The climbing body: verticality and the gallery Elle van Uden A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts by Research The University of New South Wales School of Art and Design Faculty of Art March 2019 INCLUSION OF PUBLICATIONS STATEMENT UNSW is supportive of candidates publishing their research results during their candidature as detailed in the UNSW Thesis Examination Procedure. 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Name Signature Date (dd/mm/yy) Ellyse van Uden 12/09/19 Postgraduate Coordinator’s Declaration I declare that: • the information below is accurate • where listed publication(s) have been used in lieu of Chapter(s), their use complies with the Thesis Examination Procedure • the minimum requirements for the format of the thesis have been met. PGC’s Name PGC’s Signature Date (dd/mm/yy) i ii COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. 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Date .............................................................................. iii ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed ............................................................. Date ................................................................. iv Abstract Embodied knowledge amassed through the act of climbing has the potential to generate alternate ways of understanding vertical planes. Verticality in the gallery refers to flat, blank walls that are traditionally disembodied, decontextualised and used for modes of display contributing to a conventional stature that ensures its institutional power. My practice, which comprises sculptural installations and drawings, interrogates the relationship between the vertical and the climbing body to extend notions of understanding verticality with the potential for ‘bodily’, proximal engagement in an operable zone. My practice is informed by my experience as a climber, which over years of training has produced embodied knowledge of movement that allows me to make sculptural works that interrogate verticality as they ‘climb’ the institutional wall. Verticality has been embodied and operated with in the works of contemporary artists such as Trisha Brown and Matthew Barney. As Brown promotes illusory spatial experiences that extend possibilities of inhabiting the vertical, Barney disrupts the gallery’s conventional way of understanding the vertical. This is extended in the work of Gideonsson/Londré (Lisa Gideonsson and Gustaf Londré) as they test the limits of human verticality and examine the significance of flatness to our understanding of the vertical. Climbing enters the gallery environment in the works of Erin Coates and Dan Shipsides as they engage with bodies that climb and constructions or drawings of climbs. Considering the translation of three-dimensional movement into two-dimensional forms in my drawings, I examine a history of dance notation to establish its diagrammatic and artistic applications. Distinguished from the pedagogic, interactive and representational works of Coates and Shipsides, my practice further abstracts the climbing body to explore verticality as a proximal, liminal zone. The project results in a body of artworks that creatively and critically exercise my embodied knowledge to reveal the speculative and diagrammatic ways of seeing and sensing verticality, disrupting the authoritative status of the gallery wall. v Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Doctor Tim Gregory and Doctor Rochelle Haley, it has been an invaluable experience to work with them in the development of this project. Their insight, guidance and support facilitated this body of work and has taught me many things that will continue to inform my practice as an artist and researcher. I would also like to thank my family for their ongoing support; friends that have carried me through with their generosity and enthusiasm; and my partner Cory for his tireless support, patience and care. This project has been made possible by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. vi Table of Contents Abstract v Acknowledgements vi Table of Contents vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Bodies on the Vertical Plane 11 Chapter 2: Climbing in the Gallery 27 Chapter 3: Climbing Experiments, a Studio Practice 43 Conclusion 66 Reference List 68 List of Figures 72 Appendix 74 vii viii Introduction This project interrogates the relationship between the vertical plane and the climbing body to explore alternate ways of seeing and understanding verticality. Verticality in the gallery refers to the lateral surface of walls and their inhabitable zone, traditionally dominating the gallery as a sanitised, blank and flat space for display. My practice challenges the way this space is considered and begins to open up ways for verticality in the gallery to be reconceived. This is predominantly conducted through sculptural installation and drawings that have been selected for the exhibition duel/duet. This paper explores aspects of my practice-led research to examine the intersection of verticality, the body and the gallery, where climbing has the potential to extend notions of understanding the vertical as a proximal and liminal zone. My practice is informed by my years of experience as a climber, which through training has produced an embodied knowledge of movement on the vertical that allows me to make works that interrogate and ‘climb’ the gallery, challenging the conventional, authoritative stature of the gallery wall. Throughout the 20th century, artists and curators worked with the gallery space itself to develop social and political critiques. Exhibitions including Yves Klein’s ‘Le Vide’ (1958), Martha Rosler’s ‘If You Lived Here…’ (1989) and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s ‘do it’ (1993-ongoing) exemplify the potential for the exhibition to challenge conventions of art-viewing and institutional space itself. In this period there was a significant shift away from traditional art objects and modes of display to dislocation and dematerialisation. This blurred the lines between curator and artist as experiential modes of making combined with new modes of exhibition and display. Conventional vertical features of the gallery space are challenged in exhibitions