Proposal for “Raze the WhiteBox”
To raze the WhiteBox will be a symbolic action of a greater deconstruction. Working within models of colonization will only develop concepts consumed by colonizing behaviors. Dismantling of this gallery space would be the only method to decolonizing it.
The WhiteBox (any gallery or museum space that hermetically isolates artwork) in its design and conception will always contain/own an object or thought. Property and borders are red flags of colonization. Dismantling a structure which is designed to contain objects and thoughts within 6 sides would be the action to decolonize it. Cement is not fertile ground, it is dead inactive space. A public space that allows community, inspiration and creativity does not exclusively exist as a collection or claim to ownership as does a museum or gallery. Community, inspiration, and creativity by their very nature will always remain fluid and un-owned. These three concepts only empower when used by the collective mass. The process of decolonizing spaces will involve replacing structures in which people collectively perform these concepts.
The remaining land, once this WhiteBox is dismantled, should be a network in which Peoples (any groups that have internalized a colonialist ideology) can regain a culture, but also regain what mother nature once offered in its harsh but nurturing way. The colonization of a People resulted at times with a simultaneous colonization of the land as well. Returning the land to its state of natural symbiosis will plant the seed of change that is necessary for this wounded earth to remember its role and for us to see its glory. This demolition is the only holistic therapy/ cathartic ritual that will remember the many forgotten People, forgotten knowledge, and resources that the colonizers either stole or destroyed. A WhiteBox and its confining walls symbolically and literally censor the past and the land onto which it has rooted itself.
The demolition will be followed by the introduction of indigenous plants and animals. This will inhabit the majority of the land and be integrated in whatever else is built. Some land will remain for agriculture and a stage/ gathering area for community and artist use. In the decolonization of this WhiteBox we must not forget about the inheritors of the colonized state of mind, the children. A place in which children could learn how to engage with nature and relearn the art of symbiosis would replace the structures that now exist on 410 Cottage Home St. If any structures will be built, they will remain small, since the land itself should provide a stage or setting for most things. Monetary means are intangible compared to community action and the blood and sweat of artist and activist. The land will be kept by its users.
If life is art how can life exist in a vacuum? Can the only definition of what art is be contained within a closet, which doors are only opened by someone with the means to own this space? Art removed from life, suffocated in a crate... Is this inspiration? Is art an object free from worldly interaction? Is it a phenomenon sheltered by the very thing that causes its chain-reaction? Transporting artwork produces waste, does this ill benefit this earth? Is a space built like a fortress a structure that welcomes the collective mass?
The brick unit is the beginning of growth. The straight lines imprisons the dirt, the self, the ripple of effect. - Raze the WhiteBox: A Think Tank of Change
May 1, 2016
Art Papers
On Art Practice and Corporeal Reformation /
The practice that is this work is not about criticizing colonialism, it is a allegorical response. A very personal response that I might sometimes consider a universal response. The hope is to filter down not the philosophy but the intent, to get to that universalism. A simple state of being that is efficient only in its holistics. Free of biases and specialization, my hopes is to find a way to learn and observe, to live and exist, to breath and touch, to forget by remembering. For now I see this universality as growth, be it cancer, population or regeneration. Finding the precise balance to explore the external and the internal self is one of the challenges with this exploration of this growth. Why the self? It is the first sensor that we are given to understand this Growth. I theorize then that this must be the best at understanding this Growth, holistically each part of the self canceling out the inherent biases.
This exploration as it pertains to the physical and movement I have called Corporeal Reformation. Corporeal Reformation is the act of remembering and learning. It seems to me that performance work is the most radical thing I can do with art. It sets no boundaries between active and passive. We all become part of the community once again. My question would be which community is this we are suddenly a part of when experiencing a performance. The performer or the audience? Are we invading or uniting? Depending on approach a public performance can be a continuous state of colonizing. I think the only way to remedy this is by the passive and the active both being in full effect, and transferring between the hosts (the colonized and the settler).
So it seems that the act of decolonizing can be many messy deeds. In a post-colonial system the colonized and the settler becomes muddled and both become agents of each others restrictions. They both share the initiation rituals of the colonized. Both share symbols and stories in which the powers that be, the first settlers have establish. The colonized start to assimilate the settlers approach, find new land, growth credited partly from new places that one has never seen nor understood. The settlers lost in empty promises lose their own heritage in hopes that assimilation and whitism will provide more than what came before, since it has made a few wealthy and untouchable. Little do they know that the settlers are cattle just as the colonized are the human resource that is a staple of an industrialized nation.
Tuesday Night Post #2-16 /
Aspiring Artists,
Let it rain let it
pour, is that gorgeous girl on the corner a whore? Will it wash the stain away?
Doubt it can cleanse what permeates from Laurel Canyon to Ed Ruscha. My lovely town what a hound, now
downtown smells like canine drown. Much better than the human waste that once could
levitate. Just some hometown
lovin.
-DBL
* * * * *
Disconnecting
I have recently
have had this want to disconnect.
It’s not really a new feeling but a feeling that I have been actively
acting on. Let me be more
specific, disconnection from the art world, the “fine art “ world. Granted one main reason is the
hollowness that is the LA art world.
I am not being harsh or bias, I have come to terms with this. Hollywood permeates though out LA. I call this permeation “Hollywood” for
lack of a better description. Some
might call it LA or superficial but to me, the LA I grew up with was not superficial. It was not even Hollywood. Only until I was old enough to get
around on my own did I start to go to the “Hollywood” scene, you know punk
rock, Hollywood blvd, clubs, Goth what ever you want to call that dope
show. That was a different
world. I am from LA not Pasadena,
Santa Monica or any of the out skirts that we call LA county or sub division. Born and raised and seen the many sides
of LA and recently have started to fall in love with it again, but that’s
another story.
Let me get back to
the art world I speak of. There is
another reason for this want and action.
Like in every scene I have witness or been part of, it only satisfies
one facet of my interest at a time.
The art scene is way to “Scene”, and way to pretentious and full of isms
that by its own accord disconnects itself from the viewer (specifically the
viewer but the artist to, but I know most artist are fluent in isms, at least
enough to get by). I am interested
more in the viewer. When I go to a
show and the only creative phenomenon I see is the artist finding new ways to
stroke themselves, their peers or worse their predecessors. I find no
transcendence of concept into light.
In the last few
years I have been around a lot of performers (and in the past have always
surrounded myself with more musicians than artist) I have noticed a comfort
there for myself. Not to say I
feel at home, far from that. Being
backstage at an event has been something I have taken with a casual stride, but
if I stop and think about it, its terribly artificial and would make me incredibly
anxious…so I don’t. I’m just there
for the snacks.
I think it’s the value the performer
gives the audience that I find honorable.
Without them there could not exist any dialogue or reason. An audience is just an extension of an
experience. They will laugh, cry,
set the energy levels of the event or just tell you something after the experience. They are not just going to show up for
the wine and cheese or show up just to been seen (hey I am guilty of that too,
been going to art openings since I was in Jr. high), and if they do it’s a big
price to pay, sitting or experiencing something they have absolutely no
interest in.
Let me clarify what
I mean when I say audience, an audience is not a static sitting mass. For example I know of a Butoh
performance in a cave in which only dancers were at attendance, but no “audience”. There was no need for audience, but the
dialogue that must have occurred between performers must have been intensely
profound. Each dancer was part of
the “audience” essential part of the experience. We can have an argument about if any audience is needed to
make art, but that argument is none sense unless we are talking about self-exploration. Have at it if it is, does not
include anyone else so why even argue that with someone if you don’t care who
knows. Why would anyone engage in
a discussion like that for any other reason than a thought exercise is
something I am not sure I really understand, with my reasoning Self.
Yes you can argue
that in a very arty dogmatic sort of way, but I am losing interest in that
forum. Its like having a argument
with a significant other and forgetting why you even started that argument but
for what ever reason neither side wants to subside…maybe just for the simple
reason to have a reason to have a reason.
It’s sorta a hollow profound venture. Feels like something epic is being conjured, but is it
really? Again I am not opposed to pushing the limit or opposed to the
Avant-Garde. What I speak of is
masturbatory incest that CAN be institutional investigation in art. Its like if every one sat around bored
because every one of life’s questions had been resolved and some one just
needed something to do (and from experience few higher level art is really like
this. It just seems like that when
you peel the first layer of the onion, it validates it as a intellectual
investigation, the true meaning is much more coded and far removed from the
uninitiated… but again that’s a different story). Don’t think we are quite there just yet.
The Nor Cal art
scene is the only scene that I have seen, as of now, that was more focused on
the artist to artist to audience dialogue. Everyone was really about the
making. Every one for the most
part was willing to get down and dirty and collaborate or experiment. And it was good art! Who would of thought? Of course this required you as an
artist to step up to the plate.
Make!
I think a lot of LA
artist talk about making or wish they were making. Hey its not a put down its hard to make in LA or anywhere. After all there is a nightlife for
every one of you out here. God
knows how hard it would be to make in NYC. Not really interested in knowing really. And again I am talking in broad terms I
know folks that are making in NYC and folks that are not making much in Nor Cal
and folks that are making for themselves and no body else. Everything is what
you bring to it. Plus or minus
what you have at your disposal.
Even when we
disconnect we hopefully connect with something else. I think that is what I am trying to say. Mostly now I am connecting with
corporal transformation and the many ways that can manifest. The art scene at times is not cerebral enough
for me. I get that in science,
spirituality, yes religion, tech and in people that are being creative and are profoundly
investigating truly fascinating things but are not part of the art world. I know there are groups and artist that
do not fall into the pit that I am describing, but those artists might have
some similar thoughts or they might be dead or extremely stoned. Unplug to re-plug.
This is not really
a put down to LA. Mostly to the
established art world. As of this
moment LA is one of the centers of it…
Oh, lets not forget
there is…A SHIT LOAD of moneys in
this establishment (I’m not even going to touch on how this discolors it
all).
And yes performers
in LA are a horrible breed they should all be made to wait on us, bring us
delicious food, drinks…oh yeah, right…
Honestly sarcastic
and profoundly foolish,
-Ass-piraling
Farce-rest
Tuesday Night Post #2-15 /
Viewers,
Some refections on
this past performance.
-DBL
* * * * *
Reflections
on Performance Art as Self-Transformation
I
want to keep this thought brief because of other deadlines and because any
further thought will require the need for isms and ists, which I at times don’t
have the stomach for. Yes these
things are required to be properly descriptive, but like I hope to express,
sometimes definitions restrict thought, which restricts understanding and
action.
I
do hope to be clear as much as I hope to release these thoughts that I have
been experiencing at this moment.
If
I would allow my definition of what I do be said with my own thoughts I would
say I don’t consider myself a Performer or a Dancer. I may perform and I may dance but titles such as these, in
my minds eye, present a certain definition and restrict understanding. We all
dance and to some extent we all perform, this I do believe.
My
approach to my performance work is much like the approach one might take with a
ritual to cause change, i.e. an Initiation Ritual, or moving slightly away from
the sacred, a traumatic episode in ones life that enables a change of
course. I see now that this is one
of the reasons I try to stay away from a fully choreographed movement piece. Within every performance work I have done
there have always been variables that are known and variables that will be
known once the work has been completed.
These problems could only be solved within the piece. These variables are technical variables
and also personal restructuring variables. I have been criticized before for not having all my answers
ready at will, but this is my art, myself, my growth. That is not to say I am not structured in my approach. If the viewer sees the beauty in the
answers I am delight. My hope is
that they find beauty in my voyage.
I mustn’t ask for much from my viewer though. We all have our bias and our limits. I say this in human terms not in
fabricated IQ terms. You cant see
what I am thinking just as I cant feel what you are feeling, but that is where
the delight lies, in the quest to understand.
Some
of these concepts I am speaking of ironically are hard to speak of. I feel that there are something’s in
this world that are unspeakable.
Just like we can try to describe a flavor but the only real way to know
is to taste it. This I think
occurs with understanding and creating.
At times I feel things can only occur with in a piece with the right variables
that can not be explain, but do have a profound effect on me and my understanding.
This
last performance piece, “a Sentient Approach, a Cybernetic Reproach” I do feel
changed me profoundly. It is
strange to see a concept develop a tangent to reemerge years later thinking it
had long been forgotten seeing that it was still developing subdermally. This is one of those things I have
trouble explaining. I think the
human mind has the capacity to process information in ways that are not as
linear as we wish it would be, that’s not to say it can’t be as helpful in the
same regards.
There
seems to be a checklist somewhere stored in my mind. Periodically I realize something that I have just
accomplished has been on that checklist and has now been fulfilled. Sometimes without knowing I had put it
there long ago. This is how I feel
about this piece.
One
thing I would like to note. For a
few years now I have started to factor in a variable in the performances that
would physically linger after. I
have chosen henna. I enjoy the
aesthetical addition to the bodywork and the lasting reminder of the
transformation, be it permanently or a temporary transformation. It is for me only but depending on
where it is located it becomes something I have to deal with outside of myself,
which further propels the transformation.
There
is one more thing I would like to divulge; the performance high I get after the
piece is completed and the coming down I have after. The high is very interesting, I feel more present but at the
same time apart. The following day
I feel very irritable and moody.
It’s a strange occurrence that I know I have to be ready for. Especially now that the work becomes
more charged emotionally and conceptually.
Well
I should leave it at that.
We all use belief
to stand on, be careful what you might be standing on.
Tuesday night Post #47 /
 |
|
As my mind expanded I still remembered to anchor
In the time I organized the memories
in that time I saw you briefly
|
Tuesday Night Post #44 /
For
there to be union first there must be two or more things to unite; a cast of characters
to portray the waves of reckless bodies accidentally becoming newly formed
moments of ingenuity. Or reflect the unraveling creative darkness that is
consumption. Imploding stars. Particle accelerators. scientific
advance...these unions are the ones that flicker brighter after they end.
Here
are a few photos of heads I am working on.
The Sun Bear (My Roubo Workbench) ep1 /
Creators,
There is one woodworking piece of mine that I think I have not given enough exposure. Do to the fact that it is the most functional piece I have made and that it is a piece that I constantly use, I am sad to say that ironically I have not given it enough acknowledgement.
This piece has an interesting history and a history that I hope will last longer then I. As of now it is a piece in need of repairs do to this history.
This piece is my workbench. An 18th century Roubo inspired workbench. Very non-traditional with its natural edges, two square corners, tripod style legs and single stretcher, it is at times unfriendly with its functionality and a quark to see and use.
It has weathered my blood, sweat and tears. At times has waited patently for me to use and has held me up for short naps late nights at school in the past. It also has secrets here and there that it keeps for me. I have lovely memories being covered in dust beside my bench with lust and trust, at school working waiting to find the perfect moment to confess my love to a girl of my dreams. But that's another story.
As said before do to its history and design it is in need of rework, which is why this bench will now exist and have its rebirth in cyberspace
The story started back when I was in college and a new student to wood exploration. In need of wanting to work on a piece exclusively in hand tools and in want of building something that would last me a lifetime, and be functional though out that time, I decide to make a Roubo workbench.
A Very Very Brief History of the Roubo
André Jacob Roubo was a French cabinetmaker and author. The son and grandson of Master Cabinetmakers, he earned that designation in 1774 through the publication of his masterwork treatise on woodworking. In his publication, in wish I can only presently wish to own, he wrote of a jointers work bench, design and specifications. This Roubo Workbench was a beefy one. Here are some pictures of this 18th century monster.
The top made of a thick solid slab and with very archaic (but fast and functional to the skilled) clamping devices it is a design not very reasonable in the modern world. This appealed to my impractical nature. Now only realizing an impactical nature that is much more practical then I was aware of since there is a revival of the Roubo workbench among wood workers.
Most modern work benches have tops that are laminated from very stable quarter sawn pieces. This is because one can create a laminated top with greater ease and with more reliability than try to find a massive hardwood tree cut a stable piece of this tree and make a top. This would be laborious, expensive and the wood will move (lose its squareness) in the years it would take for it to dry.
The Giants Felling
One very wet and windy winter in 2007,,,,I think, an Iron Bark Eucalyptus fell which was located in the parking lot of my university, Cal State University, Long Beach. Our department was in luck! The luck was two fold, lucky the school was not in session, no cars or delicate little humans to smash for this tree was at least 4 stories high and at least 4-5 ft across that’s just the trunk (the Iron Bark is a very dense and hard wood, when dry!).
There were limbs everywhere. We were also lucky that we owned a portable bandsaw mill. That winter day we spent most of it milling the trunk and bigger limbs to sizable slabs so we could put them in our pick-up trucks and haul them back to the shop. The interesting and dangerous character of the Iron bark is that it is a very high growing tree that is brittle due to the weaving of the fibers and density. This particular tree seemed to have been rotting in the roots. One strong wind and it gave.
The scene was just awe provoking. The tree literally fell broke and bleed. As we moved the pieces around and stood some up water ran out in streams creating pools of clear blood. It was a very curious and eye opening experience. The, smell fantastic. A fallen giant in our Urban Forrest.
 |
| Fred Rose working the Mizer. |
One trip with just a fraction of the tree in my truck made it bottom out. I estimate one trip was one ton plus.
My Roubo (the Sun Bear)
The pieces probably stayed in the stacks to dry for bout a half a year to a year. At this time I decided to make my bench with not so thoroughly dried wood. I knew in time the bench would move. And will always do to temperature and moister change.
I will not bore you with the design aspects of the bench they are personal and always in flux, but the making is something to be mentioned. The only time I used woodworking machinery on this piece was in the milling of the top and the milling of the apron and legs. For the leg vise I did use a router jig to make the wooden screw. I squared the top, chopped the tendons and mortises using traditional hand tools. It was and is a very laborious thing and I love it. Oh yes and no glue was used. Makes future repairs and mods easy.
So the present day:
As I said before the wood was still wet as I worked on the bench. Now the top is warped partly do to its drying/movement and a bad fox joint (I will explain what that is later).
The first step in the rebirth is the re-design of the third leg. The fox joint is a tenon joint that wedges when hammered in, creating a once square tenon into a wedge preventing it from it ever coming apart. The fox joint I created was ill in execution.
I had some thoughts about making a dovetail joint to attach the leg but first I must fill in the mortise that was previously there and create a square area to attach the leg. I will square the area to the other two legs as much as possible since I am dealing with a piece of wood that is not square to begin with. The essential squaring that will be need for it to function will come later. In dealing with this piece everything is relative: squareness, levelness and all. This does not mean it will not be perfect for its function. There is too much emphasis on perfection in this world. Perfection is relative.
Here are some vids showing the old fox joint mortises, the leveled area to fill and the old tenons and third leg.
My Roubo still needs hardware, dogs, and other various things that will make it a solid work bench and an odd thing to see.
The next update will be the making of the plug and the design of the new joint. Dovetail, twin tenon, or something absurdly inconvenient?
Until next time,
-DBL
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Gestalt Therapy, Bruce Nauman, and DBRP /
Applying ones focus to an act, seeing the here-and-now, finding the fluidity of the experience at hand followed by the next experience preceding the previous, seems at this moment in time almost impossible. At times our obsession with organization clouds the reason why we focus on the past and future, which is to understand the present. So it seems the more we have to stimulate our minds the more we need ways to revise how we see the world and how we can experience it through ourselves not through filters. As artist and art lovers this dilemmas has given us permission to allow the rise of art forms that take the now and the experience into full appreciation and contemplation.
A prime example is performance art. With performance art there is now a forum where the experience is at the core of the art. Not only does this art form enriches our understanding of existing in the now but grounds us in a place of the performance, thus we have the concept of time/space to play with. Once film and video collided with performance art a new dimension was added. With a way of documenting the act, the act became frozen in time. What remained was an event with a fix point but with infinite occurrences. The question now at which I present is how can one create a work that focuses its attention to the here and now but has a third possibility of infinite now’s and be successful? To explore this possibility of an art that can be about the here-and-now but can have infinite “now’s” I will investigate three subjects, Bruce Nauman, my personal work and Gestalt Therapy in the clinical sense. With less of an empirical approach and more of an intuitive feel I will try to explore Bruce Nauman’s and my work as attempts in Gestalt experimental interventions.
First lets explore what is the approach Gestalt Therapy takes in shifting ones experience from the known and assumed to the present and new. Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness, by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be separate from interpreting, explaining and judging using old attitudes. This distinction between direct experience and indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what they are doing psychologically and how they can change it. By becoming aware of and transforming their process they develop self-acceptance and the ability to experience more in the "now" without so much interference from baggage of the past. As it goes “ clear perception of the immediate present leads to ‘good gestalten’, well formed or well-represented relationships…To handle present demands well, a person needs to be able to clearly see the necessary relationships among important elements of the current experience without importing concerns from the past or about the future.”
An important tool in gestalt therapy is the intervention. “The foundation for intervention in Gestalt therapy lies in this dictum: the most potent interventions are existential, experiential, and experimental. The existential dimensions leads the therapist to the here-and-now of interactions with clients: the experiential dimension focuses on the knowledge that emerges from awareness of any phenomenon: experimentation builds upon the belief that we learn the most important personal truths by discovering them for ourselves.” Because the structure of Gestalt therapy lies in relying on the phenomenon occurring at the present moment the process of this form of therapy is a “touch feely” one. To have success with gestalt therapy client and therapist must have full concentration, therapist and client must not be aloof.
In Bruce Nauman’s Work entitled “Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square” (1968) one can see that the central focus is the act itself. It is a classic experiment from Gestalt therapeutic techniques in which “exaggeration brings the inner experience in to focus”. Nauman pays close attention to the action he is engaged in. Every movement he makes is conscious and momentary. Because of Nauman’s intuitive approach the work becomes art about the act. As he said the way he works is “much more intuitive…It has to do with working on something and finding out ‘wow, that’s far out or interesting.’ And then thinking about it, trying to figure out why it interested you…it has to do with intuitively finding something…I never seem to get there from knowing some result or previously done experiment.”
Naumans own words leads us to understand that the success of the work lies in the three modes of Gestalt intervention existential, experiential, and experimental. The focus of the work is the action of walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square. The existential element is seen in each movement, which seems very intentional and focused. The experiential element is the knowledge gain by Nauman’s experience of the phenomenon of walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square, one can even go as far as to say that Nauman's “Figure and Ground” (in Gestalts term) collides with the viewer’s “figure and ground” to become an intersubjective phenomenon that is walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square. When this occurs what is learned for Nauman by experiencing this phenomenon is his awareness of his body, his weight and familiarity with the boundary that he has made for himself. Nauman becomes a vehicle in which the viewer can learn some important “truths”. We become Nauman and we understand the awkwardness that it is to me human and mobile. We all are preprogrammed to walk but there are infinite possibilities of how to walk. What the viewer learns is the same sense of body, weight and boundary but this investigation can go further for the viewer it can be seen and studied over and over again. The here-and-now is suspended and infinite.
This Gestalt dictum in which the existential, experiential, and experimental are important elements in intervention has some how emerged within my work. Most likely it is the influence of some years of studing psychotherapy, being in therapy and some studies in eastern philosophy which Gestalt theories have also been influenced by. One good example is a work entitled “Sweep” (2008). This piece was in part performance and video documentary. The work consisted of various performances in which I recorded sound and/or video of me sweeping specific areas of the city of Long Beach. The location was not important only the boundaries I set. The boundaries I set were arbitrary, mostly they were determined by an area I found interesting in some form or another to sweep. In each performance I concentrated on the technique of sweeping towards me systematically going from one side of the perimeter and back until every inch of the area was swept and touched by the brooms bristles. Rhythm and intent of movement was crucial so was continuation of the act with no intervention from anything. With the audio/video material I obtained I created a video of the various acts. The P.O.V. (point of view) of the video was a view above the broom towards the floor; the camera was mounted on the broom so the only stillness in the image was the broom. What was vital in the video was the P.O.V., the collage of various events that were represented by video and audio, and the action itself.
My Gestalt intent can be heard in my own words, which were written as a proposal for the piece,
“Through many exposures to various activities that I have been intrigued with and have practiced throughout I am slowly getting at some sort of activity that affects every part of me that I intend to enrich. What will be the result in the end is negligible, and to what extent the overall enrichment will be is unimportant. Yes the drive is to eventually get at some unification that will be all consuming, but really what is only needed is the drive.
The body physical, the spiritual, aesthetics, and the tool are basic parameters for this piece. I plan to pick various locations in the urban that I will sweep with one broom. This broom will be a standard straw broom. The action will only consist of sweeping, there will be no displacement of the substance that is swept, and it will only be left in a pile. With each meditation I hope to learn something new: what will be the next location, how much, how long, and to what extremes or lack of extremes the next meditation will be.
I feel that the proper meaning is unimportant as of now. I believe that the only proper way to further explore this concept is to sweep. With the meditation I will find more insight to which way the concept will go.”
A here-and-now attitude was need for me to experience the motion of the performance, the phenomenon was getting lost in the action and having the here-and-now come and go as I tried to focus on the stroke and rhythm and what was gain for me and hopefully for the viewer is an infinite feeling of the here-and now of the performance even if it is temporary through the video piece.
Gestalt theory and practice can be helpful in understanding human relations, self-awareness and can be a useful tool for the artist as a studio practice. Viewing Bruce Nauman's work and my work using Gestalt theory and practice we can see that there is a way to investigate the art practice as a form of intervention for the artist and viewer to learn new things about the artist, the viewer, (the figure) and the world around us (the ground). With this view and the artist/video as a vehicle for intervention one can have an experience of the here-and-now with infinite occurrences. What we then have is a form of art that can intervene in infinite moments of various viewers, each having a separate here-and-now with intersubjectivity.
1. Margaret P. Korb, Jeffery Gorrel, Vernon Van De Riet, Gestalt Therapy: Practice and Theory, (Pergamon Press, 1989) 7.
2. Ibid., 91
3. Korb 103
4. Jane Livingston and Marcia Tucker, Bruce Nauman: Work from 1965 to 1972, (Praeger Publishers, 1973) 2
5. DBL, “Sweeping Meditation: Proposal for Performance” (2008)
DBL
05-20-08
A prime example is performance art. With performance art there is now a forum where the experience is at the core of the art. Not only does this art form enriches our understanding of existing in the now but grounds us in a place of the performance, thus we have the concept of time/space to play with. Once film and video collided with performance art a new dimension was added. With a way of documenting the act, the act became frozen in time. What remained was an event with a fix point but with infinite occurrences. The question now at which I present is how can one create a work that focuses its attention to the here and now but has a third possibility of infinite now’s and be successful? To explore this possibility of an art that can be about the here-and-now but can have infinite “now’s” I will investigate three subjects, Bruce Nauman, my personal work and Gestalt Therapy in the clinical sense. With less of an empirical approach and more of an intuitive feel I will try to explore Bruce Nauman’s and my work as attempts in Gestalt experimental interventions.
First lets explore what is the approach Gestalt Therapy takes in shifting ones experience from the known and assumed to the present and new. Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness, by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be separate from interpreting, explaining and judging using old attitudes. This distinction between direct experience and indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what they are doing psychologically and how they can change it. By becoming aware of and transforming their process they develop self-acceptance and the ability to experience more in the "now" without so much interference from baggage of the past. As it goes “ clear perception of the immediate present leads to ‘good gestalten’, well formed or well-represented relationships…To handle present demands well, a person needs to be able to clearly see the necessary relationships among important elements of the current experience without importing concerns from the past or about the future.”
An important tool in gestalt therapy is the intervention. “The foundation for intervention in Gestalt therapy lies in this dictum: the most potent interventions are existential, experiential, and experimental. The existential dimensions leads the therapist to the here-and-now of interactions with clients: the experiential dimension focuses on the knowledge that emerges from awareness of any phenomenon: experimentation builds upon the belief that we learn the most important personal truths by discovering them for ourselves.” Because the structure of Gestalt therapy lies in relying on the phenomenon occurring at the present moment the process of this form of therapy is a “touch feely” one. To have success with gestalt therapy client and therapist must have full concentration, therapist and client must not be aloof.
In Bruce Nauman’s Work entitled “Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square” (1968) one can see that the central focus is the act itself. It is a classic experiment from Gestalt therapeutic techniques in which “exaggeration brings the inner experience in to focus”. Nauman pays close attention to the action he is engaged in. Every movement he makes is conscious and momentary. Because of Nauman’s intuitive approach the work becomes art about the act. As he said the way he works is “much more intuitive…It has to do with working on something and finding out ‘wow, that’s far out or interesting.’ And then thinking about it, trying to figure out why it interested you…it has to do with intuitively finding something…I never seem to get there from knowing some result or previously done experiment.”
Naumans own words leads us to understand that the success of the work lies in the three modes of Gestalt intervention existential, experiential, and experimental. The focus of the work is the action of walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square. The existential element is seen in each movement, which seems very intentional and focused. The experiential element is the knowledge gain by Nauman’s experience of the phenomenon of walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square, one can even go as far as to say that Nauman's “Figure and Ground” (in Gestalts term) collides with the viewer’s “figure and ground” to become an intersubjective phenomenon that is walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square. When this occurs what is learned for Nauman by experiencing this phenomenon is his awareness of his body, his weight and familiarity with the boundary that he has made for himself. Nauman becomes a vehicle in which the viewer can learn some important “truths”. We become Nauman and we understand the awkwardness that it is to me human and mobile. We all are preprogrammed to walk but there are infinite possibilities of how to walk. What the viewer learns is the same sense of body, weight and boundary but this investigation can go further for the viewer it can be seen and studied over and over again. The here-and-now is suspended and infinite.
This Gestalt dictum in which the existential, experiential, and experimental are important elements in intervention has some how emerged within my work. Most likely it is the influence of some years of studing psychotherapy, being in therapy and some studies in eastern philosophy which Gestalt theories have also been influenced by. One good example is a work entitled “Sweep” (2008). This piece was in part performance and video documentary. The work consisted of various performances in which I recorded sound and/or video of me sweeping specific areas of the city of Long Beach. The location was not important only the boundaries I set. The boundaries I set were arbitrary, mostly they were determined by an area I found interesting in some form or another to sweep. In each performance I concentrated on the technique of sweeping towards me systematically going from one side of the perimeter and back until every inch of the area was swept and touched by the brooms bristles. Rhythm and intent of movement was crucial so was continuation of the act with no intervention from anything. With the audio/video material I obtained I created a video of the various acts. The P.O.V. (point of view) of the video was a view above the broom towards the floor; the camera was mounted on the broom so the only stillness in the image was the broom. What was vital in the video was the P.O.V., the collage of various events that were represented by video and audio, and the action itself.
My Gestalt intent can be heard in my own words, which were written as a proposal for the piece,
“Through many exposures to various activities that I have been intrigued with and have practiced throughout I am slowly getting at some sort of activity that affects every part of me that I intend to enrich. What will be the result in the end is negligible, and to what extent the overall enrichment will be is unimportant. Yes the drive is to eventually get at some unification that will be all consuming, but really what is only needed is the drive.
The body physical, the spiritual, aesthetics, and the tool are basic parameters for this piece. I plan to pick various locations in the urban that I will sweep with one broom. This broom will be a standard straw broom. The action will only consist of sweeping, there will be no displacement of the substance that is swept, and it will only be left in a pile. With each meditation I hope to learn something new: what will be the next location, how much, how long, and to what extremes or lack of extremes the next meditation will be.
I feel that the proper meaning is unimportant as of now. I believe that the only proper way to further explore this concept is to sweep. With the meditation I will find more insight to which way the concept will go.”
A here-and-now attitude was need for me to experience the motion of the performance, the phenomenon was getting lost in the action and having the here-and-now come and go as I tried to focus on the stroke and rhythm and what was gain for me and hopefully for the viewer is an infinite feeling of the here-and now of the performance even if it is temporary through the video piece.
Gestalt theory and practice can be helpful in understanding human relations, self-awareness and can be a useful tool for the artist as a studio practice. Viewing Bruce Nauman's work and my work using Gestalt theory and practice we can see that there is a way to investigate the art practice as a form of intervention for the artist and viewer to learn new things about the artist, the viewer, (the figure) and the world around us (the ground). With this view and the artist/video as a vehicle for intervention one can have an experience of the here-and-now with infinite occurrences. What we then have is a form of art that can intervene in infinite moments of various viewers, each having a separate here-and-now with intersubjectivity.
1. Margaret P. Korb, Jeffery Gorrel, Vernon Van De Riet, Gestalt Therapy: Practice and Theory, (Pergamon Press, 1989) 7.
2. Ibid., 91
3. Korb 103
4. Jane Livingston and Marcia Tucker, Bruce Nauman: Work from 1965 to 1972, (Praeger Publishers, 1973) 2
5. DBL, “Sweeping Meditation: Proposal for Performance” (2008)
DBL
05-20-08