From Work to Frame, or, Is There Life After “ The Death of the Author”

“Death of the Author” ignites the perception of the artist as a “unique source of meaning”, without such acknowledgment the artist loses his appeal. An appeal which furthers his “mystique”, the mysticism of art and an expansion of its profits. It is because of this that Post-Modern art attempts to be a response of. Using Barthes beliefs that the author is dead protrudes the idea of focusing on the audience and all their possible interpretations. It is not within the art piece itself, nor within the artist as creator, but within it’s ending point, the frame. “The first, by focusing on location in which the work of art is encountered; the second, by insisting on the social nature of artistic production and reception.” The frame becomes the metaphor for institutional practices of framing, what is expected or was expected.

The writing continues with differing accounts of artists playing with the ideas of “framing” and some even breaking the frame. Along with “framing”, artists rebelled against containment for similar beliefs. Wanting to not be contained, artists made art in contradiction to the ideas of framing, and or being able to be contained. “The movements of deconstruction do not destroy structures from the outside. They are not possible and effective, nor can they take accurate aim, except by inhabiting those structures.” Moving into deconstruction, allows the artist’s work to not be appropriated, it is “impersonal”, anonymous. With this anonymity the artist no longer owns his own work, only by signing his work does it become his, and is transformed into a commodity. So by not taking responsibility for these actions, throws another layer onto a piece of art. Displacement is another construct used to disassociate the artist from the art piece. This is where “elements are either moved or removed from their ‘original’ contexts so that their contradictions can be examined”. By fragmenting certain ideas and beliefs this brings the ‘original’ elements more clearly into view. Post-modern practices are critical for artists, to step away from the art-machine, to not be apart of the institutions that continues their mystic. By doing this they can take ownership of their ideas, which aids and empowers them by breaking them out of the slavery that is within the art apparatus.