‘Acting’ as a Motif and a Vehicle in Visual Arts

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Actors are frequently present in the work of visual artists, albeit often unnoticed as such, or even denied. They, whether it be the artists themselves or extras, have an ambiguous position. Indeed, the Actor playing a role in an art piece is rarely an object of reflection, despite occurring in a discipline which constantly analyses the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of each of its components. In other words, many works of visual art use a ‘thing’—often the medium itself—while, at the same time, producing discourses about it and/or the category it belongs to. The prefix meta- could apply here in order to describe this tactic. As an example, the written language being used precisely to write about written language. Though it is needless to enumerate favoured meta-thematics which assume this dual purpose within the visual arts—to be at once an effective medium, as well as a motif being reflected upon—the most obvious example is certainly the body itself. While the number of acting parts seem to increase in contemporary visual arts’ expressions with the production of videos, films, and performance-related works, the acting body often remains nothing other than its primary purpose: a vehicle, and is rarely discussed as an acting about acting, namely a meta-acting.

The term ‘acting’ is polysemous and comes with a variety of definitions. However, I am referring to the performing arts in which an actor realises a character, fictional or not, commonly for the stage, for motion pictures, for television or for radio.

This ignored place where the acting operates in visual arts is easily understandable in light of a certain aspect of western art history. A somewhat traditional and established position considers theatre... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto, 2014–2015. Promotional print for Manifesto, 13-channel film installation, colour, 2-channel sound, shot on HD, aspect ratio 16:9,
loop, 12 x 10min 30sec and 1 x 4min. Edition 6 + 4 patrons editions + 2 artist proofs. Courtesy Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin.
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney.

Ming Wong, Devo Partire. Domani / I must go. Tomorrow, 2011. Film still. 5 channel video installation, 12 min. 58 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Carlier | Gebauer.