Everyday Life and Urban Marvels: The Curious Aesthetics of Angie Hiesl

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter engages with the relation of art and the everyday in the context of urban spaces. X-times people chair, a work by choreographer, performance and installation artist Angie Hiesl, has been shown in various city centres worldwide since 1995. It deploys a cast of elderly amateurs to perform everyday, predominantly domestic, activities in public places that are normally hidden from public scrutiny or too trivial to be noticed (for instance dressing, cutting bread, or reading a newspaper).
I approach this work from three different angles, examining its aesthetic strategies, its contribution to discourses about urbanity, and its inclusion of older-age performers. Drawing on a framework of philosophical and sociological theory on the everyday borrowed from authors such as Henri Lefebvre and Raymond Williams, particular attention is given to how the erosion of the distinction between high art and quotidian life can drive artistic and social change.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Companion to Dance Studies
EditorsHelen Thomas, Stacey Prickett
PublisherRoutledge
Pages428-442
ISBN (Print)9781138234581
Publication statusPublished - 18 Nov 2019

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