an unmonumental summary.

Sculpture can be considered to be the leaders of contemporary art. Products of the twenty-first century seemed to have two distinct ideas: assemblage and unmonumentality. Assemblage was seen to be a strategy to achieve unmonumentality in sculptural works. During the first two decades of the twentieth century the first experiments in using found objects in sculpture were explored in Europe. Contemporary sculptures have adopted a method of juxtaposition of forms, rather than compositionally blending them. Other criterion was introduced to the discourse of contemporary art when an ‘empathetic’ engagement was made with daily objects and life through sculpture. Some artists claimed that through juxtaposition they were able to turn familiar objects into mysterious ones. It has been suggested that distinctions between twentieth and twenty-first century assemblage comes down to the availability of information, especially through graphic interfaces. ‘Assemblage’ or ‘neo-dada’ never became a movement or period. Influential critics referred to the era as ‘neo-avant-garde’, as it showed a deep divide between pre-World War II and post-war art. ‘Physiognomic fallacy’ was a term used by E. H Gombrich, which explored the assumption that artistic forms are direct reflections of the nature of the society that produced it. Therefore assemblage could rather be the result of disorder within the world at the time, instead of a means to reflect it. Art historian Roger Shattuck referred to artist Robert Rauschenburg as a less gifted descendent of the dada originals. Rauschenburg countered such remakes by saying ‘the artist who has his foot in a history book and an eye on himself can move but not directly’. Such retorts showed Rauschenburg’s intent to utilise styles and techniques from past artists but still plan to create his own path of the style through his work. It can be seen that sculptors today don’t focus on ‘what art can be’, but rather how their works can engage in issues of contemporary life.  The term ‘unmonumental’ is meant to describe a type of sculpture that is not against ‘monumental’ values- massiveness, timelessness- but rather intentionally lacks them.