Jean Fisher (1942–2016): In Celebration and Commemoration
'Jean
is that very rare example of someone whose love of art and ideas, and commitment to
artists and social justice were embedded in a clear-eyed humanism. Her towering
legacy, generosity, grace and ethical example will endure. A
beautiful one of a kind. Even as we mourn her departure, we should be comforted
by the fact that she left behind important work that should be continued.'
– Okwui Enwezor, Director Haus der
Kunst, Munich
First and foremost, we write as friends, friends of one of the key thinkers, writers and curators
of our time, Jean Fisher. We write on behalf of students and colleagues of the
RCA who loved and respected her. Following the shock of Jean’s death earlier
this week there has been an outpouring of tributes from many corners of the
world. From artists and from curators, and from the many, many students who
recognised in Jean an ethical standard, a humanity and a rigour that for some
reason is all too extraordinarily rare.
Having studied Zoology and then Fine Art, Jean turned to writing and curating, and later on to teaching. Professor of Fine Art and Transcultural Studies at Middlesex University, and from 1996 teaching here at the RCA on the Curating Contemporary Art programme until 2012. She continued as Visiting Professor, and when Nuria Querol completed her PhD in March 2014 Jean’s parting act was to ensure that Nuria’s success be properly celebrated with champagne.
Jean Fisher was a narrator, a narrator for the voiceless. Her life-long work and interest in the intersection of global politics with art led her from Northern Ireland, to Palestine, to the heart of Native America, where she worked to illustrate the horrifically crooked discourse of the new internationalism that emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s. As an editor of Third Text, and as a frequent contributor to artist books and essay collections, she invited voices from around the world to take part in a collective discussion around art and its potential agency: from Gerardo Mosquera to Coco Fusco to Cuauhtémoc Medina, to Okwui Enwezor to Geeta Kapur and Gayatri Spivak and Hal Foster, Fisher mined and unbuckled the discourse of colonialism in art and begged its critics to engage with her in continual examination and re-consideration.
At the heart of all of this, Jean was a teacher; a fervent, passionate, fiery force in classrooms, where her mission was not to teach but to stir questions. Her students, artists, writers, poets and philosophers, have continued enquiries that were ignited in these sessions. Her catalogue essays for artists including Sonia Boyce, James Coleman, Willie Doherty, Steve McQueen, Susan Hiller and Edgar Heap of Birds, will be an enduring legacy for students of the future. Her website, on which she has shared her many reflections on artists and on the social, political and ecological challenges of our time, was a typically generous gift to all of us.
Jean was also a troubadour, deeply preoccupied, if not obsessed with the ways and the figure of the trickster – that character with the potency to subvert and sublimate the traditional conditions of a world order. This can be evidenced in her life-long love of artists such as Jimmie Durham, who she continually returned to collaborate with, and others who used critical humour to upend traditional modes of social capital and political exchange, from the Mexican Francis Alÿs to the Palestinian Emily Jacir. Her most recent manuscript, still unpublished, explored this life-long pursuit and elucidated her love of the great troubadours such as Michel Serres and Jean Genet.
In 2002 in her essay ‘Towards a Metaphysics of Shit’ for Documenta 11, Jean asked: Can art function as an effective mediator of change or resistance to hegemonic power, or is it doomed to be a decorative and irrelevant footnote to forces more powerful than its capacity to confront? This question has a new potency in these uncertain times and one we know Jean would want us all to continue to address.
Omar Kholeif (MA Curating Contemporary Art, 2011)
Michaela Crimmin ( Tutor, Curating Contemporary Art)
'As the tribute above testifies, Jean Fisher made an exceptional contribution to our knowledge and understanding of contemporary art and curating, and the CCA programme, its staff and students were privileged to benefit from her over a long period. Our thoughts are with her family and many friends.'
– Professor Victoria Walsh
Please visit Jean Fisher’s website: www.jeanfisher.com