Art and Globalization: Then and Now

Author(s): Nol Carroll

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 65, No. 1, Special Issue: Global
Theories of the Arts and Aesthetics (Winter, 2007), pp. 131-143
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
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 NOEL CARROLL
Art and Globalization:Then and Now
I. ARE WE GLOBAL NOW/YET?
Thoughthere can be little doubtthatthe worldis
becominga much"smallerplace"in termsof the
amountof time it takesto move information,peo-
ple (includingbusinessexecutives,tourists,work-
ers,academics,and,unfortunately,slaves),as well
as goods,jobs,investmentcapital,fashions,corpo-
rations,services,and so forth aroundit, there is
a legitimatecontroversyabout whetherthis con-
dition deservesto be regardedas a new historical
epochin its ownright,namely,the epochof global-
ization.For,on the one hand,the interconnected-
ness,signaledby barbarismslike "globality,"is, as
criticspointout, exaggeratedby enthusiasts,since
manypartsof the worldhave not been integrated
into the pertinentglobal networks.For example,
much of sub-SaharanAfrica has not been. Thus,
the presentepoch is not trulyglobal,if thatis sup-
posed to implythat every part of the world is in
livelycommerceandcontacton a relativelyequal
footingwitheveryotherpartof the world.Rather,
the currentstate of affairsis very uneven.
Furthermore,on the otherhand,the historically
mindedobservethatcapitalism,perhapsthe driv-
ing engine behind the globalizingtendencies of
the present,has alwayshad worldwideambitions
with respectto marketsand resources.So, on this
view, globalizationis merely an advancedstage
of capitalism-an admittedlyboth more exten-
sive and intensiveversionof capitalismthanwhat
came before, but not somethingutterlynew un-
der the sun. Globalization,that is, is not a unique
historicalmoment, though we in the West may
be vain enough to regard our lifetimes as the
dawningof a new age. After all, we have already
done thisat leasttwicebeforein recentmemory-
first with the Age of Aquarius and then with
postmodernism.
Indeed, even before the emergence of
capitalism,there was exchangebetween Europe
and Asia, often through Istanbul, as well as
between Rome and India,and, of course,among
the Hellenisticempiresthatarosein the aftermath
of Alexanderthe Great.The tradealong the Silk
Route was longstanding.Hence, globalization
is not especially recent; it is, arguably,a pro-
cess with a probably immemoriallineage. The
Mongol and Muslimconquestsput large partsof
the world in contact. And, the age of Western
colonialimperialismwas, needless to say, a form
of globalization, albeit lamentable in a great
many respects.In the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries,the introductionof new technologies
of transportation-like the railroad, the auto-
mobile, and the airplane-and new technologies
of communication-such as the telegraph, the
photograph,the telephone,the movies,radio,TV,
video, facsimile copying and transmission,and
satellite delivery systems-must be regardedas
ingredientsin a continuingprocess that today
has been further accelerated with the advent
and dissemination of digital processing and
the Internet. But, again, this looks more like a
differencein degree from the past ratherthan a
differencein kind.
In short,the phenomenonof globalization,un-
derstoodas a new phaseof worldhistory,is dubi-
ous becauseit is incomplete-regions of the world
lie outside the global village-and, in any event,
the process has been ongoing for centuries.'Al-
though skeptics would agree that today we are
witnessingmuch more of the same, they would
stress dramaticallythat what needs to be under-
scored theoreticallyis that it-however we label
it-is essentially"thesame."
In thisarticle,whichfocuseson artin the global
context, I want to suggestthat somethingnew is
132
evolving-an integrated,interconnected,transna-
tional artworld-while, at the same time, advanc-
ing that hypothesisin a way that avoidsskeptical
misgivingsaboutglobalization.
II. ART AND GLOBALIZATION
One areawherethe temptationto heraldthe com-
ing of the age of globalizationis especiallyentic-
ing is that of art and culture.People are eating
McDonald'scheeseburgersanddrinkingCokeev-
erywhere.In Singaporethere are more thanforty
Starbucks.2But the trafficis not simplyone way.
EvenAmericansarebeingexposedto an unprece-
dented rangeof cuisines.The differencebetween
whatwas availablein the supermarketwhenI was
a youth in the 1950sand the varietyof items on
the shelves today from differentethnic food cul-
tures around the world is stunning.Even small
American cities are likely to have at least one
Asian market, which is not only there for the
6migre population,but is visited by the native-
bornas well.
Nor is the exchangemerelybetweenAmerican
mass cultureand the rest. We have before us hy-
bridphenomenaas diverseas "ThaiboxingbyMo-
roccangirlsin Amsterdam,Asian rapin London,
Irish bagels, Chinese tacos and Mardi Gras In-
dians in the United States, and Mexicanschool
girlsdressedin Greektogasdancingin the styleof
IsidoreDuncan."3
Of course,the factorthatprobablyaccountsfor
the virtuallyirresistibleimpressionthatmanyof us
have of a new epoch of globalizationis, in a word,
media.Communicationacrossgreatdistanceshas
neverbeenfaster,norhasthereeverbeen so much
of it. Businesscultureneed neversleep. Financial
transactionsand deals 24/7 are becomingthe or-
der of the day (and night). What is true of legal
commerceis also true of internationalcrimeand
terrorism.It is the quantumleap in our commu-
nicativeresources,I believe,in additionto its con-
sequencesforalmosteveryotherdimensionof cul-
ture,thatconvincesus thata qualitativelydifferent
level of globalizationis uponus.The idea of "one
world"just feels right.
As in every other arena of culture, the
arts and entertainmentsare the beneficiariesof
the communications-media explosion. American
movies make a large percentageof their prof-
its overseas.Often, a film, or even a TV series,
GlobalTheoriesof the Arts and Aesthetics
that fails stateside is able to recoup its losses
internationally.At a visit in the fall of 2005 to
a cin6plex in Porto, all the films save one were
American.Moreover,the disseminationof film is
not only by wayof traditionalmovie screens.Cas-
settesandDVDs haveextendedthe livesof movies
behind their first run, and the devices that play
these mediaareeverywhereglobally.Boot-legged
video cassettesof JurassicPark(StevenSpielberg,
1993)wereavailablein subwaystationsin Moscow
the day beforethe filmwas releasedin the United
States.
However, the flow of mass art is not just one
way. Many Americans,as well as audiences in
othernations,havedevelopeda tastefor Japanese
anime and martialarts films from Hong Kong.
HongKongcinemahasinfluencedthe styleof Hol-
lywoodmovies,rangingfromthe worksof Quentin
Tarantinoto the Wachowskibrothers.If certain
elements of Americancrimefilms have been ap-
propriatedby Hong Kong directors,ninjachore-
ographyis at home in Los Angeles, not only in
movies but also in the dance moves on MTV.In-
creasingly,we areseeingthe emergenceof hybrid,
mass-motion-picture art forms.
The Westerntaste for different national cin-
emas is also illustratedby the existence of the
film festivalin the Italiancity of Udine,whichad-
vertisesitself as "the world'slargestshowcaseof
popularEast Asian cinema."4Reciprocatingat-
tention, Japanmade the film The Last Samurai
(EdwardZwick, 2003), a Tom Cruisevehicle of
limitedsuccessin America,the blockbusterit was
intendedto be.
Indian films are screened in Africa, England,
andeven the United States,often cateringto dias-
poraaudiences,while also attractinga substantial
non-Indianclienteleas well;outsidePhiladelphia,
in the suburbof CherryHill as well as in the Regal
BarnPlazain Doylestown,there are theatersthat
specializein Bollywoodcinema.5Indianfilmis be-
comingan industrialforce to reckonwith world-
wide. And perhapsthis cinema,too, is startingto
have an impacton Westernfilm producers;think
of the musicalnumbersinTimBurton's2005Char-
lie and the Chocolate Factory. Would they have
even been there except for the exampleof Bolly-
wood? And a Bollywoodsensibilityis also mani-
fest in the Britishfilm Elizabeth(1998), directed
as it was by the BombaydirectorShekharKapur.
So far I have been alluding to mass movie
culture. But the more artistically ambitious,
Carroll Art and Globalization: Then and Now
putativelyalternative,so-calledindependentfilm
movementis also acquiringa global reach. One
importantfactorin thisprocessis the proliferation
of filmfestivals.At present,accordingto Kenneth
Turan,"thereis barelya day wheresome filmfes-
tival is not being celebratedin some exotic city
somewherein the world."6Thoughsome of these
festivals are devoted to popular cinema, more
frequently they provide venues where foreign-
languageandindependentfilmmakerscanpresent
work that challengesthe routine productof the
mass mediathat holds most of the movie screens
in the world captive.7At their best, they offer
a "cosmopolitan,"in KwameAnthony Appiah's
sense,countercinema.8 Thatis,theybringsophisti-
catedworkfromeverywhereto seriousaudiences
in searchof somethingdifferent.
Moreover,these filmfestivalsare connectedto
tourism,anothersalientaspectof our globalmo-
ment. Especiallydue to the vast expansionof the
possibilitiesof airtransportation,not only can art
and artiststravel almost anywherein the urban
worldwith ease; so can audiences.And one thing
that attractsthem to a locale is a film festival.
Undoubtedly,these festivalshave contributed
to a shift in sophisticatedfilm taste. Whereas
the cin6phile of the 1960s and early 1970s was
preoccupiedwith Americanfilm and what came
to be called the Art Cinema (which was mostly
European),since the 1980s,connoisseurs,such as
the late Serge Daney and JonathanRosenbaum,
have been on the lookout for new developments
in emergingnational cinemas such as Iran, Tai-
wan, and, presently,South Korea.9In short,taste
in film, both high and low, has never been so
cosmopolitan.
Whatis trueof film,alsoappearsto haveat least
some relevance to TV. In Memphis,they watch
American Idol; in Mumbai, they watch Indian
Idol. Mexicantelenovelasare popularin Ghana,
while students from KwaZulu-Natalwatch the
American soap opera Days of Our Lives (Allan
Chase, Ted Corday,and Irna Phillips,1965-).10
Dallas (David Jacobs,1978-2001),as of this writ-
ing, is still runningin Capetown.
Often,nationaltelevisionindustriesuse Amer-
icanproductto startup theiroperation,fillingout
their programmingschedulewith Hollywoodun-
til there is enough indigenousproductto do the
job. When the national industrydevelops, how-
ever, it still often uses Americanformats-such
as the dramaticseries-which resultsin the flow-
133
ering of a range of hybrid forms.Furthermore,
American television has been hospitable to
Japanese shows, like Pokemon (Masamitsu
Hidaka and KunihikoYuyama,1997-2002), Yu-
Gi-Oh(KazukiTakahashi,1998-), andthe Hi-Hi-
Puffy Ami Yumi Show (Sam Register, 2004), and
the influenceof Japaneseanimationcan be seen
on the cartoonchannelsstateside."1 The Japanese
productis so familiarto Americansthat a Poke-
mon figure can be satirizedin the toon Drawn
Together(Dave Jeser and Matthew Silverstein,
2004-) on the cablechannelComedyCentral.And
an American productioncompany has recently
launchedan indigenousanim6program.
It seemsveryappropriatethatthe impressionof
a globalart marketshouldbe encouragedby film
andTV,sincethesetechnologiesbelongto the cat-
egoryof communicativemediathataremakingthe
world"a smallerplace."Due to theirmechanical
and electronicreproducibility,they are by their
very nature able to defy distance.In that sense,
they are, at least potentially,globalmedia.More-
over,the factthatthe basicsymbolsin thesemedia
are pictures-the sort of symbolsthat requireno
special,priortrainingin orderto be recognized-
means that they have a level of accessibilityun-
matchedbycompetingprintmedia.Thus,it should
come as no surprisethat these media span the
world and are readilyable to penetratecultural
boundaries.
Of course,other media that have this capacity
for electronicbordercrossingare auralrecording
and broadcastradio. By means of transistorra-
dios, cassetteplayers,Walkmans,CDs, iPods,and
the Internet,musicfromeverywherecanbe heard
anywhere.Indeed, there are more differentau-
dio technologiestoday that facilitateencounters
with more worldmusicthanever before,and this
marketis cateredto by transnationalmusicindus-
tries.12Rap music has been embracedand pro-
ducedby Muslimyouthsin Parisand, in fact, this
banlieuerap was said to have stoked the Arab
insurgencythroughoutFrance in 2005.13Popu-
lar Indian music is garneringa following across
the globe becauseof its connectionto Bollywood
cinema.The South KoreansingerRain (Ji-Hong
Jung),who specializesin K-popmusic,is aboutto
attemptto crackthe Americanmarketwitha tour;
he is describedas a combinationof Usher,Justin
Timberlake,and Michael Jackson,but his per-
formanceintegratesdancinginflectedby martial-
arts movements from his own culture, yielding
134
yet another example of the sort transnational
hybridizationthat at timesseems omnipresent.14
Because the mass communicationsmedia are
so integral to the experience of the transna-
tional urban world-because they appear to be
everywhere-the impressionthat the arts have
gone utterly global is hard to resist. Some dis-
cern a tendencytowardhomogenizationthat they
lament,while othersfind it liberatingor, at least,
promising.However,there are reasonsto be cau-
tious here.Motionpictures,for example,fromdi-
verse lands,includingthe United States,do man-
age to maketheirwayaroundthe world.However,
theydo not do so withequalsaturation.Thetraffic
in moviesandTV tendsto be regionalratherthan
trulyglobal.Thatis,one does not findmoviesfrom
everywhereon the same marquee.
The reasonfor thisis obvious,since moviesand
TV are not only movingpictures,but (since the
third decade of the twentiethcentury) they are
also talkingpictures.Thus,theirdistributiontends
to be partitionedinto geolinguisticregions,dom-
inatedby playerssuitedto the pertinentcultures.
MexicoandBrazil,for example,arethe centersof
audiovisualmassculturefor LatinAmerica;Hong
Kong and Taiwanfor much of Chinese-speaking
Asia, though mainlandChinais also attempting
to play in that market;Egyptis the centerfor the
Arab world;Indiafor the subcontinentandfor its
far flung diasporasfrom Africa to America.15In
sub-SaharanAfrica,Nigeriais emergingas an im-
portantregionalproducerfor audiovisualmedia
targetedto equatorialinterests.Suitablyenough,
it is beingcalledNollywood.16
Admittedly, to some it has seemed that
American productionshave dominatedthe air-
waysof the emergingtelevisionindustriesof what
wasonce calledthe thirdworld.However,thistyp-
icallyonly occursin the earlierstages of the evo-
lutionof these industries.Once indigenousprod-
uct becomesavailable,the ratiochanges.It is true
thatthereare a numberof transnationalmediagi-
ants that bestridethe worldlike colossi, but they
favor reliance on local production.The Ameri-
can model of televisionas an entertainmentpred-
icated on attractingpotentialconsumersto a re-
lentlessbarrageof advertisementsmay be perva-
sive throughoutthe worldof television;but Hol-
lywood does not dominate the moving picture
world.17 In India, for example,the local motion
pictureindustrystill holdssway.
So, on the one hand, art-even mass art-is
not a single, unified global phenomenon. It is
GlobalTheoriesof the Arts and Aesthetics
transnational,butregionalratherthanglobal,if by
'global'we mean to refer to somethinghomoge-
nous in every cornerof the world.Furthermore,
on the other hand, thoughwe may think of our-
selves as immersedin a new era of artistic hy-
bridization,a moment'sthought reveals that the
arts-including those labeled "high"arts-have
perenniallybeen susceptibleto cross-culturalfer-
tilization.Consider,briefly,the case of theatrical
dance,for example.'18
Startingon the Westernsideof the ledger,much
early moderndance looked to the choreography
of otherculturesas a way to liberateandto distin-
guish itself fromthe dominanttraditionof ballet.
The dances of other cultures,in short, were ap-
propriatedas a markerof oppositionto whatwas
perceivedto be the rulingformof Westerndance.
Loi'eFuller,IsadoraDuncan,and Ruth St. Denis
all attendedthe ParisExhibitionof 1900and saw,
particularlyin the colonialpavilions,a wide range
of dancesfrom African,Near Eastern,and Asian
cultures.This influencedall three artists,though
the evidenceis perhapsmost strikingin the work
of St. Denis, who staged her own "orientalized"
versionsof Asia mythsin pieceslikeRadha.Denis'
orientalismwas then furtherinspiredby the per-
formancesof SadaYacco'sJapanesedances,which
she saw in ConeyIslandin New York.19
Fuller'sart nouveau style also owed much to
the passion for Japonisme that was sweeping
Europe at the time, while MaryWigman'sWitch
Dance uses musicreminiscentof the Noh ensem-
ble and exploits the frozen, stylized (mie) pose
of Kabuki.20In Night Journey,MarthaGraham
helped herselfto whatshe called"Baliturns"and
"Javanesefoot movements."Not only is Merce
Cunningham'schoreographybasedon ideasfrom
Zen-which Cunningham learned from John
Cage-but hisSixteenDancesfor SoloistandCom-
pany of Threederivesfromtheoriesaboutthe nine
permanentemotionsfoundin classicalIndianaes-
thetics.In the 1970s,DeborahHay employedTai
ChiChuanin the constructionof hercircledances
andSteve Paxtonwasinspiredby Aikidowhenhe
inventedContactImprovisation.
Perhapswhat is most ironic about the avant-
garde's reliance on choreographichybridization
as a means to separate itself from the ballet is
that the ballet also has a long historyof turning
to other culturesfor ideas. This is true not only
of avant-gardeballets, includingthe orientalism
of Diaghilev'sproductionsof Scheherazadeand
Le Dieu Bleu, as well as the Africanismsof the
Carroll Art and Globalization: Then and Now
Ballet Suedoi's La Creation du Monde; it is also
evident throughoutthe historyof ballet. Russian
classicalballetfrequentlyincorporatedthe dances
of the Other,oftenbeforeroyalty,as if to celebrate
the vast dominion of the czaristempire. Recall
the characterdances by Coffee (putativelyAra-
bian dancing)and Tea (Chinesedancing)in The
Nutcracker,which, among other things,it is rea-
sonableto speculate,expressedRussia'sdesireto
dominatecentralAsia and the FarEast.
Petipa's1877 ballet La Bayadere,of course,is
ostensiblybasedon anIndiantempledancer,while
in the eighteenthcentury,Les indes Galanteshas
sections set in Turkey,Peru, Persia, and North
America;it is what LincolnKirsteincalls a ballet
geographique,indulging,as it does,in orientalism,
the sauvagerieof the New World,andChinoiserie.
Indeed,Noverre'sballetFetesChinosisesis an en-
tire spectaclecomprisedof non-Europeandance
theaterand ceremonialforms.21As earlyas 1605,
therearereportsof Africanimagery-specifically
Ethiopiannymphs-in the ballet The Masqueof
Blackness.
My point in citing all these examplesis not to
suggestthatthese Westernappropriations of non-
Westerndance have been done with genuine in-
terculturalunderstanding.My pointis simplythat
hybridityis notsomethingnew.TheWesterndance
traditionhas, to a certainextent, been hybridal-
most fromthe get-go.
Thisis not only the case withthe Westerntradi-
tion. In the firsttwo decadesof the twentiethcen-
tury,Westernballetandmoderndancebothmade
significantinroadsintoEastAsia.WhiteRussians,
such as the Bolshoi dancer George Gontcharov,
fled Russiaafterthe revolutionandfoundeddance
schools in China and Japan. Similarly,Isadora
Duncan and Denishawntouredthe FarEast and
enlistedfollowersto the moderndancemovement.
In the 1920sand 1930s,Japanesedancerswent to
Germanyto studyexpressionistdance,a heritage
that helped shape the Japanese modern dance
movementof Butoh.
MaoistChinatook on the traditionof the Rus-
sian ballet wholesalefrom its Soviet patronsand,
by meansof it, producedtheirown versionof so-
cialist realism.At present, a Chinese version of
Swan Lake is on tour.Thoughthe basic idea de-
rivesfromthe Westernballetictradition,by wayof
the choreographerZhao Ming,the productionis
noteworthyfor its unabashedincorporationof the
acrobaticsof the traditionof Chineseopera.Inone
135
breathtakingmoment,in a gestureof exquisitehy-
bridization,forexample,thedancerWuZhengdan
essaysan arabesqueon pointe on the head of her
husbandWei Baohua.22
In brief,interestinglyenough, ballet and mod-
ern dance were becomingentrenchedin Asia at
exactly the same time as they were establishing
themselves in North America, with both conti-
nents adaptingthese traditionsin their own hy-
bridizingways.
Thus,as this very hurriedreviewof dance his-
tory should indicate, the thought that there is
somethingspecialaboutthe artof ourowntimesin
termsof hybridizationis hardlycredible.Through-
out the history of art we find that where there
is culturalcontact between different traditions,
poaching and outright assimilationhas been as
likely as not.
III. TRANSNATIONALINSTITUTIONS
We seem between a rock and a hard place. On
the one hand,we wantto say thatit is undeni-
ablethatwe haveentereda neweraof globaliza-
tionbothin generalandwithrespectto art.But,
on the otherhand,withjusta littlepressure,the
notionof globalizationin bothrespectsappears
to comeapart.For,noteverynationin theworld
is anequalpartnerin thisglobaldanceandeven
thosepartsthatareinvolvedin transnational
en-
terprisesareoftenmoreregionally engagedthan
globally.Theworldis not as pervasivelyconnected
as is often imagined.Moreover,the tendencyto-
wardculturalandartisticexchange,influence,and
even borrowingsthatresultin hybridizationis not
somethingrecently arrivedwith the Internet.It
has been happeningat varyingspeeds whenever
civilizationsmeet. So, must we give up the idea
thatsomething
haschanged?
I do not think so. Something has changed,
but the concept of globalization,construedas a
Hegelianzeitgeist,is not a fruitfulwayto articulate
the change.Rather than thinkingof the present
in termsof a totality,governedby an animating
essence that is refractedin its every dimension,
we are betteradvisedto thinkon a smallergauge.
First,let us think in terms of transnationalrela-
tions, ratherthan globalrelations,where it is un-
derstoodthattherearemanydifferent,often very
unalike,kindsof transnationalrelations,and that
these do not add up to a cohesiveglobalnetwork
136
playingthe same tune in differentregisters.Un-
doubtedly,one reason we speak of globalization
has to do with the vast multiplicationof actors
andsitesof exchangethanheretofore.23 And there
are certainlymore transnationalactivitiesgoing
on thaneverbefore,if onlybecausetherearemore
nations,more people, and more ways to connect
them.But thereis no reasonto supposethatthese
fit into a neat packagethat can be labeled infor-
mativelywitha summaryadagelike the Hegelian
catchphrase,"In the ancientworld, one is free."
We cannot say, for example,that "today,all are
connectedin someineluctablyglobalway."Things
are more fragmentarythanthat.
Nevertheless,theremaybe somethingunprece-
dentedaboutsome of the fragments-some of the
parts-that coexist in the present transnational
moment.So ratherthanattemptto say something
aboutthe globalconditionas a whole,we maytry
to say somethingabout some of the forms taken
by the transnationalrelationsthat are startingto
evolve in new directions.24 That is, what is called
globalizationmay begin to be parsedin terms of
the increaseof the availablemodesof organization
for the transnationalconstructionof new versions
of the kindsof culturalstructuresthat previously
dischargedtheirsocialfunctionsmore locally.Or,
in other words, the question is better posed as:
Are any novel transnationalinstitutionsor prac-
tices cominginto being?My own sense is that the
answerto this questionis yes. Specifically,I think
that an integrated,transnationalinstitutionof art
is assemblingitself beforeour very eyes.25
IV. A TRANSNATIONALARTWORLD?
Who couldpossiblybe in a positionto pronounce
authoritativelyupon the directionof art world-
wide today?Althoughit is undoubtedlyabsurdly
overreaching,given the sheer amountof work at
issue, to pretend to be able to say anythingin-
formativeabout the present course of art inter-
nationally,perhapsI can state my claims some-
whatless ridiculouslyby framingthemas tentative
hypotheses-provisionalandcertainlyfalliblehy-
potheses.I do not believethatI am on topof nearly
enoughdatato be certainof my conjectures;I am
not surewhois.But insofaras we need conjectures
to orientfutureresearch,if only critically,let me,
in the hope of advancingthe discussion,speculate
on my suspicionthat there is currentlyevolving
GlobalTheoriesof the Arts and Aesthetics
an integratedtransnationalinstitutionof artor, at
least, an interlockingset of transnationalinstitu-
tions.
One objectionto the existenceof somethingwe
mightcall a globalinstitutionof art is that not ev-
eryone we are inclinedto call an artistbelongsto
it. In Bali, there are traditionalartistsengagedin
reproducingthestatuesof godsandgoddessesthat
populate the many Hindutemples on the island.
Becausethe nativeclay fromthe local riverbedis
soft, these statuesneed to be replacedeverythirty
or forty years;they deteriorateso quickly.There
is a wholecottageindustrydevotedto thisproject.
But no one supposesthat these artistsbelong to
the sameartworldas does JeffKoons,even though
they,too, are sculptors.
They are artists,but they are not partof the in-
ternationalartworldthat stages biennalesrelent-
lessly and that stocksthose burgeoningmuseums
of contemporaryart that are sproutingup with
abandoneverywherein the urbanizedworld.Nor
are the Balineseartistswho continueto maketra-
ditionalfolk artfor sale to touristsparticipantsin
the ArtworldInternational.
Nevertheless,this objection to the notion of
globalartdoes not reallytouchmyhypothesisthat
thereis aborninganinternationalinstitutionof art.
For,I wish to maintainno more than that this in-
stitutionis transnationaland not that it is global,
wherethatis assumedto entailthateveryartistbe-
longs to it. Not everyonewe are disposedto label
an artistbelongs to this transnationalinstitution.
Indeed,not everyonewho is an artist,properlyso-
called,is probablyeven admissiblein principleto
this transnationalinstitution.
So the notion of a transnationalinstitutionof
art dodgesthe firstobjectionthat is generallylev-
eled at globalhypotheses.How does it fareagainst
the second type of objection-namely, that the
type of transnationalinteractionwe see nowa-
days has been aroundfor at least centuries,if not
longer.My responseis that what we are witness-
ing now differsfrom the past insofaras what we
see emergingis somethinglikea single,integrated,
cosmopolitaninstitutionof art,organizedtransna-
tionallyin such a way that the participants,from
whereverthey hail, shareconvergingor overlap-
pingtraditionsandpracticesat the sametime that
they exhibit and distributetheir art in interna-
tionally coordinatedvenues. And this, I submit,
is somethingworth consideringas substantially
unprecedented.
Carroll Art and Globalization: Then and Now
To appreciatewhat is new about the emerging
internationalinstitutionof art, we need to con-
trastbrieflythe modalitiesof transnationalartex-
changesin the pastand those of the present-that
is, we need to thinkaboutarton the international
stage then and now.
Artworkshaveperenniallycrossedculturaland
ethnicboundaries,if not as barter,thenas plunder.
In the 1460sand 1470s-that is to say,in the ear-
liest stages of capitalism-cultural exchangebe-
tween the East and the Westabounded.26Artists
such as Gentile Bellini and Costanzoda Ferrara
wereloanedby VeniceandNaples,respectively,to
MehmetII after his conquestof Constantinople.
Both subsequentlyreturnedto the West, bring-
ing with them imageryand iconographythatthey
encounteredin the Near East.27 The motifs im-
portedby artistslike these appearedfrequentlyin
Europeanartworks.For instance,the carpetpic-
turedin HansHolbein'sTheAmbassadorsof 1533
is of Ottomanprovenance.28 However,the specific
artistswho influencedBellini and Costanzodid
not therebybecome part of the Westernlineage;
they were not, for example,cited by the likes of
Vasari.
Chinawasinvolvedin a livelytradein porcelain
longbeforeEuropebecameinterestedin theseart-
works.Between 800 and 1450,Chineseporcelain
was a valuableexportitem in marketsas farflung
as Japan,SoutheastAsia, the Middle East, and
Egypt.Indeed, Chineseporcelainis first thought
to havearrivedin EuropeviaNorthAfrica.By the
seventeenth century,these artifactswere highly
prizedin Europeas well,wherethe demandeven-
tually resulted in the incorporationof Western
themes.29
The tradein Asian luxuryitems,encompassing
metalwork,furniture,and textiles,includingtex-
tiles fromIndia-useful art,butartnonetheless-
became increasinglyheavy from the seventeenth
centuryonward.Withthe rise of the bourgeoisie
and the coincidentrefinementof Europeantaste,
Asian wares were often the objectsof their aes-
theticgratification.Likewise,paintingsandsculp-
tures traveled Westward.What is noteworthy
about this exchangefrom our contemporaryper-
spectiveis thatwhileEuropeansappreciatedthese
artifactsand collected them, neither the works
nor the masterswho producedthem were incor-
porated into European art narrativesor artistic
canons.The narrativesandcanonsremainedstub-
bornlyparochial.
137
A EuropeanmightcollectChineseporcelainor
drawings,or,forthatmatter,later,pre-Colombian
art, but these collectiblesand the artistswho cre-
ated them did not enter the "big story"of art as
it was told in the West. That narrativeand that
canon remainedresolutelylocal, as did the nar-
rativesandcanonsof the variouslineagesof non-
Westernart.Non-Westernartcouldenterthe story
of art as an outside or externalinfluence,but no
non-Westernartistwastreatedasa full-fledgedcit-
izen of the Westernartworldand,to a largeextent,
vice versa.A parallelphenomenonis also observ-
able in music,where composerssuch as Mozart
adaptedTurkishthemeswithoutanyTurkishcom-
posers therebyfiguringinternallyin the Western
lineage. The various traditions,though open to
outsideinfluence,wereeachessentiallylocalorre-
gional.Therewere multipleartistichistoriesthat,
though sometimes tangent, were nevertheless
discrete.
As is well known,the Japanesecoloredwood-
cuts of the Ukiyo-e School of the seventeenth
throughnineteenthcenturieshad a visible influ-
ence on Seurat,Manet,Van Gogh, Lautrec,and
Whistler,but even though that influence is ac-
knowledgedin Westernart histories,the masters
of the Ukiyo-e School are not included in the
same genealogy as Westernartists.Thoughhav-
ing a causal impacton that tradition,they were
conceivedto be as externalto it.
Likewise,the influenceof Africantribalart on
Picasso'sinventionof Cubismis widelyacknowl-
edged. But it is an outside influenceon develop-
mentsinternalto theWesternartworld;no African
traditionswere therebyregardedas partand par-
cel of the storyof art,or modernism,as told from
the perspectiveof the West or the Westernin-
sider. African art is not portrayedas one of the
art-historicaltributariesflowinginto modernart.
No Africanartisthas a place in the story equiva-
lent to that of Manet.
That is, the historiansof the Westerntradition
do not,for example,trackmodernismas following
fromAfricanartin the wayin whichwe traceCu-
bism as evolving from C6zanne.ThoughPicasso
was influencedby Africanart,thereis no African
artistor even Africanart formationin his lineage
in the way that C6zanneis. Rather,we presume
that we are dealingwith at least two distinctart-
worldshere.
Similarly,Asian aestheticsfigures in the nar-
ratives that we tell of Ezra Pound and poetic
138
modernismand in our accountsof BertoltBrecht
and the evolutionof theatricalalienationeffects.
Butwe thinkof theseAsianinfluencesas opportu-
nitiescertainWesternartistsexploitedin orderto
makecertainmoveswithinthe Westernartworld.
The relevantaesthetic strategieswere appropri-
ated in order to short-circuitvarioustraditional
Westernapproaches.Theycouldfunctionas coun-
terstrategies.However,as counterstrategies,they
do not havestandingin theirown right,on the ba-
sis of theirown artisticidentity,in the Westernart
narrativesin whichthey appear.
Thus, this sort of artistic exchange, though
transnational,is not part and parcel of a uni-
fied artworld,but occursacrossdifferentartworld
institutions,such as Japanesetheater and Euro-
pean theater.Alien aesthetic discourses,as dra-
goonedby Westerners,wereused to markopposi-
tion to prevailingnormsin the indigenousnorth-
ern Atlanticpractice.Alternativeaestheticswere,
in suchcases,manipulatedratherthanintegrated;
they are deployed for tacticaladvantagesrather
than being contributionsto a mutuallyreciprocal
conversation.
However,it does now seem to be the case that
the variousnationaland regionalcentersof seri-
ous or ambitiousfine artare beginningto be fash-
ioned into a singleworld-a unified,transnational
institutionof art.Someevidencefor thisis the pro-
liferationof biennales,of which,on a conservative
estimate,there are more than fifty;it is said that
there is now a biennalesomewhereon the aver-
age of everytwo weeks.30Likefilmfestivals,these
high-artextravaganzas arepartlypredicatedon at-
tracting international tourism,but they also func-
tion to assemble a large numberof artistsfrom
differentgeographicalregionsand culturalback-
groundsandthusto showcase,especiallyforcura-
tors, a wide rangeof work that can, in turn,feed
into the ever-expandingmuseumand gallerysys-
temsworldwide.Artistssuchas ShirinNeshatand
WilliamKentridge,for example,came to promi-
nence throughthis network.
Moreover,this institutionalnetwork has also
constituteda readjustmentin the balanceof power
in the artworld.As JamesMeyernotes:
Withinthenewdispensation,it'sthecurators
whotravel
themost,whosee thegreatestrangeof work,whohave
the broadestsenseof practice; whoseac-
the curators
tivity (exhibition)is closest to the practiceand has the
greatestimpacton it. Manycriticstodaywonderwhy
GlobalTheoriesof the Arts and Aesthetics
criticismis so enervated... [T]hevitalityof criticalde-
bateappearsto haveshifted,at leastfornow,fromdis-
courseto curation.[I]t'sthe curatorwho is mostin-
formed,whois mostableto articulatewhat'sinteresting
andimportantin artpractice.31
Given the enhancedpossibilitiesof communi-
cation and transportation,these curatorsprovide
a constantchannelof informationthatflows from
large-scaleexhibitions,to museumsand galleries,
and then back again.The faxes,e-mails,and tele-
phone lines are always vibratingwith art news
and art deals.Video cassettesand DVDs of work
are constantlyorbitingthe planet. There is with-
out a doubtat presentan interconnected,interna-
tional art circuitryregulatedby curatorsbidding
nomadicartistshitherand yon in searchof recog-
nitionand frequent-flyermiles.
Furthermore,this is not just a distributionnet-
work. It has developed something like its own
preferredidioms.A commonreactionthat many
have during a visit to quite a few biennales
and other large-scaletransnationalexhibitionsis:
Where is the paintingand the sculpture?These
shows tend to be dominatedby video, film, pho-
tography,installationpieces (often multimedia
in nature), conceptualart, and performanceart
(often recordedby meansof some movingpicture
medium).32
Forexample,at the Fifty-FirstVeniceBiennale,
not one of the Chineseartistsrepresentedexhib-
ited a painting.Of the artistsfrom the People's
Republicof China,Jun Yang showed a video in-
stallationtitled Hero-This is We, Chen Chieh-
Jen offereda slow-motionfilm calledFactory,Xu
Zhen projectedDVD segments on the oil tanks
in the Arsenale,LiuWeihad an installationpiece
comprisedof a batteryof flashinglightstriggered
by motion detectors,Wang Qiheng presented a
DVD of himself discussingfengshui, Sun Yuan
and Peng Yu offered a performancepiece called
FarmerDu Wenda'sFlying Saucer that they at-
tempted to launch unsuccessfully,and Yung-Ho
Changcreateda massiveenvironment.
Likewise,the Taiwaneseeschewed traditional
paintingandsculpture:Kuang-YuTsuiandI-Chen
Kuo servedup videos,Chung-LiKao presenteda
looped animationcum projector,and Hsin-I Eva
Lin profferedan interactiveInternetinstallation.
Hong Kong's anothermountainmanand Chan
Yuk-keung both presented installation pieces,
while Singapore's Lim Tzay Chuan unveiled
Carroll Art and Globalization:Thenand Now
a piece of conceptualart-a bathroomdesigned
to show that art is useful.33
The South KoreanartistYeondooJung'spiece
was Bewitched,a slide projectionnamedafterthe
1960sTV showin whichhe askedpeople to imag-
ine their future,which he then staged and pho-
tographed.34
MarciaVetrocq'soverallimpressionof the re-
cent Venice Biennale was that "[f]romfull-room
installationsto individualmonitors,videoemerges
as a dominantmediumin both sectionsof the in-
ternationalshow."35
Similarobservationsmay be made of other in-
fluential scopic exhibitions.Documenta 10 was
dominatedby photographyandDocumenta11 by
photoandvideoprojectionsandlarge-scaleinstal-
lations. It is noteworthythat in a recent review
of the IstanbulBiennial, only one drawingand
one sculptureare mentioned;everythingelse dis-
cussedis an exampleof installationart,photogra-
phy,video, and so forth.36Moreover,some of the
artistswho have been significantbeneficiariesof
the biennale networkare movingimage makers.
WilliamKentridgeis a draftsman,but he is most
respectedfor what he calls his "Drawingfor Pro-
jection,"includingJohannesburg, 2nd GreatestCity
AfterParis,andSobriety,Obesity& GrowingOld.
ShirinNeshat'sreputationrests on films,such as
Rapture,and video installationssuchas Fervor.
Perhapsbackhandedconfirmationof the ten-
dency in the emergingartworldthat paintingis
being ousted from its pride of place is a recent
biennalein Prague.Pragueis a city with not one
but two biennales;in orderto distinguishit from
otherbiennales,both worldwideandin the neigh-
borhood,the co-founderof the second biennale,
GiancarloPoliti,declaredthatit wouldbe devoted
primarilyto paintingbecause,he argued,painting
is a criticallyundervaluedmediumto whosepow-
ers of visualgratificationattentionmust againbe
paid.37
Supposing that in the emerging transna-
tional artworldpaintingand sculptureare losing
ground-perhaps not absolutelybut more prob-
ably proportionately-to video, film, photogra-
phy, computer art, conceptualart, performance
art,and installationart, it is hardto resistthe ob-
servationthat manyof these art formshave been
constructedon the basis of some of the very
technologies that are transformingthe wide
world into a small world. Obviously,film, video,
and photographyare the sort of mechanically
139
and electronicallyreproduciblemedia that make
it possiblefor the same artworkto be everywhere
at once.Thoughan artistlike Chung-LiKao may
chooseto screenhisfilmAnti.mei.ology002in one
place at a time,it couldbe shownat multiplesites
simultaneously.
As alreadysuggested,it is, to an importantde-
gree,thisverypossibilityof "overcoming" space-
by means of these very sorts of media-that in-
stills in many the convictionthat globalizationis
uponus.Thus,the popularityof photography, film,
video,and,increasingly,computer,digital,andIn-
ternetartis itselfemblematicof the emergingcos-
mopolitan artworldinsofar as these media are
themselvescosmopolitan.38 As one passesthrough
the aisles of manylarge-scaleinternationalexhi-
bitions with the walls covered with digital pho-
tographsand with monitorsflickeringdown the
corridor,one has the feeling that one is standing
right in the middleof the so-calledwired world.
Sometimes,the images,like the photographsof
empty airportlounges by MarthaRosler and of
tarmacsby AndreasGursky,documentthequotid-
ian experienceof the citizensof this new republic
of art.39But, in addition,the preferredidiomatic
media of this emerginginstitutionalso bear the
expressivetracesof its world-spanningambitions.
Thoughin an admittedlydifferentway,concep-
tualart,anotherfavoritecontemporaryartform-
like video and photography-also defies space,
since it is frequentlynot tethered to a particu-
lar place inasmuchas a great deal of conceptual
art is designedwith the intentionthat seeing it in
situis not alwaysnecessary.Often,you canget the
point of a conceptualartworkby simplyreading
a descriptionor seeing a pictureof it. Wheresuch
conceptualartis essentiallya matterof an idea, it
is lighterthan air and, like a joke, can move any-
wherefasterthanthe speed of sound.
Performance artworks and installation art-
works,of course,are rooted to specificlocations;
however,much of the performanceart at large-
scaleinternationalexhibitionsis thereby thegrace
of video, while, at the same time, a lot of in-
stallationart is multimedia,incorporatingvideo,
photography,audiorecording,andeven computer
technology.40 These devices are deployedto rep-
resent and to probe the modernworld.But they
also manage indirectly-in virtue of what they
are-to expresssomethingof its phenomenologi-
cal pulse:its informationaldensityand seemingly
omnipresentcommunicativeconnectedness.
140
Needless to say, I do not mean to suggest by
any means that paintingand sculpturehave van-
ished from the scene. My point is only that they
are not the privilegedart formsof the momentin
the emergingtransnationalinstitution.Moreover,
severalof the artformsthatwouldappearto main-
tain that position-like video and photography--
are media that, in additionto whateverelse they
symbolize,embody the message of globalization
as, what FredericJamesoncalls, "the sense of an
immenseenlargementof communication."41
The base of the emerging transnationalin-
stitution of art includes its network of coordi-
nated venues, its "always-on-the-go" curatorial-
mangerialclass, and its preferredproductiveid-
ioms. But it is also held together by means of
a numberof shareddiscourses,both artisticand
critical.Artists,presenters,critics,and just plain
artdevot6essharea numberof conceptualframe-
worksand hermeneuticalstrategiesthat facilitate
understandingtransnationally.
That is, the artist can presume that with re-
spect to certain types of work, featuring cer-
tain types of iconography,the audience will be
prepared to explore the work in light of vari-
ous recurringconcerns,preoccupations,or ideas.
Often, these hermeneuticalposits are articlesof
progressivepolitics,suchas postcolonialism,fem-
inism,gay liberation,globalizationand global in-
equality,the suppressionof free expressionand
other humanrights,identitypolitics,and the pol-
itics of representation,as well as a generic anti-
establishmentarianism. A recentexhibitionat the
Museumof ModernArt's (MOMA) P.S.1 Con-
temporaryArt Centerin New York City,for ex-
ample, takes day labor around the world as its
theme and interrogatesit from a generallyradi-
cal perspective.42The criticand the informedau-
dience memberenteringthe galleryspace can try
out these hermeneuticalkeysto attemptto unlock
the often obscuresecretsof a rebus-likeinstalla-
tion piece untilshe or he findsone thatworks,one
that,in otherwords,yieldsa satisfyinginterpreta-
tion.
Perhapsneedless to say, the disseminationof
these concernsdid not appearmagically.On the
one hand,the recurringpoliticalconcernsare re-
lated to the fact that in urban centers around
the world artistsfind themselvesin many of the
samecontextswiththeirattendantproblematics-
including capitalismin particularand modern-
ization in general.43Moreover, on the other
GlobalTheoriesof the Arts and Aesthetics
hand, these themes have been circulatedwidely
throughcriticaldiscourseandtheyhaveeven been
showcased by means of internationalartworld
events like the "platforms"-theinterdisciplinary
lectures and conferences-that comprisedOkui
Enwezor'sDocumenta11.
Of course, this process also involves assump-
tions on the part of the audienceabout what the
artist might be up to. Much new art is involved
in what is called institutionalcritique-critiques
of the institutionof the museum,of the system
of biennales,of the commodificationof art,andof
the artworldin general."Apprizedof suchmotifs,
gallery-goersattempt to use the critique-of-the-
institutionframeworkin order to organize their
thinkingabout the often mysteriousavant-garde
object before them. Because the audience and
the artist share some mutual assumptionsabout
each other'sexpectationsregardingthe available
range of possible subject matter, they are able
to have a conversation.Indeed, since these as-
sumptionshave been broadcastso widely inter-
nationally,it is readily possible-without much
effort-to havetransnational"conversations" be-
tweenartisticsendersandreceiverswho speakdif-
ferentnativelanguages.
Moreover,the artists,presenters,and viewers
are not only aware of a number of recurring
themes or frameworks;they also share knowl-
edge of a batteryof formal devices for advanc-
ing those themes,includingradicaljuxtaposition,
de-familiarization,andthe de-contextualization of
objectsand imagesfrom theircustomarymilieus.
Thoughnot a syntaxandmuchlooserthana gram-
mar,theseformalwaysof articulatingcontentare,
nevertheless,sense-makingstrategies.The artist
knows them and knows that the audienceknows
them, and so the artist uses them in the antici-
pation that the audiencewill recognizethem and
apply them to his or her work on the basis of its
understandingthat sense-makingstrategies like
these are quite frequentlyoperatingin contem-
poraryart.
These sense-makingstrategies or associative
pathways are shared around the world by the
producersand informedconsumersof ambitious
fine art. They are in large measure what make
the emergingtransnationalinstitutionof art an
internallycoherent practice.For this institution
is not just a mechanism for moving artworks
aroundthe world.Shippingcompaniescando that.
The artworksthat are delivered from afar must
Carroll Art and Globalization:Thenand Now
be sent and greeted with sharedunderstandings.
To achieve that, the emergingtransnationalart-
world has evolved a reliable set of themes and
sense-makingstrategiesthat can be mobilizedin
Shanghai,Sydney,Rio, or Capetown.
One such sense-makingstrategy is pastiche.
This may involve the juxtapositionof high and
low, but in terms of globalization,the terms of
the juxtapositionmightbe the local and the tra-
ditional, on the one hand, versus somethingof
modernizingimport,on the other. For example,
MonaHatoun'sKeffeapresentsan imageof a tra-
ditional,male, Palestinianscarf festooned unex-
pectedlywiththe cuttingsof women'shair,thereby
subversivelyprompting-through the culturally
anomalousopposition-thinking about the sexist
repressivenessof Arab society.45Informed,cos-
mopolitanart viewersare on the lookout for ten-
sionslike thisone in Hartoun'spiece andknowto
takethemas progressivelyinflectedopeningson a
conversationabout the dialecticalsignificanceof
the clashingelements.46
Of course,I do not mean to claim that all the
themes and sense-makingstrategiesin playin the
transnationalartworldareutterlyfixed.Manyare.
Indeed,enoughare so thatan intelligibletransna-
tionalconversationis possible.Furthermore,I do
not mean to insinuatethat the existence of this
transnationalinstitutionof art suppressesthe ex-
pressionof the situatedinterestsof artistsin their
place of origin,since the frameworksI have been
consideringplace a high value on difference,re-
sistance,andcritique.The emergingtransnational
institutionof art strives,though perhapsnot al-
ways successfully,to cultivatea cosmopolitanap-
preciationof the localwithinthe contextof a con-
versationthat is intelligible,due to the preceding
factors,to participantsin far-flungregionsaround
the world.
Though scarcelyfrictionlessand by no means
comprehensive with respect to every interest
serious artists pursue currently, the transna-
tional artworld has put in place a language
game replete with conversational presupposi-
tions, hermeneuticalgambits,recurringthemes,
and sense-makingstrategies.This is a worldwide
discursiveframework-a serviceable,though far
from comprehensive,tool-kit, if you will, for
approachingand decipheringif not all then at
least a very great deal of ambitiousart from all
over.Moreover,withthese sharedconversational
141
presuppositionsalso comesa sharedtraditionand
history.
In the 1980s,the complaintleveled at MOMA's
primitivismand modernart show was that it was
ethnocentricityat its most arrogantto hangtribal
art next to modernistart simply on the basis of
their superficial,surfacesimilarities.These were
discrete artworlds,even if tribal art sometimes
servedas an inspirationfor modernistartists.
Today,however,when the artworksthat derive
from nominallydifferentculturesstand side by
side,they are not necessarilyartworldsapart.The
worksat large-scaleinternationalexhibitionsgen-
erally are playingthe same or related language
games and share,to a great extent, the same tra-
dition. When in 1999 two Chinese artists,Yuan
Cai and JianJunXi, urinatedinto the TateMod-
ern's version of Fountain,they were obviously
playing the same extended language game the
FrenchperformanceartistPierre Pinoncelliwas
playing in 1993 when he urinatedinto another
versionof Fountainin Nimes.47Whetherthe Chi-
nese were quoting the Frenchmanis unknown,
but both gestureswere capableof makingstate-
mentsbecausethey were tappinginto a common
tradition,a traditionwhose Dada, of course,was
Duchamp.Indeed, the shadowof Duchampfalls
in every direction.At the recent Times of India
Kala GhodaArt Festivalin Mumbai,there was a
piece calledTheLoovrein the seriesUrbanization
II by ApnaviThacker,whichis an installationthat
uses a row of four gold and sliverpaintedurinals
to open a discussionon the lackof basicamenities
in the city.48
In the past, the artworldsof differentcultures
were distinct, segregated by virtue of their di-
verse traditionsof makingand meaning,of artic-
ulationand interpretation.Even wherethese dis-
tinct traditionstouched and cross-fertilizedeach
other, their genealogiesand canons stayed sepa-
rate. What seems to be changingin the present
historicalmomentis that a unifiedartworldwith
sharedlanguagegames and traditionsappearsto
be emerging across the globe. Connectionsbe-
tween museums,galleries,and large-scaleexhibi-
tions are becomingmoreintensivedue to the ver-
itable explosion in the means of communication
and transportation.But this is more than just a
distributionsystem. It is underwrittenby shared
presuppositions,sense-makingstrategies,artistic
heritages,as well as a proclivityfor the use of
142
certainmedia.It is, rather,a commonart culture,
one whoselineamentsrequirefarmorestudythan
this preliminarysketchoffers.
Of course,not every art-makingactivitytoday
belongsto this emergingtransnationalinstitution
of art.Thereis still folk art,massart, and various
nationaltraditions.But, at the same time,there is
this transnationalinstitutionof art that connects
the artisticpracticesof urbancentersaroundthe
world both physicallyand intellectually.It is not
an institutionof art in the sense that the philoso-
pher George Dickie had in mindwhen he coined
the term.Its functionis not to enfranchiseart.Its
functionis to consolidatea transnationalor global
artworld-a culturescapewith its own language
games and networksof communication,distribu-
tion, and reception.49
NOEL CARROLL
Department of Philosophy
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
INTERNET:
carrolln@temple.edu
1. On the issue of whetherand whatglobalizationis, see
FredricJameson, "Notes on Globalizationas a Philosophi-
cal Problem,"in The Culturesof Globalization,ed. Fredric
Jamesonand Masao Miyoshi (Duke University Press, 1998,
2003), pp. 54-77.
2. Bryant Simon, "Up-Close in the Flat World: A
Case of Malay Teens in Starbucks in Singapore," a lec-
ture at the Center for the Humanitiesat Temple University,
Philadelphia,PA, February2006.
3. Jan Nederveen Pieterse, "Globalization as Hy-
bridization,"in Global Modernities,ed. Mike Featherstone,
Scott Lash, and Roland Robertson (London: Sage Publica-
tions, 1995, 1997), p. 53.
4. KennethTuran,Sundanceto Sarajevo:Film Festivals
and the World They Made (University of CaliforniaPress,
2002), p. 1
5. This informationwas given to me by Priya Joshi of
the English Departmentof Temple University.
6. Turan,Sundanceto Sarajevo,p. 1.
7. Turan,Sundanceto Sarajevo,p. 7.
8. For Appiah, a cosmopolitanis someone who, among
other things, relishes exposure to cultural and artistic dif-
ference. See Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism:
Ethics in a Worldof Strangers(New York: W.W.Norton,
2006).
9. See JonathanRosenbaum,"TheMissingImage:Re-
view of La masinon cinema et La monde, Volumes I
and II, by Serge Daney," New Left Review 34 (2005):
145-151.
10. Appiah, Cosmopolitanism,pp. 109-111.
11. Just as the development of the Japanese graphic
novel, a near relative to the cartoon by way of the comic,
has spurredthe evolution of the American genre.
GlobalTheoriesof the Arts and Aesthetics
12. Philip Bohlman, World Music (Oxford University
Press,2002), p. 133.
13. See "Letterfrom Europe,"InternationalHerald Tri-
bune, November 24, 2005.
14. Deborah Sontag,"TheAmbassador,"TheNew York
Times,January29, 2006, ?2.
15. John Sinclair,Elizabeth Jacka,and Stuart Cunning-
ham, "PeripheralVision,"in The GlobalizationReader,2nd
ed., ed. FrankJ. Lechnerand John Boli (Oxford:Blackwell,
2000, 2004), p. 298.
16. Kwame Anthony Appiah made this observation in
an interviewon National Public Radio on January26, 2006.
In a relatedvein, at present, with films like TimurBekmam-
betov's Night Watch(2004) and Day Watch(2006), Moscow,
with the help of 20th CenturyFox International,is tryingto
capture the marketof Russia and the Commonwealthof In-
dependent States,whichhas a populationof 280 million peo-
ple and is said to be the fastest-growingfilm audience in the
world. See "FromRussia with Blood and Shape-Shifters,"
The New York Times, February5, 2006, Arts and Leisure
section.
17. Sinclair, Jacka, and Cunningham, "Peripheral Vi-
sion," p. 299.
18. This review of dance history relies very heavily
on Sally Banes, "Our Hybrid Tradition,"in Before, Af-
ter, and Between:Selected Dance Writingsof Sally Banes,
ed. Andrea Harris (University of Wisconsin Press, forth-
coming). See also Shelley C. Berg, "Sad Yacco in Lond
and Paris 1900: Le Reve R6alis6," Dance Chronicle 18(3)
(1995): 343-404; Shelley C. Berg, "SadaYacco:The Amer-
ican Tour, 1899-1900," Dance Chronicle 16(2) (1993):
147-196.
19. See the articles by Shelley Berg referred to in note
18.
20. GabrielP.Weisberget al.,Japonisme:JapaneseInflu-
ence on FrenchArt, 1854-1910 (Cleveland, OH: Cleveland
Museum of Art, 1975).
21. Lincoln Kirstein, Dance: A Short History of Clas-
sic TheatricalDancing (New York:Dance Horizons, 1969),
p. 205.
22. David Barboza, "China'sBold 'Swan,'Ready to Ex-
port," The New YorkTimes,February2, 2006, Arts section.
23. Ulrich Beck, Whatis Globalization?trans.by Patrick
Camiller(Cambridge:Polity Press,2000), p. 36.
24. This emphasis on the forms that current transna-
tional relations are taking is a theme of Roland Robertson.
See, for example, his "Mapping the Global Condition:
Globalization as the Central Concept," in Global Cul-
ture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity,ed. Mike
Featherstone (London: Sage Publications, 1990, 1992),
pp. 15-30. See also Roland Robertson, Globalization:So-
cial Theoryand Global Culture(London:Sage Publications,
1992).
25. Freely adaptingthe vocabularyof Arjun Appadurai,
we mightalso call this integratedtransnationalinstitutionof
art a culturescape.See A. Appadurai,"Disjunctureand Dif-
ference in the Global CulturalEconomy,"in Global Culture,
pp. 296-300.
26. Lisa Jardine,WorldlyGoods: A New History of the
Renaissance(London, 1996), especially ch. 5.
27. Lisa Jardineand JerryBrotton, Global Interests:Re-
naissance Art Between East and West (London: Reaktioin
Books, 2000), p. 32.
Carroll Art and Globalization: Then and Now
28. Jardineand Brotton, Global Interests,p. 51.
29. Rose Kerr, "Chinese Porcelain in Early European
Collections,"in Encounters:TheMeetingof Asia and Europe
1500-1800, ed. Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffers (London:
Victoriaand Albert Publications,2004), pp. 44-51.
30. RichardVine, "Reportfrom Prague:Biennale Gam-
ble Doubling Down,"Artin AmericaSept. (2005):47. Higher
estimates are also available.In his talk "TheGlocal and the
Singuniversal:Reflections on Art and Culturein the Global
World,"Thierry De Duve cites a low of eighty biennales
per year and a high of 140. His talk was given on February
14, 2006, at the conference MultipleCulturesin a Globaliz-
ing Worldat the Mohile ParikhCenter for the Visual Arts,
Mumbai,India.
31. JamesMeyer,moderator,"GlobalTendencies:Glob-
alism and the Large-ScaleExhibition,"Art ForumInterna-
tional November (2003): 152-163.
32. It should be noted that the situation changes some-
what if one focuses on internationalart fairs ratherthan bi-
ennales. One sees far less video and installationart (though
still a great deal of photography)at events like Art Basle.
The reason for this is obvious. Art fairs are about selling
artworks to private collectors and noninstitutionalcollec-
tors prefer owning and displayingpaintings and sculptures
ratherthan thingslike videos and installationart. Neverthe-
less, I believe my emphasis on biennales here is justifiable,
since biennales give us a sense of what it is that artists and
presentersthink is "the now thing."
33. For descriptions of this work, see Susan Kendzu-
lak, "Chinese Artists at the 51st Venice Biennale," Yishu:
Journal of ContemporaryChineseArt Septempber (2005):
6-10.
34. Andreas Schlaegel, "YeondooJung,"Contemporary
Special Issue on the Venice Biennale (n.d.): 107.
35. Marcia E. Vetrocq, "Venice Biennale: Be Careful
What You Wish For," Art in America September (2005):
114.
36. Eleanor Heartney,"Reportfrom Istanbul:Artists in
the City,"Art and America December (2005): 55-57. Like-
wise, TheNew YorkTimesreview of the "Of Mice and Men"
festival in Berlin only seems to have had eyes for the videos,
photographs,and installationart.
37. RichardVine, "Report from Prague,"p. 49.
38. It should also be observed that there may be an eco-
nomic element in the gravitationof biennales toward me-
chanicallyand electronicallyreproducibleart,since it is very
expensive to insure a painting or a sculpture for shipping,
whereas a video cassette of a performancepiece is readily
replaceablefor almost no money.
143
39. PamelaM. Lee, "BoundaryIssues:The ArtworldUn-
der the Sign of Globalization,"ArtforumNovember (2003):
167.
40. Though I am emphasizing the role that these art
forms play in large-scale internationalexhibitions, I would
also like to add that these art forms are spreading across
the world gallery by gallery and performancespace by per-
formancespace as well. For example, in 1998, Geeta Kapur
noted the upsurgeof installationart in India.See Geeta Ka-
pur, "Globalizationand Culture:Navigating the Void," in
The Culturesof Globalization,pp. 204-206.
41. Thisquotationis cited by PamelaM. Lee, "Boundary
Issues,"p. 166.
42. Roberta Smith, "Agitpropto Art: Turninga Kalei-
doscope of Visions,"New YorkTimes,November 11, 2005,
Arts section.
43. I owe this point to PrashantParikhmade to me in a
privatecommunication.
44. In privateconversation,Dominic Willsdon,formerly
of the TateModernand presentlythe directorof educational
programsat the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco,
has indicatedto me that curatorsof internationalshows pre-
fer workfromother culturesthat evinces commitmentto cri-
tique, thus reinforcingthe spread of a converginglanguage
game worldwide.
45. My interpretationof the Hartounpiece follows that
of Homi Bhabha in his talk, "Living Together, Growing
Apart,"at the Multiple CulturesConference in Mumbaion
February15, 2006.
46. Similar strategies of juxtaposition are in evidence
among Chinese artists. Wang Guangyi uses the approach
of the propagandaof the Cultural Revolution but inserts
capitalistimagerylike Marlboroand Coke logos, while Jian
Jiweisculptsstone reliefsin traditionalPersianandBuddhist
styles but populates them with contemporary characters.
(I thank Ales Erjavecfor calling these examples to my at-
tention in a privatecommuncation.)
47. Alan Riding,"ConceptualArtistas Vandal:WalkTall
and Carry a Little Hammer (or Ax)," New York Times,
January7, 2006, Arts section.
48. See "Return of R. Mutt," The Times of India,
February11, 2006.
49. I especially thank Susan Feagin, Ales Erjavec,
PrashantParikh, Dominic Willsdon, and MargaretMoore
for their help in the preparationof this article, and wish to
express my gratitudeto the very responsiveand informative
audiencewho attendedmy lectureat the Mohile ParikhCen-
ter for the Visual Arts on February15th,2006 in Mumbai,
India.