Sites of Subjectivity: Robert Morris, Minimalism, and Dance Author(s): Virginia Spivey Reviewed work(s): Source: Dance Research Journal, Vol. 35/36, Vol. 35, no. 2 - Vol. 36, no. 1 (Winter, 2003 - Summer, 2004), pp. 113-130 Published by: Congress on Research in Dance Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30045072 . Accessed: 21/01/2013 06:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Congress on Research in Dance is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Dance Research Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:00:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Sites of Subjectivity:Robert Morris, Minimalism,and Dance VirginiaSpivey Robert Morris's dance Site (Fig. I) premieredin February 1964 at the Surplus Dance Theaterin New York City. Choreographedand performedby Morris,Site also fea- turedthe visualartist Carolee Schneemann and severalsheets of four-by-eightfoot ply- wood. Although it may seem odd to includethese wooden panels among the perform- ers, they assumedan active role in the choreography.Ironically, it was Schneemann who providedthe backgroundscenery. Nude and coveredin white paint, she sat mo- tionless throughout the performance,recreating the pose and persona of Edouard Manet'sfamous 1863 painting of Olympiawhile Morris manipulatedthe largewooden boards.In a gracefulduet with inanimatepartners, Morris spun the rectangularplanes from a point on the ground, maneuveredthem aroundhis body, lifted them over his head, caressedtheir even form as he slowly moved his hand acrossone edge, and bal- anced the panels on his back as he moved acrossthe stage. Not only did Morris never dancewith Schneemann,he did not even seem to notice her. In a careerspanning over forty years, RobertMorris has producedtheoretical arti- cles, paintings,videos, installations,and environmentalart in addition to his work in dance;nevertheless, the Americanartist remains best known for his Minimalistsculp- tures of the i96os (Figs. 2 and 3). Like the works of his colleaguesDonald Judd and Carl Andre, Morris'sspare, geometrical objects of that periodwere three-dimensional and called attentionto issues of site and artisticcontext. They also resistedpast artistic conventionsbased in subjectivemethods of composition, expressivity,and metaphor. Morris, however,distinguished himself among this group of visual artistsby the em- phasis he placed on the viewer'sbodily relationshipwith the art object, a distinction that derivesdirectly from his uniqueinvolvement in avant-gardedance.' Virginia B. Spivey is an arthistorian special- Museum and the ClevelandCenter for Con- izingin modernand contemporary art. Dr. temporaryArt (nowMOCA Cleveland).Her Spivey,who holdsdegrees in arthistory from researchfocuses on the intersectionsof visual DukeUniversity (B.A.) and Case Western art,dance, and feminist performance, as well ReserveUniversity (M.A., Ph.D.), is cur- as moretheoretical issues concerning ques- rentlyAssistant Professor of Art at theUni- tionsof identity,embodiment and gender versityof NorthCarolina, Asheville. Prior to expression.She is currentlywriting a book joining the facultyat UNCA, she workedat examiningsculptor Robert Morris's involve- the ClevelandMuseum of Art, the Akron Art ment with avant-gardedance of the 1960s. 113 This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:00:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Figure 2: Robert Morris, Columns, 1961.© 2004 Robert Morris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Figure3: Robert Morris, "The Plywood Show," Installation at the Green Gallery, New York,1964. O 2004 Robert Morris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 114 Dance Research Journal35/2 and 36/1 (Winter2003 and Summer 2004) This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:00:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Morris's first wife, dancer and choreographerSimone Forti, introduced him to movementimprovisation in San Francisco.After movingto New York in 1960, Morris and Forti became a vital part of that city's active performancecommunity. Although the couple divorcedthe following year, Morris continued his interest in dance, and soon became affiliatedwith the JudsonDance Theater, the loose collectiveof dancers, musicians,poets, and visualartists based at the JudsonMemorial Church in Greenwich Village.The period from 1963to 1966 marksthe time when Morris producedhis own choreographicworks, all of which were presentedeither with the Judson'ssupport or with its membersin differentcontexts. Notably, these yearsof Morris'sclose involve- ment with dance also correspondwith his emergenceas a leadingartist associated with Minimalism. It is my contention that Morris'sknowledge of dance directlyinformed his sculp- turalpractice, and moreover,was fundamentalto his theoreticalunderstanding of the viewer'srole in art. I want here to expand our understandingof Morris'sMinimalist sculptureby consideringhow this influenceof dance contributedto these objects'per- formativefunction. By comparingMorris's structuresof the early I960s to Yvonne Rainer's1965 dance TrioA, in which she emphasizedthe body as an object, I explore the relationshipof Morris'swork to questionsof gender, suggestingthat male and fe- male viewersmight experiencehis sculpturesin radicallydifferent ways based on sub- jective experienceand genderednotions of identity.To supportthis position, I rely on methodologicalapproaches that explore conditions of embodiment and gender per- formanceas well as questionthe psychologicalprocesses involved in establishingindi- vidualidentity. Objectnessas Subjectivity Performativitytheory posits that identity is establishedthrough a form of role playing in which we presentourselves according to our perceptionsof the culturalexpectations of what we shouldbe (see Bennett 1998,265-269). According to literarytheorist Judith Butler,gender is performedin this way through repeatedacts similarto those carried out in a theatricalcontext. Butler distinguishesthis performancefrom the popularbe- lief that genderresults from particularcharacteristics and activitiesbased on biological differencesbetween the sexes. Rather,she arguesthat genderis not obviousprior to the "variousacts, postures,and gesturesby which it is dramatizedand known"(1997, 411). In taking this stance, Butler exposes the role of performanceto maintaincultural ex- pectationsand stereotypesabout gender. Dance providesan interestingmodel for examiningthe performativenature of gen- der because the dancer'sexperience of subjectiveunderstanding comes through an awarenessof physical presence and movement. This bodily recognition of the self, however,is alteredby the performancecontext, which places the subjecton stage be- fore a viewing audience,thus transformingthe dancerinto an object of the spectator's gaze. As scholars such as Leslie Satin, Ann Daly, and Ann Cooper Albright have shown, Yvonne Rainerestablished in her dancesan alternativerelationship that resists Dance Research Journal35/2 and 36/1 (Winter2003 and Summer 2004) 115 This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:00:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions this subject/objectdualism in favorof an intersubjectivemodel. Rainer'schoreography exposedthe artificeof her performanceby treatingthe dancingbody as a materialob- ject. She downplayedthe dancer'spersonality, neutralizing the dramaticappeal of the performerand focusinginstead on the body'smovement alone. Basedon her own expe- rience as a dancerwith remarkable"stage presence," Rainer wanted to developa chore- ographicpractice to disruptthe dynamicof power and desiretraditionally existing be- tween performerand audience.This interestin eliminatingpersona from dance offers cues to the selfs representationin performance.Her work allows us to explore how the dancerperforms him/her self on stage and how the viewerregards that performa- tive act. In a 1997 dissertationon gender and autobiographyin the Judson Dance Theater, Leslie Satin discussedhow many artistsof the I960s employedthe trope of the body as object (6o-6i). Satin talks aboutthe practice,in dance, of readingthe unadornedbody as an object,not as an individualsentient being, but in termsof its materialqualities of mass and volume, as well as its spatial relationshipsto other objects/bodies.As she points out, such inquiryheld implicationsfor artistswho were rethinkingthe concept of the body, as well as for those exploringthe natureof objects.Furthermore, consider- ing the body as an objectsuggested new questionsabout the relationshipof the body to the self, and the body'ssignificance regarding the performingself. In other words, one must wonder how the self is representedwhen the body is treatedas an object. This questionis complicatedfurther by consideringdance in termsof the dancer'sembodied experience.Understood dually as an objectof the spectator'sgaze and as an activesub- ject awareof her or his own agencyto enact the dance,she/he must reconcilea sense of personalidentity within this shiftingterrain of performance. Paradoxically,Rainer's treatment of the dancingbody as an