Abstract
This paper proposes a rethinking of the form of the image through the lens of aesthetic plasticity, a concept that identifies the image’s capacity for transformation, adaptation, and generative negation. Drawing from the study of earthworks, particularly Michael Heizer’s Double Negative, the paper explores how form and space operate as sites of aesthetic and ontological negotiation. Aesthetic plasticity, here, frames objects not as fixed entities but as dynamic sites where meaning is shaped through exposure to time, environment, and the viewer’s slow, contemplative engagement. By engaging with theories of sacredness and Blackness—especially the notions of “luminous darkness” and “weathering”—the paper argues that objects like Double Negative enact an ethics of form that resists closure and institutional assimilation. The sculpture’s continuous erosion and refusal of monumentality become material expressions of vulnerability and endurance, revealing how sacredness emerges not through permanence but through the persistence of the object in conditions of disintegration and ambiguity. This approach offers a critical framework for reimagining the form of the image as a relational and temporal process, one shaped by forces of refusal, exposure, and sacred encounter. The paper contributes to ongoing conversations in image studies by demonstrating how properties of aesthetic plasticity expand our understanding of form beyond static visuality, toward practices of world-making shaped through time, weathering, and perceptual devotion.
Presenters
Byron WilsonAssociate Professor of Practice, Design, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Image Theory, Sacred Form, Perceptual Rupture, Black Sacred Aesthetics, Weathering
