The Explanation of Discourse of Subject and Power in Foucault’s Contemplations and Halley’s Visual Works with an Emphasis on the Concept of Prison

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Lecturer, Department of Painting, Faculty of Visual arts, Art University, Isfahan, Iran

2 M.A, Faculty of Visual art, Sureh University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The connection between subject and power is the most important matters in Foucault’s contemplation. He wants to configuration the modern subject as a power discourse object by utilize genealogy method and contemplate it in the connection with forms such as discipline technologies. Discipline and punishment organized scheme of renewing the power connections network that is disciplined and extended knowledge varied bodies and interacted by power and reinforced by it. In Foucault view of the matter power is stand on the axis of supervision and disciplined bodies that exerted by strict technical methods in time and place. In the Foucault’s contemplations modern knowledge is measured by the norms standard and its technology acts in the frame of institution like prison, hospital, university and barracks. In his idea these dominance institution lose there previous function. We cannot reduce power to particular group or individual; power is rooted in discourses norms and institutions. In the meantime prison is find discipline function by the base of technics such as supervision. He thinks in the prisonlike society, relations between society members are stand on discipline, supervision and subordination of members. Michel Foucault is one of theoretician and thinker who his theories had effected contemporary intellectual atmosphere. We can say his theories cast a shadow on vast part of art and postmodern thoughts. He pass through the constructivism and invent a new horizon of cultural studies. In 1980s we were faced with Halley’s works have inter texts to French poststructuralist theoretician’s topics. In the meantime rose in the art contemporary area a generation well-known as Neo-Gio that Peter Halley -American artist, critic and theorist, is prominent person. Halley’s works that created in the conscious Postmodernism often are painted with several color field that connect together with narrow right-angled lines. Although his works bear resemblance to Modernist abstract tradition, criticize them with ironic forms. We can find most of his works as visual reads from ideas of theoreticians like Foucault. Now the question is that how the symbolic forms in these works criticizing connective systems and modern world repression agency and its simulations. This article tries to attend the state of discipline system forms realization as prison in modern episteme and search its appearance in Halley’s visual works. This essay explore the role of subject and power as Foucault’s point of view and it’s explanation in Peter Halley’s art works by analytical and descriptive method and based on qualitative method. This study attempt to focus on concept of prison while by this device evaluative this concept in relation with modern subject and its connection with power, monitor and punishment, then analysis it in the Peter Halley’s works as one of the Neo-Geo style artists. His works, allegorically, want to make a postindustrial society simulation like Foucault contemplations that dominate society classification, normalization and discipline technologies. Halley’s art works affected by Foucault’s theories are a narration about canals and prisons which represent diagrams and graphs that shows the architectural body of society and controlling institutes, metaphorically.
 

Keywords

References

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Journal of Fine Arts: Visual Arts
Volume 21, Issue 3
December 2016
Pages 5-10

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