Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art

Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art volume calls attention to the unexpected prevalence of ventriloqual motifs and strategies within contemporary art. Engaging with issues of voice, embodiment, power, and projection, the case studies assembled in this volume span a range of media from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation, performance, architecture, and video. Importantly, they both examine and enact ventriloqual practices, and do so as a means of interrogating and performatively bearing out contemporary conceptions of authorship, subjectivity, and performance. Put otherwise, the chapters in this book oscillate seamlessly between art history, theory, and criticism through both analytical and performative means. Across twelve essays on ventriloquism in contemporary art, the authors, who are curators, historians, and artists, shine light on this outdated practice, repositioning it as a conspicuous and meaningful trend within a range of artistic practices today. This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, contemporary art, media studies, performance, museum/curatorial studies, and theater.

IntroductionVoiceoversJENNIE HIRSH AND ISABELLE LORING WALLACE PART IPulling Strings 1 Voice, Vivification, and SubjectivityJasper Johns' Ventriloquist ISABELLE LORING WALLACE 2 Over My Dead BodyPuppets, Performance, and Paralysis in Cardiff and Miller’s The Marionette MakerJENNIE HIRSH 3Putting Words in Your Mouth and Images in Your EyesCOURTNEY MCCLELLAN 4 Dislocated VoicesWael Shawky’s Cabaret CrusadesKATE O’CONNOR PART IIDummies 5 García’s JuegosPuppets, Immunity, TortureJUAN CARLOS GUERRERO-HERNANDEZ 6 Dialectic Silence Schizophonia in Juan Muñoz’s Ventriloquist DummyCINTIA GUTIERREZ REYES 7 Tadeusz Kantor’s Dead DummiesKATIE GEHA PART IIISpeech Acts 8 I RememberOn Modern LivingNORA WENDL 9 EmbolaliaAnna Deavere Smith Throwing Her VoiceJANE BLOCKER 10 Re-siting MarxOkwui Enwezor, Ventriloquism, and the Das Kapital OratorioKERR HOUSTON PART IVEchoes 11 In a Manner of SpeakingCATHERINE CLOVER 12 LITHIC RECORDNICHOLAS B . JACOBSEN AND NINA ELDER

Jennie Hirsh is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Isabelle Loring Wallace is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Georgia.