The Image as Sovereign Body in Modernity

Whether in democracy or courtly monarchy the place of the sovereign is an "empty place", an irrational cipher on which the rational, positivist law is based. Using the framework of Lacan's four discourses, and drawing on modern and contemporary art to show how these various approaches are embodied, Watt examines the use of images as the veiling over of the "empty" master signifier of our laws.

Dr Oliver Watts is a lecturer in Theoretical Enquiry at Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University. He is an art historian and jurist and works on the nexus of art and law. He has recently published 'Warhol's Thirteen Most Wanted Men: Public Art and the Scandal of the World's Fair Pavilion 1964,' in Transparency, Power and Control,  and has an upcoming chapter 'Daumier and the Democratic Effigy' in Law Culture and Visual Studies, edited by Richard Sherwin and Anne Wagner.

 

All queries can be directed to :

Fiona.Jenkins@anu.edu.au>

OR

Desmond.Manderson@anu.edu.au>

 

Date & time

Wed 03 Jul 2013, 12:00pm to 2:00pm

Location

Lady Wilson Room, Sir Roland Wilson Building

Event series

Contacts

Dr Oliver Watts

SHARE

Updated:  2 July 2013/Responsible Officer:  Head of School/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications