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2 - Material Temporal Work in Artistic Innovation

How Hilma af Klint Powered Time

from Part I - The Politics of Time: Ontologies and Metaphysics of Organization as Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2023

By
Miriam Feuls ,
Christina Lüthy  and
Silviya Svejenova
Edited by
François-Xavier de Vaujany ,
Robin Holt  and
Albane Grandazzi
François-Xavier de Vaujany
Affiliation:
Universite Paris Dauphine-PSL
Robin Holt
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Albane Grandazzi
Affiliation:
Grenoble Ecole de Management
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Summary

This chapter explores the material temporal work involved in protecting a radical artistic innovation, conceived ahead of its time, from incomprehension and projecting it into the future in search of receptive audiences. Inspired by the trajectory and recent rediscovery of the pioneering abstract artist Hilma af Klint, we suggest that it is temporal agency (i.e. anticipating of and acting upon one’s future significance) and material temporal work (i.e. influencing, sustaining, or redirecting interpretations of time through materiality) that enable the radical artistic innovation to reach receptive audiences, spanning over a century. We distinguish two processes of material temporal work: bifurcating time by working in parallel along established and unknown temporalities, and bridging time by narrative construction, waiting time, and emotional resonance with distant-future artists, museum curators, and critics. Taken together, these two processes power time as the ultimate organizer of a radical artistic innovation’s comprehension and appreciation, i.e. engage time in the politics of meaning.

Keywords

material temporal workradical innovationartpowering timeemotional resonancepolitics of meaning
Type
Chapter
Information
Organization as Time
Technology, Power and Politics
 , pp. 36 - 60
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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