Aesthetic Exception

Fisher sets out to rethink the relationship between art and politics from the ground up. Debates on the subject tend to divide into two camps. One side, impatient with the idea of aesthetic autonomy, is quick to claim that art is a working instrument of social engagement. The other holds that art's political force is confined to a narrow zone of independent resistance. The author argues that both positions miss art's distinctive standing and the many social channels through which it operates.

Drawing on philosophy and cultural theory, and working through case studies from visual art, performance and theatre, the book puts forward four alternative tests for judging art's political effect. These tests consider art as a practice that gives shape to the historical moment it arises from, and the ways it anticipates the new through simulations that can stir the political life of the spectator. The result is a more nuanced account of what makes art political.