LOY LUO THEORETICAL COLLECTION
ISSN [3070-3417] (Online series)
The Backed and the Void: A Structural Call for Legitimacy in Contemporary Art
Loy Luo 2025
Abstract
Abstract This paper, continuing the structural analysis of the crisis of legitimacy from the previous article, takes the exhibition The Backed and the Void as a case study to argue for the possibility of Self-Endorsement as a mechanism for institutional renewal. The research points out that institutional power is derived from the regulation of viewing methods, the production of meaning structures, and the setting of subject positions. The artist, through the visualization of the thought system, the generation of scopic regimes, and the occupation of political futurity, forms a verifiable, experiential institutional alternative structure. This paper demonstrates that Self-Endorsement is not an individualistic self-proclamation, but a reverse genesis internal to the institutional structure, ariculating art as a structural condition of thought.
Keywords
Self-Endorsement; Institutional Critique; Scopic Regime; Politics of Visibility; Cross-Cultural Subjectivity; Contemporary Art
The Backed and the Void: A Structural Call for Legitimacy in Contemporary Art
The Backed and the Void: A Study on the Institutional Genesis of the Self-Endorsement Mechanism
Loy Luo 2025
Abstract
This paper, continuing the structural analysis of the crisis of legitimacy from the previous article, takes the exhibition The Backed and the Void as a case study to argue for the possibility of Self-Endorsement as a mechanism for institutional renewal. The research points out that institutional power is derived from the regulation of viewing methods, the production of meaning structures, and the setting of subject positions. The artist, through the visualization of the thought system, the generation of scopic regimes, and the occupation of political futurity, forms a verifiable, experiential institutional alternative structure. This paper demonstrates that Self-Endorsement is not an individualistic self-proclamation, but a reverse genesis internal to the institutional structure, ariculating art as a structural condition of thought.
Keywords
Self-Endorsement; Institutional Critique; Scopic Regime; Politics of Visibility; Cross-Cultural Subjectivity; Contemporary Art
The Backed and the Void: A Study on the Institutional Genesis of the Self-Endorsement Mechanism
DOI: [TBD]
Biographical Note
Loy Luo is a contemporary artist, curator, and writer based in New York. Her practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, and theory, exploring the philosophical and cultural dimensions of abstraction. She is the founder of Loy Luo Space (Tribeca, NYC), an independent “Open Theater” dedicated to experimental exhibitions and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Banner image: Installation View from To be endorsed, or not to be endorsed? — The Inner Field of Legitimacy in Contemporary Art, featuring works by Loy Luo at Loy Luo Space, New York, 2025.
ISSN 3070-3417
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0