Reimag(in)ing the Victorians in Contemporary Art

From contemporary deployments of taxidermy, magic lanterns and microscopy to the visualization of forgotten lives, marginalized narratives and colonial histories, this book explores how the work of artists including Mat Collishaw, Yinka Shonibare, Tessa Farmer, Mark Dion, Dorothy Cross and Ingrid Pollard reimag(in)es the Victorians in the 'present'. Examining how recent paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations and films revisit and re-present nineteenth-century technologies, practices and events, the book's rich interdisciplinary approach applies literary, media and linguistic theories to its analysis of visual art, alongside in-depth discussions of the Victorian inventions, concepts and narratives that they invoke. The book's emphasis on how and why we represent the historical past makes its contribution particularly timely. And by drawing attention to the importance of historiography to the work of these artists, it also unravels the complicated history of History itself. This book will speak to diverse audiences including those interested in art history, visual culture, Victorian and neo-Victorian studies, as well as literature, histories of science and media, postcolonialism, museology, gender studies, postmodernism and the history of ideas.

First monograph in the area of Neo-Victorian studies devoted entirely to contemporary visual art Original applications of literary theories to contemporary visual artworks Interviews several artists, including Mark Dion, Polly Morgan, Tessa Farmer, and Dorothy Cross

Auteur
Isobel Elstob is Assistant Professor in Art History at the University of Nottingham and has held roles at Birkbeck, University of London and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

Contenu

1. Introduction: Visualizing the Victorians.- 2. Seeing is (not) Believing: Photography, Magic Lanterns and Virtual Realities.- 3. The Animal Body Remade: Bones, Feathers, Furs and Fairies.- 4. Unnatural Histories: Forgotten Objects, Narratives and Lives.- 5. Colonial Afterlives: Communicating our Transnational Past.- 6. Conclusions: The Present Past in Contemporary Art.