Old Themes, New Variations: the Work of Kate Gilmore

$ /4B3@7;/53!'!43/BC@3 h dmnto o croae TV.” corporate of from domination video the freeing in base, every touched groundwork, laid the he all that suggest Paik of myths “The hero: the as Paik June within the art establishment. art the within reception their and women of relationship complex the cultural critiques and revitalizes Gilmore established Kate legacy, this to continuing In norms. counter-narrative complex a offered videos their appearance, amateurish Joan seemingly a under Hidden include some, to herself. Rosler and Wilke, Hannah familiar Schneemann, Carolee Jonas, be may medium. who renegade women, once These this of development the Paik—in to artists—contemporaries feminist of role the is history art’s of video narrative the from missing is What Kaprow. Allan and Paik and Pollock, Jackson founders ofgenres that include performative to Picasso Pablo from luminaries with century, twentieth the of avant-garde male-dominated the of accomplishments celebrate be a major, not a minor art.” minor amajor, nota be to wants . . . Video art. of forms other the of that from, separate a be to not is history “Video’s bankrupt: it declaring effectively by sculpture and painting of dominance the counter and discourse historical art rewrite to art video used artists feminist that explains Rosler margins. the at originates practice in acclaimed art critically of a history which the in events rare those of one the was in 1960s place late took What home. or studio their of privacy the in often performed narrative, personal a highly through subjectivity female of complexities the explore to artists feminist for freedom certain a guaranteed and critics and ofacademics rhetoric visual the by untouched was it video, forcritiquing precedent historical genius artistic no was there of Since agenda. for feminist the medium ideal an and vision alternative an communicating in effective tool highly a was Video experience. Q\[ or IVL training formal no \MKPVWTWOa required it since ^QLMW it, use could MUJZIKM anyone that principle \W democratic ÅZ[\ artists female \PM 1967, IUWVO in _MZM Protapak the introduced Sony When M 9/B357:;=@3 =:2B63;3A<3ED/@7/B7=Museums and art scholars scholars art and Museums  ´:cQg:W^^O`R the struggle the involved. struggle The videos are captured in real time without Part of what Gilmore’s makes so ordeals is ofabsorbing the reality for PMZ[MTNLM[XQ\MJMQVOLQNÅK]T\IZMUIVIOMIJTM sets she goals the and short-lived, are videos her for creates aohsi i te bget misconception.” “biggest the is masochistic _MTTÅ\\MLLZM[[_Q\PUI\KPQVO[PWM[\PI\ITT\WWY]QKSTaJMKWUM performances are not concerned with “the epic feat of public public of feat epic endurance.” “the with concerned not are performances the in out Yet, points Kennedy stamina. of Randy as test marathon a in her state from meditative across quiet sit a to in visitors invited and show the of run the Abramovi York. New in 2010 her in Present” is highlighted Artist “The Abramovi were that Marina performances and masochistic work qualities Gilmore’s endurance of the between parallels drawn have Critics world. art ofamale-dominated institutions the on assault favor of direct or Judy Chicago—in O’Keeffe Georgia forms—think vulva of denies the reclaiming passivity destruction this of quality uncompromising The exhausted, smirks. and turns, camera the she to black to fades video the As heels. her as color yellow in bright a the same room ending painted eventually in drywall, of layers exercises six through tear to gloves matching with dress meets comedy In endurance. physical where performances strenuous her of typical is This her. with collides camera the as “ugh” and “ohh” hear just video, the in face her see not do We her abdomen. the in hits continually that device a pendulum-like Hurts It Much So In struggles. her of splatters paint and dirt, dust, the with soiled AbO\RW\U6S`S 4 BV`]cUVbVS1ZOe / OQW\U^OUS P]dS 4 Rather, as the artist herself insists, labeling her as as her labeling insists, herself artist the as Rather,   Pg9ObS5WZ[]`S  Between a Hard Place a Hard Place Between (2006) Gilmore has a video camera attached to to attached camera video a has Gilmore (2006)   Pg9ObS5WZ[]`S 

exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Art of Modern at Museum the exhibition Ƀ sat in the atrium of the museum for museum the of atrium the in sat (2008), Gilmore wears a black a black wears Gilmore (2008), New York Times York New 5 The exercises she she exercises The Ƀ ’s now famous famous now ’s , Gilmore’s Gilmore’s , /4B3@7;/53!'!43/BC@3 % 8 Nor would they “go into 9 Six television screens cycle videos of . technique,images with which Schneemann would have been all too familiar. Schneemann’s relation to Pollock is at best complex, as seen in her video “Up installationAndTo Including Her Limits” (1973– 76) the artist, clothed and unclothed, marking a white wall enclosure, suspended sometimes from a while tree surgeon’s harness. drunken cowboy who rebelled against the European standard to )UMZQKIV establish IZ\ a NWZU \aXQÅML trulysplatter Ja paintings. PQ[ TIZOM The artRosenberg critic described Harold Pollock’sas an arena canvases in which to prevailedact. in This Hans image Namuth’s photographsIVL ÅTU WN 8WTTWKS¼[ XZQUQ\Q^M XIQV\QVO IZ\UIZSM\[IVK\QÅML2IKS[WV8WTTWKSI[\PM When Schneemann began her career in the mid-’60s, 10 the ‘art world,’ gracing or of disgracing artists, a pervading historians, stud teachers,editors, club gallery museum dealers—all directors, male, or magazinecommittedpreserves. to Allmasculine that is marvelously, alreadyfeet.” falling around our with organic textures. Gilmore’s performance is a similar attack high-moderniston taste. Around the time Judd and Smith famewere at inthe height 1975, of their Schneemann the idealistically year 2000 women predicted artists would no that determined longer meet by “the resistance and endured constant as undermining” a young art that student. she luxury items artists pitch to the elite as fashionable expensiveofferings of advancedgifts. capitalism These amount to nothing more—both aesthetically and conceptually—than shit that has become a rationalized form of institutionalcultural critique.intervention Shit that allows is viewers a to see anda it “looms withhigher a delusionaltruth, bigness emblematic of America’s delusiongrandeur of and physical bigness.” creatingingenius their mark Serrano,Unlikewho McCarthyand performancedestructionshit,Gilmore’sthisshit.theWith in is of resemblingas clay of blockthe geometry the of read can mind, we the minimalist sculptures of Donald Judd andSmith, Tony who relied on industrial materials—namely metal—to createIVL cubic ZMK\IVO]TIZ NWZU[

, 7 Ƀ took place in July canwhatthe but femaledo, she Throughthe Claw )N\MZITT\PMKTIa_I[Æ]VO\PMMV\QZM[XIKM_I[U]LLTML 6 McCarthy, and Andreswhat art critic Donald Kuspit describes as “fashionable shit.” Serrano have long foregrounded a “gift.” In more economic terms, artists like Piero Manzoni, Paul be seen in Freudian terms as a reversion back to the anal stage, youngchildrenwhen gain controltheir of anal sphincter andare thus able to give or withhold excrement, which is understood as withbrownsmears, whichtheartist agreed resembledthe results of defecation. The celebratory act of tossing one’s waste could Kuspit argues that in the current market, works of art are She admits to being too conscious of viewer perceptions and her performancesarewhatabout not the habits of minor celebrities. Gilmore screams “Look canwhat do!”—theI same attitude that has made careers for singers,dancers, and comedians create who videos virtual for audiences. But ask Gilmore to perform live and her answer would be “No.” prompted by sites like Facebook and In YouTube. this livesage, whole canuploadedbeand distributed virtualwith theclick of a mouse, and even reality television is dominated by monitoring the use of stunt doubles or digital editing. Her actions before the camera are not such a strange activity when considered within the larger social move toward accessibility and self-promotion way.” the block and hurled large clumps of clay at the gallery’s white walls, leaving brown imprints. well work somethinggallerywouldthat do standard: towanted Gilmore “I subverts the austere there,that againstwouldgo thespace inanandinterestinguse it I[Å^M_WUMV_WZSMLNWZVMIZTa\PZMMPW]Z[\MIZQVOI_IaI\Icladbrightwerein yellow women The clay. poundblockof 7,500 patterneddresses with heels. Using their bare hands, they at tore Gilmore’srecent performance Gallery’sPaceopeningthe “Softof Machines”at exhibition 2011 in New York. This is possibly the artist’s messiest piece to date, who markets her performance as a personal struggle of survival embedded with social and cultural intensity. body can do. This is a marked difference from Abramovi & /4B3@7;/53!'!43/BC@3 the burden of an audience to applaud or entertain. This is is This entertain. or Gilmore’s applaud in to highlighted audience an of burden the subverts theatricality against out acting This a of performance. live experience the mediate to meant is video using in interest whose Gilmore’s, with common in much have concerns These do and with: away theatricality of element any eliminate to intention her described Schneemann performance, the about writings her In and faster more hesitant. are are hers where decisive more his inspection closer on yet appear Pollock’s, to gestures similar and markings Schneemann’s surface, the non-durable.” On and durable invisible, and visible producing them—both actions to referential “marks are records movements These her of child. a yellows—that of drawings and scribble crayon blues, a the mirror in colors—reds, resulting bright shut, and of open cacophony both eyes her with draws She ambition? Or might she be satirizing old-school feminists’ grim grim feminists’ old-school satirizing be she might Or ambition? and power masculine with affair love history’s art mocking she “Is performance?: this is end what to asks QV Johnson Ken critic art _WUMV WN IJ[MVKM \PM styles. art WV canonical revered these to ZMÆMK\ contributing \W ^QM_MZ[ I[S[ IT[W [PM technique— Minimalist or Expressionist Abstract parody than ÆWWZ4QSM;KPVMMUIVVQV\PQ[XMZNWZUIVKM/QTUWZMLWM[UWZM the onto shelf the off drips and wall the on splatters paint down, set is cube each As paint. of layer thin a in covered shelf a atop cubes plaster white heavy place to struggles Gilmore video, the In transpired. what of record a as video the with along place in were left and the remnants off-hours, during in a museum gallery ¹:MÆMK\QWV[WV\PM-TMK\ZQK5QZZWZº

Jan Avgikos as quoted in Amy Newman, “An Innovator Who Was the Eros of Her Own Art,” the Time the Art,” Own Her of Eros the Was Who “An Innovator Newman, Amy in quoted as Avgikos Jan the 1979), 227. & Company, McPherson York: asp. Shit,” of the Clay,” of com/2011/07/kate-gilmore-blankets-pace-gallery-with-7200-pounds-of-clay. Pounds 7,500 with Gallery Pace technologies. However, with the acceptance of such practices practices such ^QLMW of IVL acceptance ÅTU the WN with ][M However, \PM technologies. \PZW]OP UMLQI UI[[ able being VM]\ZITQbM in power \W mythic a artists gave McLuhan Marshall a“man’s world.” as referenced often so are \PI\ [\Z]K\]ZM[ \PM WN ZM^MIT[ OW^MZV_WUMV_Q\PQVJ][QVM[[IVLÅVIVKQITQV[\Q\]\QWV[_PQKP VI\]ZM /QTUWZM ZMXM\Q\QW][ \I[S[ \PM WNÅKM ZMÆMK\ML UMIVQVOTM[[ VW_PMZM _MV\ \PI\ [\Z]\ endless women’s the and platform yellow simple the in echoed was banality This clothing. stiff and cubicles of maze endless an XIZWLQML\PMJIVITQ\aWN\PMUWLMZVWNÅKM[XIKMLWUQVI\MLJa people the below of who photos snapped pacing and continuous Their gawked. unaware seemingly ahead, straight platform. looked yellow They eight-foot-tall an atop forth and back walked dresses yellow bright in women seven 6:30pm, to 8:30am from day, Each York. New of heart the in Park Bryant in days seven white the to 2010, May In relegated gallery. the of walls only not are performances Gilmore’s the-eros-of-her-own-art.html. 147. 2003), Press, MIT www.nyfa.org/nyfa_current_detail.as Current, NYFA XZQV\%\Z]M Arts, X'QL% ÅL%K]ZQL% the for Foundation York New Gilmore,” Kate Times 124. 1976), NOTES 6/@@G8E37: ÅZ[\KMV\]Za twenty- the in women on conversation the beginning for place potential a body; female the of taboo the and sacred, the erotic, the reassessing and commentary cultural and social for site a as body female the in reinvesting in legacy this revitalizes Gilmore and desire.” mute masculine of mirror was a as exclusively art almost functioned in body female the Schneemann, to “prior wrote, Avgikos Jan 1997 In gender. and sexuality performing in role its and body female the toward conversation the celebrity steering by a as herself molding from away strays an She is exception. Gilmore effect. political with than value production concerned more with be to began artists establishment, art the into

44. 44. Art to Video Guide Essential the ambiguity of the performance is “a big part of its charm.” its of part big “a is performance the of ambiguity suggests, the he As endeavors?” all in men equal to determination New York Times York New 0Z]]RT`][OAb]\S / 8 3 . Ibid., 42. 42. Ibid., . P]dS . s

, February 3, 2002, www.nytimes.com/2002/02/03/arts/art-architecture-an-innovator-who-was- 2002, 3, February , , 7,May 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/arts/design/08gilmore.html. Ibid. Ibid. 1 rnt Magazine artnet .

Lucy Lippard, Lippard, Lucy 9 2 . .

Carolee Schneemann, Schneemann, Carolee Martha Rosler, “Video: Shedding the Utopian Movement” in in Movement” Utopian the Shedding “Video: Rosler, Martha 4 .

Randy Kennedy, “Pounding the Pavement on a Bryant Park Pedestal,” the the Pedestal,” Park Bryant a on Pavement the “Pounding Kennedy, Randy , April 30, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/arts/design/01mirr.html. www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/arts/design/01mirr.html. 2009, 30, April ,  is a PhDcandidateinthedepartment ofartatStonyBrookUniversity. 10 From Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art Women’s on Essays Feminist Center: From .

My 09, www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/kuspit/kuspit9-11-08. 2009), (May Ibid. Ibid.  'Pg9ObS5WZ[]`S  , eds. Doug Hall and Sally Jo Sally and Hall Doug , eds. 11 Imaging Her Erotics: Essays Interviews, Projects Interviews, Essays Erotics: Her Imaging .

Ibid., 158. 158. Ibid., 6 13 . .

ae imr in Gilmore Kate Ken Johnson, “SheTube: Female Voices on the Small Screen,” Screen,” Small on the Voices Female “SheTube: Johnson, Ken e Yr Observer York New 12 .

Carolee Schneemann, Schneemann, Carolee Walk the Walk the Walk

Fifer (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2005), 2005), Foundation, Aperture York: (New Fifer

Andrew Russeth, “Kate Gilmore Blankets Blankets Gilmore “Kate Russeth, Andrew Jl 1, 01 www.observer. 2011, 14, July , More Than Meat Joy Meat Than More 7 . Donald Kuspit, “Triumph “Triumph Kuspit, Donald . Illuminating Video: An An Video: Illuminating took place over over place took (New York: E.P. Dutto, Dutto, E.P. York: (New 5 . “The Artist’s Life: Life: Artist’s . “The (Cambridge: (Cambridge: New York New New York New (New (New 14 13 14 .