Public art and fictional works: simultaneously commemorating fiction and reality
Publication Date
December 10, 2024
Creator
Abstract
Since 1837, there has been an increasing number of public art installations in Britain that simultaneously commemorate fiction and reality, be they officially or unofficially produced. The official examples intentionally commemorate fictional works, so as to simultaneously commemorate real people or places that are relevant to those works. Official examples have commemorated fictional stories and characters to celebrate: the authors of those works; the places where those authors are from, or where they created their represented works; the places where those works were produced; or the cultural output of Britain as a whole. The unofficial examples, however, intentionally appropriate public spaces to specifically commemorate fictional characters that are relevant to those spaces. Such unofficial examples subsequently endure if the official owner of the appropriated site allows the inadvertent commemoration of their site to persist.
This research examines the commemorative dichotomy of simultaneously celebrating fiction and reality, predominantly from an art historical perspective, with visual analyses of each artwork driving the overall research. In addition to art history, this research engages with ideas from both adaptation and fan studies to support its analysis of those artworks. The overall conclusion of this research is that while fiction and reality can be simultaneously commemorated with public artworks that represent fictional subjects, the results can ostensibly appear to only commemorate fiction.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
MRes
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
eprints ID
78485
UoN Repository URI
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Name
Holloway, Johan, 20182395, Final.pdf
Type
Full-text
Description
Examined. Final Submission
Size
41.61 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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