Transgressions in the White Cube: Territorial Mappings Bennington College Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
TRANSGRESSIONS IN THE WHITE CUBE: TERRITORIAL MAPPINGS BENNINGTON COLLEGE SUZANNE LEMBERG USDAN GALLERY TRANSGRESSIONS IN THE WHITE CUBE: TERRITORIAL MAPPINGS GENERAL IDEA CARY LEIBOWITZ/CANDYASS JESSICA STOCKHOLDER SEAN LANDERS FRED WILSON JON TOWER FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES RENEE GREEN PAULA HAYES MIKE KELLEY RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA JULIA SCHER BOB BRAINE/MARK DION/ KATE ERICSON & ALEXIS ROCKMAN (A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT) MEL ZIEGLER ORGANIZED BY JOSHUA DECTER NOVEMBER 17 - DECEMBER 16, 1992 Mark Dion: Upper West Side Plant Project, 1992 , collection of vegetation from 110-111 th Street, Alexis Rockman: Concrete Jungle II, 1992, oil on wood , 96" x 64". Courtesy Jay Gorney Modern New York City, dimensions variable . Courtesy American Fine Arts , Co. Art . Photo: Oren Slor TRANSGRESSIONS IN THE WHITE CUBE: TERRITORIAL MAPPINGS Joshua Deeter From the avant-garde aspects of Russian Con- movements at the early structivism; Schwitters's part of the 20th century to Merzbau project; Dada the present moment, a events; proponents of the diverse genealogy of Fluxus sensibility; Yves artists has approached the Klein; Vito Acconci, context of the gallery or Michael Asher, Lawrence museum space as a "site" Weiner and other so-called in which to conduct Conceptual artists; the analyses focused upon the site-oriented elements of ideological and historical Minimalist and Post- conditions of the cultural Minimalist work; or other institution (i.e., "institu- examples - have utilized tional critique"), de-code methods of installation the architectural attributes (consciously site-specific of a particular edifice, in emphasis) to suggest expand the limits of that the meaning of art formal(ist) investigations in production is always the traditional media of constructed in relation to painting and sculpture, - but never absolutely transform the gallery/ determined by - context museum space into an (i.e., the formal/structural environment that evokes conditions of a specific the structural characteris- space, its social function, tics of other social do- etc.). mains, or develop an arena for the enactment of And while the institutional performance - and/or site of exhibition has come theater-related activities. under repeated gestures of analysis and critique - Stated differently, it is from Broodthaers to evident that the supposed Buren, and Haacke to Bob Braine: Roadkill Woodchuck, Eastern Deciduous Woodland, 1992, black and white photo- neutrality of the gallery or Lawler - it has neverthe- graphs, 8" x 10" and 3 1/2x 5" . Courtesy the artist. institutional space - the less retained a status as Modernist "white cube" privileged, if not conceived of as little more sanctioned, domain within than a container for which to contest the Fred Wilson: Panta Rhei (A Gallery of Ancient and Classical Art), 1992 (detail), mixed media autonomous art objects- installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy Metro Pictures. Photo: Ellen Page Wilson . authority of so-called has been challenged "dominant" cultural norms, throughout this century. A values, and power rela- legacy of historical prac- tions. Following the tices - whether one cites familiar if binding logic of vanguardism, the (in- paradoxical bind is invari- thropology, and history- thereby re-contextualizing stitutionalized) site of ably courted, tested and organized through the an outside territorial exhibition has similarly re-played. ''Transgressions logic of the museum investigation. Dion has demonstrated its capacity in the White Cube: Territo- conceived as archive and also been collaborating to accommodate even the rial Mappings" presents bureaucratic system of with painter Alexis most (apparently) subver- the work of a diverse group (re)presentation - are Rockman and photo- sive of artistic desires - of contemporary artists critically re-deployed in the grapher Bob Braine on a e.g., overturning the who utilize the context of work of artists such as continuous project entitled 'traditional" protocol of the gallery or institutional Mark Dion, Renee Green, "Concrete Jungle," thus visual art language and space to construct new Paula Hayes, and Fred broadening the area of criteria, shocking the territories of meaning in Wilson. Dion, whose environmental scrutiny to putative audience with relation to issues concern- earlier work addressed the incorporate traditionally outrageous acts of taboo- ing politics, cultural iden- ways in which art history segregated artistic media. transgression. Paradoxi- tity, race, the environment, undergoes continuous Rockman's sensuous cally, the artist who seeks religion, sexual identity, re-construction as a result paintings have, since the to critically analyze - or the de- and re-construction of the manipulative (and 1980s, utilized a represen- theatrically debunk - that of formal languages in the fictionalizing) procedures tational language to which is identified as the visual arts, modes of social of art restoration, has since produce subtly disturbing "dominant" (by some control, ethnicity, etc. the late 1980s focused transformations of tradi- magic consensus, one Employing a wide range of upon environmental tional systems of zoologi- assumes) in the visual arts conceptual methods and questions - specifically, cal and botanical classifi- or popular culture at a formal strategies, the the emergence of global cation, thereby creating given moment must artists do seem to share an eco-crisis. Appropriating what might be described already have been granted abiding concern with the certain formal and concep- as a "post-scientific significant permissions construction of languages tual methods from biologi- surrealism." Braine's (permissions to trans- and structures designed to cal science (e.g., zoology, ultra-straightforward gress) by that very system suggest a "re-mapping" of botany), Dion constructs documentary photos of of cultural legitimation (and the external cultural gallery-specific mise-en- ubiquitous road-kills are representation) under landscape (or the "internal" scenes and tableaux that meant to signal that the scrutiny. landscape of psycho- utilize systems of classifi- already precarious balance social-sexual identity). cation to reference a range between the natural and Notions and strategies of Renee Green : Vista Vision: Landscape of Desire, 1991, installation with sound, dimensions variable. While many of the artists in of environmental prob- cultural domains has critical infiltration have Courtesy Pat Hearn Gallery. this exhibition owe a debt lems; in a strategically reached a point of crisis. functioned, at least since to the legacy of Conceptual reciprocal manner, he has Together, these three the full emergence of practices (General Idea, executed projects in artists have developed an "institutional critique" emerging in the late 1960s, remote regions such as the intriguing approach to how practices during the 1960s in fact comprises a part of Central American country the collaborative method in Europe and the United this legacy), they have all of Belize, there addressing can be employed as a States, as adequate managed to articulate • the area's specific ecologi- means to integrate related rejoinders to such artistic, distinct, yet related cal conditions from the concerns and to thereby cultural and ideological frameworks of working and unique perspective of a establish a more complex paradoxes. Indeed, territories of focus. hybrid artist/specialist. and layered language. methods of critical infiltra- Often, the artifacts of such Paula Hayes: Within the Icy Fruit, 1992, mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy tion are always made Conventional disciplinary working expeditions are Fawbush Gallery. Photo: Tom Warren. Fred Wilson's primary effectual through nuances models of ecology, ethnol- integrated back into the focus in recent years has of complicity, and so the ogy, archaeology, an- gallery-specific site, been to investigate- and poke critical fun at - the committed both her writing standard bureaucratic and art production to the de-constructing history everyday life are arranged presentational systems exploration of how per- and memory (as an index so as to suggest a kind of utilized by museums to sonal, cultural, social and of autobiographical invest- theatrical allegory of the construct narratives of racial narratives are ment) to produce a new mundane; often, these social history and ethnol- constructed through the narrative language alluding arrangements allude to the ogy. For Wilson, the complex history of the to the contradictory dimen- artist's self-inquiry as to conventional American West's colonialist and sions of identity. Green the relationship between museum has adopted neo-colonialist ideologies often presents an accumu- historical characterizations what might be described and institutions. For lation of materials and of womanhood (e.g., the as a Euro-centric model of Green, it seems as if the information that make mythos of witches) and history, wherein the authority of institutional critical reference to con- contemporary (self)defini- specific social and racial "knowledge" can be ventional systems of tions. components of the African- productively challenged- display, and she expects American experience (and or perhaps de-coded - in the viewer to engage in the Since the mid-1980s, the past) is either almost relation to subjective re-construction of mean- collaborative team of Kate completely elided (produc- memory as a mode of ing, rather than passively Ericson and Mel Ziegler ing a kind of enforced critical re-collection.