This text attempts to respond to the question of the relationship between art and resistance, to the possibility of art as resistance -- that is, it is an attempt to meditate on the possible relationship between resisting and art. Whilst doing so, it also tries to attend to the notion that art is an encounter -- between one and something that is brought forth in the movement from craft to something other than what is created through tekhnē. And, if so, it is always also potentially unknown, unknowable, until it happens, perhaps even after it happens. That, even as it might be experienced, felt -- an encounter through aisthesis -- it is quite possibly a moment beyond cognition; un pas au-delà, as it were. And if so, then perhaps all attempts to know it potentially do nothing other than to frame, to confine, its potentiality.
Thus, perhaps the very thing that one has to do -- if one is to attempt to maintain the possibility of resistance in art -- is to resist what one thinks art itself is.
Author Biography:
Jeremy Fernando reads, and writes; and is the Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School. He works in the intersections of literature, philosophy, and the media; and his, more than twenty, books include Reading Blindly, Living with Art, Writing Death, and in fidelity. His writing has also been featured in magazines and journals such as Arte al Límite, Berfrois, CTheory, Full Bleed, Qui Parle, TimeOut, and VICE, amongst others; and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Serbian. Exploring other media has led him to film, music, and the visual arts; and his work has been exhibited in Seoul, Vienna, Hong Kong, and Singapore. He is the general editor of the thematic magazine One Imperative; and is a Fellow of Tembusu College at The National University of Singapore. Natalie Christian Tan is an illustrator, graphic designer, and occasional writer. She graduated from Yale-NUS College and was awarded the Outstanding Capstone Award for her thesis on selfies and the female image. Today, her visual work dwells heavily on reimagining archaic forms of art. Her work has been featured in publications from NUS Press, Harvard University Press, Fox & Hedgehog, and Brack. In her capacity as a writer, she has contributed pieces on Singaporean society to platforms like Mynah Magazine. Natalie hopes for the best, and that very much makes her ordinary. A sampling of her work is available at http: //nataliechristiantan.myportfolio.com.
