Performance is, like dematerialisation, perhaps not the way to avoid filling up studio space with crap . . .
Seems I am alone in being aware that the other side of the object/display equation is Display display display . . .
There is nothing more directly experienced by the artist than the artists body, though I've been in some studios that were so freezing it had to be ignored, or to exhibitions that made me more aware of my empty stomach and tired feet.
But, any where you go to "see", whether your bookshelf, the gallery, online, wherever, there is always the site of display. It's pre-existence is a given. Especially if you're an art serf like myself, where it's only ever the public display of stuff . . . "Here we are again, and what's on show today ?"
Was thinking today of my idea to create a scaled down gallery. As I always have to work outside, and it's still pouring with rain everyday, I'm slowly clearing the garden of things that have been destroyed by the elements, and the natural processes of decay (damn you rotting leaves), I realised, if I wasn't going to be wasting my time, I'd have to create a rooom around it (more material I'd have to discard after.)
So that would be a frame - around a frame !
Like the frames on unexposed film, with pre-cut sprockets, the places of display pre-exist the work. If not literally, then certainly by form.
In a book full of bodies, the image I was most intrigued by was of Skip Arnold.
Thus . . (obviously scanned from the same book . . .)
OK, Linz, Austria
and then . . .
Burnett Miller Gallery, Santa Monica
Damn, I thought, that's a pretty nifty acrylic box, I wonder what else you could put in that ? . . .
A quote - "It's okay for gays, lesbians and women to display their bodies but not straight men. Straight men are accused of egocentrism, exhibitionism and exploitation. What I am doing is not exposure."
"In conversation with J. S. M. Willette' 1992.
It's hard to work out a chronology for this artist.
This is 1987 for example . . .
Closet Corner 1987.
And it's not always about nudity . . .
"Shoot Me
, September 8, 1990 - performance, all day duration.
"An all day activity in which I walked through and visited most of the major Los Angeles areas (South Central, Echo Park, Venice, Downtown) to see if anyone would shoot me. Worn on 3 separate days in September."
Via
Back to display . . . which can happen anywhere, but always in particular frames . . .
Where Skip took a shower in the Spencer Brownstone Gallery for four days.
Via
Of course I'm ignoring, nudity, endangering oneself, etc. Apparently the four day shower produced "large red marks"
Looking for a chronology - His website seems untouched since 2007 - but here's a video uploaded on February 14th 2013.
"This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing"
Though there's also a parallel Skip . .
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