Reproducing the White Bourgeois The Sitting-Room of Marina Abramović Eleanor Skimin

Figure 1. The Victorian Philanthropist’s Parlour (1996) by Yinka Shonibare MBE. Dutch wax printed fabric covered wood, cast iron, brass, marble, mirror, bound printed books, porcelain, glass, framed works on paper, and props 8.5 × 16 × 17.4 feet. (Photo by Phoebe d’Heurle; courtesy of James Cohan, New York. © Yinka Shonibare MBE)

In 2010 Marina Abramovic; sat daily on a chair in the atrium of MoMA for almost three months, from the museum’s opening to closing time. Members of the public were invited to sit oppo- site her for as long as they desired, and during those hours Abramovic; never left her seat. This performance, part of a retrospective exhibition entitled The Artist is Present, is one of several over the course of her career in which Abramovic; has staged the sedentary face-to-face arrange- ment, beginning with Nightsea Crossing (1981–1987) and Conjunction (1983), and most recently Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze (2011) and In Residence (2015). I began encountering images of Abramovic; sitting face-to-face with people at MoMA at the same time that I happened to be

TDR: The Drama Review 62:1 (T237) Spring 2018. ©2018 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 79

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80 Eleanor Skimin atre practice, notablyinthedomesticdramasofbourgeoissittingrooms researching theprevalenceofsedentarypostureinlate-19th-centurybourgeoisrealist- @gmail.com the National Institute ofDramaticArt (Australia). She andUSC.eleanor.skimin teachesatUCLA Scholars Essay competition.She hastaughtatBrown University, theUniversity ofNew South Wales, and the Ingmar BergmanEstate inSweden, andin2017wastherecipient in theIFTR offirstprize New Columbia University andhasworked asHumanities Manager atBAM.In 2016shehadaresidency at Theater of Oklahoma, Native Voices atthe Autry, Poor Dog from Group) withanMFA inDramaturgy of whitebourgeoissubjectivity. She isadramaturg(ClassicStage Company, Kate Whoriskey, Nature research figure theatre explores in inmodern thesedentary andperformance relation toformations Eleanor Skimin iscompletingaPhD inTheatre and Performance Studies at Brown University. Her old mansittingsilentlyinhisarmchairastheexemplarymodeforanewkindoftragedy, anew home astheuniversalsignofeverydaymodernlife. Heimaginedanentireplayconsistingof of metaphor, suggestion, anddreamlogic, Maeterlinckconjuredtheimageofafigure sitting at bolists whorejectedwhattheysawasthegrittyliteralismofrealistsandnaturalistsinfavor and naturalisttheatre-makersbeforehimcoalesced. Mostcommonlyassociatedwiththesym- in DailyLife” inwhich, paradoxically, thefantasiesofanearliergenerationbourgeoisrealist In 1896theBelgianplaywrightMauriceMaeterlinckpublishedanessayentitled “The Tragical Old Menin Armchairs still body. bourgeois whiteness’sconceptualizationofitselfashumanitydefinedbytheinteriorlife center ofthisdiscussionisthesedentaryfigureinmodernityanditsparticularrelationshipto geois realisttheatrewhilesimultaneouslyappearingtodisavowanderasethattradition. At the art’s capacitytoreproducethearchetypalfigures, poses, scenes, andconventionsofwhitebour may beastart. What followsisanexplorationofasleighthand:contemporaryperformance kin ratherthan, asismorecustomary, thebourgeoisantithesisofbohemianantitheatricality garde toperformanceart?Recognizingtherootsofdramaticrealismandnaturalismasintimate the studyofperformanceart, andinturnfollowtheatrehistorythroughthehistoricalavant- of whitebourgeoisrealisttheatre? spectral terminology:Howhavethestagesofperformanceartbeen “haunted” bytheghosts conventions, rhetorics, andideologyofconventionaltheatre?Or, totakeupMarvinCarlson’s ducer the whitebourgeoisrealisttheatreoflate-19thcentury, butalsoastheinheritor tice that, comingoutofthehistoricalavantgarde, hasdevelopedasarepudiationorcritiqueof bodies inperformance, mightwethinkaboutthehistoryofperformanceartnotonlyasaprac- to-face withvisitorsatamuseum?How, bywayofreproductionthisformalarrangement in thesittingroomofIbsen’sA What areweabletoseewhenset, say, atête-à-tête room setsand Abramovic;’s sedentaryperformancepieces, andastringofquestionsfollowed: about theconnectionbetweensedentarydramasofbourgeoisrealisttheatre’ssitting- tête-à-tête functionedasthesinequanonofintimaterelationalexchange. Istartedtowonder 2. In 1. drawing room in the US context see Thad Logan’s The Victorian Parlour: A Cultural Study ([2001] 2003:12). regions and contexts in the second half of the 19th century. For a comparative discussion of the terms parlor and The terms sitting room, parlor, drawing room, living room, lounge room, and family room were used in various geois domestic spaces designed for sociable encounters among family members, and on occasion, their guests. I use the term “sitting room” in order in this article to of emphasizesitting in a range of bour- the importance the theatre. phenomenon of recycling and the particular atre in spectatorship and elements memory of past performances The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Machine Memory of itspowerfullypersuasivelegacies?Inwhatwayshasperformanceartabidedbythe Doll House(1879)alongsidethesceneof Abramovic; sittingface- 2 Howcanwemoreconsistentlybringtheatrehistoryinto Carlson (2001) explores the relationship between the- between Noraandherhusband Torvald 1 wherethesedentary and repro-

- Reproducing the White Bourgeois 81 -

A 3 Figure 2. Konstantin Stanislavsky and Olga Knipper Knipper Olga and Stanislavsky Konstantin 2. Figure Turgenev’s in Rakitinas sofa the on Natalya and 1909. Theatre, Art Countrythe in Moscow , Month Wikimedia) courtesy (Photo of their public — enabled them to function as spaces

—

For a useful discussion on the relationship between the environment and character in naturalism see Raymond Raymond see naturalism in character and environment the between relationship the on discussion useful a For natu- high “In explains: vividly he in which Environment” Theatrical and Environment “Social essay, Williams’s soaked has environment the Moreover [...] environment their into soaked have characters the of lives the ralism there is what because interactive, level deep a at are things and men between relationship The lives. their into 2005:140). ([1980] history” social shaping and shaped whole a is living, for means a or space a as physically, Maeterlinck’s vision of a new static drama, a vision that would become synonymous with a vision that would become synonymous Maeterlinck’s vision of a new static drama, 3. Among these prized pieces, domestic chairs invited a range of sedentary activities that brought domestic chairs Among these prized pieces, of the realist characters together for the private encounters that have been the bread and butter The chair was crucial to the vision of theatrical and the arrangement of chairs theatre. and Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg, for intimate exchange was for such playwrights as lives. Henrik Ibsen the key bodily configuration for getting to the reality of everyday private

geois theatre: How would bourgeois theatre artists dramatize the inner life of a class whose bourgeois theatre artists dramatize geois theatre: How would a The bourgeoisie, at home? were understood to occur while just sitting intimate encounters and had office and the office chair, had given birth to the modern sedentary class par excellence, If on sofas and armchairs. of sedentary leisure and upholstered comfort aspired to a home-life how could this Aristotle, theatre since Western had been the thrust of action and movement imbue the seated figure with a worthy? Maeterlinck’s solution was to still life be made stage to activate and to elevate the life; to make the immobile body articulate; a vibrant interior soul, to the realm of the the body in repose, domestic life, white sedentary body of private bourgeois legitimate drama. realist By the time he had written his essay the bourgeois was not especially new. symbolism, This cho- driven by the sitting room tête-à-tête. theatre was already effectively a static theatre in intimate which positioned two people sitting down on chairs face-to-face reographic device, was already firmly entrenched as exchange, the bodily configuration that drove the realist and the sitting room was its domestic drama, liv- The hybridity of parlors, preferred locale. and drawing rooms ing rooms, privacy as points of intimate sociability and display, and of intersection for the receiving of guests - visitors from the outside world and as meet ing places for members of the household. these sitting rooms offered Dramaturgically, a rich array of possible comings and goings - as well as varied bits of stage business (tak reading letters) to support and sus- ing tea, Natural life tain those sedentary interactions. took place amidst a profusion of commodities the These details, a multiplicity of objects of desire. in the clutter of conspicuously consumed, to represent the true character of the household. were arranged sitting room’s prized pieces, theatre of everyday life that would be a “static theatre” ([1896] 1899:106). This new This new tragedy ([1896] 1899:106). “static theatre” be a everyday life that would theatre of props and fixtures: the requisite homey scene replete with as its setting a domestic would take he, “that Maeterlinck, wrote believe,” “I have grown to table. windows, doors, lamp, armchair, life than human and more universal more live in reality a deeper, does yet as he is, motionless ‘the husband who or conquers in battle, the captain who strangles his mistress, the lover who and leisure, peace, of civilized comfort, offers a scene Maeterlinck honour’”avenges his (106). overwrought emotion, of duels, after the age have fled the gates, security after the barbarians In this particular vision of tragedy. and bloodshed of aristocratic daggers, and the violent plots, Maeterlinck’s and stillness the rule. ease, and quiet, violence is the exception, the modern world, Euro-American bour problem that intensifies in the late-19th-century essay points to a theatre Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

82 Eleanor Skimin Mitchell. (Photo by Richard Termine) directed by Lee Breuer, adapted from Henrik Ibsen by Lee Breuer and Maude November 2003, St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York. Conceived and sitting tête-à-tête in Mabou Mines’s production of Figure 3. Nora Helmer (Maude Mitchell) and Torvald Helmer (Mark Povinelli) plentifully inthematerialworld” (45). Buttherewasnothingspontaneous, natural, oruniversal For States, inthecontext of19th-centuryrealisttheatre, “To sitistobe, toexistsuddenlyand the “true subject” ofrealism. “I sit,” hewrites, in a nodtoDescartes, “therefore Iamhere” (45). ter” (45). ForStates, chairsandtheconversationstheyfacilitatedare basisforcarvingout ing totensionandcrisis;thecarving ofthetruesubjectoutseeminglyphaticencoun- “[W]hat thechairmadepossible, inaword, wasconversation:casualorexploratory talk lead- derives (1985:43). Heunderstandsthechairasenabler ofanewterrainconversation: For States, itistheitemoffurniturefromwhich “whole phenomenologyofrealistacting” case forthechairas “single mostimportantproperty” ofthe19th-centuryrealisttheatre. ful durationofexchange. InGreat Reckonings inLittleRooms, BertO. Statesmakesaconvincing to maximizecomfortandsoftness with theoverstuffed Victorian chair little stagesfortheperformanceofprivateinnerlives. All ofthosefeaturesthatweassociate between realpeople. Chairsandsofas, thedefining elementsofthedomesticset, wouldbethe sis added). Sittingtogetherforanintimateconversation holdsthepromiseofrealinteraction never you andI, manandwife, haveevertalkedseriouslytogether?” And later: “I’m sayingthatwe’ve “We’ve beenmarriednoweightyears. Doesn’titoccurtoyouthatthisisthefirsttimewetwo, site her.” Noraasks: “Doesn’t anythingstrikeyouaboutoursittingherelikethis?” Shegoes on: say” ([1879]2004:575). The stagedirectionadvisesthathethensitsatthetable “directly oppo- secrets ofhischaracters’innerlives. “With thehelpofatableandtwochairs,” heproclaimedin to tapintothedeepwellofmodernpsychiclife. Hesawthechairaskeytounlocking propelled bythemanagementofhouseholdobjects. the settingofteathings;spectacletête-à-têtethatfollowedwasanintimateexchange of sitting-roomsociability. The promiseofanexchangeconfidenceswassetinmotionby engendering arealistgenredefinedbytheelaboratechoreographyofsedentarypractices In themid-19thcentury, T.W. Robertson’s “cup andsaucer” dramaswerepopularinEngland, The chairwascrucialtothewayStrindbergconceptualizedhisnaturalisticprojects, designed sat downseriouslytogetherandtriedtogetthebottomofanything” (575;empha- DollHouse. Premiere 8 — — would invitethesittertoremain, poisedforameaning - the padding, thesprings, theplushupholstery, designed take sometime. Ihavealotto tells Torvald:down. “Sit This’ll to thebottomofmatters. Nora à-tête isanopportunitytoget In Ibsen’sADollHouse, thetête- a tableandtwochairs” (241n33). Miss Julie, withthreecharacters, ralistic tragedy, evenbetterthan shall besendingyouanewnatu- block ofhisdrama: “In aweekI ture wasafundamentalbuilding how thisarrangementoffurni- Creditors, Strindbergshowed Bonnier, abouthisnewplay, The ter tohispublisher, KarlOtto ([1889] 1996:85). Inan1888let- the firsttimeinapopularform” psychology couldbeappliedfor all thediscoveriesofmodern to offer;andinthistypeofart, most powerfulconflictslifehas in 1889, “one couldpresentthe and Modern Theatre” written his essay “On ModernDrama Reproducing the White Bourgeois 83 - - their behind- — appear as the twins of the — 5 The “true subjects” of bourgeois realism were invariably seated, seated, realism were invariably of bourgeois subjects” “true The 4

For a discussion of the relationship between capitalism and bodily authenticity see Tom McCall, “Liquid Politics: Politics: “Liquid McCall, Tom see authenticity bodily and capitalism between relationship the of discussion a For (1999). Drama” Tragic Bourgeois of Theorization a Toward - conversa the for Ridout Nicholas and Schneider Rebecca to indebted is twin its and theatre the on thinking My 2011. in University Brown at theatricality and labor on coconvened they that seminar a in sparked tions States’s evocation of one of the foundational scenes of Western leads us, as leads us, philosophy Western one of the foundational scenes of States’s evocation of neatly by the fire in the armchair happens as if by magic, Descartes’s appearance However, 4. 5.

The Theatre and Its Twin and disavowal of labor to reproduce the sedentary As spaces dependent upon the concealment of the white the bourgeois theatre emerges in the late-19th century as the twin scene of real life, keeping the illusion onstage intact The invisible stagehands bourgeois home. the-scenes labor of ferrying and arranging the furniture of the sitting-room set, the always the the furniture of the sitting-room set, the-scenes labor of ferrying and arranging to their seats discrete presence of the usher guiding spectators the usher’s job is to lead visitors to a comfortable seat Standing at attention, domestic servant. the objects of the of the theatre; the stagehand conveys “house” that is the “sitting room” in the the tending of the fire that pro- tea things and letters, the movement of onstage sitting room, the ser In the world of white bourgeois domesticity, pels and sustains the still sedentary scene. “Don’t you dare sit down when I’m around! vant moves about while the master or mistress sits. to the Prozorovs’ Sisters in Chekhov’s Three “coldly” says Natasha And get out of here!” Get up! A similar choreography manifests in Strindberg’s Anfisa ([1900] 1997:294). nurse, 80-year-old “Why don’t you sit down?” when Miss Julie asks the valet Jean, Miss Julie invariably white, and invariably bourgeois. and invariably white, invariably the son of a French parlia- Descartes, another sedentary domestic scene. toward it happens, in an armchair by a fire and Meditation of 1641 sitting at home his First appears in mentarian, since I have opportunely then, “Today everything he thinks he knows: attempting to question and since I am in the passions), all cares (and am happily disturbed by no freed my mind from at length apply myself earnestly and I will leisure in a peaceable retirement, secure possession of Like Maeterlinck’s 2008:73). ([1641] overthrow of all my former opinions” freely to the general domestic contemplation depicts an exterior this still scene of private old man in the armchair, Descartes frames the act activity. quiet combined with tremendous inner of bodily stillness and and revelation of an observation, as the ideal mode for the cultivation, of sitting alone at home interior life. propels and becomes the sign of his His stillness inner life. As Sara the scene of thoughtful bourgeois interiority. erasing the labor required to (re)produce domestic tables and , Others Objects, Ahmed has shown in Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, She asks whether ‘place’ of philosophy.” “secures the very chairs have been the furniture that time that “concealment of domestic labor and of the labor philosophy has depended upon the “what she wonders For example, (2006:31). ‘materials’ of home” it takes to reproduce the very to be writing and Husserl to turn to the writing table, domestic work must have taken place for “how interested in She is (30). and to keep that table as the object of his attention” on the table, Ahmed’s Following (31–32). arrive at the table” forms of social orientation affect how bodies orientation affect how bodies arrive at the chair in line of thinking I wonder how forms of social work has occurred in order to bring the sitter to the What domestic the bourgeois sitting room. of a counter to orient the face of the sitter toward the face scene of leisure in the sitting room, leisure, The domestic chair has been integral to securing the place of intimate exchange, part? both at home and at the theatre. and true feeling in white bourgeois modernity about being able just to sit there face-to-face. Who, in fact, gets to sit in the sitting rooms of sit in the sitting rooms gets to in fact, Who, face-to-face. able just to sit there about being of theatrical real- linking the chairs stops short of explicitly States’s analysis these ? out is that in the world he does not draw What situation. particular sociopolitical ism to any a highly specific vision human presence is that signals universal realism the figure of theatrical class and race. of a particular Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

84 Eleanor Skimin atre. Hedescribedthemas: influx ofproletarianspectatorswhodidnotadheretotheproperetiquetteabourgeois- Stanislavsky lamentedthatthetranquilityofMoscow Art Theatre hadbeendisruptedbyan

ing, unseen, anduninterrupted, asthoughinprivateathome. ings andcomfortableupholsteredseatsdesignedtopromotesittingstillquietly, unmov- the décorofthesetheatresoftenmirroredbourgeoisdomesticdécor, withtheirsoft furnish- spectators, immobilizedintheirseats, reflectedthestilllifeofsittingroomathome. Indeed, pline (36). The “natural” lifeofthesittingroomwasproductcarefultrainingandstrictdisci- One ofthemremarks, “it wasinfinitelyeasierformetositonthestageaffectedlythansimply” tively difficulttaskandthestudentsstrugglenottoappearself-conscious, awkward, andfake. Nothing simplercouldbeimagined, couldit?” ([1936]1989:35). Butitprovestobeadecep- are alone. You sitandsit... At lastthecurtaincomesdownagain. That isthewholeplay. the studentssitonstagenaturally: “The curtaingoesupandyouaresittingonthestage. You forward sittingexercisethathegivestohisyoungactingstudents. All thatisrequired postural buildingblockoftheircraft. Inthatbook, Stanislavskydescribesaseeminglystraight- Actor Prepares, receivedrigorousinstructiononachievingnaturalnessinperformingthebasic tic leisure. room both figuresworkingtolooknaturalastheysit working, notexploringtheirinnerlives. 1997:239). Intheworldofbourgeoisrealism, seateddomesticworkersaregenerallyseentobe too, Nanny.” The stagedirectionadvises: “Marina sitsandbeginstoknitherstocking” ([1897] retired professor, hasallowedit. And hersedentarinessisnotidleness. Hesays, “You sitdown them permission. Another nurse, MarinainChekhov’sUncleVanya, sitsbecauseSerebriakov, the When thedomesticworkerssitdownintheseworldstheybecausetheirmastershavegiven at easeinthesittingroom, 8. 7. 6. The stillnessextendedacrossthestageandintoauditorium. The behaviorofbourgeois In anotherparallelmove, therealistactorappearsastwinofbourgeoishousewife, MISS JULIE: Then sit. ([1888]1998:77) JEAN: Then I’dobey. MISS JULIE:ButifIweretoorderyouto? JEAN: Notinyourpresence. Iwouldn’ttaketheliberty. performance” and reflected a “taste for intimacy and comfort” (2000:107). fully’ decorated, such spaces were preamble integral to the experience of theatre. to the They acted as a sensory titutes, were transformed into locales, which suggested an air of the respectable home. Intimate in scale and ‘taste- “the19th century of auditoriums was enhanced. Circulation comfort spaces and lobbies, once the resort of pros- Victorian Theatre as a Home from Home,” which argues that in the respectable theatre of the second half of the For a detailed discussion of the domestication of Victorian theatre see an essay by Hugh Maguire entitled “The when conversing; it looks theatrical and is ill-bred” (1872:151). that may be near you;tle article let your hands rest in an easy, quiet. Never natural position, perfectly gesticulate accomplishments to attain, is the surest mark of a lady. Do not fidget, playing with your rings, brooch, or any lit- seated, if you are or knitting, keep quiet. yourThis, whilst one ofthe most difficult not sewing hands perfectly conduct: “Tosedentary sit with the knees or feet crossed or doubled up, is awkward and unlady-like [...] When tled “Polite and Good Deportment, Habits,” Florence Hartley’s antitheatrical and gendered take on appropriate See, for example, in the 1872 edition of of work than a conspicuous labor of leisure” (1995:162). Sexuality inthe Colonial Contest. McClintock describes the housewife’s appearance of idleness as “less the absence See Anne McClintock on the “labor of leisure” in Victorian domesticity in — — both on-andoffstage. striving toappearasthoughtheyarenotproducethestillsceneofdomes- 6 The Victorian bourgeoishousewife’ssedentaryperformance, sittinggraciouslyand 7 correspondswithStanislavsky’srealistactorswho, accordingtoAn The Ladies’ Bookof Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness, in a section enti - — at homeonthestage, athomeinthesitting 8 InpostrevolutionaryMoscow, Imperial Gender Leather: Race, and Reproducing the White Bourgeois 85

11 would be — Re-Dressing the Canon: Canon: the Re-Dressing in In a move parallel to the 10 A Doll House House Doll A ,” a swift and appropriate return of the the of return appropriate and swift a chair,” its coziness its comfort, — of “new realism.” My argument pushes this slightly further in order to suggest that that to suggest furtherslightly this pushes argument order in My realism.” “new of (1878), which depicts a young woman dancing the tarantella. His biographer, Evan Evan biographer, His tarantella. the dancing woman young a depicts which (1878), “Slower. Slow down,” he says. “Not so violent, Nora!” ([1879] 2004:569); it is also ([1879] Nora!” “Not so violent, he says. Slow down,” “Slower. character character a for and — While Julie’s dance happens offstage in a barn, Nora’s rehearsal of the tarantella in While Julie’s dance happens offstage in a barn, 9

Capri Girl on a Rooftop Rooftop a on Girl Capri

Sargent used Rosina Ferrara, a young fisherwoman includ- paintings, his of young a several for model a as Capri, from Ferrara, used Rosina Sargent ing an altogether new audience which we did not know how to approach. Neither did the how to approach. we did not know new audience which an altogether were We with us in the theatre. us and how to live how to approach audience know how sit quietly, new spectator how to to teach this at the very beginning, forced to begin not to eat nuts smoke, not to time, the theatre at the proper how to come into not to talk, 1987:552) ([1924] it there [...]. the theatre and eat not to bring food into in public, Occasionally in these plays we see the sedentary composure of the figures of the sitting room plays we see the sedentary composure of Occasionally in these Charteris, described Ferrara as “an Ana-Capri girl, a magnificent type, about seventeen years of age, her com- her age, of years seventeen about type, magnificent a girl, Ana-Capri “an as Charteris,Ferrara described When (1927:48). very type” Arab an of and beautiful, hair, blue-black of mass a with brown, nut rich a plexion “the as her described he 1882, in Salon Paris the for Ferrara of picture his showed Pearce Sprague Charles painter of isle savage the on creatures savage the all of lithest and wildest Rosina, elf-like eyed, panther skinned, tawney 2003:34n10). al. et (Adelson, Capri” in tarantella the of criticism Archer’s of discussion Solomon’s Alisa See (1997:53). Solomon’s point is that Nora’s behavior is inappropriate for a bour- a for inappropriate is behavior Nora’s that is point Solomon’s (1997:53). Gender and Theatre on Essays wife geois auditorium. the in and onstage both theatre, bourgeois white the of stillness disruptivetotal is dance the the of words, Solomon’s in to, decision Duse’s Eleonora actress the preferred who Archer quotes Solomon Significantly, sweep “one made Duse critic, the for Fittingly, (53). action” contained more with whirling the manic “replace a in fear and emotion with “powerless dropped and stage” the around crucialmost her to actor (53). piece set realist bourgeois white way under was transformation major a century, nineteenth the “[B]y Britain, in how has described McClintock domestic- nature, by if as separate, to space urban and architectural refashioned laboriously men middle-class as became class middling Victorian the of homes the least, at ideology In [...] family. from market industry, from ity princi- abstract the beyond thus and commerce public from secluded naturally lying sphere distinct a as vaunted (1995:67). rationality” of regime the and economy market liberal the of ples 9. bourgeois housewife. For the influential critic William Archer, Archer, William For the influential critic bourgeois housewife. a breach of decorum for a white dramatic “an inferior order of as belonging to who in 1892 described this moment of vigor perhaps, and, it is a breach of the still composure of the bourgeois realist theatre itself effects,” associated mode of performance “inferior” an a slippage into a less desirable kind of theatre, and/or non-white. with spectacular bodies marked as working-class front of her husband Torvald happens in full view of the audience. Her performance is not sim- happens in full view of the audience. Torvald front of her husband housewife in a late-19th-century Norwegian sit- ply a breach of bodily decorum for a bourgeois ting room As in the bourgeois home, the still life inside the theatre As in the bourgeois home, cast in sharp distinction to the world outside where the teaming lower classes threatened the to the world outside where the teaming cast in sharp distinction sedentary composure. bourgeois interior’s quiet corporeally frenetic contaminating, relation to the bodies of dangerous, juxtaposed directly in barn with the gamekeeper on her Miss Julie’s wild dance in the play, In Strindberg’s others. ([1888] 1998:71). “crazy” has gone a sign that she to the valet Jean, according father’s estate is, from Capri peasant girl” “Neapolitan the tarantella while dressed as a Nora’s frisky foray into corporeality of a working- Ibsen’s A Doll House suggests the threatening ([1879] 2004:564) in A favorite model of European art- as racially other to Nora’s whiteness. signaled “girl,” class fantasized exotic southern Italian the such as John Singer Sargent, ists in the late-19th century and physical wildness in the sexual allure, fisher girl was fetishized for her dark complexion, outdoors. emergence of the Victorian cult of domesticity and the intensification of the ideology of the cult of domesticity and the intensification Victorian emergence of the com- which envisaged the public sphere as an unpredictable realm of ruthless separate spheres, for intimate familial relationships and true feeling, petition and the private sphere as a domain

the bourgeois theatre was constituted as a retreat from a harsh world outside, characterized by a characterized retreat from a harsh world outside, the bourgeois theatre was constituted as a however disturbing, immersed in a world of inner feeling, quiet audience motionless, “civilized,” 10. 11. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

86 Eleanor Skimin 13. the whitenessoflate-19th-centuryEuropeansitting-roomdramasinrelationtoscantref What oftheracializationsedentarybodyinthesedramas?Howarewetounderstand What ofthewhiteness ofthesedentarybourgeoisfigureslate-19th-centuryrealisttheatre? The Whiteness oftheSedentaryFigure bourgeois bodieswatchingotherstillwhitebodies. torium, thebourgeoistheatrewasasedentarizedtheatre:houseofpredominantlystillwhite (re)produced bysedentaryactorsathomeonsitting-roomsets. Fromthestagetoaudi- 12. interior life. nographic displayandtherenderingofblackbodiesasspecimens, still, tobesure, butdenied across thosesamecities. getic contortedblackbodieswithoutinterioritywerebeingdisplayedinpopularminstrelshows centers suchasLondonandNew York atthesametimeashypervisualizedfantasiesofener ple, theextremestillnessofwhitebourgeoistheatrewasbeingplayedoutinmajorurban the representationalpracticesofentertainmentculturelate-19thcentury. Forexam respond tothesequestionsisconsiderworksinrelationthebroadercontextof erences andrelativeabsenceofblackbrownbodiesintheseplays?Onewaytobegin tion ofitselfasasedentaryculturebringing “civilization” intheformofhomesandtheatres century Europeanimperialistprojectsand, inparticular, whitesettlerculture’sconceptualiza- be seenasexpressiveofanatural, unaffected “inner life” (143n11). highly theatricalprocessesbywhichthestillnessofbourgeoiswhitenessinmodernitycameto text, hedoesnotconsidertheracialization ofsubjectivityintheprivatesphere, ortheoften While hediscussesthewaysinwhichideaofinterioritywasgendered inthe Victorian- con considering “interiority asatermof Victorian notionsofdomesticityand theprivatesphere.” humanity” (133). Inanoteontheterm “interior” Quashieclaimsthehistoricalrelevanceof capacity andqualityoftheinterior, oftheinnerlife[...Q]uietisinevitable, itisessentialto sentations ofblacklivesthroughimagesquietinteriority. Quashiearguesthat “quiet isthe life. Hemakesanimportantcontributiontothemarkingandcelebrationofalternativerepre- matic publicexpressivenessinvariablyinaresistantmodeandunderstoodaslackinganinner has shownhowconceptionsofblacksubjectivityhavebeendominatedbyimagesloud, dra- (2010:47). InTheSovereignty ofQuiet:Beyond ResistanceinBlack Culture (2012), KevinQuashie tified blacksubjects’resistantperformancesofstillness, wherestillnessisa “sourceofagency” bly ofblacksubjectswhosemovementhasbeencircumscribed, whileHarvey Young hasiden- phenomenon of “wandering ality ofblackbodiesinstatesquietnessandstillness. SarahCervenak’sWandering exploresthe “defining of the part Black Diaspora” (2010:44). argued that the stillness of the captive slave in “cells, holds, blocks and plantations” was in fact integral to and a has referredCervenak to the status of the slave as “stock,” and “stock still” (2014:6), and Harvey Young has incapable of rational comportment” (6). offers an account of what she describes as a “larger belief system that figures(2014:26). Cervenak blackness as jectivity, whiteness, male gender identity, and a putatively unaffected and self-directed Freedom, Sarah Jane discusses “the Cervenak inherently ‘fraudulent’ association” between “Enlightenment sub- waving about (NYPL n.d.; Bernstein 2016). Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels arms twisted, (1843), sitting on chairs, buttocks out, legs wide apart, formances of minstrelsy, such as the Virginia Minstrels, who were depicted on the cover of groupThink, forexample, of a contrasting per- use of chairs in a semicircular arrangement in some 19th-century Finally, thesedramasshouldbeconsideredinrelation tothechoreographyoflate-19th-­ Recently aclusterofscholarlyworkshavelookedtothepoliticalandphilosophicalpotenti- 13

12 We might alsoconsiderpopular19th-centuryperformancesofeth — daydreaming, mentalandrhetoricalramblings” (2014:2)nota- In In Wandering: Philosophical Performances and Sexual of Racial straight comportment” The Celebrated Negro - - - - Reproducing the White Bourgeois 87 -

- - was likely ) in order to ) in order to often forced, often forced, — 14 — The very chairs on which The very chairs on which 16 General Act of the Berlin Conference Conference Berlin the of Act General Black and brown figures are Black and brown figures 17 - “civiliza of promotion the and conquest as And if the civilization of the sitting And if the civilization 15 Act a coveted mahogany settee, for example settee, a coveted mahogany — on the move, evading capture. Violent imperial wars of expansion imperial Violent capture. evading on the move, — of others. In proffering the seated figure as the key to accessing every- of others. seat.” Merriam-Webster, s.v. “app (n.),” accessed 30 October 2017, www.merriam 2017, October 30 accessed (n.),” “app s.v. Merriam-Webster, seat.” setl — , from from setlan,

-webster.com/dictionary/settle. from came Ibsen) Strindberg, Robertson, (Chekhov, essay this in to referred playwrights the of all example, For and Sweden, Britain, Great Russia, 1884–1885: of Conference Africa West Berlin the at represented nations subsequent the to signatories were nations these of Each respectively. Norway the of purposes twin the summarized has Crawford Neta 1885. of Berlin the after interior Africa’s of rush occupation “[t]he that explains effective establish to She (2002:215). tion” and conquering that, just did states European and Africa for Scramble the called was Conference Africa West that colonies European establishing and independence, political and land their of out nations African swindling (215). continent” entire the almost covered vio- not than often more and global increasingly domesticity, of rituals the “Through that has shown McClintock a into narrative progress domestic the through inducted [...] were peoples colonized and women animals, lent, (1995:35). men” white to relation hierarchical Symbol: Status as “Mahogany Pastore’s Chaela see mahogany in trade colonial the and furniture on essay an For (2010). Century” Eighteenth the of End the at Domingue Luxuryand Race Saint in Note the etymology of the verb “settle” as derived from Middle English, “to seat, bring to rest, come to rest, from from rest, to come rest, to bring seat, “to English, Middle from derived as “settle” verb the of etymology the Note English Old 15. 16. 17. room was being brought to the empire by way of the “domestication” of colonized territories “domestication” to the empire by way of the room was being brought room. of the empire permeated the sitting the materials and people, mostly absent from these late-19th-century dramas of white bourgeois humanity, but were humanity, late-19th-century dramas of white bourgeois mostly absent from these understanding of itself as and reproduction of bourgeois whiteness’s essential to the production of humanity. the sedentary embodiment the real still life was being performed the real still life was 14. ity in these plays was produced in concert with the dehumanization and exploitation of absent ity in these plays was produced in concert appar These unassuming, lacking in an interior life. mobile laboring others understood to be not the of real life were riven with contradictions, ently unremarkable little domestic scenes leisure was the product of the labor least of which being that the scene of still or disavowed hidden, day authentic human life, the realist theatre simultaneously exuded deep anxieties about the the realist theatre simultaneously exuded deep anxieties day authentic human life, revealed If Stanislavsky’s sitting exercise posture. extent of the dramatic power of the sedentary executing such a seemingly straightforward task, the students’ apprehension about successfully whether watching a drama that consisted entirely of their doubts also suggest a concern about In An engaging for the spectator ([1936] 1989:46). someone merely sitting would be sufficiently the Director has to reassure his students about the validity of the seated figure , Actor Prepares with- as you did, “Why is it action to sit in a chair, One of them asks: as the subject of drama. The Director assures (39). To me it looked like a complete lack of action” out moving a finger? The central paradox of the sedentary tête-à-tête was that the image of still human interior The central paradox of the sedentary tête-à-tête The Crisis of White Bourgeois Stillness White The Crisis of (literally, to seat drive to settle (literally, settler colonialism’s Coupled with to savage lands. , both in the sense of the both in , bodies to move drive to compel black possess land was the occupy and labor sense of compelling and in the Passage, way of the Middle Africa by from forced removal has discussed for example, Young, Harvey of imperial projects. to move in the service ing bodies “pure diaspora as conceived of the black discourses that have influential and problematized the might also consider we US context, 18th- and 19th-century In the (2010:29). movement” slave figure of the fugitive sitting room; rather they were from the apparent peace of the domestic were not worlds away of production and reproduction. the condition of its mode the product of the exploitation of people, nameless and faceless, and raw material resources nameless and faceless, of people, the product of the exploitation Americas of the 18th century. in the colonies World from New Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

88 Eleanor Skimin dom and slavery. face andtheinterior, therealandfake, thenaturalandsupernatural, lifeanddeath, free- and meaninglessness, thedramaticandnondramatic, theatricalandnontheatrical, thesur quotidian, performingtenuouslybetweenlaborandleisure, privacyandpublic-ness, meaning The imageofthewhitebourgeoissedentarytête-à-têteoffereditselfasordinary, banal, and was perchedprecariouslyontremulousgroundandteetereduponfundamentalcontradictions. of suchstillness. Forallitsassuredstability, thequietmotionlessnessofbourgeoisprivatelife dramatic, producedatheatrethatleftitsspectatorswithanambivalenceaboutthetruenature duced throughlabor, itsrealnesseffectedbyillusion, itsdramacreatedbytheapparentlynon­ than waitingfordeath. The inherentparadoxesofthestill, sedentaryscene, itsleisurepro- terrified ofdying” ([1897]1997:220;emphasisadded). Sittingathomeamountstolittlemore it’s likeaprison. Isitheredreamingaboutthepast, Ihavetowatchotherpeoplesucceed, I’m I stillwanttobefamousandsuccessful, Iwantalltheexcitementusedtofeel! This place sit hereinthisgraveyard, surroundedbystupidpeoplesayingthings. ButI’mstillalive! In of substance, orwhether, perhaps, reallifeisgoingonelsewhere, inexcitingplaceslikeMoscow. ing amongthemselvesandwonderingwhetheralltheirsittingtalkingamountstoanything tion thatthesefiguresarenotreallyliving. Hischaracterssitaroundalldayandnighttalk- waiting roomforhorrorstocome. Chekhov’sscenesofcountrylifearesulliedbytheintima- is wrackedbythenewsofdeath. The peaceandstillnessofdomesticityispositedasmerelya that initiallyappearssosafeandsecureinMaeterlinck’splaysofthe1890s, Intruder social convention, andthepressuretoconform. The sedentaryscenearoundthefamilytable is alsofake, aplacefortoysanddollsmake-believe, thestiflingofhertrueinnerlifeby of hersocialdeath supernatural presences. BytheendofADollHouse, Nora’swalkingoutofthehome wrote apparitions, spectralapproximationsofreallife, orimagesofdeath?BythetimeStrindberg Were they authentichumanity, bubblingwithavibrantinteriorlife, orsomethingelse:ghostly action, asmovement ? Was thisarchetypalpostureofbourgeoiswhitenesssufficientlydramatic? qualify asdramawhenitseemedtobeantitheticalan Aristotelian conceptionofdramaas by othersinthebourgeoisrealisttheatre: Would aplaythatinvolvedanactor “just sitting” even ities thatarefarmoreimportantartistically” (39). Grisha’suncertaintypointstoacrisisshared Frequently physicalimmobilityisthedirectresultofinnerintensity, anditistheseinneractiv- them that, “You maysitwithoutamotionandatthesametimebeinfullaction. Noristhatall. histories of20th-and21st-century performancehavecommonlyexcludedwhitebourgeoisthe - of spectators. and unknowns gical possibilitiesofamultiplicity ofentrancesandexitsbymembersthepublic works.based Abramovic;trainedrigorouslytoreceiveher visitorsanddeployedthedramatur as achronologicalinstallationofphotographs, video, and otherdocumentationofhertime- tion thatincludedlivereperformancesbyotherperformersof Abramovic;’s earlierpiecesaswell culturally significantartobjects. Theperformanceoccurred withinthecontextofanexhibi- within oneoftheworld’smostpowerfulculturalinstitutions, housingsomeoftheworld’smost exhibition,retrospective Abramovic;createdwhatwasineffectalargesittingroompositioned pected settingoftheatriumatMuseumModern Art in New York City. As partofher her performanceThe Artist isPresent, whenshestagedasitting-roomsceneintheoddlyunex- Performance artistMarina Abramovic; unwittinglybroughtthisambivalenttheatrehistoryto Marina Abramovic; Uncle Vanya theprofessor, Serebriakov, whohasretiredfromtheuniversity, is indespair: “I The exactsubstanceofthesedentaryfiguresrealistdramahasneverbeensettledterrain. I describethesettingof Abramovic ;’s sedentarytête-à-tête Ghost Sonatain1907, thefleshlyfiguressittingarounddomestictablehadbecome — who hadcometoMoMAsit withherandbewatchedbyanincreasingmass — is theonlywayforherlifetocontinue. Her “real” lifeinthesittingroom ’ s SittingRoomDrama as “oddly unexpected” because — and Interior, — celebrities the space — - -

Reproducing the White Bourgeois 89 - Theatre & Theatre bourgeois realist the- Theatre & History“Who,asks, she & where example, for Theatre

19 - against the separa against illusion, against fakeness, : against spectacle, 18

Rebecca Schneider advances this provocation in her book her in provocation this advances Schneider Rebecca century (2014:70). twenty-first Stanislavsky?” put would performance intermedia artists with bed in Schneider’s Rebecca see antitheatricality Abramović’s to relation in passage this of discussion a For History(2014:71). Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large at MoMA and curator of the Abramovic; exhibi- chief curator at large at MoMA and curator of the Klaus Biesenbach, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present ([1979] 2011) has to the Present Futurism Art: From book Performance RoseLee Goldberg’s To be a performance artist, you have to hate theatre. Theatre is fake: there is a black is fake: there Theatre to hate theatre. you have be a performance artist, To playing somebody and you sit in the dark and see somebody ticket, you pay for a box, the emotions are not real. and the blood is not real, is not real, The knife else’s life. and the emotions are is real, the blood opposite: the knife is real, Performance is just the 2010) (in O’Hagen real. atre as it began to manifest in the 18th- and 19th-century context of bourgeois domestic drama atre as it began to manifest in the 18th- and or inspiration in histories of performance art, might be considered relevant as source material In other for critique and the basis for repudiation. unless we find it appearing as the springboard or reimag- we are used to thinking about performance art as a self-conscious celebration, words, of Dada and Cabaret or the anarchic spirit Buddhist ritual, ancient say, or exploration of, ining, the mantle of the spirit of bourgeois realist theatre. as assuming if at all, but less often, Voltaire, the- which positions performance art as invariably the critique of bourgeois This blind spot, “[I]n the that Claire Bishop has argued For example, appears in art history accounts too. atre, of abstract painting performance art emerged from the generative union in the late 1950s, U.S. I want to put pres- (2011). of traditional theater” and Cageian composition to mount a critique Abramovic;’s sedentary performance about Marina sure on these received histories by thinking late-19th-century bourgeois realist theatre rather than work as sharing a particular affinity with tradition. in simple counterpoint to that performance catalogue that adhered to these disciplinary biases. contributed an essay to the exhibition tion, The Artist Present. “Marina Abramovic;: The Artist The Artist Was Is Present. The essay, ded- in part, is striking for the absence of theatre history even though it is, Be Present,” Will Throughout the com - Abramovic;’s work. icated to assigning influences and genealogies for Biesenbach repeatedly reads the posture sedentary performances, mentary on Abramovic;’s still, and and predominantly uses examples that he characterizes as non-Western as non-Western Indeed Peggy Phelan has pitched performance art in an oppositional stance, emerging from the stance, has pitched performance art in an oppositional Indeed Peggy Phelan Additionally she has cited the history to realism. “counterpoint” but only as a , practices as other relevant histori- and alternative healing body of painting and shamanic-yogic cal traditions (2003:174). art with an opposi- the history of performance and performance been influential in aligning surre- followed by dadaism, beginning with futurism, tional 20th-century avantgarde heritage, “now standard Marvin Carlson has complicated what he calls the happenings. and later, alism, to much (1996:85) by considering modern performance in relation ‘experimental’ genealogy” to the Elizabethan Rome and the middle ages, older performance practices—from ancient the significance of While he acknowledges and 19th centuries. 18th, as well as the 17th, period, as well as cabaret, and vaudeville, circus, marketplaces, popular entertainments such as fairs and not appear bourgeois theatre does and soirées, aristocratic salons, private court entertainment, In these accounts it seems that almost anything except in his narrative. 18. 19. atre as part of the genealogy of performance art, except to see it as the object of performance object of performance except to see it as the performance art, of the genealogy of atre as part or critique art’s parody tion of spectator to performer, against commodification, against normativity, against the bour normativity, against against commodification, to performer, tion of spectator as as such, and performance positioned her work, has repeatedly for example, ;, Abramovic geois. the enemy of illusion: and of theatre, the antithesis Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

90 Eleanor Skimin the disavowalofitsstatusas “acting” or “representing” hasbeenawatch-word ofperformance ity, withitsseemingly neutralaffectemphasizingtherealnessofits “doing” and “being” and life, itsordinaryroutines, asthesourcematerialofitsactions. The so-called “task-based” activ- everyday, thehereandnow. ably operatedinthepresent. Notinthefarawayno-time ofanaristocraticdramabutinthe realist theatrepromiseditsaudienceasliceofthereal, andthelittleworldsitproducedinvari- sedentary figureofdomesticityasthesignhereandnow ofordinarylife. Thebourgeois through thetheorizationsofMaeterlinckandStanislavskywhom, aswehaveseen, offeredthe a routetoreallivepresenceinthe “here andnow” inrelation totheatrehistory, specifically work, why, wemightask, shouldwenot consider Abramovic;’s deploymentofseatednessas and aboutliterallydoingnothingbeinginthepresent” (in StighandJackson2010). of movingandliving, andgoingalwaystothenextthing. Here, everythingwasaboutstillness culture isanextremelymaterialisticandbasedonmoney, andwork, andtheintensity the longperiodsofsittinginThe Artist isPresent shehasclaimed: “as weknow, the American immaterial. Onlywhatmattersisthepresent” (inGroves2015). Furthermore, whilediscussing or thefuture. It’salwayshappening. It’salwaysnow. And that’sthesameastime-basedart;it’s now experience Abramovic;hassaid, “It wasabigbaseofmyperformanceart Pitjantjatjara andPintupipeopleofthe Western Desertin Australia from1980to1981. Ofthe uted asignificantportionofherworktotheperiodinwhichsheandUlaywerelivingwith seven-hour periodsatmuseumsandotherlocationsaroundtheworld. Abramovic; hasattrib- Uwe Laysiepen), thepairsatonchairsoppositeeachotheratbothendsofamahoganytablefor mances stagedbetween1981and1987withherloverartisticcollaborator, Ulay (Frank ification ofher “presence” asaperformingartist. InNightseaCrossing, aseriesof22perfor has wovenin “non-Western” practicesasaguarantoroftherealnessherworkandver ics andpracticeshasbeenrepeatedlysupportedmythologizedby Abramovic; herselfwho seemingly endlessscenesofsitting, waiting, andcontemplationindomesticspace? tion byBiesenbach removed aretheseinstancesof “durational sitting” reference tothemythof Theseus boundtositonLeta’schairinHadesforalleternity. Howfar He quotesfromanessaybyCajkanovicentitled “Magical Sitting,” whichinturncites Virgil’s context forthinkingabout “the extremelylongperiodsofsitting” in Abramovic;’s performances. of theSerbianclassicistandscholarpaganBalkanculture, Veselin Cajkanovic, asbackground Stylites who, accordingtolegend, satandstoodonapillarfor37years. Healsocitesthework drate themselvesandsitinthelotusposition;orearlyChristianasceticssuchasSaintSimeon Buddhist monksinJapanbetweenthe12thandlate19thcenturieswheretheywoulddehy- formances. Hecitessokushinbutsu, forexample, aself-mummificationtechniquepracticedby Biesenbach thengoesontolistarangeofpracticessummonedby Abramovic;’s sedentaryper mons awholeculturalhistoryoftheactsitting, drawingfromtherichstoreofritual” (15). endless actsofsitting. “Contemplative sitting” hesays, “is centraltoherart, whichinfactsum- Artist isPresent drawsonNightseaCrossingandotherworksoftheartistthatfeatureseemingly the Eastorindigenouspremoderntocontemporary West. HeclaimsthatThe side the West andoneof Abramovic;’s majorcontributionsasanartistis, inhisview, bringing to theancients. InBiesenbach’sprimitivistimaginary, “ritual” tendstohappenmostoftenout- appear toincludevariousmythical, religious, andmysticaltraditionsritualsstretchingback by Abramovic; hasfoundaplacetothinkandworkdifferently” (2010:12). While whathemeans premodern. Hearguesthat “outside theframeworkofnaturalscienceand Western logic, ­ outside “Western logic” isneverfullyunpacked, basedontheexamplesheoffersitwould Accounts ofperformanceartoften attesttoitsspecialinterestinthepracticesofeveryday Without completelydiscountingtheclaimsofso-callednon-Western inspirationforthe This insistenceonthesedentaryperformanceworksasfounded “non-Western” log- — because theirDreamtimeandsonglinesarenotsomethingthat’shappeninginthepast — from thedomesticsituationsofChekhovthatstagefiguresinprotracted,

— framed asritualisticpracticesofrenuncia- — the ideaofhereand - - - Reproducing the White Bourgeois 91 at MoMA, New York, York, New MoMA, at Present ArtistThe is “everyday life” practices as connective material for practices “everyday life” Figure 4. “Marina Abramović Made Me Cry”—Portraits of tearfulof facing sitters Cry”—Portraits Me Made Abramović “Marina 4. Figure performancethe during in Abramović 2010) © Anelli Marco by (Photo 2010. that —

To be sure, the guest/host motif as it played out in the sitting rooms of bourgeois real- be sure, To mightReligious experience and the Catholic practice of visiting Lourdes for healing purposes of “everyday life” through din- “everyday life” of and the representation he moves to visual art Artist is Present The of ner table scenes in paintings as the the Last Supper as well objects of the domestic ordinary, “loaded use of This still life (17). at least way, is in no the table” with “loaded” for Biesenbach, of staging the theatre’s history of two people sitting opposite each other at a table as a primary motif in bourgeois domestic It is inconceivable to him drama. that even though there exists a performance tradition that has persistently committed to using ordinary household objects in order to stage scenes of every- day domestic life — including the motif of the arrival of the guest in the sitting room Abramovic;’s performance work might bear any connection to bourgeois drama. the sedentary scenes at MoMA in relation to ist drama is not the only way to think about around Much of the media activity drama. the reproduction of domestic scenes of bourgeois of the public crying while sit focused on the phenomenon of members- Artist is Present The shows close- called “Marina Abramovic; Made Me Cry” A Tumblr ting opposite Abramovic;. the sedentary performer (Anelli 2010). up images of the faces of tearful people encountering display with miraculous scenes of Abramovic; has associated these intimate scenes of emotional it’s “Oh, in 2010 she is quoted as saying: In an interview in the Guardian religious epiphany. I give people a space to simply sit in silence and plain to me that this is something incredible. but they take this reli- I did almost nothing, communicate with me deeply but non-verbally. (in was like Lourdes” but for a while MoMA Art had lost that power, gious experience from it. O’Hagen 2010). along- be one way to think about the scene at MoMA but we might also consider these images domestic side the motif of the intimate scene of tears that has been recycled through bourgeois 18th-­ one of the ways in which McCall, Tom According to drama since the Enlightenment. “aesthetics was by way of an “high classical” century bourgeois tragedy defined itself against the (and culture) by “crying clears a path for bourgeois drama For McCall, (1999:594). of crying” The former politicizing the difference between the high classical and the bourgeois domestic.” and the latter was epitomized uncrying royal character,” unfeeling, “cold, was exemplified by a art practice and pedagogy since the 1970s, and its predecessors in the late 1950s and early ’60s. ’60s. late 1950s and early predecessors in the and its the 1970s, and pedagogy since art practice instructions reality or the task-based with everyday of Happenings’ grappling might think We mealtimes and rituals he cites domestic on this genealogy when Biesenbach draws of Fluxus. he example, For performances. ;’s sedentary Abramovic to as possible connections of hospitality he This receive a gift. guest sit in order to of having a Indo-European tradition mentions the for some exchange plain table hoping “approaching the artist’s public at MoMA likens to the He relates the set- (2010:15). “is to sit” he tells us, The first step” ‘gift.’ some to take place, When from daily familial life.” of mealtimes and interactions “the routine conventions up to outside these real Biesenbach does venture Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

92 Eleanor Skimin 2010. (Photo by Marco Anelli © 2010) Abramović in during the performance Figure 5. Sitting together again. Frank Uwe Laysiepen (Ulay) and Marina manifesting astheliquidevidenceofauthenticfeelingbetweenrealpeople. theatre traditionasthebodilyconfigurationforstagedtransferofrealemotion, withtears Great Wallof ChinainThe Walk when theyconcludedtheirlongwalktowardseachotherfromoppositeendsoftheGreat Wall tionship, aswellphotographicdocumentationofthemomenttheirseparationacouple together tion oftheproject: sedentary face-to-faceencounter. Hereisthecallforparticipants2012Slovenianitera- American scientiststhatattemptedtomakevisibletheworkings ofthehumanbrainduringa Measuring theMagic ofMutualGazewasacollaborationbetween Abramovic; andRussian provide evidenceoftheinnerworkingstête-à-tête, exchange, theninMeasuringtheMagic ofMutualGazeitwasneurosciencethatmarshaledto of thepublicwhosatopposite Abramovic; atMoMAwereclaimedasevidenceofrealemotional iety aboutthepossibilityofauthenticrelationalexchangebetween realpeople. Iftherealtears the whitebourgeoisrealisttheatreoflate-19thcentury, itcarriedwithanattendantanx- Magic ofMutualGaze(2011), bodily authenticityoftheintimateexchange, comestotheforein Abramovic;’s This needforevidenceofauthenticrelationalexchangeinthetête-à-tête, thedrivetoverify Evidence ofRelationalExchange The Sedentary Tête-à-tête as Your datawillbe analyzedbyneuroscientists [...]. (Kibla2012) (b) whenthebrainwavesofyou andyourpartnersynchronize (a) yourindividualbrainactivity/mental state During theexperiment, the audiencecansee: brains onthesamewavelength witheachother? for 30minuteswhileyourbrainwavesarerecordedandvisualized inrealtime. Are your brains oftwopeoplesynchronizethrougheye-contact. You will sitwithanotherperson Magic ofMutualGazeisanexperimentthatyoucanparticipate in. Itinvestigateswhen — the actualvaninwhichtheylivedandperformedearlyyearsoftheirrela- The Artist is The Artist Present which wasakindoffollow-uppiecetoThe Artist isPresent . Like (1988). Herethesedentarytête-à-têtereemergesfromitslong

at MoMA, New York. the truthofitsmeetingminds. dence oftheirdomesticlife tion, whichincluded “real” evi- as partofthebroaderinstalla- tion waspresentedwithinand from Abramovic;.interac- This applauded whenUlaysatacross tators intheatriumatMoMA scenes andmanyofthespec- decades-long seriesofsedentary marked theculminationoftheir in 1988). The reunionscene Ulay (thetwohadseparated between Abramovic;and was moments oftearfulexchange bourgeois drama” (595). historical groundsofthemodern according toMcCall, “waters the of tears, thebodilyfluidthat, ing throughthelettingdown by theearnestdisplayoffeel- One ofthemostdiscussed Measuring the Reproducing the White Bourgeois 93 its motifs, tropes, devices, and devices, tropes, its motifs, — (2011). Marina Marina (2011). Gaze Mutual of Magic the Measuring its empty busyness, its incessant drive to move, move, its incessant drive to its empty busyness, — fake, decidedly undecided. Perhaps as useful as explaining decidedly undecided. fake, a thorough dismantling of Abramovic;’s claims to presence a thorough dismantling of Figure 6. Marina Abramović face to face with a sitter and a screen depicting their their depicting screen a and sitter a with face to face Abramović Marina 6. Figure in interactivity brain Abramović, Suzanne Dikker, Matthias Oostrik, and participants of the Watermill Watermill participantsand the Oostrik, of Matthias Dikker, Suzanne Abramović, Lubimov; Maxim by (Photo Workshop. Consciousness into Insights Science: & Art 2011) Abramović, Marina © Art. Contemporary of Museum courtesyGarage of —

in which she describes her own experience of sitting opposite in which she describes her own experience — at MoMA, a situation in which spectators had purchased a ticket to see two at MoMA, to the study of performance art offers an alternate way of seeing Abramovic;’s alternate way of seeing to the study of performance art offers an s Other Body — not an emotionally or energetically charged interpersonal relation, but a simula- interpersonal relation, not an emotionally or energetically charged the spectacle of two

— — and, look, now I have the look, and,

— There is a moment in Amelia There is a moment in Modernity’ - Abramovic; asserts that the sedentary stillness of her performance was a response to and in resis West tance to the unhealthy pace of life in the the compulsion to race forward to the future, the lack of spiritual awareness about being in the the compulsion to race forward to the future, She attempts to offer stillness as and the obstacles to true human connection. here and now, a still scene at MoMA designed to function as a creating an antidote to the flux of modern life, dance In a related turn, haven from the bustling crowds both inside and outside the museum. people just sitting there, present, present, people just sitting there, facing each other and connect- ing Jones’s essay “‘The Artist is Present’: Artistic Re-enactments and the Impossibility of Presence” in her MoMA performance “I primarily felt myself the object of myriad individual and photographic Abramovic; at MoMA: in a and the experience overall was very strongly one of participating gazes (including hers), spectacle “For me this felt She goes on: (2011:18; emphasis added). with others” exchange tion of relational ‘true’ emo- of authentic expression and reception of like an inadvertent parody of the structure (brought to its apotheosis in institutions such as tional resonance that modernist art discourse Bringing theatre history, (18). and sculpture” MoMA) so long claimed for modernist painting realist theatre and specifically the history of white bourgeois conventions What it shows is that the reproduction of the artists. work and the work of other performance seated encounter dispa- is connected to another seemingly exchange, people sitting face-to-face in a relational As a bodily trope it is neither essentially real tradition. performance and deeply ambivalent, rate, as “simulation of relational exchange” not merely a as Abramovic; and Biesenbach would have it, but both real and Jones has suggested, is considering as Jones amply does, presence,” “the live act itself both claims and destroys why that are perceived and particular bodies, the historical conditions that produce particular scenes, what we see is the In the case of bourgeois theatre, in modernity. “present” as authentically to the essential humanity of an inner life. stillness, in all its claim of bourgeois whiteness, Through the promise of data Through the - the display of brain analysis and ; Abramovic live chart, waves on a to attempt to verify used science about real relational her claims two people in exchange between In a turn a sedentary encounter. reminiscent of the late-19th- century theatrical naturalists Victor such as Emile Zola and to scientific who looked Hugo, of their discourse for verification Abramovic; view of human life, you What seems to be imploring: really Artist is Present saw in The was real science to prove it. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021 94 porcelain, glass, framed works on paper, and props printed fabriccovered wood,castiron, brass, marble,mirror, boundprintedbooks, Philanthropist’s Parlour 1996–1997 by Yinka Shonibare MBE. Dutch wax Figure 7. Wallpaper detail featuring football (soccer) players in Eleanor Skimin Phoebe d’Heurle; of James courtesy Cohan, New York. © Yinka Shonibare MBE) stillness inmodernitywithitsownattendanthegemonicfantasies. bourgeois domesticity. The stillbodiesofbourgeois realisttheatreshowapoliticalontologyof “nothing toseehere.” disavowal ofthattheatricality, itsmakingaspectacleofitselfwhilealsoclaimingthatthere is still, white, bourgeois bodyinmodernityisitsinherenttheatricalitycoupledwith therepeated for theproductionandreproduction ofthestillsceneintimateexchange. The paradoxofthe the still, thatcreatesthe scene ofstillness. Hiddenlaboranditsconcealmentis thecondition ects isafailuretoacknowledgethe(re)productivelaborthatkeeps thestillinplace, thatholds nity’s body. Understandingstillnessasabstracted from thecapitalrelationandimperialproj- The still, sedentaryfiguresofwhitebourgeoisdomesticity offerupanotherstoryofmoder 8.5 × 16 × 17.4 The Victorian feet. (Photo by still, sedentarywhitefiguresof for itshowsanother “real” inthe context ofperformancehistory, kinetic subject, especiallyinthe about themotilityofmodern complicates Lepecki’sclaims study oftheatreinmodernity kinetic being” (14). However, the ‘most real’realityinplace:its in ordertokeepmodernity’s and subjectivitiesthatareneeded plundering ofresources, bodies to theviolenceof “the colonial innocence,” seeminglyunrelated nity asmovementhappensin is thatthespectacleofmoder of themodernkineticsubject Lepecki arguesthat “the fantasy ment isbeingexhausted” (1). where dance’srelationtomove- strategies rary “choreographic therefore toexplorecontempo- project ofExhaustingDanceis for motility. The overarching capital andmodernity’sdemand dance asresistingtheflowof Lepecki regardsstillnessin becomes itsmodernity” (2006:3). spectacular displayofmovement ity [;...]dance’sdrivetowardsa with an “ideal ofongoingmotil- has been “increasingly aligned” since theRenaissance, dance stantly inmotion. ForLepecki, demand thatitssubjectsbecon- ty’s what hedescribesasmoderni- takes upstillnessinrelationto and thePolitics ofMovement, Exhausting Dance:Performance scholar André Lepecki’sbook, kinetic project:modernity’s - - Reproducing the White Bourgeois 95 - The New imported/ — is presented as a product of 19th-century is presented as a product of 19th-century —

York: Adelson Galleries. York: abramovicmademecry.tumblr.com/. York: New ;: The Artist 12–21. In Marina Abramovic is edited by Mary Christian, , Present Be Present.” Will Art. The Museum of Modern www.brooklynrail.org/2011/12/art/unhappy 2017. Accessed 19 September 10 December. Brooklyn Rail, -days-in-the-art-worldde-skilling-theater-re-skilling-performance. Michigan Press. Duke University Press. I want to conclude with one final Victorian sitting room, an installation by the artist Yinka by the artist an installation Victorian sitting room, with one final I want to conclude (1996). Abramovic ;’s (1996). Like entitled The Victorian ’s Parlour Philanthropist MBE, Shonibare , Shonibare’s work brings white, bourgeois theatre history directly into the history directly bourgeois theatre work brings white, Shonibare’s , Artist is Present a group show entitled piece premiered at The and museum. contemporary gallery space of the December 1996 from Trust Printworks that ran at the London to a Flag?” Allegiance “Pledge “fourth the ceiling and detailed parlor with constructed a There Shonibare 1997. to January and the flimsiness from entering, open side was roped off to deter visitors Its removed. wall” parlor is a realist the- Shonibare’s “outside.” was visible on its of its two-by-four construction the osten- sitting-room drama minus Victorian a a play without characters, atre without actors, headless mannequins that have Even the drama: white bourgeois figures. sible subjects of that There is no tête- absent. of Shonibare’s work are conspicuously become one of the hallmarks Any anxiety exchange. or even fake interpersonal of authentic interiority, no sign à-tête here, has evaporated from this drama. of the sedentary face-to-face meeting over the true substance set offers a drama without Shonibare’s three-sided realist theatre, In the tradition of bourgeois chat has disappeared and what remains the intimate little real and fake, fake, Real or the drama. upholstered chaise longue the furniture (including the machinery, is just the set: the apparatus, On the brightly the scene. inward for intimate conversation) that support and armchair turned that depicts black foot- and Dutch wax fabric is a repeating pattern curtains, colored wallpaper, The image of the black footballer ball players in kicking and running positions. traded between international teams exported, surfaces that repeated across the structures and motion, These figures in British imperialism. the intimate make explicit the absent labor that reproduces literally uphold the domestic scene, Victorian that the parlor of a philanthropist, after all, This is, sedentary exchanges on the set. assert his who exploits the labor of others only to paragon of human virtue: a lover of man, Bourgeois whiteness’s self- with magnanimity. “gives back” status in society as someone who and nondramatic is one of the means by which it nontheatrical, conceptualization as natural, The apparent unre- “there.” just innocuous, benign, as real, has rendered itself invisible to itself, figure has concealed its reproduction as moder markableness of the white bourgeois sedentary nity’s ultimate power pose. References ’s Women. Sargent 2003. and Richard Ormond. Elaine Kilmurry, Deborah Davis, Warren, Adelson, NC: Duke University Press. Durham, Others. Objects, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, 2006. Sara. Ahmed, http://marina Accessed 19 September 2017. Abramovic; Made Me Cry.” “Marina 2010. Marco. Anelli, Personal conversation with author. 2016. Robin. Bernstein, The Artist Present. Abramovic;: The Artist “Marina The Artist Was Is 2010. Klaus. Biesenbach, Present. The Re-skilling Performance.” Theater, De-skilling World? Art “Unhappy Days in the 2011. Claire. Bishop, London: Routledge. A Critical Introduction. Performance: 1996. Marvin. Carlson, Ann Arbor: as MemoryTheatre Machine. University The of The Haunted Stage: 2001. Marvin. Carlson, NC: Durham, Freedom. and Sexual of Racial Performances Philosophical Wandering: 2014. Sarah Jane. Cervenak, Scribner’s Sons. C. York: New Sargent. John 1927. Evan Edward. Charteris, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00720 by guest on 28September 2021

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