Art Journal ISSN: 0004-3249 (Print) 2325-5307 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcaj20 “A Lunatic of the Sacred”: The Life and Work of Charlotte Moorman Nicole L. Woods To cite this article: Nicole L. Woods (2017) “A Lunatic of the Sacred”: The Life and Work of Charlotte Moorman, Art Journal, 76:3-4, 129-133, DOI: 10.1080/00043249.2017.1418519 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.2017.1418519 Published online: 30 Jan 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcaj20 resent the perspective of an animal, insect, Nicole L. Woods On a cold January afternoon in machine, or other inanimate matter.” Are the the packed Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at humans in New Engineering constructing the “A Lunatic of the Sacred”: Northwestern University, Schneemann world, or is the world in various nonhuman The Life and Work of and Knowles, pioneers of the American forms—tsunami to meltdown—also very Charlotte Moorman avant-garde in their own right and frequent much constructing us? Moorman collaborators, were joined by other A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte aesthetic allies of the “topless cellist”—Jim Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: Moorman and the Avant-Garde, McWilliams (graphic designer), Sandra A Political Ecology of Things (Durham, 1960s–1980s. Exhibition organized by Binion (video artist and performer), and NC: Duke University Press, 2010) Lisa G. Corrin, Corinne Granof, Scott Kraft, Andrew Gurian (filmmaker)—for a discus- Many still believe that humans are distinct in Michelle Puetz, Joan Rothfuss, and Laura sion moderated by the art historian Hannah having minds and not just brains. Sure, ani- Wertheim Joseph. Mary and Leigh Block Higgins. The panel marked the occasion of mals (as etymology suggests) are animated Museum of Art, Northwestern University Moorman’s first career retrospective, A Feast of compared to nonliving matter, but both lack Library, Evanston, IL, January 16–July 17, Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, meaningful motivation. The political scientist 2016; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 1960s–1980s. In addition to the panel, exhibi- Jane Bennett, however, explores the pos- September 8–December 10, 2016; Museum tion programming included two lectures by sibilities of matter exerting its own potent der Moderne Salzburg, Austria, March 4– Joan Rothfuss and Barbara Moore, as well as agency. Through her lens of “vibrant matter” June 18, 2017 several compelling student performances of the questions of “we”—its membership, its Lisa G. Corrin and Corinne Granof, musical compositions framing Moorman’s politics, and its ecologies—become more eds. A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte own artistic evolution and influences; among expansive and complicated: “It is difcult Moorman and the Avant-Garde, them were Takehisa Kosugi’s Chamber Music . for a public convened by environmental- 1960s–1980s. Exh. cat. With texts by Corrin, (1962) and John Cage’s Cello Etude Boreales, no. 1 ism to include animals, vegetables, or miner- Ryan Dohoney, Granof, Hannah B. Higgins, (1978), performed by Drake Driscoll; Morton als as bona fide members, for nonhumans Rachel Jans, Laura Wertheim Joseph, Scott Feldman’s Projection One for Cello (1950), per- are already named as a passive environment. Kraft, Kathy O’Dell, Jason Rosenholtz-Witt, formed by Riana Anthony; and Nam June . A more materialist public would need to Joan Rothfuss, and Kristine Stiles. Evanston, Paik’s One for Solo Violin (1962), performed by include more earthlings.” Through examples IL: Northwestern University Press, 2016. 224 Myrtil Mitanga. spanning power grids, garbage, and stem pp., 150 b/w and color ills. $40 paper Rothfuss, an independent curator cells, Bennett makes a compelling case for and author of the indispensable biogra- imagining the vastly distributed nature of “A lunatic of the sacred.” “A magician.” “A phy Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of Charlotte Nature. Her chapter on food, for example, proto-feminist.” “The artist who brought Moorman (2014), expertly shed light on the expands kaleidoscopically on ideas that women into performance.” These portrayals, show-woman’s byzantine presence in the Berger raises on the socioeconomics of eat- ofered by the artists Carolee Schneemann 1960s experimental performance circuit by ing. Heavy on the heavies of Western phi- and Alison Knowles at a roundtable event weaving “three stories of Charlotte” for the losophy, many of her ideas link to concepts honoring the life and work of Charlotte audience. The first, the “traditional” tale, as explored by speculative realism, object-ori- Moorman, the Juilliard-trained cellist, per- Rothfuss characterized it, is truncated and ented ontology, and other new materialisms formance artist, and festival organizer of the problematic—an overly simplified narrative popular in contemporary art now. Bennett’s post–World War II avant-garde, announce the that squarely situates Moorman as the guile- vibrant proposal for a more inclusive and particular—and yes, even astonishing—influ- less muse of her frequent collaborator Paik, participatory notion of us expands the circle ence of Moorman’s practice in the 1960s lacking any personal agency or artistic will beyond modernist human to animal through to and beyond. They also obliquely address the of her own. The second, a “riches-to-rags” things, and all the forms of we in between. In complicated ways in which we remember spin of the first tale, positions Moorman not the end, possibility aesthetics is not simply and reevaluate women artists in retrospective. just as a muse but as the “tragic” muse of about what happens tomorrow as much as In terms of historical reception, the clever, Paik. Her seminude or nude performances reconceiving who matters today. indeterminate nature of Moorman’s oeuvre in now-legendary Paik pieces like Opera Sextronique (1967) and TV Bra for Living Sculpture Andrew Yang is an artist and educator working has often sufered a double exclusion: first, across the naturalcultural. His projects have been because of the probing, elusive, and dura- (1969) amounted to a sacrifice of her body exhibited from Oklahoma to Yokohama, includ- tional character of the work; second, due to and reputation for his art—she was once ing the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015) and a solo Moorman’s marginalized relation to her male famously arrested for violating New York’s exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, peers and collaborators who have received indecency laws—and with it, the acquisition Chicago (2016). His writings appear in Leonardo, Biological Theory, Gastronomica, and Antennae, significantly greater recognition for their of a physically compromised and financially among others. He holds a PhD in biology and an experimental eforts. An urgent corrective to unstable existence. The third, the osten- MFA in visual arts, and is an associate professor at this delayed reception came in the form of a sible “success story,” gives an account of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. sprawling exhibition of Moorman’s diverse Moorman as a sprightly, efcacious admin- 1. Fredric Jameson, “Future City,” New Left Review activities as a musician, performer, and cura- istrator of music, dance, poetry, and film, 21 (May–June 2003): 65–79. tor, presented at venues in Illinois, New York, who invented a singular way of performing and Austria. by expanding and reshaping compositional 129 artjournal CAA_AJ_FA-WN17_INTERIOR_FINAL_g.indd 129 12/28/17 9:06 AM scores written by others. Indeed, as Lisa who meticulously catalogued the raucous scholars and curators to closely track the Corrin, the director of the Block Museum performances staged over a two-week period artist’s career by following its ample paper and an organizer of the exhibition, asserts at Judson Hall on Fifty-Seventh Street in late trail. The special collections curator, Scott in the foreword to the exhibition catalogue, summer 1964. In his critical assessment, Kraft, skillfully organized the archival “Moorman was the master of her own body, Bowers emphasized the cross-fertilizations materials on view, and in this space, one both as a raw material and as a vehicle for among the artists, including a recap of could spend hours poring over love letters, her creativity” (x). how each evening began, for example, with professional correspondence, and festival Following Rothfuss’s lecture, Barbara drafts, or listening on headset to various Moore underscored the historical recovery of telephone answering machine recordings. Moorman as a leading curator of the avant- The installation included displays in vitrines garde by extemporaneously chronicling and a monumentally scaled 1971 fish-eye the fifteen Annual New York Avant-Garde photograph of Moorman sitting among Festivals that Moorman organized from 1963 overcrowded boxes and papers in her stu- to 1980. Moore, a writer and associate of dio apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Fluxus, presented a detailed retelling by shar- Side. Framed by two metal shelving units ing personal anecdotes from her experience stacked with brown file boxes, film canisters, working with Moorman, as well as a contex- domestic items, even toys, the objects and tual narration of the ubiquitous photographic the photograph were arranged as if await- work of Moore’s late husband, Peter, which ing our curious encounter. Two particularly faithfully