A Master's Exhibition of Sculpture Presented to The

Home , Vito Acconci

TRANSPORTRAIT

______

A Master’s Exhibition

of Sculpture

Presented

to the Faculty of

California State University, Chico

______

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree

Master of Fine Arts

Art

______

Trevor Earl Lalaguna

Spring 2011 TRANSPORTRAIT

A Master’s Exhibition

Trevor Earl Lalaguna

Spring 2011

APPROVED BY THE DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND VICE PROVOST FOR RESEARCH:

Katie Milo, Ed.D.

APPROVED BY THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

______Cameron G. Crawford, M.F.A. Sheri D. Simons, M.F.A., Chair Graduate Coordinator

______James A. Kuiper, M.F.A. DEDICATION

This project is inspired by and dedicated to my fiancé and my family; I would also like to extend my dedication to the twelve adopting parents who allowed my project to live on and of course my babies.

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the amazing faculty at CSU Chico for opening my eyes to the art world beyond my sketchbook. I thank my committee chair and good friend

Sheri Simons, for always pushing my thoughts and creations to the edge. My committee members Elise Archias for bringing a love for art history into my life and giving me a sense of belonging, James Kuiper for being playful, intelligent and fresh thinking,

Michael Bishop for his support in and out of school and giving me the opportunity and guidance to achieve this degree.

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Dedication...... iii

Acknowledgments ...... iv

List of Figures...... vi

Abstract...... viii

TRANSPORTRAIT

Background: Fence Post-Postmodern ...... 1 The Gallery: It’s a Setup!...... 3 The Work: Me, My devices, and a Dozen ...... 5 Influences and Inspirations: Perform, Delegate, Create ...... 10

Notes...... 14

Bibliography...... 16

Master’s Exhibition ...... 18

v LIST OF FIGURES

MASTER’S EXHIBITION

THE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

SPRING 2011

FIGURE PAGE

1. “Transportrait,” 97 digital photos and found frames; L210”x H60”; Fall 2010...... 19

2. “Treevort,” wood, plexiglass, rope, fabric and paint; L15 ½” x H 90 ¼” x W13 ½”; Fall 2010 ...... 20

3. “Treevort, Active Detail,” wood, plexiglass, rope, fabric and paint; L15 ½” x H 90 ¼” x W13 ½; Fall 2010...... 21

4. “Playgrounded,” fabricated steel, chain and enamel paint; L172”x H35”xD9”; Fall 2010 ...... 22

5. “Playgrounded, Active Detail,” fabricated steel, chain and enamel paint; L172”x H35”xD9; Fall 2010...... 23

6. “Investment,” fabric, metal and zipper; L26”x W18”x D10”; Fall 2010 ...... 24

7. “Investment, Active Detail,” fabric, metal and zipper; L26”x W18” x D10”; Fall 2010 ...... 25

8. “Care-E-All,” fabric, metal, zippers and plastic buckle; L24”x W14”x H10”; Fall 2010 ...... 26

9. “Care-E-All, Active Detail,” fabric, metal, zippers and plastic buckle; L24”x W14”x H10”; Fall 2010 ...... 27

10. “12 Hangers,” wood and fabric; L176”xH 20”x D9; Fall 2010...... 28

vi FIGURE PAGE

11. “Adoption Station,” wood and paint; L48”x H30 ¼”x W22”; Fall 2010 ...... 29

12. “The Finally,” reception detail; 97 digital photos, found frames, wood, and fabric; dimensions variable; Fall 2010 ...... 30

vii ABSTRACT

TRANSPORTRAIT

Trevor Earl Lalaguna

Master of Fine Arts in Art

California State University, Chico

Spring 2011

This paper is an analysis which discusses and dissects both the physical work

and the process involved in creating my thesis exhibition; Transportrait. Culminating in an exhibit of seven sculptural works, this body of work was born out of the making and collecting that occurred within a six month performance period prior to the final exhibition. This performance period was orchestrated by me, serving as the parent and care- taker to twelve identical stuffed creatures. Leading in with an introduction to my upbringing and personal aesthetic, the reader is then taken into the set-up of the gallery to examine the methods of placement and relationship of the works as a whole. I will go into de- tailed descriptions of each sculptural work, its function and concept. I will close by discussing my artistic inspiration and understanding of myself within the contemporary world of fine art.

viii

TRANSPORTRAIT

I have developed my artistic concepts through everyday actions and occurrences. The way in which people operate on a daily basis is the backbone for my inspiration. I am captivated by the mixture of order and chaos I observe in people who choose to organize their lives, and the way life seems to throw their best intentions out of whack. Within this paper, I will examine and justify my thesis project, Transportrait. I will be discussing my upbringing, background, and motivations for practicing art. I will break down my initial intent and experience in Transportrait and its visual structure, provide an over view of the sculptural work and its conceptual support, followed by my artistic influences and personal placement in the art world.

Background: Fence Post-Postmodern

. . . my way of life doesn’t change the way of my art. The way of my art changes my life. In periods of growing and experiencing, I see obstacles; I see something that I must go through. Then immediately, I think we must build the work which is about that obstacle, and then go through it.1

I am easily distracted by the simplest of occurrences. I often find myself scattered, head in the clouds, losing track of my possessions as well as myself. This lack of order is a threat and causes frustration, panic and doubt. I have always functioned best when organized; I feel that most people do. Each individual constructs and develops systems with the aid of devices, communication and routines to tend to the tasks and challenges of the everyday. These devices include clothing, homes and vehicles.

1 2

Communication includes our response to our environment and the ones that are around us. Routines create familiarity and allow us to function with confidence and ease. We use our developed systems to move forward, but at the same time they preserve and capture our history.

I was brought up on a large cattle farm by my mother and father, in a very traditional manner, where structure created order. I was raised with strong morals and a stronger work ethic. If my father taught me anything it was this, “the deeper the post hole is dug the stronger the fence will stand”. I gained a large amount of my values through the process of a hard day’s work, and putting your head down and your ass up to get things accomplished. Though I see myself as a hard worker, all the little shifts in the beat of life tend to captivate and distract me. These distractions developed an attitude in me that led to me becoming an artist and performer.

Growing up in the country (often playing alone on a dirt pile somewhere half- naked) the landscape served as a desolate stage calling for imaginative action, and I was there to serve it. Always being a little on the shy side in public, I needed a push to expose the performer in me that I fantasized being. I loved the idea of being a performer, but my anxieties and shyness forced me to hold back. I always wanted to be seen, but not made fun of or humiliated because of my actions. Wearable sculpture provided me with a method to mask my anxieties. This form of art also allowed me to be something besides myself; a new character that could take ridicule as well as chance. Performance artist Pat

Olesko states it well when discussing her performance costumes, “By wearing these costumes and making myself up as a pedestrian sculpture, I was creating an armor that would not only bring people to me by its interesting character but also hide me.”2

My discovery of wearable sculpture allowed me the protection I needed to perform, resulting in many works and performances which have laid the groundwork for

Transportrait.

Transportrait created an opportunity for me to perform, and nurture a scheme that would draw the attention of others to the same type of distractions that so often captivated my attention. Though I would serve as the core and presenter of these distractions, my dual role was in maintaining order over the project until it reached its designed destination. I created a structured system that in turn would cause varied experiences and reactions by viewers and participants. These chance experiences were what the system was designed to provoke. I served as a carrier and parent to this project.

At times, I felt I physically disappeared and became something like the driver of a tank

(bound on a path to its destination by its controller) nothing more than one who pushed buttons from the inside: the director.

“I am almost not an “I” anymore. I put myself in the service of this scheme.” 3

Although it seems to be a powerful position, it has become more like a hiding place for the self. Though I was still maintaining my usual life process throughout the duration of

Transportrait, I was also living a parallel life through the project.

The Gallery: It’s a Setup!

The idea of Transportrait arose from thoughts of developing an object that would take on a life of its own through time, process, and experience. A simple object such as a stapler can become life like through its connection to the individual that possess it; it creates memories, it becomes connected to occurrences and develops a character

4 through time. The clearest way to examine this idea is to see it akin to an offspring; a sponge that is created to grow and expand and carry on its own existence as well as that which created it. This idea became the fuel to creating my babies, twelve identical, green stuffed animals. Why twelve? Well, one would be easy and not much of a task for me to develop, but twelve would require a massive amount of responsibility and would allow for many more individual experiences for the babies and for myself. The key I found was that in order to take on this task successfully, an order had to be established, within the work I created as well as in my personal dedication to the project.

When entering Transportrait the viewer is faced with the aftermath of a six month development period of twelve babies. Though the babies never left my side for six months they are not present in the gallery. The viewer is presented with only the tools and documentation of thirteen lives (the babies and mine) spanning six months.

I see the gallery as a display event, using its clean uniform space to arrange sculptural works developed as devices to structure and position my twelve babies. The work has the quality of display, using a limited pallet of light grey and canary yellow to pull all the work together like a brand. The works each possess their own purpose but the color scheme creates a dialog between one another that connects them visually, not only serving as a visible connection but flattening the work together as a whole, a product line, a single unit of necessary devices to manage the challenge of the babies upbringing.

This color pallet was developed from my awareness of the usually overlooked color scheme of roads. Calling on a system right underneath our noses: the grey asphalt gives us an area of smooth and structured travel where the yellow markings direct our

5 position to keep us in line and aware of order. The baby devices structure the space, reassuring the viewer that everything is organized, in its place.

The Work: Me, My devices, and a Dozen

There are many tools created to order and structure ones’ life, so many in fact that there are tools created just to structure and order those tools; closets for our clothes, garages for our cars, endless systems of organization. All the sculptural work of

Transportrait relates to ideas of order and organization in response to the babies. I would like to discuss their organizing function as well as expand on each pieces conceptual support.

Transportrait also known as the family portrait wall consists of 97 framed photos documenting the experiences captured throughout the duration of the project. I see these photos in two groups; actual events and staged events. The blurring of the two is done by grouping them as a whole. They play together, mixing fantasy with reality to develop a story that will develop through each viewer’s analysis.

I have always found pleasure in examining family portrait walls in people’s homes, especially ones where I do not have much of a personal relationship with the family presented. These photos are placed in a collection to display a family’s memories, as well as set up a visual diary of events and situations that have evolved in a family’s life. When being outside of a family, it is up to the viewer to decipher the story based on the information presented. It is a constructed organism that displays that which a family wants a viewer to witness from their lives.

The frames for Transportrait were collected over the duration of six months at second hand stores. Many of the frames upon discovery actually housed displaced family photos and mementoes. Like finding a piece of an unknown puzzle, each artifact made me wonder about the history of the people left in the frames. Laying all the frames out together created a game of chance, each photo playing off the next in creating a story, like frames in a comic book. Transportrait serves as a puzzle to engage viewers to create a belief system for the life of my babies, a wall of validation and substance.

Treevort is in response to the idea of “home.” The play on words is a combination of my name, Trevor and tree fort. The tree fort is the child’s interpretation of home, a structure for security and empowerment. There is a satisfaction with building a tree fort just as there is with building a house, a laborious joining of parts to create a whole, whose purpose is to offer an environment of safety and security. I wanted to give that space to my babies, create a place of salvation for them, protected from the world outside. Within the interior of Treevort lies an orderly system of hammocks that allows each baby room to lie down, have access to their own window and view the world outside their home. Treevort is a wearable work only to be understood when examining the

Transportrait wall. Its structure was built with two objectives in mind, one to house all the babies comfortably and the other to be able to physically hold it on my shoulders with all the babies inside. As head of a household, one does not want to give off the idea that it is a difficult task to support a home. Wanting a place that was worry free and in order,

Treevort physically tested this notion. Worn on my shoulders and over my head, it was performed prior to the show for a small audience. They witnessed not only my physical support of the massive structure, but a set organized method of embracing it, placing

7 myself as its foundation and holding it erect all while keeping the babies safe and oblivious to my struggle.

Investment was developed in response to commercially produced baby carriers. Most wearable baby carriers offer the wearer the freedom to access normal routine functions that may be hindered by a stroller or other systems of transporting ones young. This device allowed me to function, freeing up the majority of my body other than my core to operate normally. Not only did it space the babies equally along my torso but it was the first opportunity for them to be seen as individuals in public. Structure and ease of normal operations were the key elements in its design but even with these requirements satisfied, it created nothing more than a visual and physical disturbance when worn in a typical environment, such as a city sidewalk, grocery store, or parking lot. I was able to perform tasks similar to those on an average day with this device, although I was constantly being judged as some type of clown or vendor on the streets, not a proud, responsible parent.

Care-E-All looks very similar to a sporty duffle bag, except that it was specifically designed to house twelve stuffed animals and follow the size limitations for an international airplane carry-on bag. It was developed out of fear for the babies’ safety.

An airport being the extreme of structure and order, I needed to acquiesce to these restrictions in order to get my babies on a plane while avoiding putting anyone in a place of threat or danger. The bag carried the babies: six on each side very similar to an egg carton. Using a mesh material, they were still visible, and also given access to air, much like you would see in a pet carrier. This device allowed me to be discrete with my babies in order to get them to our destination, New York City.

Playgrounded offered a chance to play, not out of necessity but as a consideration to my babies’ wellbeing. (Playing is a healthy outlet but can get out of control quickly). It consists of twelve swings, designed after infant swings I have studied in the park. They secure the child, looking almost like plastic underwear; they harness the individual in place but allow the motion of swinging to bring pleasure and enjoyment.

Playgrounded took a similar role to Treevort in the position of my body. In Treevort I served as the foundation in Playgrounded I served as the pole, the support. For the piece to operate I had to support it and to move my body to create the swinging effect. This took concentration as well as patience, for if I did not keep a rhythm in my pace the swings would move out of control. Once I had control of my body and the swinging motion, it became very meditative. I felt like I almost disappeared and the babies became real; swinging in harmony. The minute my rhythm was off chaos broke loose, swings banging against each other, chains getting tangled and I realized that I was just some idiot with a twelve foot long swinging contraption on my shoulders. Playgrounded was a challenging task that definitely had its ups and downs, physically and mentally.

The works mentioned above were created in direct response to my time raising the babies. The two works discussed below were created to promote the separation of the babies from myself through adoption. The projects’ purpose was for me to carry them only for so long. Thus, after six months of nurturing them, they were destined to be adopted by others. This adoption period would be held in the gallery for the duration of the show. Applicants would go through an extensive application process to determine who had the right pedigree to take over such a task, and they would be rewarded a baby at the reception of Transportrait.

For the duration of the show, I sat in at an Adoption Center. Not only did it allow me the opportunity to overlook the visitors and the work, but I secretly was able to become a piece in the show myself. My station consisted of a desk and chair, crafted by myself and painted to match the grey of the sculptures, having nothing more on the desk than a drop off box for applications and a pen holder, I set up a very clean and functional office, designed for one thing: provoking visitors to sit down to discuss the contents of an application packet, to hand out and receiving these packets. This office also allowed me the opportunity to inject my Transportrait logo, which was painted on the front of the desk, consisting of a black silhouette of a figure holding the form of one of my babies.

This logo, although developed at the end of the process, speaks metaphorically for the rest of the baby’s existence, the logo the form of my baby in the hands of someone else.

This silhouette, or “someone else,” could change through the babies life, a mysterious character, that is unforeseen by me, a holder of the future.

With the adoptions of my babies I foresaw a need for an initial comfort system, to make the transition from my hand to another’s safe and reassuring. 12 Hangers consist of twelve identical baby carriers set up to go out with each adopting parent, a launch pad for creating a similar experience to mine with Investment. The title, 12

Hangers, refers to the piece but also to the piece after the adoption, which consisted of twelve empty hangers after the removal of each carrier.

My babies, though not present in the actual show till the reception, are what drove the idea of Transportrait (Twelve identically constructed stuffed animals provoked and structured every piece in the gallery). I was often asked, “Where are the babies?” during the week of the show, and I would simply reply, “Right here with me, where they

10 should be.” These little stuffed guys even had me fooled, developing a personality and life that would not allow me to “display” them like an art object, but care and nurture them until someone else would take over. They were my creation and burden, to be watched over at all times, with respect and admiration. They are in and of themselves a show, a newly developed life form that will exist as long as they are cared for and looked after by the adopting parents.

Influences and Inspirations: Perform, Delegate, Create

Throughout my life as a practicing artist I have focused on drawing and illustration, with a central theme around the figure. I have always been drawn to the form and function of the figure, not necessarily the human figure; monsters, creatures and animals as well. These beings all have something in common, a living body with mechanics, characters, flaws, thoughts, and needs. The figure serves as the focal point in a system of operations it establishes and runs through in its own lifecycle.

My artistic focus transformed into performance with “assisted” sculpture through my years in graduate school, learning that this combination of mediums housed an amazing realm for discovery and chance, a whole new conversation between artist, art work and audience; an interactive one.

Performance art became a defined part of the art world in the 1970s though it emerged as an undeclared medium in the early 20th century through performances by the

Futurists, Constructivists, Dadaists and Surrealists.4 I find the most exciting aspect of performance art to be its spontaneity. Performance happens, anywhere. The idea that art

11 could just come walking by was very tempting to my thought process. It presented me with a challenge to reexamine my media and methods, and test my position as an artist.

It is a difficult task to categorize myself in an art discipline. I see myself as a kind of a Sculpturally Trained, Utilitarian, Performing Director, (STUPD) using learned and developed methods in creating material objects to then perform certain types of associated, physically driven, conceptual tasks. This self-assigned title responds to the early development of performance art, being an open category that developed for the rejection of the object and the acceptance of the experience. In early performance works the artist actually becomes the object to be experienced. Artists of the seventies such as

Dennis Oppenheim, traditionally a sculptor, used performance as a means to focus on the

‘objectifier’-the marker-rather than the object itself.5 Though I respect these performances, done solely with the human body and environment, I have a strong love for creating objects and a stronger love for constructing them around myself, serving as assistants in my performances. I am embracing early ideas of performance but reintroducing the relevance of the constructed object, not as a stagnant thing but as a sculptural tool.

The idea of a sculptural tool figures heavily in my creative bag. Tools come with either a set of instructions or a suggestion on how that tool is to operate due to its relationship to the body. Erwin Wurm’s use of instructions on guiding people to do a set

“one minute” performance or tasks is a prime example. Using the gallery space as a stage, gallery attendants are given instructions verbally or through drawings on how to perform a meaningless task with designated objects for the duration of one minute. These tasks include propping household objects against a wall with the different parts of the

12 body, or holding four bananas on one’s body, one between the legs, one in the mouth and one under each arm. The strength in the work comes from its ability to be repeatable but never the same to each individual performer. Additionally, the artist’s presence is not needed in order for the work to be performed.6 Though I would never want my babies to be treated like props, like a banana in Wurm’s case, the idea that each viewer will encounter their own individual experience excites me.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, in contrast to Wurm, works with provoking the viewer’s involvement, but in his case the viewer is not just performing a task and embarking on an experience, but actually removing a part of the artwork and taking it out of the gallery and into their lives. His sculptural work will be nothing more than a stack of endless printed paper or pile of cellophane wrapped candies offered as a souvenir to the visitors to the gallery.7 The idea of gifting the audience through physically obtaining a portion of the actual work goes far beyond that. Once that piece is removed, it becomes somewhat of an obligation between the artist and viewer, a connection that goes out beyond the gallery, a new relationship.

The relationship between object and body is always happening, but with an artistic intent promoting that object and body’s connection, a new conversation is developed. Artists that have worked in this area and have influenced me include Rebecca

Horn, Louise Bougeois, Lygia Clark, Nick Cave, and Stelarc. These artists have created wearable objects directly related to the human body, meaning that the work is supported by and operates off the body’s functions. These works offer a new adaptation to the human body, but that adaptation does not necessarily serve as a purposeful modification, because in most cases they hinder and handicap the individual wearing it.8 These

13 contraptions make us aware of our vulnerability as humans in different circumstances, always bringing us back to ourselves and the preciousness of our physical body’s operations.

Through my life experiences, artistic practices and development from these different areas of art and artists I feel as if I have found my place. As an artist practicing a medley of mediums I have developed an understanding that art can exist anywhere through any action; in a gallery, in a home, on the streets even in a creek. Life in itself, every aspect is challenging; every stage has objects that we interact with to test and promote our being, arenas where we are forced to perform, and tools we develop in order……to get by.

ENDNOTES

NOTES

1. Linda Montano, Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties: Sex, Food, Money/Fame, Ritual/Death (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 332.

2. Ibid., 114.

3. Kate Linker and Vito Acconci, Vito Acconci (New York: Rizzoli, 1994), 20.

4. RoseLee Goldberg, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1988), 7.

5. Ibid., 157

6. Helen A. Molesworth, M. D. Alexander, and Julia Bryan-Wilson, Work Ethic (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 2003), 197.

7. Ibid.

8. Tracey Warr, and Amelia Jones, The Artist's Body (London: Phaidon, 2000), 181-183.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1988.

Linker, Kate and Vito Acconci. Vito Acconci. New York: Rizzoli, 1994.

Molesworth, Helen A., M. D. Alexander, and Julia Bryan-Wilson. Work Ethic. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 2003.

Montano, Linda. Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties: Sex, Food, Money/Fame, Ritual/Death. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Warr, Tracey and Amelia Jones. The Artist’s Body. London: Phaidon, 2000.

MASTER’S EXHIBITION

TAYLOR ART GALLERY

SPRING 2011

FIGURE 1. “Transportrait”

19 20

FIGURE 2. “Treevort”

FIGURE 3. “Treevort, Active Detail”

FIGURE 4. “Playgrounded”

FIGURE 5. “Playgrounded, Active Detail”

FIGURE 6. “Investment”

FIGURE 7. “Investment, Active Detail”

FIGURE 8. “Care-E-All”

FIGURE 9. “Care-E-All, Active Detail”

FIGURE 10. “12 Hangers”

FIGURE 11. “Adoption Station”

FIGURE 12. “The Finally”