different artist | different presence
"nothingtoodooterencekoh" at mary boone ended last saturday
since an important aspect of my seeing the show for the first time
had been walking into the space without having seen an image of it,
i chose not to post about it until after it had closed
(for those not familiar with the piece, see * below)
brushing through the curtain
to enter the gallery,
my initial reaction was to the silence and beauty of the salt,
massive and alone,
a conical white mountain
rose from the floor
bathed in natural light
from the skylights overhead.
koh
on the far side of the pile,
was not visible to me,
so i had a moment or two
to just absorb the space,
and also the energy
that seemed to emanate from the salt.
when koh came slowly into view,
there was a very humble and simple quality to his presence
and as he circled the pile,
clockwise
he seemed the embodiment of eternity
like the hands of a clock marking time's passage,
encased in silence.
returning to the performance a week or two later
i spent more time
and i took pictures
but
(bad planning on my part)
i had an appointment which did not give me the freedom to experience the piece in an open ended way
i fully intended to go back
(especially since i lost many of the hi-res pix that i took,
the ones here are mostly from a toy camera)
but i didn't make it.
i have regrets:
not having given myself an unlimited amount of time to absorb the piece
and
not having gone before the DST switch,
so that i could have experienced the changing of light from day to night.
for me, it for me, it is impossible to consider "nothingtoodooterencekoh"
outside the context of "The Artist Is Present",
coinciding as it did
with the 1 year anniversary of that piece.
both performances involve an artist;
who is present and is silent
which
creates a meditative atmosphere for the viewer.
both pieces are "durational"
and demand that the artist confronts physical limitations
which
creates a voyeuristic opportunity for the viewer.
inherent for me in the koh show
is the window it creates through which one can look at this type of work
an opportunity that was perhaps obscured by the "art star" phenomena,
which ended up eclipsing at times,
the subtleties of "The Artist Is Present"
my interaction
(or almost lack of)
with "nothingtoodooterencekoh"
gives me a vehicle to explore certain aspects of the abramovic piece
as well as some of the issues inherent in this genre of work.
one of my first thoughts is
that a crucial component in shaping such a performance
must be the desire to create for ones audience
a space that supports engagement in some aspect of self-reflection
otherwise,
what else is there to do but leave
once a certain amount of time has been spent "observing"?
and if one just leaves,
how have they experienced the durational aspect?
to that end,
while the publicity generated by any "star quality" on the part of the artist
(or the audience for that matter)
might be beneficial for bringing awareness of the work to more people
it can also distract from the personal experience of the individual viewer.
thus, there needs to be a delicate balance held between
maintaining the possibility for a contemplative experience
while creating enough of a dynamic for the piece to remain compelling
(street art in williamsburg)
and what is it that makes work like this "compelling"?
(it's not simply a "celebrity" being so accessible for such long a period of time)
i see the answer as lying in the power of "commitment" as a guiding principle.
the creating of
and participating in
durational work requires a profound inner belief,
without that core element
it seems impossible that one could show up day after day
with one's integrity intact.
in today's world,
the opportunity to witness that level of commitment in art
amidst what can be a somewhat crass and insincere marketplace
is seductive.
btw, i believe that the ultimate "payoff" in viewing any art
is to encounter a sense of something that is simply "undeniable".
(tara donovan at pace gallery)
in hindsight
i find the reasons for my regrets about having had an "incomplete" experience with koh's performance
have a lot to do with its proximity in time to abramovic's piece.
as i wrote in the last post,
i am not so sure i am finished absorbing "The Artist Is Present"
so perhaps it was simply too soon for me to immerse myself in another similar experience.
but if you have never done so,
i wholeheartedly recommend taking a personal stake in a durational work
(even if only for a short period of time)
and seeing what happens.
*since the intriguing and charming press release for the show does little to describe the performance, here is a brief description:
in the center of the gallery was a 45 ton conical pile of course salt approximately 24" in diameter. 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, the artist, silent, dressed in white, continuously circled the pile on his knees, gazing straight ahead, stopping periodically to prostate himself on the ground. more koh
