The Third Hand —Claire, Bernadette and Friends

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Reckitt, Helena; McCormack, Chris; van Noord, Gerrie and Džuverović, Lina. 2022. 'The Third Hand —Claire, Bernadette and Friends'. In: And Others: The Gendered Politics and Practices of Art Collectives, Panel Four: ‘The Third Hand’—Claire, Bernadette and Friends. Birkbeck, University of London, and online, United Kingdom 1 December 2022. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Official URL: https://artcollectives.org/panel-four-the-third-ha...

Abstract or Description

This discussion between Chris McCormack, Helena Reckitt, and Gerrie van Noord, moderated by Lina Džuverović, focuses on the deliberately orchestrated erasures of individual identities that constitute new authorial entities. Touching on the collective projects of Claire Fontaine, Bernadette Corporation, Reena Spaulings, speakers explore how these authorial avatars function as engines of institutional critique that aim to free up polyvocal expression, critically engaging with institutional structures, from art fairs, to private galleries, classrooms and museums. Panellists also consider instances of activist projects such as The Guerilla Girls, Anonymous, The Clown Army, and Carrot Workers Collective, which are informed by the need to protect individual identities in order to enable effective action.

Drawing on the term ‘the third hand’ introduced by Charles Green in his eponymous book (2001), speakers discuss the divergent approaches and goals harboured by such strategies. The panel concludes by considering the 'invisible' collaborative work of editors, addressing the shifting boundaries of authorship, its gendered dimensions, and the intimacies developed through processes of editing as well as translation.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Panel)

Additional Information:

The panel was the fourth in the series ‘And Others: The Gendered Politics and Practices of Art Collectives,’ a research project led by Dr. Lina Dzuverovic, investigating questions central to collective work in the arts and more broadly. Building on two months of asynchronous collective writing involving the three panellists and fourteen other invited participants, the panels considered how we might write, think, read and practice together through other means.

Keywords:

anonymity, collaboration, collective, fictional entities, erasure, gendered labour cultural labour co-writing editing translation

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