Northumbria Research Link Citation: Jespersen, Andrea (2015) Mind Circles: on conceptual deliberation − Hanne Darboven and the trace of the artist's hand. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/27631/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html Mind Circles: on conceptual deliberation −Hanne Darboven and the trace of the artist's hand A JESPERSEN PhD 2015 Mind Circles: on conceptual deliberation −Hanne Darboven and the trace of the artist's hand Andrea Jespersen MA (RCA) A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences May 2015 2 Abstract The phrase ‘de-materialisation of the art object’ has frequently assumed the mistaken role of a universal definition for original conceptual art. My art practice has prompted me to reconsider the history of the term de- materialisation to research another type of conceptual art, one that embraces materiality and incorporates cerebral handmade methods, as evidenced in the practice of the German artist Hanne Darboven. This thesis will establish that materiality and the handmade – the subjective – was embraced by certain original conceptual artists. Furthermore, it argues that within art practices that use concepts, the cerebral handmade can function to prolong the artist’s conceptual deliberation and likewise instigate a nonlinear conscious inquisitiveness in the viewer. My practice-based methodologies for this research involved analogue photography, drawing, an artist residency, exhibition making, publishing, artist talks and interdisciplinary collaborations with various practices of knowledge. The thesis reconsiders the definition of conceptual art through an analysis of the original conceptual art practices initiated in New York City during the 1960s and 1970s that utilised handmade methods. I review and reflect upon the status of the cerebral handmade in conceptual art through a close study of the work of Hanne Darboven, whose work since 1968 has been regularly included in conceptual art exhibitions. I discuss the many contradictions embedded in her practice, and establish how critics and theorists consistently simplified her work by predominately focusing on the conceptual aspects of her art practice. The thesis maps and analyses the historically disregarded fact that Darboven’s practice depended on materiality, as present in both her intensively temporal handmade processes and her methodologies of collecting. To explore the current legacy of this analysis I contextualise contemporary encounters related to fine art practice and conclude with a dialogue, artist-to-artist, with Lucy Skaer. 3 Table Of Contents Abstract 3 List of Images 6 List of Accompanying Material 9 Preface 10 Acknowledgements 12 Author Declaration 15 BOOK ONE 16 Human Silver Halo 18 Medical Museion, Copenhagen February – May 2013 19 gaze-following (holding hands) 20 breath device 21 Haystacks of Healing (part one, two, three) 22 Thought Transmission 23 Tidy Table: model 51 24 Female Entanglement 25 common sense has no place at quantum level / Hubble 26 part of the equation 27 We are the ashes of dying stars, we are nuclear waste 28 we draw some arbitrary line and rule out whole areas of investigation 29 Concealed Ovation (part two) 30 Mind Circles 31 BALTIC’s Project Space, Newcastle upon Tyne October 2013 32 The first exhibition day 34 The first photograph 35 A wet photograph 36 Two photographs are missing 37 A public event (03.10.2013) 38 Another public event (05.10.2013) 39 A projection 40 Detail of the drawing 41 Photograph drying 42 At the end 43 BOOK TWO 46 Introduction 47 Chapter One. HISTORICAL NOTIONS OF CONCEPTUAL ART 59 Proto-Conceptual Art 60 Conceptual Art – Initial Appearance 65 Conceptual Artists – Initial Appearance 69 Conceptual Art – Defined by the Artists, 1960s–1970s 74 Conceptual Art – Defined by Critics and Art Historians, 1960s–1970s 81 Conceptual Artists – Gender 85 4 Chapter Two. CONCEPTUAL CONFLICTS: ESTABLISHING HANNE DARBOVEN 91 Conceptual Art Debates 92 Viewed Concepts 100 Darboven’s Contemporaries 109 Chapter Three. HANNE DARBOVEN – COLLECTING CONTRADICTIONS 114 Public Image 115 Methodologies of Collecting 122 Welcoming Second-Hand Objects 130 Chapter Four. TEMPORAL SYSTEMS HANDMADE BY HANNE DARBOVEN 139 Handmade 140 Conscious Being 154 Copied ‘Unbreakable’ Systems 168 Chapter Five. CONTEMPORARY DELIBERATION 174 Recent Encounters: a Deliberation on Art 175 In Dialogue with Artist Lucy Skaer 181 Conclusion 196 Appendix 206 Art that Draws on Photography 207 When I met conceptual artist Luis Camnitzer (or 'know your audience’) 217 References 219 5 List of Images BOOK ONE 1. gaze-following (holding hands), Andrea Jespersen. 20 2. breath device, Andrea Jespersen. 21 3. Haystacks of Healing (part one, two, three), Andrea Jespersen. 22 4. Thought Transmission, Andrea Jespersen. 23 5. Tidy Table: model 51, Andrea Jespersen. 24 6. Female Entanglement, Andrea Jespersen. 25 7. common sense has no place at quantum level, Andrea Jespersen. 26 8. Hubble, Andrea Jespersen. 26 9. part of the equation, Andrea Jespersen. 27 10. We are the ashes of dying stars, we are nuclear waste, Andrea Jespersen. 28 11. we draw some arbitrary line and rule out whole areas of investigation, Andrea Jespersen. 29 12. Concealed Ovation (part two), Andrea Jespersen. 30 13. ‘The first exhibition day…’, Andrea Jespersen. 34 14. ‘The first photograph…’, Andrea Jespersen. 35 15. ‘A wet photograph…’, Andrea Jespersen. 36 16. ‘Two photographs are missing…’, Andrea Jespersen. 37 17. ‘A public event (03.10.2013)…’, Andrea Jespersen. 38 18. ‘Another public event (05.10.2013)…’, Andrea Jespersen. 39 19. ‘A projection…’, Andrea Jespersen. 40 20. ‘Detail of the drawing…’, Andrea Jespersen. 41 21. ‘Photograph drying…’, Andrea Jespersen. 42 22. ‘At the end…’, Andrea Jespersen. 43–45 6 BOOK TWO 23. Erased de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg. 62 24. ‘Anti-Art' demonstrations, Jack Smith and Henry Flynt. 66 25. ‘Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art’, Mel Bochner. 70 26. Wall Drawing No. 146, Sol LeWitt. 75 27. Measurement Room, Mel Bochner. 76 28. One and Three Chairs, Joseph Kosuth. 78 29. 21x21, Hanne Darboven. 88 30. II–b, Hanne Darboven. 92 31. Art International, April 1968. 95 32. Sechs Bücher 1968 (Six Books), Hanne Darboven. 104 33. Working Sheets / Constructions, Hanne Darboven. 108 34. Hanne Darboven letter to Lucy Lippard. 111 35. Untitled (Drawing New York 1), Hanne Darboven. 112 36. FRIEDRICH II, HARBURG 1986, Hanne Darboven. 116 37. FRIEDRICH II, HARBURG 1986 (detail), Hanne Darboven. 116 38. The Hanne Darboven Foundation. 117 39. Hommage à Picasso, 1995–2006, Hanne Darboven. Hanne Darboven’s home-studio. 118 40. The paving at the Hanne Darboven Foundation. 120 41. For Jean-Paul Sartre (detail), Hanne Darboven. 121 42. Hanne Darboven’s home-studio. 122 43. Darboven’s own artworks on display in her home-studio. 124 44. For Jean-Paul Sartre, Hanne Darboven. 125 45. The Time of Bismarck, Hanne Darboven. 127 46. Construction New York, Hanne Darboven. 130 47. ‘The Order of Time and Things: The Home-Studio of Hanne Darboven’, exhibition view. 132 48. ‘The Order of Time and Things: The Home-Studio of Hanne Darboven’, exhibition view. 133 7 49. ‘The Order of Time and Things: The Home-Studio of Hanne Darboven’, exhibition view (detail). 134 50. Untitled, Hanne Darboven. 143 51. Ausstellung mit 6 Filmprojektoren nach 6 Büchern über 1968 (Exhibition with 6 Film Projectors after 6 Books), Hanne Darboven. 152 52. Information, Hanne Darboven. 155 53. 7 TAFELN, II, Hanne Darboven. 169 54. Language is not transparent, Mel Bochner. 197 8 List of Accompanying Material • ‘Zētēsis: research generated by curiosity’, Vol 1. No. 2, Article Press, 2013. - Please see ‘Art that Draws on, with, and against Photography’, Andrea Jespersen, pp.58–71. • ‘Human Silver Halo – Seats of the Muses’, Andrea Jespersen (ed.), eatingapples, 2013. - This publication formed part of the art exhibition ‘Human Silver Halo’ where it was distributed free of charge to the museum visitors. 9 Preface This practice-based PhD has been informed by ten years of studio methodologies – the questions concerning the conceptual handmade would not have materialised without this sustained period of practice. Hence, the vantage point for this investigation is that of a deliberating artist, who opened her studio door and ventured out to engage with the methodologies of art history, art theory, philosophy and science. The thesis has deliberately been constructed to incorporate different voices and writing styles that oscillate between the conceptual objective and the handmade subjective. It is separated into two books: the first book provides visual traces of my practice – artworks, art exhibitions, and interdisciplinary events, which informed this research. Book one is presented with a modest layout, to emphasise that this photographic documentation is merely a visual stand-in for my artworks and events. The second book contains the written thesis that starts with an art historical chapter, examining the emergence and development of conceptual art in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.