Analyzing Mass Media through Video Art Education: Popular Pedagogy and Social Critique in the Work of Candice Breitz

Abstract

This article begins with the premise that art education should engage with forms of popular visual culture in the art classroom so that students can better understand, evaluate, and critique the world around them. The researcher argues that studying video art with students offers a valuable approach to critiquing film and television, among other mass media, because of shared methods of production and persuasion involving sound, language, movement, and time, in addition to visual imagery. Taking the work of South African artist, Candice Breitz, as a case study, this article investigates how video art that re-appropriates multi-sensory popular culture as a form of social critique can provide a model for critical, interdisciplinary conversations in art education. By engaging with Breitz’s videos, which utilize largely “found footage” in their production, art educators can enable students to better analyze the forms and effects of entertainment media and help them “find” their own footage for critical artmaking. This article situates this approach within recent conceptual and contextual literature about visual culture art education, re-appropriation in art and video art, and other topics.

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