What does it mean to work with theoretical material as a creative practitioner?

On Theory & Practice- Response to'Thomas Hirschhorn: Philosophical Battery' by Craig Garrett

In the interview article on Thomas Hirschhorn the rather unusual method of artistic practice is revealed. The concept of risking transgression (Garrett 90) for creative production to take place is what is central to understanding his practice.
After reading this article I noticed there is a double layer of this concept transgression at play. Interviewing Hirschhorn is Craig Garrett who brings up this gesture of transgression and labels it‘an act of supreme irreverence’ (90). The philosophical theory is used much like duct tapes, plastered all over Hirschhorn’s objects. This decisive act could be seen almost as a criminal offence to some audiences at first glance. But I realised the way Hirschhorn really engages in with this concept is through questioning philosophy’s place within society. Theorists in the past have called philosophy as ‘the germ of life and the point of departure for the Revolution’ (Marx quoted in Merleau-Ponty 57). So because of the regal position philosophy had claimed over other pedagogical fields, we put so much belief and faith in philosophical theories. And Hirschhorn critiques and challenges this position. Precisely the theories of Bataille and Faucault have been ‘dragged out from the gold standard vaults’ (Garrett 90) and mixed up with what we see as ‘junk’ in the exhibition display.

Also this interview is a very document of transgression taking place and I realise that it must be the initial moment of transgression which fascinates and attracts Hirschhorn. So how does Hirschhorn himself view philosophy? He says philosophy is art, philosophy is material, philosophy is the engine to his practice. But as I have found out he contradicts by saying that he does not have to understand philosophy. (Garrett 92) Through contradictions, the boundary has been crossed over and this is how Hirschhorn activates Bataille and Foucault’s original concept of transgression. However this is not necessarily a negative thing. As Foucault has stated ‘transgression is not about a victory over limits…and does not seek to oppose one thing over the other’ (Foucault 35). This is exactly how Hirschhorn stays as a fan of philosophical theory yet makes transgressive gestures without being a pedagogical failure.

- This interview was published in Flash Art on the eve of Hirschhorn’s opening of ‘24hr Foucault’. Craig Garrett the writer and conductor of the interview who was also the editor of magazine at the time, I assume the focus was not to criticise but to promote.


Garrett, Craig. "Thomas Hirschhorn: Philosophical Battery". Flash Art. No.238 Oct 2004

Foucault, Michel . Language, Counter-memory, Practice: Selected essays and Interviews. by Michel Foucault Ed. Donald F. Bouchard. New York : Cornell University. 1977

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. “Philosophy and Non-philosophy since Hegel”. Philosophy and Non-Philosophy since Merleau-Ponty. Ed. Hugh J. Silverman. New York: Routledge, 1988