Do IT at e-Flux... Steven Pippin and Alison Knowles

While basking in the glow of e-flux and its lengthy alphabetized lists of artists, the question of “where to start” seemed a bit daunting.

When daunted, I usually attempt to find a “method”. Any method. Rationalization is optional.

Searching for artists using my initials seemed like a fair idea…. and thus I discovered Alison Knowles and Steven Pippin. Alison won the “K” election by being female. Steven Pippin won for having a last name that happened to share the title of a musical I had performed in. They both won because I had never heard of them before and I wanted to research new artists.

Upon reading their performance actions, I was intrigued by how they different they are.
Alison Knowles provides a very simple concept titled “Homage to Each Red Thing”.
The instructions are short enough to be copy and pasted here:

Find some entirely red thing in your environment, indoors or out and exhibit it for as long as you wish. Do not title the object, but answer with direct information to anyone who remarks or notices what you have displayed. The display may be on or off the Internet.

Purposefully vague and dictating only the color of the “readymade”, Knowles leaves one plenty of room for interpretation. Acting as a kind of “choreographer” to this performance art, she could probably compose a single work out of the various resulting pieces from participants. Unfortunately, it appears that only one person has responded to this particular action, so without further participation that would be difficult.
One thing that this action caused me to question was: “Why red? Why not orange, perhaps?” While her intentional vagueness provides no answers, the color red certainly seems to strike me as a meaningful color. There are many associations attached to the hue, perhaps more so than most others (love, anger, lust, communism, danger and blood to name a few). Outside of that, red is an electric color that seems to grab attention so it could certainly make a displayed object more noticeable than, let’s say, brown.
Personally, I think it would be powerful to see several examples of this particular action instead of viewing only one example.

After further investigating Knowles, I was impressed by her credentials. She is one of the founders of the Fluxus movement and has rubbed shoulders with people as infamous as John Cage and Marcel Duchamp. She created an interesting piece that is an installation of a “walk-through book” (http://www.aknowles.com/bigbook.html) and later created House of Dust. Pioneering the use of digital poetry in this work even earned her a Guggenheim fellowship. One thing I did find interesting is that Knowles’s performance action on e-flux does not reflect her usual work… whereas Steven Pippin’s does.

In contrast to Knowles simple homage to red objects, Steven Pippin’s action is rather lengthy and detailed and plays quite a bit with engineering. It is a two page explanation of how one may turn a washer into a very large and functional camera. Given the unusual materials and amount of detail involved in this process, it is clear that Pippin is experienced with doing such a thing. Immediately I wonder “just who is this guy and HOW on earth did he figure this out?!” I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t look at my washer while doing laundry and think: “Wow that would make a great camera.”

It turns out that Steven is actually known for his unconventional cameras that he’s made out of washers, bathtubs and even toilets. In 1999 he was nominated for the Turner Prize for a piece titled Laundromat – Locomotion
Using 12 transformed washers, he rode a horse while the large cameras took 12 individual photos. Later, these photos along with documentation of the washers themselves were displayed together.

It looked something like this:



Often his photographs are termed as being “sympathetic”- for example: When creating a camera out of an overturned bathtub, Pippin photographed himself naked on the bathroom floor. The Shutter speed was tremendously slow so he was forced to remain still for 90 minutes. “Pippin described this as a process which imitates 'the normal relationship with a bath, which is always one where we are naked and partially inactive for a period of time; floating in a secluded physical and mental space'.”

(http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=21843&searchid=10251)

One more interesting tidbit about Pippin: apparently an 18 year old art student from the UK had to write an essay about Pippin’s work, but had difficulty in finding information about him. After writing the artist directly, Pippin promptly invited him to his studio.

(The student’s blog chronicling this event can be found here: http://www.rezter.net/index.php?pg=pippin07)

For anyone who would like to try receiving such an invitation, you may write Steven Pippin at this email address: mail@mrpippin.co.uk

It could certainly be worth a shot!

DO IT at e-flux

Douglas Gordon: Three Steps to Heaven

Gordon’s “Three Steps to Heaven” consist of a bottle of tequila, a bottle of champagne and a glass tumble. From the start it sounds as if it is leading to trouble. The concept is that one would mix the two in a glass and drink it immediately in three easy steps. The last statement in the performance is that one should repeat this as necessary. The repetition is the key part of this performance. Many of Gordon’s works deal with some sort of repetition. This performance dances around the misuse of alcohol and consequences of such behavior. After researching other works that Gordon has done I noticed that he uses death as a theme in his work. “Twenty-four Hour Psycho” and “Psycho Hitchhiker” are two pieces done by Gordon that both influenced by Alfred Hitchcock deal with death and murder in some way or another. I feel that Three Steps to Heaven is associated with death in that alcoholism is definitely a common reason for unnatural death. I agree with the concept of his performance but I feel that as a performance it lacks some sort of audience to capture the message.

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/douglas-gordon

Yoko Ono: Wish Tree

Yoko Ono was a successful avant-garde artist and well-known for her performance work. During a concert performance she lit one of her painting on fire in front of the audience. Prior to her performance John Cage had told her to put flame retardant on her canvas. John Cage, being the influential artist that he is, left his mark on her and she was accused of her work being too similar to that of Cages. Her famous “Cut Piece” is what got her a name for herself as an artist. Her “Wish Tree” was a performance that took place over a period of time. One would make a wish and put it on the wish tree then get friends to do the same until it started to grow into a tree full of this wishes. I feel like her intention was to be this metaphor for life in a sense. How it starts out as nothing and slowly takes shape into this tree and keeps growing so long as the artist takes care of it. I like the concept of life in this wish tree, however, it also seems as though there is no closure to this performance. It conveys this concept of life very well, but what about everything else that goes along with the life of a tree. The changing of seasons and death also play a role in the concept of this piece.

http://www.a-i-u.net/index.html

Week 2: DO IT at e-flux

Erwin Wurm’s instructions and illustrations tell the reader to create certain “sculptures” on his or her way to work. Figure 1, for example, instructs the reader to balance his bag on top of his head as he walks slowly with both his hands down. Another example is figure 5, which instructs the reader to squeeze his bag between his legs while standing in place. These exercises are meant to cause the reader to think about the nature of sculpture while maintaining a lighthearted and humorous approach. This is a main characteristic of Wurm’s work, which include his famous “One Minute Sculptures” and his “Fat Car”. The instructions also reflect the often spontaneous and fleeting nature of his work, which attempts to take the “shortest path” to being created and understood.

http://www.postmedia.net/02/wurm.htm

Soo Ja Kim’s instructions are not instructions at all, but rather a statement: “I don’t want to ask you to do something.” To me, her lack of instruction to the reader becomes a commentary on the act of giving performance instructions in the first place and is somewhat ironic. Upon looking into her other “actions” on her website, this “untitled” piece fits well with her other works in that the work itself comes from her audience rather than herself (Action 2: It Is Not Fair). Kim is most famous for her performance called “A Needle Woman”, in which she is recorded on video with her back to the camera on the busy streets of different cities around the world. Her works often deal with womanhood and private acts of meditation in public spaces.

http://www.kimsooja.com/actions.html

Annette Messager

Annette Messager is labeled by the MoMA as one of the most important contemporary artists working in Europe. A lot of her work constantly deals with personal identity and this exploration posted is no different. In her works, she is always supporting the idea that "all things give off potent expression" of whatever it is they stand for. In this case, Messager analyzes the expression of something written and how it stands for more than what it really is, a name.

Messager begins her instructions by tossing around the idea of people being given names. The instructions are to write your signature on many different pieces of paper and frame them in order to put them on display to evoke a reaction out of their viewers. This performance i found rather interesting because of the individuals direct attachment to the output and the fact that I have debated before on whether or not i approve of my own signature. When I first had to sign something I must had been pretty young because my signature started as "Tommy McKeever," now not that I have a problem being called "Tommy" i just always felt that Thomas was more formal and would look better in my signature. However to this day, with many attempts, I cannot get away from signing my name Tommy McKeever, probably because of this really cool thing I do with my "Y". Either way, signing my name in that fashion has seemed to cause me to think of what people think of me when they look at my signature so obviously signing your name is an important part of culture for identification purposes. At the end of the description and the examples, Messager writes that she would like feedback on how women feel about their signature if they change their name. Although I can't specifically relate to this, it causes me to rethink the idea of identification in a name and how much importance really lies in a signature.

Shere Hite

In her contribution to e-flux, Shere Hite gives instructions for her performance of hugging a close friend of possibly a loved one, however loved one in a sense that you two have a platonic relationship, unless you can keep the act of hugging from moving towards sex. We are instructed to embrace this close friend for not 30 but 31 minutes and can only say a maximum of 20 words to the other. The performance is supposed to be videotaped by a camera on a tripod, because nobody else is allowed to be in the room throughout the 31 minutes. After you are done filming, you are supposed to name your performance using only one word and mail that word to Shere at the address that she listed.

Hite is an avid observer in relationships mainly focusing on feminism, sexuality and family issues. She has written a couple of books that help to explore sexuality. Her book Sexual Honesty is one that attempts to look over the complexity of sexuality, ranging from numerous types of sexual individuals. Given that she specifically mentions that the performance should not lead to sex, I'm led to believe that it was devised to help individuals explore the act hugging and what such a close embrace can stand for besides something sexual. Keeping the dialogue to a minimum of 20 words allows for some conversing, however you are forced to chose your words wisely. After the performance is through, you have one word to name what you just went through, the word would most likely describe what the moment was like for the individual which could say a lot about either the individual themselves or the relationship that the two participators have.

Do It at E-Flux

Yoko Ono - Wish Tree

Yoko Ono provides directions on how to create a wish tree of your very own. The first step is to make a wish and write it down on a piece of paper. The individual is then instructed to fold the paper up and tie it around the branch of a Wish Tree. Furthermore, Ono instructs the participant to encourage his/ her friends to join in on his/her actions and contribute their own wishes to the Wish Tree. The goal of the project is to keep wishing until all of branches of the tree are covered with wishes. This project appears to be a useful and expressive way to give life to the wishes and desires we sometimes hold inside of us and never fully express. Yoko Ono was born on February 18th 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. She studied music in the United States and specialized in avant-garde and bizarre music. At one time, Ono was a high profile celebrity as the wife of John Lennon and later went into hiding after his murder. She reemerged onto the public scene in the 1980's with her bronze art and conceptual art.
http://www.nndb.com/people/087/000023018/

Dragset and Elmgreen - Dinner for Two

Elmgreen and Dragset instruct the individual participating in the performance to select a dinner room table that is neither to large or small, and cover it with a table cloth. The individual should then place two china plates, two sets of forks and knives, and lastly two wine glasses on the table. The participant is then instructed to pull the table cloth from the table, causing the china, utensils and glasses to come crashing down onto the ground. Lastly, The collaboration then instructs the individual to leave the broken pieces and table cloth on the floor next to the table. This performance is probably symbolic of how fast a situation can come crashing down or be destroyed by one individual. Elmgreen and Dragset started their artistic collaboration in the 1950's. Their projects provide the opportunity for change in both actual and social settings. The main emphasis of their projects is the deconstruction and reconstruction of meaning.
http://www.klosterfelde.de/sites/artists/elm-drag/ar_f.html

Week 2

Potrc, Marjetica
The untitled performance that Marjetica instructs you on is how to blow away a wall. She states that it is easy, to close your eyes, concentrate, and blow. There doesn't seem to be a real purpose to this performance, and it seems more silly than anything else if you were to take it literally. I think this performance is one that exploits how skeptical we are about certain things if it goes against our logic. Even before you try this performance, you just know that nothing is going to happen and the wall is not going to be blown away. It reminds me of quantum mechanics, which says that although the possibility is unimaginably small, a person could fall right through a wall, like a ghost, without damaging it. We've never experienced it, and the science we learn teaches us that something like that is impossible. Therefore, we don't expect it to happen. But the possibility still exists. So even though we think a wall can't be simply blown away, perhaps there is a possibility it can be, and perhaps we'll be fortunate enough and extremely stunned on one of our tries. Marjetica is an artist whose works are mainly architectural, fused with technology, and frequently deals with elements of nature, such as water, energy and wind.
http://www.potrc.org/projects.htm

Annette Messager tells you to write out your signature in as many ways as possible. Supposedly it reveals your personality and as an artist, it's a crucial part of your artwork. She says that I will be surprised, as well as my friends. This performance was actually a lot harder than I thought. I started out with my normal signature and from there, it took me awhile to conceive new ones. I would have to write slower or else I would just automatically write my normal signature. Basically what I gathered from this exercise is that, although my signature is illegible and many of my friends tell me that it's a terrible signature, it's the most time efficient one. I think it has more character to it than if I were to just write it out in plain, legible cursive. I can't really say I'm surprised by the results, but more irritated by the fact that I had to write out a lot of ugly signatures. And honestly, my friends didn't really care. I didn't expect them to. One of my friends stated, "I would care if you were famous." Messager's work addresses many feminist topics and attempts to break preconceived notions of women. One of her provocative pieces involves her following men on the streets and taking pictures of their crotch, switching up the roles of objectification.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/25/arts/messager.php
http://www.artandculture.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ACLive.woa/wa/artist?id=17

DO IT: MANUAL - Bourgeois & Koller

Louise Bourgeois

"Untitled"
In this project Burgeois tells the participant to simply stop and smile at a stranger while walking. Personally, I find this performance to be interesting. Everyone has smiled at a stranger at one point or another in their life. I think that everyone has their own reasons for why we do so, sometimes we smile because we've caught a stranger's eye and feel like it is the only thing to do so we don't seem rude. I think in most cases smiling at a stranger is an awkward act that most people do not do very often. Bourgeois's proposal makes the participant ponder and face the intimacy and maybe even discomfort that could be felt in that single moment. It's interesting to think about how that smile could effect someone's day or life. Maybe for some it would be something that could brighten up their day, while for others it may just creep them out. It seems like such a simple act and some might even wonder how this act is a form of art , but, imagine what would happen if everyone participated in this performance piece on a daily basis.

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and emigrated to the United States in 1938 and continued to study art. She began engraving and painting and then turned to sculpting. Her early works were typically made from wood and was very abstract. In the 1960s she started to use other media such as rubber, bronze, and stone. A majority of her pieces relate to her childhood and the relationship with her parents. She explored the relationship between men and women due as a result of the impact of her father’s affair. It wasn’t until the 70’s that she began to create performance art.

A very interesting work:
http://www.kemperart.org/permanent/works/BourgeoisSpider.asp


Julius Koller
"Untitled"

Koller's project asks the participant to cut out question marks from different newspapers and magazines. After doing so, the participant is asked to stick their cut outs onto different public places, such as posters and wherever they think would be most important. Like Bourgeois performance, I was drawn to this piece because it forces people to question their surroundings. Seeing a question mark randomly on the streets first makes you wonder why it is there and what it could mean. Ultimately, such questions would cause the viewer to go on to larger questions about their life and society.

Julius Koller was born in 1939 and is an active artist in Bratislava. He originated his idea of the “antihappening” in the 1960’s. Koller uses real objects and ordinary life as a basis for his projects. As a result his works take place in actual time. Koller’s goal is to make a person aware of their society and surroundings. Rather than creating a performance, Koller uses symbols to create an attitude about our reality. He typically incorporates the question mark but also uses text and different letters.

http://www.kontakt.erstebankgroup.net/report/stories/Issue20_07_In+memoriam+Julius+Koller/en

Do-It at E-Flux

Are You Meaning Company’s Island Project asks the participant to email them with their contact information and their choice of a small model house. Then, I presume, add your house to their island, therefore, joining the community on the island. I liked the quote after the brief description because it seems like an ideal place where it is always sunny and everyone has neighbors in a closed off society. It’s an interesting concept where you could control the social interaction between actual people through your design of where their houses would be placed on the island. I sort of imagined it like a real life installation of the Sims games except without the complete customization of houses and people.

The Are You Meaning Company is a Japanese artist from Nagoya. Her artwork provides a more light-hearted atmosphere inspired from where she lives.

http://www.lucymackintosh.ch/artiste.php?id=meaning

This link provides some installation pictures as well as a biography of the artist.

Tim Etchells’ Rules of the Game is similar to drinking games for shows on TV except that it is for the news channels. The actions required by certain things broadcasted on the news range from single drinks to sexual activities. The game ends when no one can drink anymore or there is no more news to watch. At first, I thought this was just another drinking game and was amused because of how often I saw the triggers on the list on the news when I’m at home. But considering how many 24-hour news channels are out there, these games are less likely to end without dangerous intoxication. This set of instructions shows how often we see these horrible events on the news and the irony of how the news can be narrowed down to a small list of generic stories. I did find it entertaining to read through the whole list except I would probably never do it in my life.

http://www.timetchells.com/