A VOCABULARY OF WATER HOW WATER IN CONTEMPORARY ART MATERIALISES THE CONDITIONS OF CONTEMPORANEITY Tessa Elisabeth Fluence Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Culture and Communication The University of Melbourne March 2015 ABSTRACT This thesis provides an in-depth analysis of how water in three contemporary artworks provides an affective vocabulary that gives material expression to the forces and dynamics that shape our current era. It argues water is not simply a medium or metaphor; in the artworks, it articulates and is symptomatic of the conditions of contemporaneity. Focusing on the dynamics of time, placemaking and identity, it argues water in the artworks makes present our era’s fluid, multiple, precarious, contingent, complex, disorientating, immersive and overwhelming nature. This dissertation uses Terry Smith’s theory of contemporaneity as a lens through which to identify the dynamics and forces of this era. By focusing on water in three artworks, it amplifies and extends his work to consider how the particular vocabulary of water materialises these forces. This is demonstrated through three case studies of exemplary artworks in different mediums, made between 2000 and 2004, by Zhu Ming, Roni Horn and Bill Viola. Drawing on Mieke Bal’s approach of conceptual travelling, I do a close reading of each artwork, orchestrating a conversation between the work, the concept of water and the theory of contemporaneity. Focusing on the role of water in each work, I argue water provides a potent comment on the conditions of contemporaneity, offering a new ontology that is appropriate to, and symptomatic of, today’s complex conditions. Each case study demonstrates several ways in which water captures something of the contemporary condition. Water in Zhu Ming’s Bubble Series (2000-04) materialises the ubiquitous and precarious conditions of contemporaneity. Roni Horn’s Another Water (The River Thames, for example) (2000) uses water to materialise a new kind of identity that is androgynous, in motion and contingent. Water in Bill Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium (2001), materialises the sublimely immersive and disorientating experience of the contemporary condition. As such, water acts as a vocabulary in contemporary art that exemplifies, articulates and is symptomatic of the dynamics of our current epoch. In its varied and nuanced manifestations, water unlocks the conditions of contemporaneity; it offers an ontology of the present. DECLARATION This is to certify that: This thesis comprises only my original work towards the degree of Doctor of Philosophy except where indicated in the Preface; i. Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, and ii. The thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my principal supervisor, Kate MacNeill, for her generosity and wisdom, and for tirelessly pointing me in the right direction. Thanks also to my secondary supervisor Robert Hassan for his guidance and support, and to my dear friends and mentors, Julie Evans and Lesley Borland. I am grateful to Nikos Papastergiadis and Scott McQuire for supervising my thesis in its early phase. Research for this dissertation was undertaken with an Australian Postgraduate Award and fieldwork in Europe and Sydney was supported by grants from the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. I also acknowledge the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, for making available their archive on Zhu Ming. Thanks also to Bill Viola and Zhu Ming for generously providing high resolution photographs of their work. Thanks to my parents, Elisabeth and Bill, and my sisters Rosie, Millie and Ella, for their unwavering support, encouragement and childcare. To my wonderful friends and colleagues who formed a cheer squad and poured endless cups of tea—especially Laura Petersen, Megan Marks, Mark Evenhuis, Laura Vines and Emmaline Schooneveldt-Reid. Above all, my heartfelt thanks to Tim Fluence, for his love, patience and support throughout this dissertation’s long gestation—and to our children, Leo and Artie, who have shared their early lives with these pages. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................... 11 Materialising the present .................................................................................................... 12 Vocabulary of water ........................................................................................................... 16 Contemporaneity and contemporary art ............................................................................. 19 Methodology: conceptual travel ......................................................................................... 26 Close reading ............................................................................................................... 27 Conversation and travel ................................................................................................ 29 Structure of this thesis ....................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 1: The vocabulary of water: A literature review .................... 39 Water in art history ............................................................................................................. 41 Interdisciplinary water ...................................................................................................... 47 Water as metaphor ............................................................................................................. 50 Water in thematic exhibitions ............................................................................................. 53 Water, water everywhere … ......................................................................................... 54 Grey Water ................................................................................................................... 57 Liquid Sea ................................................................................................................... 59 Sea Change ................................................................................................................. 62 Water in contemporary art ................................................................................................. 65 Chapter 2: Bubble Series: Performing the precarious present .......... 73 Bubble Series: A close reading .............................................................................................. 75 The vocabulary of water in the Bubble Series ....................................................................... 88 Multiplicity of temporalities .......................................................................................... 88 Dislocation .................................................................................................................. 94 Precarity .................................................................................................................... 105 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 115 Chapter 3: Another Water: The end of certainty .................................. 117 Close reading .................................................................................................................... 123 The vocabulary of water in Another Water ......................................................................... 132 Uncertainty ................................................................................................................ 132 Identity ..................................................................................................................... 140 Androgyny .................................................................................................................. 142 Dissolution ................................................................................................................. 151 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 158 Chapter 4: The disorientation & wonder of Five Angels .................... 163 Five Angels for the Millennium: A close reading ................................................................... 167 The vocabulary of water in Five Angels ............................................................................... 177 Thirst for situatedness ................................................................................................. 177 Contemporary sublime ................................................................................................ 192 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 199 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 201 Bibliography ................................................................................................. 213 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Zhu Ming, 9 March 2003 (2003)—part of Bubble Series (2000-2003) ................................................................................ 25 Figure 2: Roni Horn, Another Water (The River Thames for example) (2000) ........................................................................................