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1MONASH UNIVERSITY THESIS ACCEPTED IN SATISFACTION OV THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ON ..7 December 2,0101

.yfV Sec. Researcil Graduate School Committee Under the copyright Act 1968. this thesis must be used only under the normal conditions of scholarly fair dealing for the purposes of research, criticism or review. In particular no results or conclusions should be extracted from it, nor should it be copied or closely paraphrased in whole or in part without the written consent of the author. Proper written acknowledgement should be made for any assistance obtained from this thesis. in Art and Architecture: Context and Theory

Sandra Louise Kaji-O'Grady Bachelor of Architecture with First Class Honours (University of Western Australia) Master of Architecture by Thesis (University of Western Australia) Graduate Diploma in Women's Studies (Murdoch University)

School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies Faculty of Arts Monash University

24 January, 2001 Contents

Abstract

Statement and Acknowledgements

List of Figures and their Sources

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Historical Approaches to Serialism 35

Chapter 3 The Development of Serialism in the Visual Arts 57

Chapter 4 The Critics' Response to Serial Art: Music or 95 Mathematics?

Chapter 5 Serialism in Architecture: Hejduk, Eisenman and Fujii 129

Chapter 6 Series Versus Structure: Poststructuralism and 165 Structuralism

Chapter 7 Seriature: Derrida's 'Countersignalure' to Levinas's 189 Texts and Titus-Carmel's Drawings

Chapter 8 The Series of 'Folies' at the Pare de la Villette 215

Chapter 9 Deleuze, Series, and the 'New Architecture' 239

Chapter 10 Conclusion 279

Bibliography 287 Abstract

This thesis aims to provide an interdisciplinary account of serialism in art and architecture since the mid-1950s to the present within the context of the crisis and critique of representation. In achieving a comparative understanding of the ambitions and outcomes of the serial method the emergence and reception of serially produced works will be studied within the specific histories of art and architecture in turn and these will be compared against the earlier development of serialism in musical composition. The thesis aims to redress the relative neglect of serialism in historical accounts of and architecture and to preserve the divergent practices that reflect the concerns of the individual disciplines. This thesis argues that the apparently rational and systematic procedures of serialism are paradoxically directed towards absurdity and at revealing the groundlessness of systems of signification and that, as a strategy for undermining representation, serialism is of equal historical status to abstraction whose limitations ii attempts to overcome. Serialism is shown to be a mechanism for installing in works of art and architecture an imaginary temporality at odds with that of chronological time. I examine the argument that the procedural processes of digital design in architecture are akin to serial music and find that they depart from serialism in the assumption of 'asignifying' material and in the desire for continuity ofsequen.ee.

The second part of the thesis makes a break from the primacy of art and architecture as the field of experimentation and turns to the theoretical propositions of the same period made in regard to series. The opposition between series and structure that characterizes theoretical understandings is located first in Levi-Strauss's engagement with serial music. In their individual revisions of Structuralism, Deleuze and Derrida repeat this opposition and expand the concept of the series from a quantitative to a qualitative and textual])' oriented terrain focussed on problems of difference and repetition. Derrida's concept of a series of erasures is correlated with his understanding of difference as a negativity of absence; a deferral that suspends, but ultimately does not escape, representation. Deleuze's concept of series as multiple and unstable formations of singularities is studied in relation to his argument that difference is an originary and primary force prior and resistant to representation. Derrida's close reading of the serial strategies at work in Titus-Carmel's art and Tschumi's architecture is contrasted with Deleuze's construction of a concept of series in isolation from serialist practices in the arts. In evaluating the specific and historical experience of serialism in art and architecture against generalist propositions regarding the series and seriality as strategies in the critique of representation, I hope to demonstrate where each field exceeds, underscores or doubles the arguments made in the other. It is argued that no theoretical conception of the series can afford to ignore the challenges inherent in the artistic practice of serialism and nor can serialism neglect the expanded consideration of its effects and horizons given by Derrida and Deleuze. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the. award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institution. To the best of my knowledge the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis.

1 wish to thank my supervisors who have successively guided me through this project with generosity and wisdom: Elizabeth Grosz, Claire Colebrook and Chris Worth. The thesis has been improved by the comments, contributions and support of Stephen Cairnes, Paul Walker, Alex Selenitsch and Julie Willis, my colleagues in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. Many thanks to Marion Frere for translations, friendship and for setting the example in finishing her dissertation before I did.

1 wish also to my mother for her advice and to thank my daughter and her father for their support, love and patience.

£.. \ i - 0 <' List of Figures and their Sources

1. Carl Andre. Bulk Cake, 1964. (D. Waldman, Carl Andre, Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1970, figuic 38). 2. Claude Beige, Lipo poem. (H. Matthews and A. Brotchie eds, Oulipo Compendium, Atlas Press, London, 1998. p. 152). 3. Sol Le Witt, All Combinations of Arcs From Corners and Sides; Straight Lines, Not-Straightlines, and Broken Lines, 1973 (Legg, A. ed., Sol LeWitt, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1978, p. 87) 4. Mel Bochncr, Illustrations from 'The Serial Attitude', Artforum, vol. 6, no. 4, December, 1967, p. 29. 5. Ashley Bickerton 's Evil Orthodoxy Moncullure's Totalitarian Esthetic #L 1989. (M. Friedman, ed and intro, Walker Art Center: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection, Rizzoli, New York. 1990, p. 137). 6. Eva Hesse, Repetition 19 (111), 1968. (L. Lippard, From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's An. E. P. Dutton, New York, 1976, p. 160). 7. Andy Warhol, 16 Jackies, 1964. (M. Friedman, cd and intro, Walker Art Center: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection. Rizzoli, New York, 1990, p. 518). S. Richard Lohse, Durchdringung von Farben (Intcrpcnetration of Colours), 1944. (Crone, R., Numerals 1924-1977, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 197S, unpaginated). 9. Installation view of Robert Molherwell's exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, Massachusets, 1963 showing several versions of 'Elegy to the Spanish Republic' (Arnason, H. H., Robert Motherwell, 2nd edition, Harry N. Abrams, New York, p. 150). 10. Donald Judd, Untitled, prepaiatory drawing for a progression sculpture, 1965. (Crone, R., Numerals 1924-1977, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1978, upaginated). 11. Frank Stella, Black Series 1, 1967. (Richardson, B., Frank Stella: The Black Paintings, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 1976, p. 82). 12. installation view of Stella's protractor series exhibition, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, November- Dtcember 1967. (Frank Stella, Frank Stella: Werke 1968-1976, Kunslhalle Bielefeld/Kunsthalle Tubingen, Bielefeld, 1977). 13. Sol LeWitt, All Three-Part Combinations of Lines in Four Directions (Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal Right, and Diagonal Left), in Three Colors (Yellow, Red, and Blue), 1973. (Legg, A. ed., Sol LeWitt, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1978, p. 104-105). 14. Robert Morris, Floor plan with dates of changes during the exhibition for one-man show at Leo Castelli Gallery, March 1967. (Compton, M. and Sylvester, D.. Robert Morris, The Tate Gallery, London, 1971, p. 12 and 15). 15. Sol LeWitt, From the Word(s) "Art"; Blue Lines to Four Corners, Green Lines to Four Sides, and Red Lines Between the Words, 1972. (Legg, A. ed., Sol LeWitt, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1978, p. 115). 16. On Kawara, Oct.31,1978, 1978. (G. Carrels ed, Sol LeWut: A Retrospective, San Francisco Museum of Modern An, San Francisco, 2000, p. 66). 17. Hanne Darboven, 'July 13, 1987.' (Bruggen, C. van, 'Today Crossed Out: a Project by Hannc Darbovcn', Artforum, vol. 26, no. 5, January 1988, p. 73) IS. Hanne Darbovcn, Geslingc—B Form, 1970s installation, Stcdelijk Museum, Amsterdam. (Art Institute of Chicago, Europe in the Seventies Aspects of Recent Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1977. p. 47). 19. Mel Bochner, Seven Properties of Between (1971-72), Detail of Installation. (Pincus-Wittcn, R., Postminimalism into Maximalism: American Art, 1966-19S6, UMI Research Press. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 19S7. p. 114.) 20. Sol LeWitt, Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes, 1974. Working Drawing and Schematic Drawing. (Legg. A. ed., Sol LeWitt, The Museum of Modern An, New York, 1978, p. 80-81). 21. Mel Bochner, 36 Photographs and 12 Diagrams, 1966. (G. Garrels ed. Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 2000, p. 64). 22. Karen Shaw, W1R ESSENNUR OBSTAUM FRUHSTUCK=408 (1979). (Malen. L., 'Karen Shaw: The Reckoner', Arts Magazine, LIII, no. 8, April 1979, p. 127). 23. John Hcjduk, Texas houses 1 through to 5. (A. Carragonc, The Texas Rangers: Notes from an Architectural Underground, MIT Press, New York, 1995, p. 197). 24. John Hejduk, House 7, Elevation, elevation, basement plan, third floor plan (1962-1963). (Hcjduk, J., John Hejduk: 7 Houses, Catalogue 12, The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York, 1980, p. 19). 25. Peter Eisenman, 'Transformations, Decompositions and Critiques: Excerpts.' (Peter Eisenman, 'Transformations, Decompositions and Critiques', Artforum. no. 19, March 1981, pp. 48-51) 26. Peter Eisenman, House IV, drawing by Robert Cole, 1975. (Crone, R. Numerals 1924-1977, Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, Connecticut, 1978, upaginaled). 27. Peter Eisenman, Axomometrics of House X, (3975-1977). (Bcdard, J.-F. cd, Cities of Artificial Excavation: The work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988, Rizzoli and The Canadian Centre for Architecture, New York and Montreal, 1994, p. 29). 28. Hiromi Fuji, Project Similar Connotation Junction, 1975. (Frampton, K. ed.. The Architecture of Hiromi Fujii. Rizzoli, New York, 1987, p. 13). 29. Hiromi Fujii, Figures 1-27 Inscribing Dispersed, Muhiiayerd Space, 1989. (Fujii, H., 'Dispersed, Multilayered Space', The Japan Architect, vol. 64, no. 1, January 1989, pp. 11-13). 30. Gerard Titus-Carmel, Mausolee Arthur Horowitz no. 2, (1970). (Lascault, G., 'Drawing is Thinking', Cimaise, vol. 19, no. 104-105, November-December 1971-January-February 1972, p. 91). 31. Gerard Titus-Carmel. The Pocket Size Tlingir Coffin, cover of exhibition catalogue. (Titus-Carmel, G., The Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1978). 32. Gerard Titus-Carmel, Drawing for the 21" of July, 1975 of The Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin. (Titus- Cannel, G., The Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1978, p. 8). 33. Gerard Tilus-Carmel, Drawings for the 4"' and 5'h of October, 1975 of The Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin. (Titus-Carmel, G., The Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1978, p. 20). 34. Gerard Titus-Carmel, The Final Drawing, of the 11"' of July, 1976 of 77?*? Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin. (Titus-Carmel, G., The Pocket Size Tlingit Coffin, Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1978, p. 69). 35. Bernard Tschuini, Grid of folies superposed on the Pare de LaVillettc site and the Canal de La Villette, Paris, 1983. (Bedard, J.-F. cd, Cities of Artificial Excavation: The work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988, Rizzoli and The Canadian Centre for Architecture, New York and Montreal, 1994, p. 192) 36. Bernard Tschuini, Superimposition: Points/Lines/Surfaces, 1982. (M. C. Taylor, Disfiguring: Art, Architecture, Religion, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992, p. 249) 37. Bernard Tschumi, folio 6. La Case Vide: La Villette. (Tschumi, B.. La Case Vide: La Villette, Architectural Association, London, 1986). 38. Bernard Tschumi, folio 9, La Case Vide: La Villette. (Tschumi, B., La Case Vide: La Villettc, Architectural Association. London, 1986). 39. Eiscnman/Robertson Architects, Sketch site plan showing angular relationship between La Villette grid and Cannaregio grid of cl structures, 1986. (Bcdard, J.-F. cd, Cities of Artificial Excavation: The work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988, Rizzoli and The Canadian Centre for Architecture, New York and Montreal, 1994, p. 210). 40. Peter Eisenman, Wireframe Diagrams showing repetition and phase sliift of box made in the process of designing the Aronoff Center for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati, (1991-1995). (Davidson, C. cd, Eleven Authors in Search of a Building: The Aronoff Centre for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati. The Monacclli Press, New York. 1996. pp. 52-55). 41. Decoi, ECO Taal Ecology Centre, Tagatay-Taal. The Philippines, 1997. (Goulthorpc. M., Decoi: Smedic State, exhibition catalogue. Curve First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 1998, unpaginated). 42. Peter Eisenman, Diagrams for Haus Immcndorf, Dusseldorf. 1993. ( El Croquis, no. 83, 1997, p. 136). CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

This thesis aims to provide an interdisciplinary account of the nature of serialism in art and architecture in the second half of the Twentieth Century within the context of the crisis and critique of representation. The serialism of this period diverges from examples of the serial ordering of works or elements in earlier historical periods, a related phenomenon which is not the subject of this study. In contrast to works in series or ordered serially, serialism in art and architecture is predisposed to making the process of organizing elements according to predetermined rules visible in the outcome and figure as content or subject matter of the work. In the years 1967 and 1968 when there was sufficient grounds to warrant the term 'Serial Art', serialism is taken up as a strategy that extends the critique of representation fomented by modernist abstraction. Experiments with serial methods in architecture from the 1950s to the present, although more dispersed and never thematized as they were in the visual arts, are distinguished by their engagement with the examples of and debates around serialism in neighbouring disciplines.

Serialism is not a stylistic category but a technique, first devised in musical composition, in which rules are given at the outset of making a work of art to regulate the permutation, combination, frequency, repetition and internal relations of multiple identifiable elements. The executive systems which characterize serialism might be used to regulate a part or aspect of a work or to fully determine formal outcomes and even issues of context and performance, such as the time in the day that the activity of painting begins and ends. As a technique or method, serialism is not confined to particular media or disciplines and nor are works produced by it always easily identified by their formal resemblance to other works made using the same method. Serial works of music, literature, art or architecture do not necessarily have a distinctive or stylistically identifiable sound, appearance or textuality. Nevertheless, the context in which serialism has been developed and the ambitions which artists and architects have held for it have led to stylistic similarities and subsequent assumptions about the limits and potentials of the serial method.