ABSTRACT
The Museum in the Work of Lance Belanger and
Richard Purdy
Johanna Kerry Mizgala
1996
This thesis examines the means by which two contemporary
Canadian artists, Lance Belanger and Richard Purdy, confront the spaces in which their
works are exhibited and ultimately understood. Using writings in cultural studies and in
art theory, primarily by James Clifford and Jacqueline Fry, respectively, I propose to
examine first the institution of the museum, and then the reactions to this space by
Belanger and Purdy in sequence. Both Belanger and Purdy comment specifically upon the
traditions of the museum which the contemporary art gallery has inherited. For this reason
it is possible to collapse the terms "museum" and "gallery" in the
context of this thesis. Belanger and Purdy are exhibiting their work in art gallery
spaces, but acknowledge through their subject matter the longstanding relationship between
the two institutions. Whereas Belanger situates himself as placed by the museum on the
margin looking in, Purdy shifts the viewpoint by refusing to be classified. He simply
invents a new personality, and credits this new individual as the author of the work. in
order to understand the concepts at work within the work of Belanger and Purdy, it is
necessary to examine the function of museum exhibition. I propose that the knowledge
derived from the viewing of a cultural object is always predicated upon this object's
placement within the museum. As such, no object can be viewed without some connection to
what is also present, and subsequently to what is absent.
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