Ana Mandieta

In view of Barney

In Nat Trottman's "Ritual Space/Sculptural Time", which does openly suggest modern physics's concept of space and time as a single continuum wherein a point in a space versus another point in space share a duration of time*, from "space/time" as a condition for the becoming of a ritual practice, the writer abstracts what I have come to accept as a fluent quality of modern art, which is, to defy the reality of binaries.  Through many attempts towards such an impossible goal, of total truths and total falses-which is then an infinitely true situation from a separate plane-I have learned that the word for a binary reality, is contradiction. Something will stand out from the other.  In the opposite condition, things would not be distinguishable.

Into his text, Trottman pulls these ideas from reviewing the sculptural performances of Joseph Beuys and Matthew Barney.  Describing Barney's Radial Drill, in which the artist uses the same objects from another work, Trottman interprets, "By juxtaposing two videos that related to the same space, Barney opened up multiple, distinct temporal zones, all of which were experienced simultaneously by the viewer"(146).  By video and the ritual, or practiced space, the objects were given a way to "exist" twice in one, sculptural space/time.  Trottman elaborates this reconstruction of time and place perception, writing, "Barney's audience was drawn at once to the distinct but equally distant points of origin.  By displaying the videos on a loop, he furthered the impression of disorientation, stretching each action's duration into an infinite repetition and generating a new, mediated sense of ritual time"(146).  Space is not collapsed in brutly physical terms, although it is indeed, a collapse of perceived space caused by a material perception.  I identify with the latter, I would describe the effects of Barney's work to operate on a level of micro-materiality, where in Barney's videos are still material; light displayed by Barney's ritual enters the eye; it is real. While Barney poses two true situations, my mind can only flicker between the two, so quickly it seems they themselves, have disappeared into one moment.*  The repetition of their plays supports my idea that ritual functions to bring back or maintain a time, even though time has changed, conditions have changed.

Barney's intended effect in Radial Drill  is well-explained by Nancy Spector, who in her work, "In Potentia: Matthew Barney and Joseph Beuys" describes the differences between the two artists, writing, "Where Beuys envisions resolution, Barney identifies tension"(25).  Nancy also states about Barney, "Within Barney's universe, form cannot materialize or mutate unless it struggles against resistance in the process"(25).  Barney's infinitely causal representations creating awkward spaces and times is stressful.  Barney's work is ironically, realistic-in contrast to his surreal actions and costumes and landscapes-in that the artist exhibits that things exist and evolve because they contradict and they do not rest at a "disappearance", things identify each other as they identify themselves.  Casual tension is always there.

True and wonderful, but, preference draws me to Joseph Beuy's theory of Social Sculpture because it also searches not only to use ritual and symbol to understand the spatial conditions in which humankind develops, it celebrates it, which also identifies with a certain "cultural ritualness"-Barney is also abound with "cultural ritualness" though it maintains a distance as well***-and requires other-dimensional scopes to bring together search and celebration as their very own.  In Beuy's universe, it seems that humankind is believed to have a small power to halt the tension that Barney exhibits, at least for a bit.

*which fully involves the second dimension and third dimension, leading off into the "fourth".

**The only word I find sufficient enough to match Barney's effect is a vietnamese word that describes the experience of numbing, slowing down, or preventing but not entirely stopping-inhibiting.

***Drawing Restraint #9, with the occidental guests.

I have questions about the two artists, in regards to ritual/symbolism and science.

Such a coincidence that modern science and modern art begin to form certain common denominators, from tubed paints during the impressionist age to computer technology, allowing reconstruction of perceptible spaces and disorientation of course,  demanding new learning and new rituals. Does this mean new science, new art forms?

My second curiousity is concerned with ritual and disorientation.  Why do we always practice rituals and symbols to imbue meaning?  How else?

Words Learned

From "Mundus Inversus, Mundus Perversus"

Rapacious: predatory, living by preying on other animals.

Canonical: appearing in a biblical canon.

Caste: hereditary social group limited to persons of same rank; any group or social class sharing common cultural features.

Metasubject: metaphysics metasubjects??

Gabriel Orozco, then Rebecca Horn

Extensions of a Reflection
Finger-Gloves

I Was Left Thinking That Kentridge Filled A Gap

This was a more difficult reading to absorb, primarily because I could not successfully draw the suggested meaning from the language of the text.  However, I did cling onto a mention of South African artist William Kentridge's use of reference involvment in his works, which is a similiar use of allusion as I understand the concept.  Kentridge exhibits something which bears significance of another thing, to extend his own intentions.  Kentridge extending also reminds me of abridging; acting as some conjunction in a strange middle of two, more familiar worlds.  Perhaps his place is also a pending one.  In "Mundus Inversus, Mundus Perverus", Cooke seems to make a point of Kentridge's fleeting place in which he identifies as the artist's place.  Throughout the text, Cooke provides situations that exemplify these less accessible places.  One begins with Kentridge addressing apartheid, reading, "These two elements-our history and the moral imperative arising from that-are the factors for making that personal beacon rise into the immovable rock of apartheid.  To escape this rock is the job of the artist" (41).  Kentridge addresses two places that are familiar-apartheid and the moral responses coming from-and to progress from the history is to reach into a less known area, and to conjoin it with the familiars.  In another paragraph, Cooke exhibits Kentridge qualifying his position, "a spot where optimism is kept in check and nihilism is kept at bay...It is in this narrow gap that I see myself working" (41).  Indeed it is a gap, although it is described as a narrow gap, I assume the narrow gap is also infinite, since its margins are also indirect (unconfirmed).  Finally, Kentridge's mode is described to be swinging in between two, impermanent (unconfirmed) points.

Also familiar with Kentridge's draw-erase (inherently-impermanent) animated video work, I found certain passages in Cooke's text that encouraged my interpretation of Kentridge and so forth, the struggle of art-making today, which states, "Coupled with the use of reference as 'a manifestation of content,' this innovative mode of expression-this formal encoding of the temporality of historical narrative-guarantees a crucial dislocation between content and form...Kentridge pace Krauss's argument, avoids both the specularization of memory endemic to much art that deals with political issues and, equally, the sentimentality that bedevils most excercises in redemption"(41).  Focusing on the language of the text, I found correlations between the reality of Kentridge's video work, the flickering condition of his working place, the arguments of art and politics more or less abandonned temporarily, to proceed to the next level of all of this.  Kentridge uses references to discover the reference-free.

Involving Jarry as a reference or a comparative in the text, I find it interesting how Cooke's language changes from "dislocation" and "temporality" to "crystallize" and "imbue"(46).  In describing the produce of Kentridge's work in comparison to Jarry's, Cooke writes, "Jarry's play offers what is essentially an abstract caricature of the traditional metaphysical hierarchy crowned by divine moral judgement, Kentridge crystallizes it, imbuing it an indubitably contemporary caste"(46).  Kentridge moves Jarry's project onward or at the least, to a different position, where it takes on another form along its former.  It seems that with each displacement is a moment which it can be described as an original, and then references converge, original becomes "established" and therefore, a reference.  So what keeps moving?

When Do Puppets Become Digital?

"As the physical distance between the performer and the object widens, the amount of technology needed to bridge the gap increases.  Moving the puppet's center of gravity outside the body of the puppeteer requires more and more sophisticated linking systems"(Kaplin 12).  The idea is interesting, in that creative concepts emerge from physical truths.  As a bare and simple example, we can observe the relationship between human control with an object as the connection changes from direct hand contact with the object to the beginning of leverage structures to assist human control.  Why does distance (and leverage as well) decrease control?  Kaplin's analysis of "linking systems" may also be interpreted as the beginning of materiality, in which the object becomes its own center of gravity from the material center(performer), occupying its own place in time, therefore, as anything becomes outside of the performer's body, time and place, it also becomes material and requires its individual interaction; learning. Humans begin to follow the rules of the material.  Distance requires extended human functions, but also, the object develops towards its own unique "life", finally rendering the material center (performer, included) as an extension.  

More to come! Contemporary artists, non-western mentalities about materialism and control, material-distance-analog-digital relationship.