Marina Abramović, Transcultural Aesthetics, and the Global Geography of Art
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Embodying the Sacred: Marina Abramović, Transcultural Aesthetics, and the Global Geography of Art A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, Theory, and Criticism by Chanda Laine Carey Committee in charge: Professor W. Norman Bryson, Chair Professor Thomas Csordas Professor Ricardo Dominguez Professor Elizabeth Newsome Professor Kuiyi Shen 2016 Copyright Chanda Laine Carey, 2016 All Rights Reserved ‘ The Dissertation of Chanda Laine Carey is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2016 iii DEDICATION To my family, friends, and teachers who have accompanied me on this journey. iv EPIGRAPH It is in this fathom-long body, with its perceptions and its mind, that I describe the cosmos, the origin of the cosmos, the cessation of the cosmos, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the cosmos. Buddha v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page………………………...………………………………………………… iii Dedication………………….……………………………………………………………..iv Epigraph…………………...……………………………………………………………....v Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………vi Acknowledgements ………………………….…………………………………..…….viii Vita…………………………………….………..…………………………………….…xii Abstract of the Dissertation …………………………………………………………….xiii Introduction—In Search of the Nameless Science...……………………….……………..1 Chapter One: Testing the Body—Early Works………………………………………….35 Chapter Two: Meeting Ulay…………………………………………………………….80 Chapter Three: Contending with Universals—Relation Works…………………….….101 Chapter Four: Into the Desert—Nightsea Crossing……………………………………130 Chapter Five: Across a Great Divide—The Great Wall Walk…………………………163 Chapter Six: The World is a Body—Personal Archaeology…………………………..196 Chapter Seven: Transcultural Ritual—The House with the Ocean View……………...222 Chapter Eight: The Sublime is Now—The Artist Is Present…………………………..249 Chapter Nine: Durational Deceleration—The Abramović Method……………………299 Conclusion: Towards an Open Work…………………..……………….………………336 Appendix 1: Participant Narratives—The Artist Is Present (Excerpted)………………342 Appendix 2: Participant Interviews—The Abramović Method Workshop (UCSD)…..369 Appendix 3: “3015/The Hard Problem” by Kim Stanley Robinson…………………...388 vi Appendix 4: Interview: The Spiritual and Religious Influences of Marina Abramović..406 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………412 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For her work, warmth, and expansive wisdom born of experience, I thank Marina Abramović. For the support of my work, I would like to thank the Betty Russell Foundation, the UCSD Department of Visual Arts Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, the UCSD Department of Visual Arts Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and the Center for the Humanities Dissertation Workshop Fellowship. I would also like to thank the curators, librarians, and archivists at the Marina Abramović Archives, the Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst (NiMK), Foundation LIMA, the Guggenheim New York, the Museum of Modern Art New York, and La Biennale di Venezia for opening their institutions to my research. For their facilitation of the Abramović Method Workshop, I thank Sheldon Brown and David Kirsh of Arthur C. Clarke Center for Creative Imagination, as well as novelist Kim Stanley Robinson and choreographer Lynsey Peisinger for their unique contribution. to that experience. I would also like to thank Giuliano Argenziano, Director of Abramović LLC, for his indispensable assistance in organizing my interview with the artist. For their mentorship and vital influence on my research, I would like to thank my committee. To my Dissertation Chair Norman Bryson, I can fill countless pages extolling his expansive erudition, brilliant talent for teaching, and warm support of the diversity of scholarly interests that define my project. His receptivity, guidance, and friendship have been essential to the success of this project from its roots in our first meeting at Art Center College of Design. My heartfelt gratitude is extended to Elizabeth Newsome, who not only reinforced my confidence in my writing, but also opened doors viii to worlds of astronomy and culture that resulted in a series of international professional meetings that mirror the global scope of my project. Her scholarship and teaching of indigenous arts of the Americas continually remind me to be true to the dimensions of space and poetics that have informed my development as a scholar. I extend respect and thanks to Kuiyi Shen who developed my interest and understanding of Chinese art its history to a depth that has allowed me to publish criticism in the field of Chinese Contemporary art, and introduce its geography to my study of the global. I will always have fond memories of the New Year’s feast he shared with the students of his seminar. To Ricardo Dominguez, I cannot express the depths of my gratitude of his support of my project and professional aspirations. Without his compassionate generosity and activism, I would not be to pursue my work beyond the confines of graduate education. Lastly, to Thomas Csordas, whose contributions to the field of Anthropology have, through his influence, allowed me to theorize performance art in rigorous and accessible terms that make a substantive contribution to Art History. His works on phenomenology, embodiment, religion, and globalization have provided a resilient context for interdisciplinary work that affirms the durable and fruitful interdisciplinary exchange between Anthropology and Art History in new ways. A special thanks to anthropologist and philosopher Marcel Hénaff, whose seminars in political theory gave such insight into the scope of secularization that his theory of religious ritual has proven indispensable to my argument. From my time at Art Center, I thank geographer and architect Ali Modarres for his class on theories of space that transformed my scholarship. His passion and kindness changed the course of my life with his understanding of the confluence of intersectionality with space and place. ix Within this field of special teachers, my gratitude is extended to accomplished practitioners of Buddhist meditation and Yoga who have directly contributed to the resilience, equanimity, and persistence necessary to accomplish my goals; Satya Narayan Goenka, H.H. the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, Larry Payne, Rick Colella, Tatiana Urquiza, and Kate Garland. The interest in my work among colleagues has resulted in exceptional opportunities to present my work. Pepe Karmel’s inclusion of my work on his CAA panel led to my selection of Abramović as a dissertation topic, providing a reception that supported the course of my study with exemplary collegiality. I would also like to thank François Letourneaux of the Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal and Hubertus Kohle of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Institut für Kunstgeschichte for their generous support of my participation in their symposium and conference. The unique circumstances of their events granted me to travel to international meetings that greatly expanded the reach of my scholarship. For their friendship and support in the community of participants who emerged around the performance The Artist Is Present, and their continued connection after the event, I would like to thank Dena Gold, Paco Blancas, Tashi Leo Lightning. For their hard work in documenting and gathering participant narratives of the performance, my heartfelt gratitude is extended to Aase-Hilde Brekke, a fellow traveler whose interest in Abramović follows a path similar to my own, and Lisa Tharpe, whose commitment provides an exceptional archive of the event’s digital afterlife. Lisa’s generous gift of a ticket to return to the atrium to be present at the end of the performance allowed my x research to approach the experience performance of long duration in in a scope worthy of Abramović’s endurance. To conclude, the support of those nearest and dearest loved ones cannot be more essential to the long journey that I have taken to reach this goal. I thank my parents for their lifelong love and support that have provided inestimable security. I praise and thank my sister for her role model of dedicated professionalism. Last and far from least, old and dear friends Julie Payne, Jennifer Blakeslee, and Itza Vilaboy-Gonzalez who not only understand me intimately, but also offer empathy rooted in their firsthand experience accomplishment in higher education. I trust these loved ones will brighten my life in years to come as they have in the years before. xi VITA 2016 Doctor of Philosophy, Art History, Theory, and Criticism University of California, San Diego 2007-2016 Teaching Assistant, UCSD 2012 Instructor, Formations of Modern Art, University of California, San Diego 2010-12 Newsletter Editor, Institute for Neural Computation, UCSD 2006 Master of Arts, Theory and Criticism Art Center College of Design 2004-2006 Writing Center Tutor, Art Center College of Design 2003 Bachelor of Arts, Art History and Criticism University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS “Towards an Open Work: Marina Abramović and Public Participation.” Athanor. 34:7- 13, 2016. “Xu Bing: Erasure