claire Fontaine, who I argue joins historical materialist and radical democratic strands of critique in their artistic and textual practice. I argue that their work responds to a conceptual impasse in contemporary theory between a radical democratic sensory micropolitics on the one hand, and a critique of political economy on the other. Their work synthesises these approaches, taking into account dynamics of commodification, financialisation, and the neoliberal reconfiguration of the relationship between politics and economics.

KEYWORDS:

• Reification
• Marxism
• political economy
• aesthetics
• Claire Fontaine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For a reconstruction of the concept of reification and its application to the critique of contemporary neoliberalism, see Chari (2015, 5).

2. For a further selection of radical democratic perspectives see also Laclau (1996), Marchart (2007), Keenan (2003) and Lummis (1997).

3. See Chari (2015, chapter 4).

4. For a discussion of the intellectual background of Tiqqun see Smith (2010).

5. For a discussion of Claire Fontaine’s work in relation to Italian Marxism and feminism see Mansoor (2016, 167–206).

6. Claire Fontaine. 2014. The Trickster. Plinth, mannequin, make-up, false eyelashes, shoes, socks, underpants, vest, trousers, shirt, jacket, top-hat and silver make-up and paint. https://www.clairefontaine.ws/item/2941/2941.

7. Claire Fontaine. 2017. Evil/Good. Frameless LED lightbox, perspex and metal. https://www.clairefontaine.ws/search/evil%2Fgood.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anita Chari

Anita Chari is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon. She is the author of A Political Economy of the Senses (Columbia University Press, 2015), and her recent work has appeared in Claire Fontaine: Newsfloor (Walter Koenig, 2020), Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond (Routledge, 2020), Catalyst (Noxious Sector Press, 2018), and The Hysterical Material (Smart Museum of Art and Soberscove Press, 2017).