THE ART of MEMORY the Loss of History

THE ART OF MEMORY The Loss of History

THE NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, NEW YORK

THE ART OF MEMORY / THE Loss OF HISTORY

BRUCE BARBER

JUDITH BARRY

TROY BRAUNTUCl-I

SARAH CHARLESWORTH

LOUISE LAWLER

TINA LHOTSKY

ADRIAN PIPER

STEPHEN PRINA

RICHARD PRINCE

MARTHA RosLER

RENE SANTOS

HIROSHI SUGIMOTO

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS

REESE WILLIAMS

''RE-VIEWING HISTORY : VIDEO-DOCUMENTS''

PETER ADAIR

NANCY BUCHANAN

DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY TELEV ISION

DAN GRAHAM

V ANALYN GREEN

ULYSSES JENKINS

MINERS CAMPAIGN TAPE PROJECT

PAPER TIGER TELEVISION

DAN REEVES

DAVID SHULMAN

EL TALLER DE VIDEO "TIMOTEO VELASQUEZ"

WITH ESSAYS BY

DAVID DEITCHER

WILLIAM OLANDER

ABIGAIL SoLOMON-GODEAU

THE NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, NEW YORK THE ART OF MEMORY /THE LOSS OF HISTORY •Contents November 23, 1985-January 19, 1986 Foreword by Marcia Ti1cker 5

Acknowledgments Library of Congress Catalogue by William Olander Card Number: 85- 72522 Copyright© 1985 The New Museum of Contemporary Art Fragments Copyright © 1985 Reese Williams by William Olander 7 Copyright © 1985 Tina Lhotsky All Rights Reserved Conditions of Sensuous Perception ISBN 0-915557-52-5 by Reese Williams 13 This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal Drawing from Memory agency, Institute of Museum Services, a federal by David Deitcher 15 agency, the New York State Council on the Arts, Mobil Foundation, Inc., ART QUEST, The New Museum's Report from the Moon Collectors' Forum, and by public funds from the New by Tina Llzotsky 22 York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Bmce Barber 24

Judith Bany 26

Troy Bra1111tuc!1 28

Sarah Charlesworth 30

Louise Lawler 32

Adrian Piper 34

Stephen Prina 36

Richard Prince 38

Martha Rosier 40

Rene Santos 42

Hiroshi Sugimoto 44

Christopher Williams 46

Cover: Plaster casts (Hermes from Andros by Praxiteles and Photography at the Dock Roman copy of the Doryphoros by Polykleitos) photographed by Abigail Solomon-Godeau 48 at the Queens Museum while being restored with funds from the Chase Manhattan Bank. On permanent loan from the Metro- Point of View politan Museum of Art, New York. Photo: Louise Lawler, 1984. by William Olander 53

Frontispiece: Christopher Williams. On New York (detail), Works in the Exhibition 57 1985. Cibachrome print, II ford Cibachrome II Paper CRC .44 M, 10 x 14" (image), 17 Y2 x 21 Yz" (framed). The Image Bank Bibliography 57

4 •Foreword

To have a clear perception of My thanks to curator Wil- Arts, the Institute of Museum what has been called post- liam Olander, who organized Services, the New York State modern culture, it is important the exhibition, to David Council on the Arts, Mobil to understand the concepts of Deitcher and Abigail Solomon- Foundation, Inc., and the New both history and memory. This Godeau, whose contributions York City Department of Cul- exhibition attempts to initiate to the catalogue are invaluable, tural Affairs, for their con- a critical discussion of these and to the members of the tinued support. terms, to show that they are staff, volunteers, and interns, Above all, we are grateful not necessarily intertwined or who helped bring the exhibi- to the artists in the exhibition synonymous, but rather how tion to fruition. for sharing their work and they interact. History, with its Each year, Art Quest, The vision with us . illusion of neutrality, has more New Museum's collectors' for- to do with ideology than with um, sponsors an exhibition, Marcia Tucker actual events while memory and it is as a direct result of Direclor can recoup history by critically their generosity that this exhi- examining how, by whom, and bition has been made possible. for what purpose history is We are also grateful to the being inscribed. National Endowment for the

• Acknowledgments

The art and critical theory on Solomon-Godeau offered im- Wallis; Marcia Landsman, who display in this exhibition have portant advice at an early initiated and coordinated this been developing simultaneous- stage; Martha Gever was in- catalogue, and Jean Foos, who ly, within a much larger textual strumental in shaping the video designed it; Pam Freund and field than one program can portion of the exhibition; Jeanne Breitbart, without possibly suggest, since the late Robert Beck, Electronic Arts whose help Stephen Prina's 1960s. Though they emerged Intermix, Joanne Kelly, Video concert could not have taken full force only since the late Free America, and Neil Sies- place; Lisa Parr, who managed 1970s, it did not seem too soon ling, University Community all of the exhibition details; to mount an exhibition which, Video, provided access to and John Jacobs, who installed while undeniably contempo- tapes; and Judith Barry, Troy it with patience and under- rary, implicitly possesses, be- Brauntuch, Nancy Buchanan, standing. cause of its subject, a "retro- Sherrie Levine, Stephen Prina, Finally, I want to thank the spective" character. To every- and Richard Prince all made Foundation for Art Resources, one participating, I am deeply valuable suggestions that have Los Angeles, for its support of grateful for your continuing helped make this project pos- the rehearsal and preparation commitment to a broad range sible. To the lenders, whose of the score for Stephen Prina's of ideas and issues, and for names appear elsewhere in this performance; Symphony your enthusiasm, generosity, catalogue, I am very grateful Space, New York, for the con- and cooperation with regard to for the loan of seldom seen tribution of their concert hall; this particular project. works, and to Mary Boone, my and the National Endowment I would like to single out thanks for facilitating the loan for the Arts for its continuing the following individuals: of Troy Brauntuch 's pieces. Of support of not only this exhi- David Deitcher, a contributor course, I have appreciated the bition but of contemporary art to this catalogue, a long-time support and assistance of my and issues in general. friend and colleague, has been colleagues at The New Muse- there since the beginning; Ro- um, including Marcia Tucker, William Olander salyn Deutsche and Abigail Lynn Gumpert, and Brian Cura/or

5 Adrian Piper. Aspects of the Liberal Dilemma (detail), 1978. Black-and-white photograph, 20 x 24'~

6 FRAGMENTS

• WILLIAM OLANDER In 1978 Adrian Piper first pre- deed, the limits are so firmly the spectacle of late capitalism. sented a work entitledAspects defined, that if one expresses Memories circulate and history of the Liberal Dilemma. doubt or simply refuses to unrolls, but seldom does any- Adopting in part the form of name names in favor of something emerge as a discrete an acoustiguide (the prere- thing more thoughtful, more event. Rather, as Judith Barry corded tours of museum exhi- complex, then one runs the risk calls her newest work, we are bitions), the piece consisted of of being dismissed as nothing always confronted by yet an- a large black-and-white photo- more than an "ideological ab- other "Mirage," an "odd hy- graph, mounted under highly straction" or a "spectacle" brid, ... Now you see it, now reflective glass, and an audio- rife with hypocrisy.' Doubt is you don't. And can you trust tape. The photo depicts a not expressed easily by those what your eyes are seeing. group of black South Africans, who are attached to certainty. Would you even know it if you descending a staircase, while In place of certainty, I want could." the tape contains a monologue, to propose both memory and spoken by Piper, which is ad- history, for today each informs If the resurgence of memory dressed to the viewer: the other with an ease of sub- figures prominently in post- You want to have an aesthetic stitution that is distinctly not modern practice, then its ab- experience: to be fulfilled, ele- modern, neither separate nor sence may be seen in retrospect vated, edified, irritated. You unified, but equal. Memory. It as a principle characteristic of would like lo have your crite- is unstable, fragile, and proble- modernism, at least since the ria of good art confirmed, or matized. At present, it is not a late nineteenth century and the disrupted, or violated by the art you see here. You look for- matter of whether or not one is full deployment of aestheticist ward to being challenged by capable of remembering, but experience, i.e., since the com- this art to see things around of what is remembered and its plete separation of art from so- you in an aesthetically height- relation to what is remem- ciety and its transformation ened way. In short, you want bered, or to its "reality." into an autonomous, organic something new and exciting lo History. It is no longer con- unity which possesses no mem- think about, and not to be stituted by the facts but by just ory.' Though the historical bored or antagonized. so many memories, informed avant-garde (primarily dada These comments introduce a not by events but by their rep- and surrealism) attempted to series of questions, which be- resentations. It is as elusive as disrupt this homogeneous gins with "How do the images anything else in today's whole by injecting a mem- in this picture relate to each society; it possesses even less ory-the fragment lifted from other?" passing through "Are materiality than a memory both the unconscious and the these the right questions to ask might, for history today is social reality of daily life-into about this work?" and ends seldom more than just another its practice, the absence of with, electronic transmission, an memory has figured more sig- Why are you increasingly im- over-produced broadcast of nificantly in other, more avant- patient with all of these ques- imminently forgettable events garde developments of the tions? And with the lack of manufactured for our plea- twentieth century. Malevich's information you seem to be black square is a singular ex- gelling in return? Is this sup- sure, only to be discarded : posed lo be part of the piece nothing is seen for any length ample-a revolutionary act of loo? What exactly is the aes- of lime, there is no assumed forgetting. The expansive fields thetic co11te111 of this work? collective memory, and little of Barnett Newman are an- And what is it trying lo tell carry-over from day to day. other - works free from the you? There is no background, but "impediments of memory, as- Although Piper's concerns only a moving foreground. sociation , nostalgia, legend, may seem naive or idealistic There is no accumulation of myth" and understandable on- several years after their writing, history ... ' ly by anyone who would look the genuine faith in at least This is one aspect of the post- at them "without the nostalgic asking these questions vividly modern condition and it is glasses of history."' Newman's contradicts today's polemical here, on this constantly shift- text, written in 1948 and en- certainty regarding the nature ing terrain of current repre- titled "The Sublime Is Now," of art and artistic experience. sentations, the results of mem- unlike Malevich's 1913 paint- Producers of aesthetic ideol- ory machines and desire fac- ing, coalesced too easily with ogy, from the right to the left, tories, that we first encounter the emerging, postwar devo- all too frequently claim to the art of memory and the loss tion to the "new," a ready as- know the correct form and con- of history, fragmented, dis- pect of bourgeois modernism, tent of contemporary art. In- persed, and then embodied in which also played a major role

7 •

happening?" hangs in midair.' rhythm."' They shift attention He has remarked, "Everything away from the ruins of mem- becomes a detail, really, ... No ory-Robert Smithson's desire matter what it is, ... It's all buried in the Spiral Jetty, a fragments. It's the dilemma of work of art few of us ever saw consciousness trying to decide yet one which retains itself as what to make us see." At this an image within our memory- place, drifting isa natural state, and toward Borgesian laby- where we attempt the imposs- rinths, shifting from one to ible-to distinguish one mem- another and back again, re- ory from another in order to trieving from the modern ar- resurrect a version, any ver- chive something perceivable as sion, of someone's past: history even while that history continues to unfold. As I think back, the VC was really right there. He had ac- What is, for instance, "Re- cepted that he was going to die membering Vietnam," when it and all his energy was now is presented as a multinational focused on how he was going corporation 's (United Tech- to die. His pleas for a gun nologies) version of history death began to cut through appearing as an advocacy ad- the roles we were playing. vertisement in The New York Suddenly, Jimmy became Times on the tenth anniversary quiet, and his face turned of the U.S. withdrawal? What in the liquidation of memory, ashen; it must have flashed to time, and recollection. him what he was actually isRe111e111beri11g Vietnam a sec- Newman's concept of the doing. And that made him ond time when it is reinscribed sublime as the obliteration of vulnerable. by Bruce Barber into what is memory thus collapsed into the Jimmy drew out his re- the more authentic version of new, a category which would volver and the VC's eyes America's intervention in seem at odds with the former, lowered in animal submission. Southeast Asia - a chunk of but, in reality, dialectically He moved him right up next history that many of us experi- functions as both a break with to the open door, we didn't enced only as the images Bar- want to get blood all over the ber has selected, and these, of tradition (the new negates con- floor of the chopper, and vention) and as a characteristic raised the gun up to his course, thanks to their cir- feature of the escalating com- temple. A split second before culation in the press, are modity universe, in which art he pulled the trigger, the VC among the only ones we know increasingly participated fol- struck like a cobra. His hands and remember. lowing World War II. flew up and clamped on Jim- What is "modern his- Since the late 1960s, how- my's wrist, the gun fired as he tory" when it is presented by ever, a new generation of art- pulled with all his body weight and in the media, whether ists, diverse in character and and they tumbled out the door printed or electronic? What is together.' conversant with a rapid succes- Modem History when it is rep- sion of art styles, has initiated To locate a memory, of resented by Sarah Charles- a dramatic turn in the opposite course, is not the only concern worth as ten events reported in direction. They have sought to of artists like Troy Brauntuch, over one hundred and fifty recoup memory, to locate it Reese Williams, and others, newspapers, from "September and occasionally pin it down, for they also seek to examine 1977" as preserved in The l11- to retrieve it at a relatively the place where memory re- tematio11al Herald Tribune to close distance and, in some sides - the unconscious, the ''Movie-Television-News-His- cases, at no distance at all. void, the black hole where tory, June 21, 1979 (Death of Many have abandoned faith in "nothing is happening,'' or, in a Newsman)," the murder the new ; they traffic neither in the words of Michel Foucault, of ABC correspondent Bill progress and innovation nor the "empty space left by the Stewart in Nicaragua by a na- nostalgia and myth. Rather, author's disappearance."' Put tional guardsman during the their memories are imaginative another way, they seek new re- revolution of 1979? We re- acts of appropriation, which sponsibilities that are not member the images and the may be as precise yet evocative "purely academic"; instead, way the event was represented as those displayed in a work by they keep alive both "the (the text in these works is Troy Brauntuch, for example, memory of a tradition and usually negligible) but little or (above) Troy Brauntuch. Floor- whose production has always make an opening beyond any nothing of their contents. This boards, 1984. Pastel on cotton, rested uneasily in that place program, that is, toward what version of modern history 108 x 144'~ Private collection; "between two informations" is called the future." This im- makes no claims to the "rec- photo courtesy Mary Boone where "nothing happens,'' plies "multiple sites, a strati- ord," yet in a curious twist, the Gallery, New York where memory renders activity fied terrain, postulations that record can be reconstructed, in (right) Rene Santos. Untitled, still, where thought is imposs- are undergoing continual dis- an alternative fashion, from 1984. Oil on linen, 30 x 42'~ ible, and the question "Is it placement, a sort of strategic the images alone. Two diplo-

8 mats meet and shake hands on firm . In previous installations very essence of the psyche: not a memory but another a daily basis ("September in Amsterdam, Ghent, and resistance, and precisely, simulation exhausted by its 1977"); the Pope greets his fol- Paris, this photo has been re- thereby, an opening to the ef- manufacture. Tina Lhotsky has lowers, with a gesture of trans- placed with another, equally fraction of the trace."" In his specified it in relation to Los cendence,. in the midst of day touristic, photograph of the analysis of the metaphor of Angeles ("Report from the to day turmoil ("No News corresponding site; thus, the writing (also "trace") as devel- Moon"): from the Vatican"); and an work, begun in 1984, is always oped in three essays by Freud, There is no visible nightlife in eclipse is charted across a con- and never the same - a con- who was attempting to describe Los Angeles . A soft hu sh tinent, "all the while pretend- stantly shifting proposition. the content as well as the appa- comes over the city al 7:00 ing it is the viewer and not the Yet, this explanation is supple- ratus of memory, Derrida ex- p.m. The real guide to L.A. cosmos upon which the mentary and is not meant to trapolated by characterizing nightlife is the TV Guide. No shadow has been cast" ("The imply that without it 011 New the memory construct (Freud's one goes out of the hou se al Eclipse [A Science Fiction]"). York has no meaning. On the "Mystic Writing Pad"-the night. Everyone who works in this company town goes home Charlesworth lets loose these contrary, in its most straight- wax tablet used by children) lo watch on Television the pre- images as if they originated as forward form, as displayed , as joining "the two empirical fabricated reality th ey have the original in the unconscious the work reads as execution-ex- certainties by which we are created in studios earlier that -the seat of memory-and in ecution-tourism, and this is constituted: infinite depth in day, the sit-corns, the game the process demonstrates that disturbing enough. In its elab- the implication of meaning, shows and the TV movi es. It 's "perhaps there is no story in orated form, when read as a se- ... and, simultaneously, . .. a circular television reality the end-but only stories."' ri es of complex procedures, the absolute absence of any and the biggest deception . Another memory possesses from documentary photo op- foundation."" There, in that Under these circumstances, a similar character in this ex- portunity to image-for-sale, region, which for Freud was neither remembering nor for- hibition: three photographs, our moral indignation may be both the unconscious and con- getting possesses many positive each elegantly matted and aroused - lives expended for a scious and for Derrida is life as attributes, at least in the sense framed include a very large photograph; prizes awarded death, lie thousands of received that Nietzsche, for instance, black-and-white one, showing for such a fabrication; the messages, the endless accu- called "active." Indeed, our an execution presumably in a whole recirculated into the arl mulation of "events" experi- behavior, in a conventional op- Third World country; the same context and remarketed as an enced moment by moment, year position, is "passive" in the photo much reduced in size; expensive commodity; a Third after year, which we call our extreme. There is little willful- and an expensive Cibachrome World tragedy reframed as art. memories. ness in today's remembering print of a view of Manhattan. All of these readings are pos- Today, however, most of and forgetting. Our memories This is a work called On New sible and none is correct, for what impinges on our selves is drift and we court forgetfulness York fl by ChrislOPher Wil- each part operates as a missing not a "trace" with any narra- as the implication of the pres- liams. No information is pro- totality which, like a memory, tive sense, but rather an ervation of everything, as if vided on the wall labels other can never be grasped in its endless succession of simula- our authoritativeness will auto- than the title of the piece and entirety. tions, impossible to remember matically put us in touch with the three photographs' vital other than as image without the past. Gayatri Spivak statistics-medium, size, and Memory. In a late work, Note either depth or foundation. writes: "Simply to recognize provenance. Everything in this 011 the Mystic Writing Pad, The process has been winding that one is shaped by differ- work - the elegance of the Freud characterized a memory and unwinding for so long (at ence, to recognize that the prints, the matting and fram- as a "trace (Sp111) . . . left in least since the late nineteenth 'self' is constituted by its ing, the careful hanging- our psychical apparatus of the century) that we have forgotten never- fu 11 y-to-be-recognized- aspires to the status and condi- perceptions which impinge how to remember, how to ness, is enough. We do not tion of the museum (thus un- upon it." 10 Jacques Derrida has recall those signals buried in have to cultivate forgetfulness derscoring the lack of history elaborated the concept of our psyche. This condition no or the love of chance; we are conventionally ascribed to art "trace" in a more complex longer approximates Freud's the play of chance and necessi- objects) and it is only here, in fashion, as "the origin of the writing pad but is more like a ty."" the catalogue, that we can origin," "(pure) trace" as dif- projection screen upon which The art of Rene Santos is learn the origins of these fera11ce, and memory as "the anything can be fabricated- one demonstration of this posi- photographs. tion, if we allow into our frame The black and white is a of reference Derrida's defini- Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo, tion of position as " resisting taken in 1971, showing the exe- and disorganizing ... without cution of several Biharis ac- ever constituting a third cused of treason during the term ... "" I want to focu s on Bangladesh war; the execution this artist's production -a is considered by many to have group of paintings, drawings, been a "photo opportunity," and photographs, begun in i.e., an event constructed lo be the late 1970s, which possesses photographed lo which the no center, dedicated, as it is, press was invited. The color to slippage, displacement, photograph of New York City rupture and, in its most ex- is a "stock" image related to treme case, a form of Derridi- the business of tourism, pur- an erasure. That is, if Santos, chased from a commercial in his own practice of decon-

9 struction, places painting un- them. The sto rm irresistibly dreds of other identical or sim- der erasure, to use Derrida's propels him into the future to ilarly generic images; images term, it is not to eliminate it, which hi s back is turned, while of images, representations of signal its end or engage in any the pile of debris before him representation s. For Prince, outmoded theorizing on the grows skyward. This storm is nipping through a magazine- what we call progress." fate of painting, for that would scanning the photographs-is be to risk forgetting the issue of In 1940, Walter Benjamin was a critical practice. He scru- painting or believing it solved. describing, in metaphori ca l tinizes these pictures, searching Rather, crossing out the rele- terms, the extraordinary rise of for the right look, the correct vant term, liberates it. Painting fascism, "one single catas- pose, the appropriate quote is thus freed from fi xity, from trophe ... pilin g wreckage that will become the new fetish, single-minded polemics that upon wreckage." Nearly half a the new object of our desire. seek to cancel it out as a further century later, separated by dec- Fascinated by the spectacle of possibility; it becomes like any ades of failed dreams, the disil- high capitalism in action he other alternative site of signifi- lusionment of utopia lost , it pries loose the image to play cant aesthetic practice (the act appears, from th e vantage against the established code. of painting) and production point of Western culture, we The result is always a question: (the painting ilsell). In some are meditating once again what is the significance of na- ways, placing painting under upon a field of wreckage: ur- ture, for example, when it is erasure is the ultimate act of ban ruin s are juxtaposed with rendered as a repetition located appropriation, for the only ostentatious display. (A sleek in the media (su nsets)? Indeed, way to use painting is by cross- limousine crui ses past a what is nature in its photo- ing it out so that we are no burned-out tenement.) Third graphic form but the evocation longer captive to its mythology world countries are threatened of representational collapse, or but are receptive to its experi- by imp er iali st intervention . the ability of representations lo ence (for Santos, each painting (Smoking villages that are the collapse into each other? Hir- must have another painting as result of U. S.-provided arms.) oshi Sugimoto 's version of na- its referent). Sanlos's crossing Jails are filled with children ture displays this dilemma in out of painting thus provides and police are ordered to shoot its process of becoming-one the memory of painting itself, to kill. The wreckage accumu- reality (the museum) becomes "the origin of the origin," the lates. (The bodies pile up .) the representation of another trace. And this particular act Here, fragmentation is among reality, supposedly more real of resistance (placing painting the key term s. Eclecticism, ex- (nature), and it is impossible to under erasure so as to liberate haust ion , depl etion , destruc- differentiate the former from it - the latter usually ascribed tion, and di sintegration are the latter. Thus, nature cannot to the acts of the neoexpres- also relevant, as is repetilion- be experienced in any manner sionists who have only revived the last of particular impor- other than its representation as painting rather than crossed it tance since it is so ambiguous, "natural history," and the out) is a strategy of delay and so malleable, and yet so useful. latter is more "real" than its contradiction: lo subvert mean- Jn its most superficial manifes- referent. The irony is that ing so it is never singular and tation , repetition is marketed through this paradoxical form thus may always be encour- in the current artworld as the of repetition an artist like aged; lo use painting and erase latest neoavant-garde, which in Richard Prince or Hiroshi il at the same time, so that the turn is validated and legiti- Sugimoto can provide access to practice may be constantly mized as a repeat of the orig- an extremely problematized charged with desire for an ob- inal (today 's phenomenon of version of the past as an experi- ject (art). And if the subject is New York's East Village as a ence of the present (the present immersed far enough in the repetition of the Tenth Street as the past). Edward Said has zone of memory, that object School of late abstract expres- linked the two together in the can be si (gh )led. sionism) ." But repetition, in following manner: " ... never cases like this, leads to simula- mind if epistemologically the This is how one pictures the tion, not lo sameness, despite status of repetition itself is un- angel of history. Hi s face is the fact that sameness is what certain: repetition is useful as a turned to wa rd the past. Where would validate most explicitly way of showing that history we perceive a chain of events, the repetition. and actuality are all about he sees one sing le catastrophe Repetition , however, can human persistance, and not which keeps piling wreckage also be viewed in a different about divine originality."" upon wreckage and hurls it in light, as the postmodern condi- Prince himself has articulated a front of hi s feet. The angel tion of memory: we remember similar idea: would like to stay, awaken the through the medium of some dead , and make whole what His own des ires had very little has been smashed . But a other representation. Richard to do with what came from Martha Rosier. Still from storm is blowing from Para- Prince's photographs and texts himself because what he put Domination and the Everyday, di se; it has got caught in hi s are repetitions of this peculiar out, (at least in part) had al- 1980. Color videotape, sound, wings with such violence that sort-fragments of images ready been out. His way to 30 min. the angel can no longer close selected from literally hun- make it new was to make ii

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again and making it again was any closer to "real" history to participate in the alterna- to discussing our relation to enough for him and certainly, than any standard modern his- lives. Following are some ex- information about what the personally speaki ng , almost tory has already managed not amples of works that clearly world is about. That informa- him." to accomplish. To speak of re- succeed as both art and alter- lion includes a text on the 1973 ...... visionism today is to speak of natives to high culture: American-backed coup d'etat To focus on the present as his- the most conventional rewrit- In a piece first performed in Chile; images of advertise- tory is to review the past from ing of history. in 1980, It's Just Ari, Adrian ments devoted to the ideal the position of the present, to If revisionism has fa iled, Piper attempted to locate the family; and a continuous revise what has occurred ac- what then? How does one spectator (and make that spec- voice-over conversation cording to what we know now. intervene in a process that tator conscious of his or her between a mother (the artist) Revision, of course, is among seems to be out of control or location) outside the conven- and her son, foregrounded the standard practices of late carried along by its own rapid tional space of aesthetic expe- against a radio interview with twentieth-century historical momentum? How does one rience, in a space not marked art dealer Irving Blum. Not practice, a result in part of the separate out art (or culture) as strictly cultural. The perfor- only does the density of this liberation movements of the from any other social activity mance, incorporating many tape make it nearly impossible 1960s that laid the foundation in a society increasingly domi- forms of popular culture (film, to digest on the first or even for a revisionism that has nated by spectacular consump- slides with cartoonlike thought second viewing, it is this very subsequently spilled over into tion, without resorting to balloons, disco dancing, and density of enormous contradic- the academy. But revisionism ideologies of transcendence, Rufus and Chaka Khan's "Do tions which the tape is about. - despite significant work on autonom y, or transgression? You Love What You Feel?"), As Rosier simply states: " Life the part of feminist, gay and One theory, proposed by Fred- was devoted to the history of is said to mean one thing while lesbian, black, and Third ric Jameson, is that culture Cambodia after the Vietnam we experience it otherwise." World historians, among cannot be separated, but has war and the compliant re- In 1985 Louise Lawler exe- others - seldom addresses the been dissolved to the point at sponse of many Americans to cuted an installation called 111- questions "What is the past?" which its dissolution is trans- the regime of Pol Pot. The teresting at Nature Morie Gal- or "What constitutes what has ferred throughout the social work, however, also included lery in New York's East Village. preceded? " Rather, the past, or realm: "everything ... from several incidents of direct ad- Several parts were combined to fragments of it, is recon- econom ic value and slate dress, such as "With your transform this ga llery into an- structed into "new" or "redis- power to practices and to the presence here we collaborate to other type of enclosure, one covered" histories without ex- ·very structure of the psyche it- create a context of comfort, in- more fam iliar even to habitual amining the basic issues of self - can be said to have be- sularity and aesthetic enjoy- gallery-goers than the gallery what our points of reference come 'cultural ' in some orig- ment," and ended with the itself, one "that is redolent are with regard to writing his- inal and as yet untheorized phrase, "Against impinging with the institutionalization of tory as an ideological practice. sense."" We can turn this political realities." self-interest, where money gets Even revisionism, in this sense, around: the terms of culture In a 1980 videotape, Dami- money." The gallery was rede- is part of the extreme fragmen- have changed so dramatically nation and the Eve1yday, Mar- signed to simulate the lobby of tation of postmodern cultu re that cultural practice must ex- tha Rosier presented the priva- a bank or, more correctly, that and, as a practice within the tricate itself from every other tized existence of a mother and secondary space of Instant- academy, it has not brought us social practice whi le continuing child as an "in," in her words, Cash machines. A shelf was

11 · ~

mounted on one wall; the title sumption of the past not as a narrative of the news photo. Essays and lnlen1iell's (Ithaca, of the work, painted in appro- succession of images, but as in- Yet, the three instances of nar- New York: Cornell University priately corporate logo fash- terruptions, interventions, and ration by Lawler, Piper, and Press, 1980), p. 121. ion, on another; and three breaks which we consume (for- Rosier are particularly cogent 8. Jacques Derrida , "The conventionally framed Ciba- get) as knowledge and which examples of a progressive state Principle of Reason: The Univer- sity in the Eyes of its Pupils," chrome photographs on a are useful not as master-narra- of cultural inquiry that "has Graduate Faculty Philosophy third. No traditional labelling tives but local variants. And no more need for special Joumal !The New School! IO, no. accompanied the installation . though the referents of the lat- procedures to authorize its I (1984): 21-22 . Instead, a fable, "The Dog ter may seem to belong to the narratives than it has to re- 9. Sarah Charlesworth, Mod- and His Shadow," was past, in reality they are con- member its past."" Their past em Histo1y (Edinburgh: New 57 stencilled next to the photos: temporaneous with the act of requires no legitimation, no Gallery, 1979), pp. 18, 37. In time past was a dog that recitation. In each case, the fabrication, and no validation, IO. Quoted in Jacques Derrida, went over a bridge, and held narration drifts into the pres- since these narratives simply do "Freud and the Scene of Writing," in his mouth a piece of meal, ent, demanding consideration what they do. They are the in Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of and as he passed over the of the now: Piper's exegesis on past inserted into the present- bridge, he perceived and saw Chicago Press, 1978), p. 216 . Cambodia is equally an exami- disruptive fragments that give Freud's text is also discussed by the shadow of himself and of nation of our relationship to rise to new works which seek to his piece of meat within the Dan Graham in "Theater, Cin- water. And he, thinking that it current aesthetic practice and defamiliarize the familiar. ema, Power," Parachute, no . 31 was another piece of meat, experience; Rosler's discussion After hearing Stephen Prina's (June-July-Aug. 1983): 13-14. forthwith thought to take it. of the takeover in Chile is An Evening of 19th- and 20th- 11. Jacques Derrida, OfGram- And as he opened his mouth, equally an analysis of power Ce11/11ry Piano Music, it will matology, trans. Gayatri Chak- the piece of meal fell into the relations in the United States be difficult to hear Beethoven's ravorty Spivak (Baltimore and water, and thus he lost it. (including the artworld) and "Ode to Joy" quite the way we London: Johns Hopkins Univer- sity Press, 1976), pp. 61-62, and We all remember this fable, or Latin America; and Lawler's thought we remembered it. Of " Freud and the Scene of Writing," one like it, just as we recall, deployment of a fable in a sim- course, what we hear today is p. 201. once the events have been re- ulated bank environment is not what was heard a century 12. Derrida , "Freud and the narrated, the invasion of Cam- equally a commentary on our ago. And what we see today is Scene of Writing," p. 224. bodia by American jets at current obsession with wealth, not what was seen even a 13. Gayatri Chakravorty Spi- Nixon's behest in 1970 and the status, and power. decade ago, for the art of vak , "Translator's Preface," in CIA-backed overthrow of the This is not an attempt to memory and the loss of history Derrida, Q(Grammatology, xliv. Allende government in Chile unify these three works and imply a remarkable shift in our 14. Jacques Derrida, Posi- in 1973. transform them into one grand perception whose special tions, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago : With these works, it be- narrative, nor is it intended to effects we are only beginning to University of Chicago Press, 1981), p. 43. comes possible to see how focus on these localized narra- discover. 15. Waller Benjamin, "Theses memory, or remembering, tives at the expense of others on the Philosophy of History," in when attached to narrative, or that are not so obvious. Chris- Illuminations, trans. Harry Zorn the function of storytelling, topher Williams's 011 New •Notes (New York: Schocken Book s, can provide access to history, York, for instance, calls into 1969), pp. 257-258. not in its spiraling postmodern question the very distinction I. Hilton Kramer, "Professor 16. See Irving Sandler, "Tenth Howe's prescriptions," The Nell' form, but as a new, original between the "localized" narra- Street Then and Now," in The Criterion 2, no. 8 (April 1984): 3, East Village Scen e (Philadelphia: form of forgetting-not the re- tives posed by the photos of 5. verse of remembering, but its Ghent, Amsterdam, Paris, and Institute of Contemporary Art, 2. Edward Said, "In the Shad- 1984), pp . 10-19. A radically dif- logical extension: a real con- New York, and the "universal" ow of the West," ll'edge, nos. 7/8 ferent view of the East Village phe- (Winter /Spring 1985): 8. nomenon is provided by Rosalyn 3. See Peter Burger, Theo1y of Deutsche and Cara Gendel Ryan, the Avant-Garde, trans. Michael in "The Fine Art of Gentrifica- Shaw (Minneapolis: University of tion," October: no . 31 (Winter Minnesota Press, 1984). 1984): 91-111. 4. Barnell Newman, "The 17. Edward Said, "On Repe- Sublime Is Now," in Herschel B. tition," in Tire World, the Text, Chipp, ed., Theories of Modem and the Critic (Cambridge: Har- Art (Berkeley: University of Cali- vard University Press, 1983), p. fornia Press, 1968), p. 553. 113 . 5. Jean-Francois Lyotard, 18. Richard Prince, Why I Go "The Sublim e and the Avant- to th e Movies Alone (New York: Garde ," Ar!fomm 22, no. 8 (April Tanam Press, 1983) , p. 63. 1984): 40. 19. Fredric Jameson, " Post- 6. Reese Williams, "A Study modernism, or the Cultural Logic of Leonardo," in Hotel (New York: of Late Capitalism ," Nell' L ~(t Re- Tanam Press , 1980), p. 58. This vie11 ~ no. 146 (July-Aug. 1984): 87. section, altered, also appears in 20 . Jean-Francois Lyotard, "Gift Waves," in Richard Prince, The Postmodern Condition: A ed., Wild HislOJ:V (New York: Report on Knoll'ledge (Minnea- Tanam Press, 1985) , p. 9. poli s: University of Minnesota 7. Michel Foucault, "What is Press , 1984) , p. 22. Louise Lawler. Interesting. Announcement card for an Author," in Language, Coun- exhibition at Nature Morte Gallery, 1984. ter-Me11101y, Practice: Selected

12 POINT OF VIEW

• WILLIAM OLANDER In an exhibition devoted to the In Peter Adair's Some of among males - but seldom art of memory and the loss of These Stories are True, three during the viewing does one history, the category "docu- men tell three different stories, consider the question of mentary" plays a major role, some or all of which may or whether any of the stories are for documentaries are pre- may not be true. The audience true. It is only afterwards, sumed to be records of history. does not know which of the when we know if one is true Most of what comprises them narratives, or parts thereof, is and one is false, that we want are memories-someone's rec- true until the end of the tape, to re-view the work in order to ollections of "what hap- when the credits roll. The discover its truth or falsity for pened" or even, "what's hap- point, however, is not to devise ourselves, and to question our pening." Yet, whose history is a guessing game (it is never very ability to tell them apart. recorded in such a work (that clear that any of the three is 1101 This deliberate confusion may of the documentarian or his or true), but to raise the general have been responsible for the Miners Campaign Tape Project her subject), and why should issues of what constitutes docu- elimination of the tape from (A.C.T.T.). Still from The Lie we trust or believe an indivi- mentary "truth" and "objec- the Public Television series for Machine: The Media and the Strike dual's testimony? These issues tivity." The stories themselves which it was originally made. (Tape #5}, 1984. Courtesy are the subject of at least one are so compelling - each ex- According to the CPB, who fi- Platform Films, London, and videotape included in this pro- plores the relationship between nanced the work, it was not Paper Tiger Television, New York gram: sex, power, and aggression aired because "the audience

53 (top) Nancy Buchanan. Still from See I A • •• , 1981. Color videotape, sound, 10 min. (above) Paper Tiger Television. Still from Murray Bookchin Reads "Time": History as a Television Series, 1981. Color videotape, sound, 30 min. (right) Dan Reeves. Still from Smothering Dreams, 1981. Color videotape, sound, 23 min. Courtesy Electronic Arts Inter· mix, New York (opposite page, top) Downtown Community Television Center. Still from El Salvador: Nowhere to Run, 1983. Color videotape, sound, 27 min.

54 I I might have trouble separating fiction from reality.'" Precisely the point. As Adair's tape suggests, the documentaries presented here function very differently from what we have come to expect from documentary, even though their content, when listed in a menulike fashion, could be the stuff of broadcast television. The role of the media in shaping (or unshap- ing) history, the continuing revolution in Central America, alcoholism, rock 'n' roll history, and the struggle for black liberation are just some of the subjects of these tapes (though mains of the consciousness in- and on-location excerpts from neous practice of corporate "subjects" hardly begins to dustry rather than the culture one of Buchanan's perfor- television, the tape produced describe their complexity). industry in the late twentieth mances called !j I Could Only by the Nicaraguan collective, What motivates these works so century: "it is in our power to Tell You How Much I Really El Taller de Video "Timoteo significantly and what distin- offer an array of more socially Love You. Though extremely Velasquez," entitled Asi guishes them so completely invested, socially productive artful without being high-tech, Ava11za111os (And So We Pro- from other documentaries is counter-practices, ones making See I A . .. manages to convey, ceed), is nonetheless a moving their point of view and a a virtue of their person-cen- in extremely condensed form, record of the formation of a willingness to express it, an teredness (that is, on their information that links McCar- cattle farm collective in an area awareness of their own role in emanation from an artist)."' thy-style communist witch of Nicaragua besieged by U.S.- the construction of history, For instance, Nancy Bu- hunts, the role of "black prop- backed counterrevolutionaries . and increasingly, a desire to chanan's See I A ... (originally aganda" produced by the CIA Approximately fifteen minutes disrupt the conventions of the twenty-eight minutes, now cut in the 1973 takeover of Chile, into the tape, comprised pri- medium, or in this case, a cate- to ten) is unquestionably an and the current struggles in marily of people talking (peas- gory, in order to challenge the artwork, yet it is composed of Central America. ant farmers, administrators, so-called neutrality of the standard elements associated Less artful, primarily be- and government officials), the documentary. Most of these with the documentary-inter- cause the work does not par- scene shifts abruptly to the tapes participate in what reviews, some original footage, ticipate at all in the homoge- smoking ruins of a village de-

55 (right) Peter Adair. Still from Some of These Stories Are True, 1981. Color videotape, sound, 30 min. Courtesy Adair Films, San Francisco (below) Ulysses Jenkins. Still from Without Your Interpretation, 1984. Color videotape, sound, 13 .min. (bottom) David Shulman. Still from Race Against Prime Time, 1984. Color videotape, sound, 60 min. Courtesy New Decade Productions, New York

strayed by contras and to foot- pieces of video art. Though I age of Somozan soldiers being have no desire to deny this trained by the CIA in Hon- work its status as art, its pre- duras. This material is so sentation and reception as such shocking in light of what has jeopardizes, particularly at this just preceded it that the viewer moment, its value as history. really does perceive what it By recontextualizing it in this must be like to live under such exhibition I hope we might be conditions. This is very differ- able to retrieve it and others ent material, obviously, from from the neutralizing pool of what one sees on the evening television. Though much has news or in broadcast-produced been made of this tape's "uni- documentaries, which must versality," we should not forget subscribe to false (ideological) what prompted it: one man's notions of objectivity and are experience of a war which "has inevitably compromised by been digested by the U.S. polit- such a necessity. ical system with hardly a These are two examples of trace."' The art of memory can works with a "point of view" prevent the loss of history, if - videotapes which seek, only our acts of appropriation through the memory machines will allow these memories to of the media, to counter the speak. loss of history produced by the industry of corporate broad- casting. Imagine Paper Tiger •Notes Television's reading of the t. Mark Perry and Michael news juxtaposed with Tom Mariotle, "New Works," City Brokaw's, or Dan Reeves's re- Paper [Washington, D.C.[ 2, no. enactment of a Vietnam am- 6, May 7-20, 1982. Also see bush programmed alongside Kathleen Hulser, "ls Public TV any of television's specials de- Doing Its Job?" The Nation, May voted to the history of Viet- 15, 1982, pp. 583-584 . Might Adair's tape not have been aired nam. This, of course, would because one segment included never happen. Such a powerful writer Lucian Truscott IV recount- indictment of war as that in ing an incident with a homoerotic Reeves's S111ot!zeri11g Dreams subtext which occurred with then could never be shown along- Colonel Alexander Haig at West side so-called objective report- Point? ing of the war. Indeed, of all 2. Martha Rosier, "Video: the works presented here, only Shedding the Utopian Moment," Smotlzering Dreams has been unpublished manuscript, 1984, p. 36. broadcast on television other 3. Noam Chomsky and than cable, in a very recent Edward S. Herman, "The Penta- Public Television series called gon-CIA Archipelago," as "Docu- "Alive from Off Center," ment I: The Free World," wedge, which is devoted to master- nos. 718 (Winter/Spring 1985): 14.

56 • Works in the Exhibition Martha Rosier, New York Downtown Community Television Height precedes width . Unless otherwise indi- Global Taste (Working Title), 1985 Center (Jon Alpert, Karen cated, all works are courtesy the artist. Video installation Ranucci, and Carlos Aparicio), New York New York Halifax, Nova Scotia Rene Santos, El Salvador: Nowhere To Run, 1983 27 min . Bruce Barber, Untitled (Adolphe Cremieux, 1796-1880; Remembering Vietnam, 1985 Three C-prints: Alphonse Daudet, 1840-1897; Jean Journet, each 60 x 40". New York 1799-1861; Edouard Manet, 1832-1883 ; Alfred Dan Graham, United Technologies: An Analysis, 1984 Color Rock My Religion, 1984 60 min. Courtesy Josh Musard, 1828-1881; Gioachino Rossini , 1792- videotape, sound, 30 min. Baer Gallery, New York 1868), 1985 Oil and encaustic on linen, six Judith Barry, New York works: each 32 x 28". Vanalyn Green, New York Mirage, 1984-85 Color videotape, sound, 7 min. Untitled, 1985 Oil and encaustic on linen, two Trick or Drink, 1984 20 min. works: each 32 x 28". Troy Brauntuch, New York Untitled, 1980 Three photographic screen- Hiroshi Sugimoto, New York Ulysses Jenkins, Los Angeles prints: each 97 Yz x 25". Collection Dupuy Stanley Theater, Jersey City, New Jersey; Without Your Interpretation, 1984 13 min . Warrick Reed Goshen Theater, Goshen, Indiana; Canton Untitled, 1983 Graphite on cotton, 98 x 111 ". Palace Theater, Canton, Ohio; Prospect Park Miners Campaign Tape Project Collection Doris and Robert Hillman Theater, Brooklyn; United Artists Playhouse (A.C.T.T.), London, England Theater, Great Neck, Long Island, 1977-80 The Lie Machine: The Media and the Strike (Tape New York Sarah Charlesworth, White Rhinoceros; Mandrill; Ostriches and # 5), 1984 16 min. Courtesy Platform Films, "Herald Tribune, September 1977" (Modem Wart Hogs; Hunting Dogs; Oyster Bay Bird London and Paper Tiger Television, New York History), 1977 Twenty-six black-and-white Sanctuary, 1980-82 Ten black-and-white photo- photographs: each 22 Yi'' x 16 Yz ". graphs: each 20 x 24". New York Tabula Rasa, 1981 Photographic silkscreen, Paper Tiger Television, Murray Bookchin Reads "Time ": History as a 67 x 93". Los Angeles Christopher Williams, Television Series, 1981 30 min . On New York II, 1985 Black-and-white New York Louise Lawler, photograph, 40 x 56" (image), 71 x 86" Two Wall Displays: Arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Dan Reeves, Paris, France (framed), AP/Wide World Photos; black-and- A(fred Atmore Pope or their daughter Theo- Smothering Dreams, 1981 23 min. Courtesy white photograph, 10 x 14" (image), 17 Yz x date, Farmington, Connecticut, and Standing Electronic Arts Intermix, New York 21 Yz" (framed), AP/Wide World Photos; Ciba- in your own shoes, Reading, 1985 Two in- chrome print, 10 x 14" (image), 17 Yz x 21 Yz" stallations with black-and-white and color David Shulman, New York (framed). The Image Bank-Francisco Hidalgo photographs and text: each 12 x 16 Yz '. Race Against Prime Time, 1984 60 min. 1985 (detail) Cibachrome print, Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New On New York, Courtesy New Decade Productions, New York 10 x 14" (image), 17Y2 x 21 Yz" (framed). The York Image Bank-Peter M. Miller. Exhibited at El Taller de Video "Timoteo Los Angeles Tina Lhotsky, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, 1985. (Amino Luna, Report from the Moon, 1985 Text and phot9 Velasquez/' ATC-CST On Paris, 1985 (detail) Cibachrome print, 10 x Iliana Streberg, Mirian Carrero, Roberto (pp. 22-23) 14" (image), 17 Yz x 21 Yz" (framed). The Image Alverez, Sergio Gonzalez, Oscar Ortiz, Fco. Bank-Morton Beebe. Exhibited at Galerie Adrian Piper, Ann Arbor Sanchez), Managua, Nicaragua Crousel-Hussenot, Paris, France, 1985. A Tale of Avarice and Poverty, 1985 Asi Avanzamos (And So We Proceed), 1983 1984-85 (detail) Cibachrome print, Black-and-white photograph, 40 x 30". Six pages On Ghent, 22 min. Courtesy Xchange TV, New York 10 x 14" (image), 17Y2 x 21 Yz " (framed). The of text: each 11 x 8 Y2 ". Image Bank-Lisi Dennis. Exhibited at Gewad, Stephen Prina, Los Angeles Ghent, Belgium, 1984-85. An Evening of 19th- and 20th-Century Piano On Amsterdam, 1984 (detail) Cibachrome print, •Se l ect e d B i bliogra phy Music World premiere, Wednesday, December 4, 10 x 14" (image), 17 Yz x 21 Yz" (framed). The This bibliography, selected from those of the indi- 1985, 8:00 p.m. Concert Program, featuring Image Bank-Paul Van Riel. Exhibited by vidual artists, begins with 1980. Biographies, ex- Trina Dye-Ballinger and Gaylord Mowrey, pia- Foundation De Appel, Amsterdam, The hibition histories, reviews, and more compl2fe nists, including a performance of: Symphony Netherlands, 1984. bibliographies may be found in many of these No . 3 in E Flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica," 1803 Reese Williams, New York entries. This bibliography was researched and L. van Beethoven; Hugo Ulrich, arranger Conditions of Sensuous Perception, 1985 Text compiled by Ariel Berghash, Marcia Landsman, Excerpts from The 9 Symphonies of L. van (pp.13-14) Valerie Susanin, and Brian Wallis. Beethhoven, Fzir zwei Pianoforte zu vier Hii11de11, Transcription pour Piano 2 mains, a Books and Fzir Klavier zu 4 Hii11de11, 1983-85 "Re-viewing History: Video- Barber, Bruce, ed. Essays 011 /Pe!formancej and Stephen Prina, arranger Docume nts" Cultural Politicization. Open Letter, Fifth Se- With the support of the Foundation for Art Unless otherwise indicated, the following works ries , nos . 5-6 (Summer-Fall 1983) . Includes Resources, Los Angeles, and Symphony Space, are all 314" color and sound videotapes, Adrian Piper, "Performance and the Fetishism New York courtesy the artist. of the Art Object"; Martha Rosier, "Notes on An Evening of 19th- and 20th-Century Piano Quotes"; Bruce Barber, "Appropriation/Ex- Music ... , 1985 Black-and-white photograph, Peter Adair, San Francisco propriation: Convention or Intervention?"; 20 x 16". Some of These Stories Are True, 1981 30 min . Dan Graham, "New Wave Rock and the Richard Prince, New York Courtesy Adair Films, San Francisco Feminine"; and Benjamin Buchloh, "Allegori- Untitled (Sunsets), 1981 Nine C-prints: each 30 cal Procedures: Appropriation and Montage in x 45". Collections Dike Blair, Bevan Davies, Nancy Buchanan, Tucson Contemporary Art." Phyllis Goldman, David Madee, and the artist See I A .. ., 1981 10 min. Battcock, Gregory, and Robert Nickas, eds. The 57 Ari ofPe!formance: A Critical Anthology. New --. Figure-Eight. New York: Tanam Press, 12, 1985. Essay by Coosje van Bruggen. York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1984. 1981. Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- Celanl, Germano. lnespressionismo Americana. --. A Pair of Eyes. New York: Chicago no logy, Cambridge. Body Language: Figurative Genoa: Bonini editori, 1980. Books, 1983. Aspects of Recent Art, Oct. 2-Dec. 24, 1981. ( Charlesworth, Sarah. In-Photography. Buffalo, --. Heal From The Tree. New York: Traveled. Essay by Roberta Smith. N.Y.: CEPA Gallery, 1982.) Benzene Editions, 1984. ----) Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smith- D' Agostino, Peter, and Antonio Muntadas, eds. sonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Content: The Un/Necessary Image. New York: MIT/ A Contempomy Focus, 1974-1984, Oct. 4, Tanam Press, 1982. Includes Dan Graham, Exhibition Catalogues 1984-Jan. 6, 1985. Essays by Howard N. Fox "The End of Liberalism (Part II)." ~Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin Col- and Miranda McClintic. D'Agostino, Peter, ed. Transmission. New York: lege, Ohio. Art and Social Change, U.S.A., _.;;. Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Tanam Press, 1985. Includes Martha Gever, Apr. 19-May 30, 1983. Essays by David Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. image Scavengers: "Meet the Press: On Paper Tiger Television," Deitcher et al. Photography, Dec . 8, 1982-Jan. 30, 1983 . Es- and Marita Sturken, "The TV Lab at WNET/ Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, says by Paula Marincola and Douglas Crimp. Thirteen." Ohio. Drawings: After Photography, Au ~ Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Eng- ---} Foster, Hal, ed. The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on 28-0ct. 14, 1984. Organized by Independent land. Issue: Social Strategies by Women Ar/- Postmodern Culture. Port Townsend, Wash .: Curators, Inc., New York. Traveled . Essays by isls, Nov. 14-Dec. 21, 1980. Essay by Lucy R. Bay Press, 1983. Includes Craig Owens, "The William Olander and Andy Grundberg. Lippard. Discourse of Others: Feminism and Postmod- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London , Eng- ernism ." Ohio. Women and the Media, New Video, land. Artists' Architecture-Scenes and Con- Goldberg, Roselee. Live Art: Pe1fonna11ce from Apr. 18-May 27, 1984. Essay by William venlions, Mar. 2-Apr. 2, 1983. Introduction by 1909 to the Present. New York: Harry N. Olander. Michael Newman, essays by Judith Barry, Dan Abrams, 1980. The Alternative Museum, New York. Disinforma- Graham et al. Lawler, Louise , and Lawrence Weiner. Passage to lion: The Manufacture of Consent, Mar. 2- Knight Gallery, Spirit Square Arts Center, Char- /he North: A Structure of Lawrence Weine1: Mar. 30, 1985. Essays by Geno Rodriquez, lotte, N.C. Holw; K/'/lger, Prince, Nov. 28, Great River, N.Y.: Tongue Press, 1981. Photos Noam Chomsky, and Edward S. Herman. 1984-Jan. 20, 1985. Essay by William Olander. ...._/ by Louise Lawler. ARC, Musee ct' Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Long Beach Museum of Art, Calif. Video: A --;;c Lippard, Lucy R. Gel The Message? A Decade New York-Ailleurs et Autrement, Dec. 21, Retrospective 1974-1984, Sept. 9-Nov. 4, 1984 of Art for Social Change. New York: E.P. Out- 1984-Feb. 17, 1985. Essay by Claude Gintz. and Nov. 24, 1984-Jan. 20, 1985. Essays by ton, Inc., 1984. The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. 74th Ameri- Kathy Kuffman et al. Loeffler, Carl, ed. Pe1formance Anthology. San can Exhibition, June 12-Aug. I, 1982. Essay by Marlborough Gallery, Inc., New York. In Plato's Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1980. In- Anne Rorimer. Cave, Nov. 5-29, 1983 . Essay by Abigail Solo- cludes Judith Barry, "Women, Representation Mary Boone Gallery, New York. Troy Brauntuch, mon-Godeau. and Performance Art." Feb. 2-Feb. 23, 1985. Essay by Douglas Blau:-7Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, West Germany. Newland, Joseph N., ed. The Idea of the Post- California Museum of Photography, University Dornmenla 7, June 19-Sept. 26, 1982. Essays Modem: Who Is Teaching It? Seattle: Henry of California, Riverside. Sarah Charlesworth: by Rudi Fuchs et al. Art Gallery, 1981. Includes Martha Rosier, "The April 21, 1978. Catalogue published as the The Museum of Modern Art , New York. An /n- System of the Postmodern in the Decade of the CMP Bulletin 3, no. 5 (1984). lemalional Survey of Recent Painting and Seventies." Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe, New Sculpture, May 17-Aug. 19, 1984. Introduction Pontbriand, Chantal, ed. Pe1fonna11ce Text(e)s & Mexico. Playing it Again: Strategies of Appro- by Kynaston McShine. Dornmenls. Montreal: Les editions parachute, priation, Mar. 16-Apr. 10, 1985. Traveled. The New Museum, New York. Events: Fashion 1981. Includes Bruce Barber, "The Function of Essays by Sam Samore et al. Mada, Taller Borirna, Artists Invite Artists, !Performance] in Post-Modern Culture: A Cri- Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.Disarming Dec. 13 , 1980-Jan. 8, 1981; Jan. 17-Feb. 5, tique." Images: Ari for Nuclear Disarmament, Sept. 1981; Feb. 14-Mar. 5, 1981. Essay by Lynn Prince, Richard. Why I Go lo the Movies Alone. 14-0ct. 27, 1984. Organized by Independent Gumpert. New York : Tanam Press, 1983. Curators, Inc., New York. Traveled. Essay by The New Museum, New York. Investigations: --, ed . Wild His/OIJ'. New York: Tanam Nina Felshin. Probe, Sl/'/lc/ure, Analysis, Sept. 27-Dec. 4, Press, 1984. Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. Face It: 1980. Essays by Lynn Gumpert and Allan Rosier, Martha. Martha Rosier: 3 Works. Hali- JO Con/empora1y Artists, July 8-Aug. 28, Schwartzman. fax, Nova Scotia: The Press of the Nova Scotia 1982. Organized by the Ohio Foundation on the ~The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New College of Art and Design, 1981. Arts. Traveled. Essays by William Olander and York. Difference: On Representation and Sex- Roth, Moira, ed. The Amazing Decade: Women Joanna Frueh . ualily, Dec. 8, 1984-Feb. 10, 1985. Traveled. and Pe1for111a11ce in America, 1970-1980. Los Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. The He- Introduction by Kate Linker, essays by Craig Angeles: Astro Artz, 1983. roic Figure, Sept. 15-Nov. 4, 1984. Traveled. Owens et al. ~ Wallis, Brian, ed. Ari After Modernism: Re- Essays by Linda L. Cathcart and Craig Owens. Le Nouveau Musee, Villeurbanne, France. Rich- thinking Representation. New York and Boston: Fine Arts Gallery, Florida Stale University, Talia- ard Prince, Jan. 21-Mar. 6, 1983. Essay by Kale The New Museum of Contemporary Art and hassee. Natural Genre, Aug. 31-Sept. 30, 1984. Linker and writings by Richard Prince. David R. Godine, 1984. Includes Douglas Essay by Tricia Collins and Richard Milazzo. Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida. Landmarks Crimp, "Pictures"; Craig Owens, "The 49th Parallel, NewYork.ReadingRoom:A Visual Revie1ml, Mar. 14-Apr. 30, 1983. Traveled. Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of Analysis of Co1porate Advertising Produced Essay by Barry M. Winiker. Postmodernism"; Abigail Solomon-Godeau, by B/'/lce Barbe1; Jan. 5-Feb . 2, 1985 . Bro7 The Renaissance Society at the University of Chi- " Photography After Art Photography"; and chure. cago , Illinois. A Fatal Allraclion: Ari and the Martha Rosier, "Lookers, Buyers, Dealers, and Foundation De Appel, Amsterdam, Holland, and Media, May 2-June 12, 1982. Essay by Thomas Makers: Thoughts on Audience." Gewad, Ghent, Belgium. Jenny Holm; Stephen Lawson. Williams, Reese. Hotel. New York : Tanam Press, Prina, Mark Stahl, Christopher Williams, The Renaissance Society at the University of 1980. Dec. 12-Dec. 23, 1984, and Dec. 14 , 1984-Jan. Chicago, Illinois. Dan Graham: Buildings and 58 Signs, Oct. 4-Nov. 8, 1981. Traveled. Essays by Charlesworth, Sarah. "On Camera Lucida." Art- Representation." Heresies, no. 12 (Spring the artist. forum 20, no. 8 (Apr. 1982): 72-73. 1981) : 10-21. Riverside Studios, London, England. Between --. "A Lover's Tale." !wedge pamphlet no. Olander, William. "Art and Politics: Of Arms and Here and Nowhere, Oct. 17-Nov. 18, 1984. 13] wedge, nos. 3-4-5 (Winter-Spring-Summer the Artist." Art in America 73, no. 6 (June Traveled. Essay by Rosetta Brooks. 1983). 1985): 59-63. University Gallery, Wright State University, Day- Charlesworth, Sarah, and Barbara Kruger. "Gloss4 Owens, Craig. "Back to the Studio." Art in ton, Ohio. Ari of Conscience: The Last lalia." Bomb, no . 5 (1983): 60-61. America 70, no . I (Jan. 1982): 99-107 . Decade, Fall 1980. Traveled. Essay by Donald-? Crimp, Douglas. "The Photographic Activity of Post- Piper, Adrian . "Food for the Spirit." High Per- Kuspit. modernism." Octobe1; no. 15 (Winter 1980-81): formance 4, no. I (Spring 1981): 34-35. University of Colorado Art Galleries, Boulder. 91-101. --. "Ideology, Confrontation, and Political Commentaries, Sept. 9-0ct. 29, 1983. Essays --. "The Museum's Old/The Library's New Self-Awareness: An Essay." High Pe1formance by Jean-Edith Weiffenbach and Barbara Subject." Parachute, no. 22 (Spring 1981): 32-37. 4, no. I (Spring 1981): 38-39. London. Deitcher, David. "Questioning Authority: Sarah --. "It's Just Art." High Petformance 4, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn. Matrix Charlesworth's Photographs." Afterimage 12, nos. no. I (Spring 1981): 36-37. 56: Adrian Pipe1; Mar. 7-Apr. 6, 1980. Essays 1-2 (Summer 1984): 14-17. --. "Letter to Thomas McEvilley." Art- by Andrea Miller-Keller and Adrian Piper. Ellis, Valerie. "The 'other' Difference Catalogue." forum 22, no. 2 (Oct. 1983): 2-3. · Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford , Conn. Matrix Afterimage 12, no. 9 (Apr. 1985): 20-21. --. "Selected Funk Lessons ." Ar![orum 22, 77: Louise Lawle1; Feb. 25-Apr. 29, 1984. Foster, Hal. "The Expressive Fallacy." Art in Amer- no . 5 (Jan . 1984): 64 . Essay by Andrea Miller-Keller. ica 71, no. I (Jan. 1983): 80-83, 137 . ( Prina, Stephen. "Los Angeles Times, January 3- ) 1 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Fraser, Andrea. "In and Out of Place." Art in Amer- 7, 1984." White Walls, nos. 10-11 (Spring-Sum- Rniewing Television: Interpretations of the ica 73, no. 6 (June 1985): 122-129. mer 1984): 59-63. Mass Media, Parts I and JI, Dec. 14-30, 1984 Gever, Martha. "Interview with Martha Rosier." Prina, Stephen, and Christopher Williams. "A and Jan. 15-Feb. 17, 1985. Essays by John Han- Afterimage 9, no . 2 (Sept. 1981): 25-27. Conversation with Lynne Tillman and Sheila hardt et al. Gibbs, Michael. "Deferral of Meaning." De Appel, McLaughlin." L.A.J.C.A. Journal: A Con- no. I (1985): 26-29. temporary Art Magazine, no. 41 (Spring 1985): Graham, Dan. "The End of Liberalism ." ZG, no. 2 40-45. Articles (1981). Prince, Richard. "The Thomas Crown Affair." Barber, Bruce. "Architectural References: Post- - -. "BOWWOWWOW (the Age of Piracy)." ll'edge, no. 2 (Fall 1982): 16-17. Modernism, Primitivism and Parody in the Archi- Real Life Magazine, no. 6 (Summer 1981): 11-13. --. "The Perfect Tense." New Observa- tectural Image." Parachute, no . 21 (Winter 1980): --. "Rock Religion." Just Another Asshole, lions, no . 17 (Sept. 1983): 31-32. 5-12. no. 6 (1983): 61-66. --."The Erotic Politicians." Just Another Barber, Bruce, and Serge Guilbaut. "Performance as --. "Theater, Cinema, Power." Parachute, Asshole, no. 6 (1983): 111-112. Social and Cultural Intervention: Interview with no. 31(June-July-Aug.1983): 11-19. --."The Velvet Well." ZIEN Magazine, Adrian Piper, Interview with Martha Rosier." Halle, Howard. "The Anticipated Ruin." Spectacle, nos . 6-7 (1984): 24-27. Parachute, no . 24 (Fall 1981): 25-32. no. 3 (1985): 8-IO. --."Overdetermination." EFFECTS, no. 2 --. "Which way did you pull today?" and Hall eck, Dee Dee. "Notes on Nicaraguan Media: (1984): 17. "Sll'eat the small stuff." New Observations, no. 29 Video LIBRE 0 MORIR." The Independent 7, --. "Extra-ordinary: Interview between (1985). no. IO (Nov. 1984): 12-17 . J.G. Ballard and Richard Prince, 1967. " ZG, Barry, Judith, and Sandy Flitterman. "Textual Strat- Halley, Peter. "Richard Prince Interviewed ." ZG, no. no. 13 (Spring 1985) : 7. egies: The Politics of Art-making." Screen 21, no. 2 IO (Spring 1984): 5-6. Rosier, Martha. "McTowersMaid." Socialist (Summer 1980): 35-48. Jenkins, Ulysses. "DREAM CITY: in the lime it Review, no. 58 (July-Aug. 1981): 126-133. Barry, Judith. "Building Conventions." Real Life takes to show change, it happened." High Per- --."Theses on Defunding." Afterimage 10, Magazine, no. 6 (Summer 1981): 33-35. formance 5, no. I (Spring-Summer 1982): 97 , 182. nos. 1-2 (Summer 1982) : 6-7. --. "Casual Imagination." Discourse, no. 4 Kruger, Barbara, and Richard Prince. "All Tomor- --."Some Contemporary Documentary." (Winter 1981/82): 4-31. row's Parties." Bomb, no. 3 (1982): 42-43. Afterimage II, nos. 1-2(Summer1983): 13-15. --. "(Vamp r y .. . )."Just Another Asshole, Kuspit, Donald. "Dan Graham: Prometheus --.Watchwords of the Eighties." High Per- no. 6 (1983): 17-18. Mediabound." Ar!forum 23, no. 9 (May 1985): formance, no. 22 (1983). --. "Subway Station Print Ad Project." 75 -81. Siesling, Neil. "The New Old Documentary." wedge, no. 6 (Winter 1984): 68-71. Lawler, Louise, and Sherrie Levine. "A Picture is Afterimage 12, no. 8 (Mar. 1985): 3, 20. Bellavance, Guy. "Dessaisissement et Reappropria- No Substitute for Anything." wedge, no. 2 (Fall Smith , Paul. "Difference in America." Art in tion: De !'emergence du 'photographique' dans 1982): 58-67 . America 73, no. 4 (Apr. 1984): 190-199. !'art americain." Parachute, no. 29 (Dec.-Jan.- Lawler, Louise. "Arrangements of Pictures." Sturken, Marita. "Whal is Grace in all this Mad- Feb. 1982-83): 9-17. Octobe1; no . 26 (Fall 1983): 3-16. ness: The Videotapes of Dan Reeves." After- Bershad, Deborah. "Repo Man." Afterimage 12, no. Lawler, Louise, and Allan McCollum . "For Pre- image 13, no. 1-2 (Summer 1985): 24-27. 6 (Jan. 1985): 12-13. sentation and Display." New Observations, no . --."Feminist Video : Reiterating the differ- Brooks, Rosetta . "The Body of the Image." ZG, no. 20 (1984): 8. ence." Afterimage 12, no. 9 (Apr. 1985) : 9-11. IO (Spring 1984): 1-3. Linker, Kate. "Melodramatic Tactics ." Ar!forum "Sugimoto (New York)." ZIEN Magazine, no. 8 Buchloh, Benjamin H.D. "Documenta 7: A Dic- 21, no. I (Sept. 1982): 30-32. (1985): 6-8. tionary of Received Ideas." Octobe1; no. 22 (Fall --. "On Richard Prince's Photographs." Sussler, Betsy. "Dialogue: Sarah Charlesworth 1982): I04-126. Arts Magazine 57 , no. 3 (Nov. 1982): 120-122. with Betsy Sussler." Cover I, no. 3 (Spring- Burnham, Linda , and Steven Durland: " It's AJI I - -. " On Artificiality." Flash Ari, no. III Summer 1980): 22-24. Can Think About: Artist Nancy Buchanan Talks (Mar. 1983): 33-35 . Weinstock , Jane. "Interview with Martha Rosier." About Nicaragua, the CIA and Activist Art." High - -. "Eluding Definition ." Ar!forum 23, Octobe1; no. 17 (Summer 1981): 77-98. Petfon11a11ce 7, no. I (1984): 16-21. no. 4 (Dec. 1984): 61-67. Yau , John. "Hiroshi Sugimoto: No Such Thing Burns, Steven. "The Soft Prop of Bruce Barber." McGee, Micki. "Narcissism, Feminism, and as Time." Ar!fon11n 22, no. 8 (Apr. 1984): Vanguard 13 , no. 8 (Oct. 1984): 24-26. Video Art: Some Solutions to a Problem of 48-52 . 59 Staff Board of Trustees Kimball Augustus Gregory C. Clark Security Maureen Cogan Gayle Brandel Elaine Dannheisser Admi11islralor Richard Ekstract Mary Clancy Assistant to the Director John Fitting, Jr. Constance DeMartino Arthur A. Goldberg Receptio11ist Treasurer Lynn Gumpert Allen Goldring Senior Curator Eugene Paul Gorman John K. Jacobs Paul C. Harper, Jr. Registrar Samuel L. Highleyman Elon Joseph Security Martin E. Kantor Marcia Landsman Nanette Laitman Publicatio11s Coordinator Vera G. List Sharon Lynch Vice President Pla1111i11g a11d Deve/opme11t Assistant Henry Luce III Phyllis Mark President Assistant to the Administrator Mary McFadden James Minden Terry Molloy Operations Manager Denis O'Brien John Neely Education / Youth Program Coordi11ator Patrick Savin William Olander Herman Schwartzman Curator Laura Skoler Lisa Parr Marcia Tucker Curatorial Assistant Marcia Smith ART QUEST/New Collectors Coordinator Virginia Strull Director of Pla1111i11g and Development Neville Thompson Security Marcia Tucker Director Ruth Utley Director of Public Affairs Lorry Wall Admissions/Shop Assistant Brian Wallis Adjunct Curator Lisa Wyant Public Affairs Assistant

Photo credits: David Lubarsky (pp. 9, 16, 42 , 43), Visual Studies Workshop (p. 11 ), Zindman/Fremont (pp. 8, 28).

This publication was organized by Marcia Landsman, Publica- tions Coordinator, designed by Jean Foos, typeset by Talbot Typographies, Inc., and printed by Fan Sy Productions, Inc.