Body Dialogue.

From Lippard's interpretation of the sculptural performances and art objects of Rebecca Horn, in the text, "Rebecca Horn: A Special Touch", the idea of "dialogue" between a body and a place is a very clear action throughout the works discussed. At the end of the text, Lippard writes about Horn's concern for balance throughout her work (71). The search for such between body and environment is strongly present, but attaining that balance is not always possible, which lends the work its sensibilities of torture and entrapment. In this case, the body in struggle exhibits a constant reinventing or relearning of the way it is balancing itself in a place (which can also be understood as functioning comfortably). In imagining Horn's sense of balancing opposites, I wondered whether the inanimate work itself-the costumes and extensions-was capable of "struggling", or if a struggle was visible "extension" of the performer. Does the bodily function grow onto the object?

Several motifs between Rebecca Horn and Matthew Barney become apparent through the lens of tension and growth. Both apply the concept. In addition to sculptural performing, the two artists attain sensibilities of ritualism in exploring the body in a place. Moreover, the body in certain conditions. Horn and Barney produce work that inherently triggers learning or transformation, such as Barney's Restraint Drawings or Horn's Finger Gloves. These works force a body and a consciousness to find systems or "ways" to identify themselves and what might be possible of them.

Not only do the artists's work bear dialogue between body and place, but there is also a recombinant quality to certain pieces, as Horn and Barney refer to their other works within a work. Horn's Dialogue of the Paradise Widow refers to her other works (Lippard 71); Barney showed his work in a place in video, which was shown as a video sculpture in the same place (Trottman 146). Although the products of the two artists are rather different, the reappearance or continued life of the work becomes symbolic, and gains ritual character as it gains meaning.