‘Art as Gift’ is an Art and Theory Reading Group collaboration with Denise Weston’s Arts Council England funded project, ‘Women of a Nervous Disposition.’ 

    

The aim of Art as Gift is to examine the implications of the concept that we experience the presence of things, such as works of art, as something given, i.e. as gifts. The main theoretical sources of this idea are the writings of the philosophers Jacques Derrida and Martin Heidegger. In art the gift is explicitly referenced in Marcel Duchamp’s final major work: Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau / 2° le gaz d’éclairage … (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas . . . ).

The concept of the gift is further referenced in Denise Weston’s claim that the works of the subjects of her project, artist Camille Claudel and writer Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, are gifts, but gifts that have been forgotten. Women of a Nervous Disposition can be seen, in part, as an attempt to retrieve these forgotten gifts.

Yet we are immediately confronted by a barrier (aporia). Derrida claims that central to a gift being a gift is that it is forgotten, the act of remembering destroys the gift. Does this mean Weston’s project is impossible, or that Derrida’s concept of “gift” is not applicable to the work of art?

Art as Gift has been established to clarify how we might answer these questions. There are three principle theorisations of the gift that will inform its discussions:

1. The first is the commonly held belief that art, or rather the ability to make art, is itself a gift. This idea will be proposed as theological, mirroring the Christian idea of the donum Dei, God’s Gift of the Holy Spirit, as theorised by St. Augustine.
2. The second concept is economic, which sees the gift as part of a process of exchange, as set out by the anthropologist Marcel Mauss in: The Gift (1950).
3. Finally there is the philosophical idea that the gift is the “impossible,” as proposed by Jacques Derrida in his book: Given Time: 1. Counterfeit Money (1991).

Derrida’s text will provide the theoretical thread that will be woven into the fabric of the reading group, informing its discourse at every stage. For a short overview of  Derrida on the gift click here

Website

Structure
The reading group will, over four meetings, employ discussion, exposition and reading to clarify the relationship between the gift and art. Each meeting, led by Derek Hampson, will be informed by a short text, given out in advance. The culmination will be a public presentation of the thinking developed within the group, the structure of which will emerge from the meetings and will be open to all participants. Reading group meetings will be held at Wollaton Street Studios, 179 Wollaton Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GE, starting @ 6pm.

Timetable (this has not yet been finalised)
Reading Group 1 – January 26
Introductory presentation by Derek Hampson, then discussion
Texts: The Identity of the Holy Spirit in The Mystery of the Triune God, p.77, then ‘The Time of the King’ in Given Time

Reading Group 2 – February 23
The economics of the gift, Mauss on the gift, Derrida on Mauss
Text: Given Time p.xx

Reading Group 3 – March 30
The gift and forgetting
Text: Given Time p.xx

Reading Group 4 – April 27
Final meeting
Text: Given Time p.xx

Public Presentation – May 13
NCN

Click on image below to download “Given Time” as a pdf