Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how Cildo Meireles draws on his early, nationally contingent and politically explicit, oeuvre in order to distil alarm as an artistic means of intervening ethically in the world. It studies alarm’s relationship with beauty in the artist’s phenomenologically oriented ethics.

Paper long abstract:

Cildo Meireles (b. 1948), one of Brazil's best known contemporary artists, is celebrated internationally for his pioneering work with installations. His witty indictments of Brazil's military regime and social inequalities during the 1970s and early 1980s have been the subject of considerable academic reflection, as has his ongoing commitment to making unsettling art 'seductive'. This paper will examine how Meireles draws on his earlier, nationally contingent and politically explicit, oeuvre in order to harness or distil alarm as an artistic means of intruding equivocally but ethically on others. In particular, the paper will look at how alarm's relationship with beauty informs the artist's peculiar brand of phenomenologically oriented ethics.