On Not Saying, Not Knowing and Thinking About Nothing: Adorno, Dionysius, Derrida and the Negation of Art

TY - JOUR

T1 - On Not Saying, Not Knowing and Thinking About Nothing

T2 - Adorno, Dionysius, Derrida and the Negation of Art

AU - Malt, Johanna

PY - 2018/7/1

Y1 - 2018/7/1

N2 - This article examines accounts of negation or the apophatic in Pseudo-Dionysius, Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida alongside a contemporary work of art by London Fieldworks, Null Object: Gustav Metzger Thinks About Nothing (2012). By exploring models of negative knowledge offered in these works, it asks what happens to the work of art when it becomes preoccupied with negation and how a work of art might embody or manifest – without reproducing – philosophical discourses about negation.

AB - This article examines accounts of negation or the apophatic in Pseudo-Dionysius, Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida alongside a contemporary work of art by London Fieldworks, Null Object: Gustav Metzger Thinks About Nothing (2012). By exploring models of negative knowledge offered in these works, it asks what happens to the work of art when it becomes preoccupied with negation and how a work of art might embody or manifest – without reproducing – philosophical discourses about negation.

U2 - 10.3366/para.2018.0263

DO - 10.3366/para.2018.0263

M3 - Article

SN - 0264-8334

VL - 41

SP - 196

EP - 217

JO - Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory

JF - Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory

IS - 2

ER -