Artistic fabulation

novel forms of heroes in the visual arts

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2023..61-71

Keywords:

counter visuality, opacity, seeing-with, biopolitics, Indigenous culture

Abstract

It is significant how the concept of Carlyle’s “heroic clear visuality” was challenged by late 19th-century Black Americans. Nicholas Mirzoeff points out two cases: Sojourner Truth’s tactic, “inverse visuality”, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ “veiled visuality”. My paper examines divergent art works or projects exhibited in 2021-22 to track how a shift from “heroic clear visuality” is present in new visual narratives which demand new ways of “looking”. In my view, new works are radical in their claim for a special form of opacity (Glissant): on the one hand, they recommend a more emphatic counter-visual narrative by Indigenous groups (the former anti-heroes). On the other hand, they demand a mode of bodily seeing – or rather sensing – with the represented (of new non-human heroes). (Haraway).

Author Biography

  • Tünde Varga, Hungarian University of Fine Arts

    Dr. habil. Tünde Varga is an Associate Professor at the Department of Art Theory and Curatorial Studies, The Hungarian University of Fine Art, Budapest. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature. Her field of research is contemporary art, visual culture, art theory, contemporary documentary, curatorial and museum studies. Her recent book is on contemporary art practices: Crossing Borders: The Cultural and Social Context of Contemporary Art (2019).

References

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Published

2025-11-06

Issue

Vol. 9 (2023)

Section

I.Forms and Modes of Empathy: Heroes and Anti-Heroes in a Comparative Perspective

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How to Cite

Artistic fabulation: novel forms of heroes in the visual arts. (2025). Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum, 9, 61-71. https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2023..61-71