Opacity and re-enchantment: photographic strategies in the work of Rosângela Rennó

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Copyright: Pagotto, Mariana Bertelli
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Abstract
This thesis explores the photographic strategies of contemporary Brazilian artist Rosângela Rennó, focusing on her art created from 1988 to 2006. Rennó refuses to take new photographs preferring instead to rework the mass of existing images. Her use of appropriation and her attitude to this method are remarkably similar to international postmodern appropriation practices, however, she reached this parallel position through her exposure to different theories and influences. This study examines the Brazilian context in which Rennó s art emerged and the theories that influenced her art. Her decision to abandon the act of photography and to appropriate photographs and photographic objects was influenced by the theory of an ecology of information by German artist and theorist Andreas Müller-Pohle and the book Towards the Philosophy of Photography by Czech philosopher Vilém Flusser. The ideas of these two theorists have not been extensively discussed in Brazilian art history, nor have they been previously applied to Rennó s work. This thesis aims to evaluate Rennó s art in relation to international debates on appropriation as well as the fledgling postmodern debates generated in Brazil by Flusser and Müller-Pohle. It also considers how these particular theories directly influenced Rennó s art. The central idea she takes from Müller-Pohle is the need to engage with the camera apparatus, which includes not just the production of images but also their circulation, consumption and their wastage. His idea of an ecology of information emphasises the need to recycle images and information, rather than endlessly producing new images. In Rennó s work this idea is linked to an investigation of photographic oblivion and its opposite, the preservation of personal and public memory. From Flusser, Rennó takes the idea of the need for visual re-education, that viewers need to be provoked into looking. Rennó s response is to create images that are hard to see. Paradoxically, perhaps, she embraces opacity in order to generate visual engagement.
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Author(s)
Pagotto, Mariana Bertelli
Supervisor(s)
Best, Susan
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Publication Year
2010
Resource Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
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