A Leap in the Dark Peter Eleey

For many of us, the larger questions the paranormal. Is the psychic healer begged by the possibility of the in Euan Macdonald’s Healer, for paranormal are of such enormous example, attempting to heal us through consequence that we tend to ignore the camera and projector? If so, is them. We may flirt with the idea of the magic working? How can we tell? ghosts or spirits, but to embrace their By honing in on a topic that by its existence we must admit the prospect nature defies the empirically verifiable, of our own afterlives; in denying Strange Powers rehearses and them we seem to confirm the finality reinforces some of the most basic of death—prospects either reassuring —if broadest, and most ambitious— or dreadful. I, for one, find terror conceptions we hold of what art can and hope on both sides of this coin, be and do. and prefer to remain, well, curious, As the exhibition is concerned if perhaps more on the skeptical less with proof than with power and side, but looking to be convinced one possibility, it can be said to fit with way or the other. a handful of recent shows dealing with As an exhibition located in a vacant, art that specifically evades or extends haunted loft of works that purport beyond visual intelligibility. Some to be in some way actively magical, have detailed early photographers’ Strange Powers provides viewers efforts to test the boundaries of with three ways of interacting with the medium’s mimetic proposition, as both its venue and the art on display. did The Perfect Medium: Photography We can believe in their power, and the Occult, shown last year deny it, or simply move on, leaving in Paris and New York. Others, like the question open. These are, of A Brief History of Invisible Art in course, the options available to us San Francisco last year, and The Big each time we encounter a work of art, Nothing in Philadelphia two summers not simply that which may engage ago, revisited the strain of conceptual

59 art that tends toward the complete a spell “obtained,” according to Monk, dematerialization of the art object, near Santa Monica Boulevard.1 We raising many of the epistemological decided to reprise this response alongside issues implied by the artworks Gordon’s request, but with as powerful in Strange Powers—a kind of art that a curse as we could find, painting a small effects, through its insistence on rectangular area the same size as the a presence unburdened by visuality, framed letter on the old blue wall of the a similar reinvigoration of art’s haunted exhibition space.2 transcendent values. The presence of James Lee Byars The effect of Macdonald’s healer, pervades a dark, otherwise empty space for example, or of Douglas Gordon’s that contains the artist’s ghost. First contribution to the show, is not terribly made in 1969 while the artist was still dissimilar from that of something like alive, The Ghost of James Lee Byars fills Robert Barry’s radio wave pieces a room so dark as to make the presence from the 1960s (not included in the of the now-dead artist practically exhibition), which broadcasted invisible tangible. Peter Coffin charges the space fields of electromagnetic energy in the in front of the doorway to the Byars room gallery space. We are asked to take on with a new wall drawing based on what faith the existence of key elements of is sometimes known as the Egyptian each of these artworks, which happen Flower of Life, a pattern associated to be all but impossible to visually with auratic power that consists of discern. But it is the artists’ emphasis interlocking circles. Coffin also alludes on invisible energy, in fact, and the to the role of circles in conjuring with resulting solicitation of trust, that forms a performance for Strange Powers that an inextricable part of the works’ is available upon request. When visitors meanings. Reprising a piece from 1997 inquire as to its location or form, that he had done for a show organized gallery attendants draw a chalk circle in Los Angeles by Jonathan Monk and around them on the wood floor of Toby Webster, Gordon sent a letter the exhibition space. Historically, to me and co-curator Laura Hoptman drawing a circle is a way of summoning instructing us to “do something evil.” and concentrating magical energy; Monk and Webster had responded by the circled individual is empowered painting a black heart on the gallery to invoke or conjure spirits, or be wall with paint they had cursed with protected from spirits he or she does not

60 want. Important to Coffin’s concept is bypasses the eyes.” His image locates the idea that the process of drawing itself in a fractured continuum of reflected the circle itself is a magical act. (magical?) light, passing from Dee’s The issue of the transferability of mirror through his camera onto film and transformative power is addressed eventually to the photographic print. by Paul Pfeiffer and Joachim Koester, Anne Collier’s aura Polaroids are whose pieces each seem at first blush portraits of artist friends, literalizing to be about magic, rather than magical one of the motivating ideas of this themselves. Pfeiffer’s Poltergeist exhibition: that artists themselves exude (Spoon), (2001), is a re-creation of the magical force, and that their powers are utensil bent by the spirit in the worth considering, however pictured movie of the same name. But as the or otherwise suggested. In contrast to artist explained to me, “I see a strong Collier’s images, however, Miranda materialist aspect in matters that have Lichtenstein offers a simple and visually to do with ghosts, the devil, etc.... uneventful record of a psychic in the in this sense [my sculptures of] the fork midst of her activities. Prior to the and spoon are not a thematization show’s installation, Lichtenstein brought of ESP, they are an attempt to summon Sondra Shaye, a psychic healer, to the the devil him/herself.” Koester’s exhibition space to “clear” its spiritual new Magical Mirror of John Dee energy and harmonize the room. During (2006) is a photograph the artist took in her visit, Shaye said she felt a number the British Museum of the display case of histories in the space, including holding the black Aztec mirror that once a period when she believes it was used belonged to John Dee (1527–1608), as a brothel. Like Macdonald’s who was an adviser to Queen Elizabeth healer, Lichtenstein’s offers no apparent I and originated, with Edward Kelley, evidence of her paranormal power. But the practice of Enochian magic hung in the exhibition, the documentation (a type of ceremonial magic based on functions similarly to Byars’s ghost the evocation and commanding or Gordon’s cursed paint, directing of spirits, which Dee and Kelley claimed our attention to the otherwise had been given to them directly by an unremarkable space around us through angel.) Koester notes, “I see the mirror its invocation of the room’s invisible as an embodiment of a phenomena— energy. In a space so charged, a certain type of vision which almost Mungo Thomson’s group of black wind

61 chimes seems to register energies a test she conducted with a Parisian beyond the thermodynamic. clairvoyant. Calle first approached the A number of works, however, psychic, Maud Kristen, with the proposal specifically offer evidentiary support that Kristen would try to discern Calle’s for magical thinking, however future, and in turn, Calle would go possibly unconvincing. In the eight wherever her future dictated. Kristen, as videos that Artur Z˙mijewski shot of we learn in the video, tells Calle that she Pawel Althamer under the influence of is only comfortable attempting to foresee various psychoactive substances “where and when” but not “what.” or induced altered states—including The artist accepts these terms, and they LSD, mushrooms, peyote and conduct a test that delivers some very hypnosis—we find ourselves in the odd coincidences, seeming to confirm space between the objectively sober the feasibility of Calle’s proposition to Z˙mijewski and Althamer, waiting to engage her future more actively. While witness a Carlos Castaneda-like moment waiting for something to happen, for of psychic transcendence. Implicit example, Calle receives a text message in these videos is the idea, already from a friend who has the same last generally embraced, that an artwork name as the town Kristen has sent her to. can register the psychological state “It seems that the universe has accepted of its maker. In this way, Z˙mijewski us,” Kristen says at the video’s conclusion. and Althamer’s videos recall the “I was waiting for signs of approval, so paintings Lee Lozano did while drunk, that we can continue.... I just wanted to stoned, in love or depressed, or Francis watch the coincidences unfold before us.” Alÿs’s Narcotourismo (1996), for which Jonathan Monk provides a similarly the artist conducted walks while high active vehicle for us to consider the on heroin, cocaine, hashish and other coincidental and its magical portent. drugs. But watching Althamer in real Like Douglas Gordon, Jonathan Monk time, we try to discern what among reprises a previous work, for which he his various behaviors may or may not sent a number of letters to the last known be paranormal, in an investigation address of the late artist Alighiero Boetti concurrent with his own. (1940–1994), on Piazza San Apollonia Sophie Calle leads us on a similar in Rome, and awaited their return. As “live” experiment in her video made of this writing, only one of the current with Fabio Balducci, which records batch has come back as undeliverable,

62 leaving the imaginative possibility that his deceased mother’s voice through the dead artist may yet be receiving his his tape recorder, he stopped painting mail, or having it forwarded elsewhere. and focused almost exclusively from The desire elicited by Monk’s empty the 1960s onwards on investigations frames, either for the letters’ return or of electronic voice phenomena (EVP). their successful delivery, elucidates the Towards the end of his life, he began tension between skepticism and belief lecturing about the possibilities of spirit at the core of the exhibition. Hung in communication through television. the vicinity of Byars’s spirit, the missing Shortly after Jürgenson died, he letters conjure another artist’s ghost, communicated through a medium with but with a kind of converse power, his family, telling them that he would suggesting through their provision try to appear to them through their of a weak sort of evidence that our television on the day of his funeral. insistence upon empirical proof of the The photograph in Strange Powers is paranormal is missing the point. a posthumous portrait, snapped from Christian Cummings and Friedrich a television that day in 1987. Jürgenson (1903–1987) both channel Among those works in the show that spirits of the dead, and contribute to make claim to empirical substantiation, Strange Powers records of these spirit The Center for Tactical Magic’s project communications. Cummings conducts Vital Psigns (2005) is the only one séances during the exhibition’s opening that presents visible evidence of weekend that result in spirit drawings our participation. In connection with brought forth through his ouija board, a workshop they will conduct on pen and paper. (The drawing by telepathic communications between Barnett Newman, the only artist of humans and plants, they have set up a note to have appeared to Cummings thought experiment that attempts to thus far, is featured in the show.) show the effects of positive and When we approached Carl Michael negative thinking—an investigation into von Hausswolff to participate in the “the nature of consciousness and the exhibition, he offered us archival audio consciousness of nature.” Viewers are recordings from his friend Friedrich invited to project positive or negative Jürgenson’s Sweden-based Studio thoughts onto two different plants for Audioscopic Research. More than designated to receive them; a third plant forty years ago, after Jürgenson heard acts as the “control” subject, onto which

63 we are to project nothing. The previous effects are sometimes so inseparable from time the project was undertaken, the their propositions as to seem subservient “negative” plant visibly weakened in to them. Does our expectation of having the first week and died thereafter; something bump into us in Byars’s room the “positive” plant continued to grow conjure his ghost, or is it there already? and bore fruit, which the “control” did Faith, of course, exists and works in not. Nevertheless, magical thinking this way. What is more powerful: God, can be subversive without even or our faith in God’s existence? William the pretense of possibility, never mind James, whose seminal essay “The Will evidence. One thinks of the October to Believe” remains among the classic 1967 protest in Washington, for texts on the subject, examines skepticism example, at which Abbie Hoffman and and the need for empirical evidence the Yippies proposed to levitate the with an eye towards utility. “As a rule,” Pentagon and to exorcise it of the evil he states, “we disbelieve all facts and spirits that were killing Americans and theories for which we have no use.”3 Vietnamese women and children—an He wonders whether scientists would look exercise realized by Mungo Thomson upon telepathy more generously in his drawing in this publication. if they were shown something that they These kinds of propositions, like all might do with it. In the exhibition’s art, demand to be taken at face value. building, a portrait of Federico García We evaluate art positively or negatively Lorca (1898–1936) appeared in or simply pass over it, but when we chipped paint in the stairwell after a find in it a kind of ceremonial magic, theatrical production relating to Lorca’s it is because we allow ourselves to be life was performed on the ground floor. sympathetic to artists’ efforts to conjure Certainly this alleged spiritual presence, this force from quotidian materials revealed to us by the building’s variously unremarkable and often owners before they knew the nature of our intangible, invisible or otherwise elusive. exhibition, made the building interesting Strange Powers reinforces a supply-side to us as a site for the show. But did the aesthetics, an auratic economy in which “functionality” of this supernatural event the value of an artwork is weighted for our purposes make us more credulous? towards what it proposes, rather than Indeed, we seem to be more and its effect. But perhaps more precisely, more willing to find uses for the it invites us to consider artworks whose paranormal—a kind of practicality that,

64 to James’s point, implies a certain level William James points to the fear of acceptance. Are we more inclined to we have of being duped, our suspicion find Miranda Lichtenstein’s document that it would be better to forgo belief of Sondra Shaye powerful if we know than believe a lie. Does the apparent that a leading New York realtor uses her preponderance of believers these to harmonize hard-to-sell apartments? days suggest that we are worrying less Her employment depends upon the about finding faith in falsehoods? belief, if derived from mere coincidence, As James notes, “our errors are surely that her work helps the bottom line. not such awfully solemn things. In a At high levels of government, psychics world where we are so certain to incur have been engaged in various national them in spite of all our caution, a certain security programs. Not long after lightness of heart seems healthier the September 11 terrorist attacks, it than this excessive nervousness on their was reported that the FBI and CIA behalf.”6 were consulting mediums and “remote Notably, this fear of having one pulled viewers” as part of the war on terror.4 over on us animates the broader history According to one former Justice of contemporary art, and remains one Department lawyer who was aware of of the legacies of Conceptual art. Robert the government’s consultation of psychics Barry once described a piece that he said following the attacks, “the attorney existed in his mind, below the level general told us to think outside the of consciousness. How do we know—or, box... This is definitely thinking outside more to the point, how does he know— the box.”5 The CIA’s involvement with that such a work even exists? Barry’s remote viewers is nothing new, however, piece comes into being by sheer virtue and dates back to the Cold War as part of its proposition, as do all of the works of an operation called Stargate, the in Strange Powers. Like faith of any sort, records of which were declassified just this exhibition tests our willingness over two years ago. (Is it coincidental to find power in ideas whose physical that John Dee, who consulted a magic presence can sometimes be scant mirror and crystal ball, is said to have or nonexistent. We can inure ourselves coined the term “British Empire”? Or is to the pleasures believing in their magical there some connection between faith in possibility, or ignore the very assertion the supernatural and the paranoia that of their power, but why should we? attends unalloyed governmental power?) In this endeavor, there is no wrong

65 choice, no one who can prove to us that art does not have the power we may ﬁnd in it. “In all important transactions of life we have to take a leap in the dark,” James argued.7 Art is one such transaction.

NOTES

1 Left unclear in my conversations with Monk, however, are the speciﬁcs of the spell itself: what it consisted of, whether the curators purchased it or not, whether they themselves applied it to the paint can. Toby Webster could not be reached for comment; Douglas Gordon was not involved in the spell casting, nor aware of how it had been done. The only documentation of the 1997 work is believed to be in Webster’s possession, but he could not locate it.

2 More detail on our efforts to obtain and apply such a curse can be found in the Douglas Gordon section of this publication.

3 William James, “The Will to Believe” (1896), The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, New York, Dover Publications, 1956, p. 10.

4 See, for example, Geoff Gray, “Psychic Ops,” New York Magazine, January 21, 2002.

5 Ibid.

6 James, p. 19.

7 James, p. 31.

66 This essay is an excerpt from Publication Design: a publication prepared Willy Wong on the occasion of the exhibition Strange Powers IMAGE CREDITS All images are courtesy of the artists, Organized by Creative Time their galleries and/or representatives, 64 East 4 th Street unless otherwise noted. July 19– September 17, 2006 Inside front cover: Miranda Lichtenstein Virtual tours of the exhibition at documentation of performance for www.creativetime.org A Clearing, E. 4th St. (2006). Courtesy Audio tours are available on site. of the artist and Elizabeth Dee Gallery. Inside back cover: 64 East 4 th Street, PUBLISHED BY Tax Department Photograph, ca. 1940. Creative Time Books Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives 307 Seventh Avenue 1904 Page 7: Stairwell in 64 East 4 th Street. New York, NY 10001 Courtesy Creative Time. (212) 206-6674 Printed in the United States ISBN 1–928570 – 03 – 8

PUBLICATION CREDITS Writers and Curators: Laura Hoptman Peter Eleey

Publication Coordinators: Brendan Grifﬁths Maureen Sullivan