Date of Award
Spring 1-1-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Kira van Lil
Second Advisor
Claire J. Farago
Third Advisor
Annette de Stetcher
Abstract
In the aftermath of the Cold War, the United States’ cultural and political influence, driven in part by neoliberal greed, has increasingly expanded into new ‘frontiers’ to market American music, food, film, and sports. It should come as no surprise, then, that today, many artists around the world are driven to address such topics as America’s ubiquitous military presence, de facto economic control, and pervasive cultural influence in their work. One such artist, Bjørn Melhus (German, b. 1966), provides commentary on American empire, primarily through the themes of war and consumerism, while highlighting the global pervasiveness of American television and Hollywood cinema in his installations of experimental films that immerse audiences in multi-sensory environments. For example, the artist’s 2003 installation, Still Men Out There borrows its entire soundtrack from American war movies and reflects the artist’s eerily acute sensibility to the glorification of war in American culture. Scholars often interpret Melhus’ work, which mines American media for its subject matter, in terms of appropriation, and this is reflected in the contexts in which the artist has exhibited. Rather than situating this artist’s work solely around appropriation as practice, this thesis will apply, for the first time, queer critiques of empire by scholars like Jasbir Puar, Amit Rai, and Laura Briggs as well as José Esteban Muñoz’s seminal theory of ‘disidentification’ to the work of Bjørn Melhus. This investigation will ultimately demonstrate how these works’ complex doses of irony and skepticism go beyond mere appropriation, to reveal an artist grappling with American militarism and consumerism—two topics that are inextricably linked.
Recommended Citation
Penn, Alexander William, "Weit Weit Weg: the Disidentificatory Strategies of Bjørn Melhus" (2017). Art History Theses & Dissertations. 34.
https://scholar.colorado.edu/arth_gradetds/34
Included in
Art Practice Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons