notations the cage effect today catalogue

T h e C a g e e f f e C T T o d ay

NotatioNs

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cover_9x9_flaps.indd 1 1/30/12 8:04 AM

William anastasi

soledad arias

Céleste Boursier-mougenot

WalterCio Caldas

José damasCeno

Hanne darBoven

mattHeW deleget

liZ desCHenes

Felipe dulZaides

león Ferrari

roBert Filliou

Yukio FuJimoto

niColás guagnini

lYnne HarloW

douglas HueBler

garetH James

david lamelas

reiner leist

Jorge maCCHi

CHristian marClaY

rivane neuensCHWander

kaZ osHiro

edgardo rudnitZkY

Fred sandBaCk

Frank sCHeFFer

usHio sHinoHara

linda stillman

daniel WurtZel

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Notations: The Cage Effect TodayCurated by Joachim Pissarro, together with Bibi Calderaro, Julio Grinblatt, and Michelle Yun

Hunter College/Times Square GalleryFebruary 17-April 21, 2012

HUNTER COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

Jennifer J. Raab, PresidentVita Rabinowitz, Provost and Vice President of Academic AffairsErec Koch, Dean, School of Art and SciencesThomas Weaver, Chair of the Department of Art

THE HUNTER COLLEGE ART GALLERIES

Thomas Weaver, Executive DirectorJoachim Pissarro, Bershad Professor of Art History and DirectorKaty Siegel, Chief CuratorMichelle Yun, CuratorKarli Wurzelbacher, Assistant CuratorJessica Gumora, Curatorial Assistant to the DirectorPhi Nguyen, PreparatorTim Laun, MFA Building Studio Director

THE BERTHA AND KARL LEUBSDORF ART GALLERY

Located in the Hunter West Building at the southwest cornerof 68th Street and Lexington AvenueHours: Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 6pmInformation: 212.772.4991

HUNTER COLLEGE/TIMES SQUARE GALLERY

450 West 41st Street between 9th and 10th AvenuesHours: Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 6pmInformation: 212.772.4991

www.hunter.cuny.edu/art/galleries

PHOTO CREDITS

p. 4: Used by permission of C. F. Peters Corporation. All rights reserved. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY

p. 6: Courtesy of the John Cage Trustp. 11: Photo © Albert Mendelewskip. 14: Photo © Loren Robare. Courtesy of the John Cage Trustp. 23: Photo: Jason Mandellap. 25: © Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New Yorkp. 31: © 2012 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NYp. 33: © Matthew Delegetp. 39: Courtesy of Fundación Augusto y León Ferrari and Haunch of Venisonp. 41: © Marianne Filliou. Photo © Philippe Migeat. Courtesy CNAC/MNAM/Dist.

Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NYp. 45: Photo © Jeffrey Sturgesp. 47: © Lynne Harlowp. 49: © 2011 Estate of Douglas Huebler/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NYp. 51: Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2009p. 53: © Reiner Leist, Installation view, Museum for Photography Berlin, 2007p. 55: Photo courtesy Jorge Macchi and Galeria Benzacar, Buenos Airesp. 57: © Christian Marclay. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New Yorkp. 59: © Rivane Neuenschwander. Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York;

Fortes Vilaça Gallery, São Paulo; and Stephen Friedman Gallery, Londonp. 61: Photo © Amy Thoner. Courtesy Galerie Frank Elbaz, Parisp. 65: © Estate of Fred Sandback. Courtesy David Zwirner, New Yorkp. 67: © Frank Scheffer. Interview Frank Scheffer with John Cage, August 1987, L.A.p. 69: © Ethan Cohen Fine Artsp. 71: Photo © Michael Fredericksp. 83: Courtesy of the John Cage Trustp. 88: Photo © Henning Lohner. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust

This book was designed by Tim Laun and Natalie WedekingSet in Whitney typeEdited by Claire Barliant and Michelle YunPrinting by GHP Media, West Haven, CTEdition of 1,000

ISBN 978-0-9839261-4-6

Cover image:Soledad Ariasphonetic neon [aha] (detail), 2011White neon40 x 1/2” (101.6 x 0.6cm)Collection of the artistphoto: Jason Mandella

February 17 – April 21, 2012

Curated by Joachim Pissarro, together with Bibi Calderaro, Julio Grinblatt, and Michelle Yun

HUNTER COLLEGE / TIMES SQUARE GALLERY

450 West 41st Street (between Dyer and 10th Avenues)New York, NY

Th e C a g e e f f e C T T o d ay

NotatioNs

John Cage. Untitled (640 numbers between 1 and 16), 1969

Ballpoint pen, pencil, and colored pencil on printed paper

11 x 8 1/2” (27.9 x 21.6 cm)

The Museum of Modern Art. The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift

(purchase, and gift, in part, of The Eileen and Michael Cohen Collection)

CoNteNts

Foreword Foreword

Jennifer J. raabPresident, Hunter College

JohN Cage: the Multiple paths JohN Cage: the Multiple paths oF “iNstaNtaNeous eCstasy”oF “iNstaNtaNeous eCstasy”

Joachim pissarroBershad Professor of Art History Director, Hunter College Art Galleries

platesplates

uNder the iNFlueNCe oF CageuNder the iNFlueNCe oF Cage

Julio grinblatt Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art

oN or aBout CagenessoN or aBout Cageness

Bibi Calderaro

CheCklist oF the exhiBitioNCheCklist oF the exhiBitioN

aCkNowledgMeNtsaCkNowledgMeNts

7

8

19

74

78

84

86

John Cage, preparing a piano (c. 1961)

6 NotatioNs: THE CAGE EFFECT TODAY

forewordforeword

on behalf of hunter College, i welcome you to Notations: The Cage Effect Today. as 2012 marks the

centennial of John Cage’s birth, this exhibition serves as a timely platform to examine Cage’s diverse and

widespread influence on contemporary art throughout america, asia, europe and latin america.

the impetus for Notations: The Cage Effect Today came from a graduate seminar on John Cage, taught first

during the spring of 2008 and most recently in fall 2011, by Joachim pissarro, the Bershad professor of art

history and director of the hunter College art galleries. our departments of Music, dance, religion, and

Creative writing helped shape the seminar content in the spirit of Cage’s interdisciplinary approach to art.

in addition, as an integral part of the seminar, our students had an extraordinary opportunity to be involved

in the planning of the exhibition, the selection of its textual elements, and in the writing of essays for the

accompanying catalogue. we are grateful to dr. pissarro, his talented co-curators Julio grinblatt, (MFa ‘10),

Bibi Calderaro, and Michelle yun, and all the Ma and MFa students who assisted in the creation of this

extraordinary exhibition and its catalogue.

over the past several years, hunter College’s art galleries have presented an outstanding series of

exhibitions, providing our graduate students with the unique opportunity to advance their talents as

curators, art critics, and artists while working with the expert faculty of hunter’s department of art.

Notations: The Cage Effect Today exemplifies this unique cross-pollination.

we express our deep appreciation to the exhibit sponsors and lenders whose generosity made

this project possible. thank you for joining us at this exciting exhibition.

Jennifer J. raabpresident, hunter College

7NotatioNs: THE CAGE EFFECT TODAY

JohN Cage: the Multiple paths oF

“ iNstaNtaNeous eCstasy”By JoaChiM pissarro

In memory of Ralph Kaminsky


global “experimenTal aCTions”global “experimenTal aCTions”

i dedicate this essay to my students in two seminars i taught on John Cage. the first class (spring of

2008) was co-taught with professor geoffrey Burleson, director of piano studies. while i first discovered

Cage through my abiding interest in Jasper Johns’s and robert rauschenberg’s artistic careers, suddenly

facing the task of teaching a seminar on this unclassifiable musician-artist-thinker-poet-critic-composer-

mycologist was akin to facing an abyss: mesmerizing and scary.

that first class led me to understand that, contrary to my earlier assumptions, John Cage cannot be dealt

with as a normal academic topic, nor, for instance, as an historical epiphenomenon of post-structuralism.

transcending fossilized labels, he continues to be alive in surprising ways, almost like a live wire—through

generations of artists across the globe: this became the stimulus for the present exhibition.

the operations set off by Cage throughout his incredibly rich life of experimentation, reflection, not to

mention his contagious sense of humor, were difficult to convey in the confines of an academic classroom.

there are two simple reasons for this. Cage, in order to do justice to his multifarious and daunting

practices, forces us to think across disciplines, and across continents. the history of the arts (plural) is not

used to thinking in this way; the discipline at large is still divided according to media—and according to

continents (africa, asia, latin america—and europe, the only continent which, for some reason, continues to

be divided up in countries). Cage merrily crossed all such borders—physically, intellectually, artistically. he

was not afraid of disciplines other than his own; in fact, he made almost any artistic discipline his own. From

poetry to music, from drawing and printing to filmmaking, there was not a single form of art that did not offer

some points of fascination to Cage. he was insatiably curious, open-minded, generous beyond words—and

always willing to be challenged intellectually. this was a set of qualities that made him a hero among artists.

art historians continue to find him difficult and challenging, however, because our discipline, still structured

as it was in the 1950s, is not yet equipped to deal with such a phenomenon. For Cage, all of the arts formed a

large, and endlessly fascinating, continuum, each one potentially enriching the other, without any particular

form of art dominating the others. Cage was a true anarchist—artistically speaking.

“Most selflessly . . . he encouraged the youngto discover new directions.”

– John Cage on Henry Cowell1


similarly, if Cage’s thinking and creative process was induced by cross-fertilization from one artistic

medium to the next, he was also a restless traveler—from one world to the next. this exhibition explores

this aspect of Cage’s personality; it takes us back upon the paths that Cage opened up half a century ago,

and leads us to many different areas where he continues to be such a source of admiration and enablement

among generations of artists. to get a sample of this, we will only cast a brief glance at Cage’s inordinate

capacity to immerse himself in cultures by looking at his presence in Japan first, and then in Brazil.

in fact, the wide diversity of artists presented here, and the multitude of propositions inherent in their

works, made the rich and compelling complexity of “the Cage effect” fully apparent to us. Cage’s unique

sensibility triggered a dynamic still prevalent today, as can be gauged from one room to another in the

present exhibition.

going back to Cage’s inimitably direct and simple prose, an experimental action is “simply an action

the outcome of which cannot be foreseen.”2 in order to test the full measure of these unforeseeable strings

of “outcomes,” we moved to the hunter MFa building on 41st street, in order to physically test how this

risk-taking stance took shape today—how Cage’s acute and deep interest in “next to nothing” (whether in

music, or in any form of expression) was embodied in our MFa students’ daily creative practices. there, the

works by MFa students, Bill abdale, paul helzer, Martin Murphy, arrick underhill, steven rose, austin willis

(as well as Julio grinblatt), to name but a few, convinced me that “the Cage effect” was vibrant and alive in

today’s generation of artists. For all of them and their artistic practices, the presence of Cage was in each case

very different but pivotal—this came as a total surprise to me. Not only did these MFa students articulate

through their artistic practices one or several tropes of Cage’s incredibly complex, and infinitely rewarding

system, but they also produced some memorable essays, together with their Ma and a couple of ph.d.

colleagues: i would like to recognize, among them, Cara Manes, david duncan (both of whom were teaching

assistants in 2008), and lauren pollock. in the end, this class taught me that with Cage (maybe uniquely?),

an intense effort of reflection brings its fullest result only if it is co-extensive with an act of equally intense,

almost physical, engagement in Cage’s own practice. under professor Burleson’s cathartic aegis, we ended

up performing Imaginary Landscape IV (1951) in the west lobby of hunter College on 68th street (possibly

the premiere collaboration at hunter between graduate students from the Music, art history, and studio art

departments).

in his seminal 1961 book, Silence, Cage wrote about this composition:

It is thus possible to make a musical composition the continuity of which is free of individual taste and memory (psychology) and also of the literature and “traditions” of the art. The sounds enter the time-space centered within themselves, unimpeded by the service to any abstraction, their 360 degrees of circumference free for an infinite play of interpenetration. Value judgments are not in the nature of this work as regards either composition, performance, or listening. The idea of relation being absent, anything may happen. A “mistake” is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is.3

Cage’s words took on a different resonance (literally) after this performance (which can be

seen on youtube).4


More recently, in the fall of 2011, i decided to take the discoveries i made with the class of 2008 as the

premise for another Cage seminar—for which renata Contins and alex Niemetz receive here my heartfelt

thanks. this time, we started with the assumption that Cage (far more so than warhol) was the american

artist who first achieved a truly international reputation and a global recognition. his impact on the western

european scene (let alone the rise of Fluxus) needs no more corroboration. his presence in Japan may be a

little less known. his presence on the latin american continent was scarcely known. this exhibition, and its

catalogue, examines Cage’s presence worldwide, and his impact across several generations.

his visit to the dry garden of the ryôan-ji temple in kyoto, in 1962, has drawn ample comments—though

not much in art history.5 in part due to ozu yasujirô’s famous film on the ryôan-ji garden, its impeccably

raked bed of sand and fifteen rocks, this kyoto garden gave rise to a whole western-oriented form of

literature, plotting the tension between the impermanence of the sand versus the solid monumentality of

the rocks. except that, as a young critic from Japan expressed in a seminar on aesthetics at the university

of paris in 2005, these standard western theoretical constructions have very little to do with a Japanese

way of looking and thinking. suzuki yuuko, looking at ozu’s film (which Cage knew well) insists, instead, on

the notion of “continuity of no-continuity.” yuuko refers to ozu’s famous cuts on the kyoto garden as ma-

shots (ma means “interval”). “these disrupt time and space in such a manner that the “rhythm” which they

introduce may not be controlled according to our “normal” ways of reading or phrasing. indeed, when we read

or phrase a sentence or melody, we try to ward off, at least in principle, the irregular and the unpredictable.”6

View of Ryôan-ji dry garden, 15th century, Kyoto


this is precisely where John Cage comes into it. when he visited ryôan-ji in 1962, he turned to his host and

suggested that if the planes of neatly raked sand were to be taken for the Void, or for infinite emptiness, then

the placement of the rocks could be seen as resulting from chance operations. Cage had inverted the western

perspective on the enigma of this garden and, letting go of the principle of neatly separating the irregular from

the orderly and predictable, invited us to celebrate another reading of ryôan-ji that would yield to irregularity,

permanent unsolvability, and unpredictability, instead of a binary system of oppositions. what is spectacular

about Cage is that, being an american, he was endowed with an infinite capacity to shed any remnant of his

western upbringing, in order to readily adopt other concepts and ways of thinking.

ryôan-ji made an impression on Cage: twenty years later, he took to collecting rocks, finding in them the

same riches as in an exhibition of several works of art. he started drawing, and then published lithographs

of these works; and finally, began composing his “ryôan-ji series.” it consisted of several superimpose-

able “gardens” of sounds for various instruments (flute, oboe, contrabass, voice, and cello), but was left

incomplete when Cage passed away in 1992. this episode only represents but a tiny fragment of Cage’s

intellectual and artistic biography, giving us a sense of the considerable mass of material, works, texts, and

ideas that he left behind.

today, the presence in the exhibition of ushio shinohara, who came into contact with Cage via

rauschenberg and Johns in the early 1960s, and of two artists a generation younger—yukio Fujimoto and kaz

oshiro—whose oeuvres, each with very individual tones, elaborate on the impossible fusion of sound and

sculpture (which are, however, complementary) testify to the richness of Cage’s continuous impact in Japan.

the nature of our knowledge of Cage in Japan was enriched by the welcome publication of a book packed

with facts, archives, and images. this book, by hiroko ikegami, is titled The Great Migrator,7 which might have

been a perfect metaphor for Cage himself, but in this context refers to the figure of robert rauschenberg, who

once told me that Cage had “authorized” him to do things he had not thought possible before. in ikegami’s

book, one attends the spectacle of a double case of authorization: here, in part, rauschenberg (having been

“authorized” to do things unimaginable) in turn authorizes a new generation of Japanese artists (among them

shinohara) who ipso facto test the ground that rauschenberg laid in front of them. this, in truth, is a perfect

case of compounded “experimentation” in the Cagean definition.

while examining the global effects of Cage today, the most obvious case of gaining new knowledge

through this last seminar came from our immersion in Cage and latin america. here, i would like to thank

those colleagues and friends who have contributed to this reflection on the presence of John Cage in the

latin american art scene. Bibi Calderaro, renata Contins, professor Julio grinblatt, adjunct professor of

art, professor harper Montgomery, the patricia phelps de Cisneros professor of latin american art, and all

the students who delved into this theme through class here receive my profuse thanks. a lecture given by

professor Montgomery on Cildo Meireles and Cage was one of the highlights of that semester—and opened

up new perspectives to think afresh about contemporary latin american art, but also hinted at other possible

directions of focus within the Cage studies.


i believe that we have only begun to scratch the surface of a whole new field of research that indicates,

again in both directions, Cage’s abiding interest in the latin american continent, and the unexpectedly

high number of living artists, coming from different generations, who continue to explore through their own

practices a particular Cagean problematic. once, when struck by the number of artists who have found

Cage conducive to their own research, i asked professor grinblatt why so many artists are looking at Cage in

Brazil—he answered without even a blink: “the entirety of Brazil is Cagean!”

in 1963, the musicians damiano Cozzela, rogério duprat, Júlio Medaglia, gilberto Mendes, and willy

Corrêa de oliveira, launched the Musica Nova, and composed a manifesto declaring “their total commitment

to the contemporary world.” through the Não Música Nova Festival, they introduced Cage’s compositions

(among other notorious european or american experimental composers) to the Brazilian public. they also

gave “the Cage effect” a distinctly political and radical inflection, and shared this characteristic with many

artists who developed an interest in him throughout the latin american continent—which could only happily

suit Cage, given his repeated intentions to “demilitarize language” and his close ties with anarchism.

But, as with all things Cagean, surprise has been the most consistent thread of our research. Bibi

Calderaro, renata Contins, and i (almost on the same day, but independently) came to realize that one of

the big attractions of John Cage to Brazil was concrete poetry, namely through the agency of augusto de

Campos. i quote an email from Calderaro, dated November 15, 2011:

On Friday I attended a conference by the translator and scholar of Augusto de Campos, his name is Charles Perrone from Univ. of Florida. When I approached him to tell him about our show, he proclaimed: “you must include Augusto in the show!” and “I have footage of Augusto embracing John when he came to São Paulo...”

Marjorie perloff, however, was one of the first authors to have pointed out that one of the ties between

Cage and Brazil was mainly through poetry, and namely “the Brazilian Noigandres group (augusto de

Campos, haroldo de Campos, and decio pignatari), with whom he shared many aesthetic principles and who

have assiduously translated and disseminated his writings.”8

But while the link with Brazilian concrete poetry existed, the relationship between Meireles and Cage,

for instance, had not elicited much study: it is very likely that concrete poetry, and more specifically the

Noigandres, provided the link that tended to make Cage so widely known in Brazil. according to concrete

poetry—augusto de Campos’s Luxo (1965) or pignatari’s Beba coca cola (1957)—an image replete in the

works by Meireles—the visual predominates, whereas with Cage, it is always the aural that has the upper

hand. perloff further explains:

However visually striking Cage’s verbal scores may be, the mesostic column creating an interesting pattern and the punctuation marks of the original often strewn around the page, as in Roaratorio, poetic density depends primarily on sound, as actualized in performance. Cage was, after all, a composer even when the materials he worked with were linguistic rather than musical.9

despite (or maybe because of) the differences in their poetic practices, Cage and de Campos remained

close. de Campos is responsible for a vast effort of translation of Cage in Brazilian portuguese, and,


undeniably, acted as an important cultural bridge that permitted the dissemination of Cagean aesthetics. it is

interesting to think that the first emergence of John Cage in latin america would have been first and foremost

through his interest in poetry.

this gives us a brief aperçu of the phenomenal diversity of interests that John Cage pursued, and begins

to give us a sense of the multiple directions that Cage explored through his career, with a degree of openness,

curiosity, and generosity that is a very rare attribute.

this very fast and too short survey of the expansive presence of Cage almost all over the globe and

through so many different media, and artistic practices, also explains the considerable diversity of artists who

responded in singular ways to the “the Cage effect.”

John Cage during the performance of How to Get Started, 1989


beginnings ends beginningsbeginnings ends beginnings

strictly speaking, the present exhibition is not about Cage, but about Cage’s “effect” on the contemporary

art scene globally. i would like, however, to say a few words about a period of Cage’s work that is not much

spoken about: the end. three years before his death, John Cage appeared in an interactive performance,

planned for a sound design conference in Nicasio, California.12 one ought to be careful when using

the word “planned” while referring to John Cage: indeed, what was planned actually never happened.

instead, a performance that had not been planned took place.

here is Cage (in the photograph on the left), now seventy-seven years old—not exactly a beginner

anymore—about to begin a performance of How To Get Started. the marks of his jovial, generous, often

infectious, laughter are indelibly etched on his wrinkled, yet youthful face. there is something deep,

grave, and light-hearted at the same time about his facial expression: as if nothing had ever begun, or as if

everything was just about to get started. perhaps, yes, after seventy-seven years, things were only just about

to get started—and starting something is, at any given point, daunting.

or, was he thinking that, in the end, it is the end of one’s life that brings forth the beginning? i never

thought of John Cage and georg wilhelm hegel as having much in common, but in The Phenomenology of

the Spirit, hegel says something that sounds oddly Cagean. the true, says hegel, “is the process of its own

becoming, the circle that presupposes its end as its goal, having its end also as its beginning; and only by

being worked out to its end, is it actual.”13 or again, hegel resumes the same metaphor, that of “the circle

that returns into itself, the circle that presupposes its beginning and reaches it only at the end.”14 this last

sentence could read as the legend for the photograph above. it is echoed by Cage:

A finished work is exactly that, requires resurrection.15

we will not know what Cage was thinking that day, but this moving photograph shows us the aging John

Cage, with a deep air of gravity, as if he was experiencing some stage fright, as if this new beginning (one

of many thousands of beginnings in his incredibly rich and fertile career) was his first. this is certainly an

and what is the be-ginning of nomiddles meanings and endings? and what is the ending of no

beginnings middles and meanings ?10

– John Cage

“we’re here together, so begin!”11

– Goethe


important aspect of the legacy of John Cage today: each time one stands on a stage, sits in front of one’s

canvas, looks in the lens of one’s camera, is always for the first time—ever—to experience “art for the

now-moment”:

This is the very nature of the dance, of the phenomenon of music, or any other art requiring performance of music, or any other art requiring performance (for this reason, the term “sand painting” is used: there is a tendency in painting (permanent pigments), as in poetry (printing, binding), to be secure in the thingness of a work, and thus to overlook, and place nearly insurmountable obstacles in the path of, instantaneous ecstasy.16

this emphasis on the creative unit (any, and all creative instants) as a prime point of departure is a

shibboleth with Cage:

We are, as Gertrude Stein said, the oldest country of the twentieth century. And I like to add: in our way of knowing newness.17

Each act is virgin, even the repeated one, to refer to René Char’s thought.18

and when he refers to painters, he quotes paul klee, for instance:

“I want to be as though new-born, knowing nothing, absolutely nothing about Europe.”19

or de kooning:

“The past does not influence me; I influence it.”20

the exhibition Notations: The Cage Effect Today, takes account of this fact—that beginnings and ends are

inherently (if not dialectically) interwoven. as we are celebrating John Cage’s one hundreth anniversary, it

is fitting to observe that what he had started—and what he kept starting for about six decades of assiduous,

and relentless inventive creation, has never stopped starting, and is about to get started again. Beginning and

end mutually inform each other: younger and older artists, from all over, are picking up where Cage left off.

the one hundreth anniversary of his birth coincides with the twentieth anniversary of his death, as if Cage

had meant to conceive of his own biological cycle itself as a smooth, seamless continuum. after twenty years

of his absence being felt in the art world, his presence is, oddly enough, also noticeable through younger

generations of artists who have been deeply impacted in their practices and often in their lives by the Cage

phenomenon. ironically, Cage has never been more alive than today—through generations of artists, all over

the globe, who have been tenaciously exploring some of the tropes that Cage left behind.

let us return to How To Get Started. the piece consisted of an interactive performance between Cage and

two electronic musicians whom Cage carefully thanks (using the future tense): “and i’m about to be grateful

to two others: dennis leonard and Bob schumacher.”

Cage had ten sheets of things written in front of him.

Some of these sheets—there are ten—I’ve jotted down ideas that I’ve had for a long time. And others are things that—most of them are things that have happened to me recently. I’m not going to read them in the order that I wrote them, nor am I going to read them. I’m going to use them as the basis for a kind of improvisation.21


while Cage read (but didn’t really read) the first sheet that chance presented him, leonard and

schumacher recorded his voice, and then went on layering his voice as he was continuing to read (or not

read) his ten sheets of notes.

as aaron levy and laura kuhn put it,22 “this amounted to an experiment having to do with thinking in

public, before a live audience.”23

the present exhibition very much tests the possibilities, and the promises, laid out by this program: an

experiment having to do with thinking in public, before a live audience. the hypothesis of the seminar was to

demonstrate that Cage was the first american artist who acquired a truly global dimension.

Closer even to his very end, literally a few months before his death, Cage began to tackle a medium he

had never touched before: film. he certainly knew a lot about film very early on. he famously met Marcel

duchamp when the two artists were invited to collaborate on hans richter’s 1947 film, Dreams that Money

can Buy. in 1949, in an enlightening text titled “Forerunners of Modern Music,” he opposes those who practice

synthetic music working with magnetic wires (e.g., Norman Mclaren) versus those who use film as a support:

Twenty-four or n frames per second is the “canvas” upon which this music is written; thus, in a very obvious way, the material itself demonstrates the necessity for time (rhythmic) structure.24�

exactly fifteen years later, andy warhol would push the fullest implication of this analysis in film, and

create Empire (1964), arguably one of the most Cagean films, by setting the camera on an immobile tripod

while the lens focused on the empire state building. as if having read Cage’s remark about “the necessity for

time (rhythmic) structure,” warhol decided to twist the normal length from twenty-four frames per second to

sixteen frames per second—the whole film lasting eight hours and five minutes—and the decision to reduce

the rolling speed of the film by a quarter (twenty-four to sixteen frames per minute) was, almost perversely,

practically unnoticeable given that the film fixes on a motionless subject: the empire state Building.

Cage, despite his early interest in film—and having often appeared in films directed by others—never

grappled himself with this medium, until 1992, the year of his death. the introduction to his film on the

ubuweb website reads:

John Cage created his only feature-length film in the year he died. A sublime performance for camera-person and light, One11 is a film without subject, in black and white. There is light but no persons, no things, no ideas about repetition and variation. The final impression is of another, timeless place—freely roaming the clouds or, perhaps, under the sea. Chance operations were used with respect to the lighting, camera shots and the editing of the film. The light environment was designed and programmed by John Cage and Andrew Culver. The orchestral work 103 musically accompanies One11. Like the film, 103 is 90-minutes long, divided into seventeen parts—its density varies from solos, duos, trios to full orchestral tuttis.25

the film is very beautiful—the projection of light roaming around on white walls of a white room,

randomly, and with no anchoring spatial point, has a spectral and daunting quality. what is extraordinary

about it is that Cage, coming to the end of his life—and a very long career—seems to want to take us back

to the very beginning of things. the film is accompanied by 103, a composition created independently of the

film that is also ninety minutes long. it recalls Cage’s early work: a full orchestra performs the score, which


includes instrumentation for solos, duets, and trios. yet, somehow, neo-romantic undertones can be detected

in this composition having very little to do with the type of compositions Cage was creating at the end of

his life. Cage seems to rewind his life back to the early days when he was studying under arnold schönberg.

these beautiful chords, together with the minimal yet highly poetic beam of light dancing on the walls of the

room, carry together a magical effect. this is what Cage had to say about this:

Of course the film will be about the effect of light in an empty space. But no space is actually empty and the light will show what is in it. And all this space and all this light will be controlled by random operations.26�

the film One11 will open a program of films at hunter, organized in concert with our colleagues from the

Film department, that will include a series of works by artists who follow suit with Cage with this medium,

such as rivane Neuenschwander’s quasi-magical and ever-so-subtle Inventory of small deaths (blow) (2000),

an approximately five-minute odyssey of a bubble floating through a landscape.

John Cage was quoted as saying that he hoped that, through this film, viewers would be led to find

themselves. it is our hope that going through the present exhibition, viewers will find themselves on the path

that Cage began to pave for them.

1 John Cage, “History of Experimental Music in the United States,”

Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan

University Press, 1961), 71.

2 Silence, 69.

3 Silence, 59.

4 The recording of our performance in 2008 at Hunter College/

CUNY can be found on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=A0BNsBlzQII)

5 See Daniel Charles, “Shattering Representation From

Landscape to Soundscape : Cage/Japan,” in Cycnos, volume

20 no. 2, June 25, 2005, http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.

html?id=77

6 Ibid.

7 Hiroko Ikegami, The Great Migrator: Robert Rauschenberg and

the Global Rise of American Art (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,

2010) 153 – 203. See in particular chapter 4, “A Dialogue in

Tokyo: Rauschenberg Meets the Japanese Avant-Garde.”

8 Marjorie Perloff, The Music of Verbal Space: John Cage’s “What

You Say,” http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/perloff/cage.

html

9 Ibid.

10 John Cage, “Lecture on Something,” Silence.

11 Goethe, Faust (New York: Anchor Books, 1989) c. 1961,

I.ii.263.

12 “Sound Design: An Invitational Conference on the Uses of

Sound for Radio Drama, Film, Video, Theater and Music”

presented by Bay Area Radio Drama at Sprocket Systems,

Skywalker Ranch, in Nicasio, California. 1989.

13 Hegel, G.W.F, The Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A.V. Miller.

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 10.

14 Ibid., 488.

15 Cage, Silence, 64.

16 Ibid., 65.

17 Ibid., 73.

18 Ibid., 36.

19 Ibid., 65.

20 Ibid., 67. Cage refers here to a discussion following a talk

Willem de Kooning gave at the Art Alliance in Philadelphia.

21 Cage, “Introduction,” August 31, 1981,

http://www.howtogetstarted.org/introduction.php?PHPSESSI

D=626f9a8309beb1b2def6e0a0704245f5

22 “John Cage: How To Get Started,”

http://www.howtogetstarted.org/cage.php

23 Ibid.

24 Silence, 65.

25 Ubu Web, http://www.ubu.com/film/cage_one11.html

26 Ibid.


William anastasi 20

soledad arias 22

Céleste Boursier-mougenot 24

WalterCio Caldas 26

José damasCeno 28

Hanne darBoven 30

mattHeW deleget 32

liZ desCHenes 34

Felipe dulZaides 36

león Ferrari 38

roBert Filliou 40

Yukio FuJimoto 42

niColás guagnini & garetH James 44

lYnne HarloW 46

douglas HueBler 48

david lamelas 50

reiner leist 52

Jorge maCCHi 54

CHristian marClaY 56

rivane neuensCHWander 58

kaZ osHiro 60

edgardo rudnitZkY 62

Fred sandBaCk 64

Frank sCHeFFer 66

usHio sHinoHara 68

linda stillman 70

daniel WurtZel 72

plates


W i l l i a m a n as tas i W i l l i a m a n as tas i

b. 1933 philadelphia, pa. lives and works in new york, ny

william anastasi’s Sink involves a simple action that turns into a meditation. a humble thick steel

slab occupies the floor; the repetitive (daily) ritual of watering this slab ends up producing a rich,

variagated patina. the accompanying artist’s instructions read: “set a rectangular piece of hot-

rolled carbon steel level on floor. pour on it a measure of tap water so that the resulting pond holds

its position short of overflow. each time the water evaporates, repeat.” 1 the work occurs on the

molecular level, but also in the tending of the piece itself. the physicality of Sink has to do with

chemistry in service to aesthetics. yet the true potency of the work happens through the measure of

time, tracked by the evaporating water and the interaction between the art object and its caretakers.

the artist clears a space for this quiet collaboration to occur.

Sink consists of an edition of four, and it is of no small significance that one found its way into the

collection of John Cage and Merce Cunningham. indeed, the devotional and softly intimate nature

of Sink speaks to Cage’s sensibilities. one can find echoes of Chinese gongshi—those scholars’

rocks that deeply fascinated Cage, whose contours and capillaries are formed by river water working

their surfaces over decades and centuries. likewise, the deft tending of Japanese bonsai, and the

composition of Zen rock gardens also conjure up anastasi’s Sink. in each of these instances, objects

are seen absorbing the impact of nature and time, without any human intention, other than setting

up a context (such as placing the steel plate in a room and watering it). d.t. suzuki, Cage’s mentor

and professor of Zen Buddhism, comments on eastern mysticism as being “the ‘silence of thunder,’

obtained in the midst of the flash and uproar of opposing electric currents.”2 this is a quiet and

contemplative site charged with the electric locus of ontological presence.

anastasi’s Sink implies such a dual nature. “sink” is a noun; a basin and a receptacle of water, but also

a verb; the action of descending below, somewhat tragically. anastasi’s Sink is a noun in its status as

art object, yet a verb in its constant flux and oxidation. the conditions of the work are anastasi’s: he

set up and wrote the instructions. yet the incarnation, and the constant, slow, gradual transformation

of the work belong to the caretaker of the piece watering and monitoring the metal as well as the

chemical impact on the molecular chains of its surface. the work only performs its function over

time, through change and chance, through discourse between materiality and constancy; no wonder

Cage wanted to have it. Just as a scholar’s rock is only realized after centuries of slow unnoticeable

“sculpting” by nature, so too does anastasi’s Sink require the patience of attentive care and the

passage of time.

Zachary Hale

Notes

1 http://www.williamanastasi.net/Mainframe.htm

2 shamansun.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/d-t-suzuki-on-eastern-mysticism

Sink, 1963

rusted steel, water

20 x 20 x 1/2” (50.8 x 50.8 x 1.3cm)

Collection of Michael straus


s o l e da d a r i as s o l e da d a r i as

b. buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in new york, ny

soledad arias works in a variety of media including neon, prints, installations, and interventions.

she is interested in exploring human relationships towards different modes of communication. By

combining visual effects with sounds and phonetics, she activates a multi-sensory experience, and

challenges conventional perceptions of language.

the artist began working on the ongoing “white neon” series (2002–present) shortly after receiving

her Masters of Fine arts from the school of Visual arts in New york City. Just as John Cage created

drawings to illustrate his compositions, arias’s “white neon” series transforms specific words and

phrases by emphasizing their graphic properties. arias explains, “i expose the intersection of the

aural and the visual, one where words, text, and involuntary sounds are transformed into a visible

form.”1 in doing so, arias imbues the words with an expressive physicality, and these light installations

connect a signifier (the word) and the signified (its inherent meaning) with a third component—the

word as an aesthetic object, with a haptic attribute.

in addition, the activity of reading/seeing/touching these word-objects activates their sound element.

Cage reinvented our experience and understanding of music by embracing everyday sound as part

of his compositions: think of Water Walk (1959), for instance. arias proposes an alternative method

of relating to words and narrative by highlighting their physical nature. as Cage stated, “what was

needed in music when i came along was the necessity of being physical about hearing.”2 these few

words aptly describe the essence of arias’s art practice.

however, arias presents this physicality in a most fundamental form. in contrast to Bruce Nauman’s

neon phrases, for instance, tantalizing with their bright colors and swirling shapes, arias’s neon texts

are monochromatic and linear, oddly serene, and restrained. this ensures an unmediated relationship

between artwork and viewer and offers the possibility to assess the word individually, as well as to

question the way in which it functions within a larger social and cultural context.

arias highlights the manner in which people think about and relate to language. her work offers a

multi-dimensional didactic interpretation that alludes to the expansive possibility of meaning, and in

this way opens our minds to explore further how we mean what we mean.

Claire Breukel

Notes

1 Interview with the artist, October 19, 2011.

2 (Roth and Roth, pp 80-81).

phonetic neon [aha], 2011

white neon

40 x 1/4” (101.6 x 0.6cm)

Collection of the artist



white neon

40 x 1/4” (101.6 x 0.6cm)


C é l e s t e B o u r s i e r- m o u g e n ot C é l e s t e B o u r s i e r- m o u g e n ot

b. 1961 nice, france. lives and works in sète, france

French composer and artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates situations where sonic events take

visual form or, conversely, where visual information is expressed acoustically—a highly Cagean

conundrum. in his sound environments, Boursier-Mougenot extracts the musical potential of

everyday objects by creating systems and rules for musical situations to generate and sustain

themselves.

Following in the tradition of Marcel duchamp’s readymades, Boursier-Mougenot elevates the role

of an ordinary object. Following in the tradition of John Cage, he explores each of these objects’

ability to produce unexpected sounds. in his piece indexes (v. 1) (2012), included in this exhibition,

a grand piano is rigged to play in response to a live internet feed of stock market data from business

news and financial information websites around the world. this piece is an iteration of index (v. 1-4,)

an earlier series of works in which the piano sonically transcribed transmissions of the keyboard

tapping of museum or gallery employees typing at their desks. the most recent version, created for

two grand pianos, was exhibited at eMpaC (the experimental Media and performing arts Center) with textual material

provided by staff members working in their offices, out of sight of gallery visitors. in indexes (v. 1) the artist reconfigures a

traditional instrument by inserting a software system of his own design, much as John Cage did decades earlier with his

prepared piano compositions. the software that Boursier-Mougenot wrote links linguistic properties to musical properties,

translating letters and phrases into pitch, repetition, and chords.

Boursier-Mougenot does not compose musical scores, but rather provides opportunities and systems in which musical

arrangements may occur. in his untitled pool series (1998-2002), each installation consists of a blue inflatable children’s

wading pool filled with water in which china dishes and bowls, glassware and miscellaneous porcelain float. the water

circulates by a pump and sustains a consistent temperature of approximately 30 degrees celsius so as to increase the

potential sonic reverberation of the items. the half-water-filled pieces of china swirl and gently collide with one another,

creating a soothing and meditative sonorous environment. the different pools in any one series are made up of the same

type and number of technical components—inflatable swimming pool, pump, water-heater system—and also a collection

of dishware that, although similar in appearance, has been chosen for its unique sound quality and the pitch of the note it

produces when struck. No two installations sound alike.

Boursier-Mougenot places equal importance on the sounds created by the objects and on the transformation of the

objects by the sounds they make. in the series from here to ear (2007–2012), Boursier-Mougenot positioned amplified

electric guitars horizontally in a gallery space filled with finches, whose gentle landing on the strings created a soundscape

in which viewers were surrounded by the birds and discordant noises from the instruments. By rejecting a traditional

musical performance, the artist placed the viewer at the center of a chorus of guitars, so to speak, in order to create a

nonhierarchical experience of the piece. in this way, Boursier-Mougenot blurs the boundary between music and “sculpture

as living sound.”

Misa Jeffereis

indexes (v. 1), 2012

pleyel piano p190 with pianodisc system,

computer and software

74 1/2 x 59 1/2 x 40 1/2” (189.2 x 151.1 x 102.9cm)

installation view, “index, virus, solidvideo, detail,”

paula Cooper gallery, New york, Ny (3/19 – 4/25/09)

Courtesy of the artist and paula Cooper gallery, New york


indexes (v. 1), 2012

pleyel piano p190 with pianodisc system,

computer and software

74 1/2 x 59 1/2 x 40 1/2” (189.2 x 151.1 x 102.9cm)


paula Cooper gallery, New york, Ny (3/19 – 4/25/09)


Wa lt e r C i o C a l das Wa lt e r C i o C a l das

b. 1946 rio de Janeiro, brazil. lives and works in rio de Janeiro

waltercio Caldas does not wish to distance himself from art historical icons. Quite the contrary.

he willfully and playfully maintains an active dialogue with classical and modern works, namely by

Marcel duchamp, giorgio Morandi, and Man ray, among others.1

Caldas’s work is founded in Neo-Concretism, a movement that began in Brazil in 1959 by rejecting

Concretism, which was committed to non-figurative geometric art. Neo-Concretism not only sought

to reevaluate the principles on which concrete art had been founded, but it “rescued subjectivity,

affirmed the presence of the arts, and turned the public into the subject of aesthetic actions, calling

for a ‘life experience’ that would conform to art itself.”2

Combining disparate mediums, Caldas ruptures any traditional definition of sculpture by allowing

his work to oscillate between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality; drawing and sculpture;

absence and presence; accessing the void, and presenting an illusion of reality. his sculptures appear

to activate objects between spaces, as well as spaces between objects—hovering between pure objectality and spatiality: “i would like to produce an

object with the maximum presence and the maximum absence,” he once said.3 his structures loom large as they define wide areas of space, and yet,

are made with scant material given the amount of square footage they occupy. instead of merely presenting objects, Caldas says about his works that

they evoke “sculptural moments.” as agnaldo Farias writes, these moments “remind us of how Caldas’s objects invade their surrounding territory,

virtually pervading the invisible and silent air trapped in between things that we casually call ‘emptiness.’”4

this tension between presence and absence, fullness and emptiness, conjures up Cagean notions of music as organized noise and silence, both

inherently bound with each other through a carefully structured concept of duration. although Caldas’s O transparente (The Transparent [from the

Veneza Series]) is decidedly hollow, with no tangible core, no palpable substance, it is far from empty. the structure holds up these tensions and

contradictions to the viewer who may choose to look at the object, or alternatively (but not simultaneously) look through the object,

as the title suggests.

O transparente (The Transparent [from the Veneza Series]) embodies the artist’s mandate of creating “maximum presence” and “maximum absence”

at the same time; it can also be interpreted as a reference to duchamp’s sculptures of etched and imaged glass (such as Large Glass and Small Glass).

the steel structures, reminiscent of a giorgi Morandi still life in terms of their sober and direct forms, offers a launching pad from which the viewer

can explore the framed transparency. Farias aptly notes that “inside Caldas’s artistic universe, ‘absence’ and ‘presence’ become interchangeable, in

the same way that music intertwines with silence.”5 Just as Cage drew attention to silence as an indispensable, and indeed, enjoyable component of

his compositions, deserving as much consideration as sound, Caldas calls attention to transparency. transparency is no longer merely the absence of

material but acquires, at the artist’s hand, the same density—and power of fascination—as steel and glass, or any other medium.

Claire Bergeal

Notes

1 Alicia Murria, “Let the Object become intermingled with the situation it creates.” Artecontexto, no. 20. 2008, 44.

2 Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, et al., The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps Cisneros Collection (Austin: Blanton Museum of Art,

University of Texas at Austin, 2007), 58.

3 Guy Brett, et al., Transcontinental: An Investigation of Reality: Nine Latin American Artists (London; New York: Verso, 1990), 70.

4 Gary Dufour, et al., Out of Place. (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1993), 22.

5 Ibid, 30.

O transparente (da serie Veneza)

(The Transparent [from the Veneza Series]), 1997

stainless steel and acrylic over glass

79 1/8 x 59 7/8 x 59 7/8” (201 x 152 x 152cm)

Colección patricia phelps de Cisneros





79 1/8 x 59 7/8 x 59 7/8” (201 x 152 x 152cm)


J o s é da m as C e n o J o s é da m as C e n o

b. 1968 rio de Janeiro, brazil. lives and works in rio de Janeiro

a primary theme of damasceno’s work is the reification of space: his manipulation of negative space

through the careful arrangement and accumulation of objects makes palpable that which is usually

unseen and taken for granted as empty. Just as there is no such thing as true “silence,” (one of

Cage’s foremost concepts), nor can space ever be full: it is always activated by the way in which it is

occupied. space, in damasceno’s hands, is never a passive void either. Viewers are always aware of

themselves in relation to the work, heightening their own consciousness in the act of seeing.

damasceno’s piece titled Step by Step (2006) provides an interesting example of this concretization

of space. in this work, a dance is transformed into sculpture, with each step recorded in place by a

marble footprint. as the absent dancer’s movements are tracked across the floor, the footprints begin

to pile up, one on top of another as a record of the utilization of space. in this exhibition, damasceno’s

work again toys with our relationship to the space, and the manner in which it is inhabited. in 2 estudos

sobre 1 dimensão perdida (2 Studies on 1 Lost Dimension), a small iron table lies on its side on the floor.

extending from each of its points, a line is drawn through space and anchored to the wall, suspending

it in a state of both tension and rest. referencing perspectival rendering from the renaissance, this

simple gesture draws attention to the way in which we understand objects in terms of dimensionality.

perspectival drawing is utilized as a means for depicting three dimensions on a two-dimensional

surface, and in this piece we are presented with the inversion of that mechanism. here, the three-

dimensional object becomes a two-dimensional abstraction, subverting and thus reinforcing our

awareness of the space and the manner in which we negotiate it. Just as Cage’s composition 4’33”

redefined the concept of silence, damasceno’s work operates to transfigure space, making palpable

that which is unseen.

Annie Wischmeyer

2 estudos sobre 1 dimensão perdida

(2 Studies on 1 Lost Dimension), 1996

iron and elastic cord

installation dimensions approximately

7’ 7” x 15’ 10” x 35’ (230 x 482 x 1080cm)



H a n n e da r B ov e n H a n n e da r B ov e n

b. 1941 munich, germany. d. 2009 hamburg, germany

german artist hanne darboven moved to New york in 1966, where she soon met artist sol lewitt

and critic lucy lippard among many others. New york was then the cradle of Minimalism and

Conceptual art. darboven began creating works on graph paper, developing her own very particular

use of the calendar as a foundation for much of her future work. her daily practice of writing is

characterized by her extremely disciplined work ethic. Creation for darboven was not fueled by any

kind of personal pathos, but by a steadfast, continuous, seemingly unstoppable application of her

inner logic to create Schreibzeit— “writing time.” this daily grind directly echoes John Cage’s own

daily practice and more—it highlights their shared values: indifference, pushing aside the ego, in an

attempt to close the gap between art and life. as we know with Cage, his artistic practice and value

of such goals were developed through his dedicated study of Zen Buddhism. darboven, speaking in

terms that evoke this kind of spiritual investment, once said: “i have a clear conscience; i have written

my thousand pages. in the sense of this responsibility—work, conscience, fulfillment of duty—i am no

worse a worker than someone who has built a road.”1 indeed, the abundance of her work captures the feel of time passing,

the accretion of every square inch of her diaristic activities, indeed, much like that of a builder of a road—thousands of miles long.

ungraspable time is a looming motif in darboven’s works, and in turn her works feel disorienting and seemingly endless—almost like the sight of

a highway crossing a desert. she began her studies as a music student who played piano and ended her career by translating her number-based

pieces into musical notation. her relationship of time to music was constant throughout her life, and ties her practice closely with Cage. she turned

to mathematical writing as a “highly abstract language functioning in an entirely self-referential manner.”2 this lines up with Minimalist ideals of

the time. Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983 (Cultural History 1880–1983) is darboven’s most colossal and all-encompassing work, comprising around 1,589

identically sized sheets of paper and 19 sculptural objects. the work is not easy to take in. the viewer must submit to her inability to fully grasp the

work in its entirety, particularly without access to the codes required to make sense of it, in order to enjoy the work. Cage too, loved confronting

the limits of his listeners’ graspability—his orchestration of erik satie’s famous piece Vexations (1893), in which a “short” piano composition is

successively repeated 840 times, culminating in a performance lasting on average up to eighteen hours, offers a good example of this. darboven’s

II-b, in comparison, is intimate: it is only comprised of only twenty-eight panels; however through her obsessive dedicated repetition, the drawings

coalesce into a small ocean of methodical waves.

Much of Cage’s work functioned the same way: having long abandoned schönberg’s twelve-tone system, he left the listener to wrestle with various

sounds, unaided by any traditional hierarchical context. “New music: new listening. Not an attempt to understand something that is being said, for, if it

were being said, the sounds would be given the shapes of words,” Cage said. “Just an attention to the activity of sounds.”3 For Cage this was achieved

through severe reduction, an opening up or emptying out, so that the world could rush in. For darboven it was about turning inward, overwhelming

instead through her mass output of production. in the end, both gave the audience the space to build their own understanding

out of a feeling of dislocation.

Tryn Collins

Notes

1 Petra Stegman, “Hanne Darboven: Discipline and Obsession,” Artist Portrait: Culturebase.net.

http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?4060

2 Lynne Cooke, “Introduction,” Dia Art Foundation Website http://www.diaart.org/exhibitions/introduction/80

3 John Cage. Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), 10.

II-b, 1970–73

ink and typewriting on twenty-eight

pieces of paper

28 panels: each 11 1/2 x 33” (29.3 x 83.8cm)

the Museum of Modern art.

gift of ileana sonnabend


m at t H e W d e l e g e t m at t H e W d e l e g e t

b. 1972 hammond, in. lives and works in new york, ny

Cage’s use of systems and chance operations was a means by which he could divest his work of self-

expression, preferring to let sounds be themselves, and ever fearful to have them bear the burden of

carrying some meaning. Cage let go of the romantic notion of the artist’s hand: aesthetic decisions

should have nothing to do with the artist.

taking up this mantle, Matthew deleget writes: “i am decidedly unromantic… it is all a means to

an end.” his approach to his work is straightforward—paint is used straight from the tube without

any kind of emotional underpinning—and applied without any romantic posturing. Cleansed of any

expressionistic content, his work turns into an investigation of reductive abstraction and its capacity

as a vehicle for meaning—or lack of.

in Monochrome (Sleeper Cells) (2007), deleget uses the same white paint of the gallery walls and a

roller to paint over a trio of mirrored paper surfaces. inspired by the slapdash over-painting of graffiti

by landlords hasty to obliterate the illicit signatures of street artists, deleget turns the gesture on

himself. in an act of artistic self-effacement, or rather defacement, deleget circumvents any attempt

to read expressive content in the work. a coat of white paint denies the reflection of the mirrored

surface save for edges that peek from underneath serving only as a reminder of what is being rejected.

the surface that had served as a mirror for both the artist and world is here rendered mute and

impassive. refusing to divulge any information, these paintings offer instead only a stoic silence.

or, in the words of Cage: “i have nothing to say and i’m saying it.”

Annie Wischmeyer

Monochrome (Sleeper Cells), 2007

latex paint on mirrored paper, and silver pushpins

40” x 8 ‘ 4” (101.6 x 254 cm) overall,

each panel 40 x 32” (101.6 x 81.3 cm)

Courtesy of alejandra Von hartz gallery, Miami, Fl


l i Z d e s C H e n e s l i Z d e s C H e n e s

b. 1966 boston, ma. lives and works in new york, ny

Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision, version 2) is a series of six photograms—semi-reflective, imageless

rectangles configured in a 360° viewing plane. deschenes exposed photosensitive paper outside after

dusk and brought the sheets indoors before sunrise. the sheets of paper captured nothing but the

near-total darkness to which they were exposed: photographs are, etymologically, images made by

the marks of light. here, we have photographs—literally images of light taken when there is no light.

deschenes’s installation follows suit with herbert Bayer’s unprecedented exhibition design Diagram

of a 360° Field of Vision, as part of a 1935 exhibition installation for the Baugewerkschafts Ausstellung

(Building Workers’ Unions Exhibition) in Berlin. there, artworks were displayed at every angle, on every

possible surface including floors and ceilings. this all-out exhibition design allowed the viewer’s eye

to wander throughout the whole room: up and down, left and right, east and west, not a single wall

was privileged.1 this vast and critical expansion of the visual field broke away from the standard

concept of art display (you might call it the first attempt at creating institutional critique). this placed

the focus instead on the viewer and their full physical experience as they moved through the space of the display.

we know that during his trip to europe in 1930, Cage spent time with many Bauhaus artists, Bayer among them.2

it is quite possible that John Cage saw earlier studies of the 360° field-of-vision design; if not, he most likely heard about it.

deschenes’s present reinterpretation of Bayer’s design incorporates highly-reflective photograms, presenting the viewer with a circle

of planes that hold no discernible picture. Because of the reflective nature of the photograms, deschenes’s work accentuates the

premises of Bayer’s installation, by shifting the emphasis from the subjectivity of the artist to the subjectivities of the viewers whose

presence and gaze form a truly inter-subjective sphere that echoes and amplifies the artist’s initial intention.

self-expression, and means of exploration of the world are, arguably, the two principal directions taken by much photography in the

past.3 deschenes, paradoxically, addresses both branches of this alternative—her art is a means of self-expression, through which

she tests the various methods and limits that photography presents. Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision, version 2) continues deschenes’s

focus on pushing the boundaries of what photography is—capturing light—and how it is perceived—self-expression versus

exploration. however, by simply focusing on and exploring the limits of the photographic medium, deschenes’s work is aligned with

Cage’s foray into the elimination of subjectivity. as John Cage refers to robert rauschenberg’s White Paintings: “he is not saying; he

is painting . . . the message is conveyed by dirt which sticks to itself and to the canvas.”4 analogously, deschenes is not saying; she

is displaying, exposing, and reflecting. the message conveyed is determined by the viewer’s interaction with the work.

Claire Bergeal

Notes

1 Arthur A. Cohen, Herbert Bayer: The Complete Work (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984), 289.

2 David Nicholls, et al, Cambridge Companion to John Cage (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 23.

3 John Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1978), 19.

4 John Cage, “On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Work,” Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966), 99.

Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision, version 2), 2010

six unique silver toned black and white photograms

dimensions variable

Courtesy of the artist and Miguel abreu gallery


F e l i p e d u l Z a i d e s F e l i p e d u l Z a i d e s

b. 1965 havana, Cuba. lives and works in havana

working in a variety of mediums and contexts, Felipe dulzaides explores shifting perceptions of the

natural world. projects include installations such as an inflatable heart, in which children can jump

(What is essential is invisible to the eyes, 2006), to quickly constructed scaffolding whose function

is to keep a ball from falling to the floor (Structure that keeps the ball off the ground, 2002).

For his project Taking Chances (2009–2011), dulzaides photographed and made short videos of a

roll of toilet paper being thrown into the air and unraveled by the wind. originally exhibited in a los

angeles international airport terminal, Taking Chances uses a very simple structure consisting of

the interplay between gravity and wind acting upon the roll of toilet paper. the combination of these

two forces (gravity and wind) interact to give the unrolling paper its own swirling, lyrical arabesques,

as they trail it across the landscape enabling this prosaic everyday use object to acquire an arching

poetic gesture.

Taking Chances, and many of dulzaides’s short videos, including Unwind (2004), Blowing Things Away

(2001), and Dialog with a Foghorn (1999) employ a mechanism used by John Cage starting in the early

1950s. Cage began to deploy a chance operation methodology as a structuring agent that allowed for

both a conceptual and technical support for work. resulting compositions, such as those from Cage’s

Variations (1958–1967), were beyond the conceivable imagination of both composer and audience.

dulzaides also uses chance operations in some of his video shorts, such as Unwind or Making a Road

(2001). instead of relying on his own skills, he relies on the forces of wind and gravity. in this way, the

paper draws a line that the artist would, in theory, not have been able to conceive or make.

using toilet paper as drawing tool again, in the series of photographs Toilet Paper Interactions (2001–

2009), dulzaides inserts toilet paper into landscapes thereby altering them in provocative ways.

in one print, a blank slab of black top is converted by placing parallel lines of toilet paper mimicking

the painted lines of a parking lot. through this simple intervention, dulzaides seeks to impose order

onto an otherwise non-orderly space. that same desire to apprehend the natural world through at

least some kind of methodology attracted Cage to the I Ching. the I Ching became, for Cage, the

structuring agent for his use of chance operation. dulzaides further elaborates on Cage’s chance

operation in his short videos, and displays his kinship with Cage’s desire to interact with the natural

environment in pieces like Toilet Paper Interactions.

Reid Strelow

Selected Video Works, 1999–2011

single channel video reel (looping video):

Following an Orange, 1999, 1’ 14”

Dialog with a Foghorn, 1999, 1’ 40”

Time in My Hand, 2000, 2’ 13”

Blowing Things Away, 2001, 2’ 45”

Unwind, 2003, 00’ 45”

Welcome to the Other Side, 2007, 4’ 32”

In Between, 2011, 1’ 17”

Courtesy of the artist


l e ó n F e r r a r i l e ó n F e r r a r i

b. 1920 buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in buenos aires

incandescent lines define the work of león Ferrari, first appearing in his complex wire sculptures

of the 1960s, then, in the same period, emerging in words, within a language meant to challenge

violence and repression. in The Art of Meaning (1968), he criticizes avant-garde art that is restricted

to formal innovation. he argues that meaning is essential aesthetic material, and states, “art will

neither be beauty nor novelty; art will be efficacy and perturbation.”1 with the tucuman arte project

of 1968, he moved closer to an activist role. he and other committed argentine artists joined together

in an overt political action to expose the disenfranchisement of sugar cane workers by the military

government. works such as the Words of Others, a montage of the bible, newspaper reports, quotes

from hitler, pope paul Vi, and president lyndon B. Johnson, are assembled in such a way that they

condemn the church, state, and all dominating euro-american institutions for their interventionist

policies, complicity, hypocrisy, and immorality.

Colgante Escultura Sonora (Hanging Sound Instrument) is three meters high, consisting of slim metal

rods, each stainless steel element suspended from a square steel armature. it hangs from the ceiling

and the viewer is encouraged to enter the piece and take hold of the rods. squeezing them together

produces a heavy, rustling sound that envelops the viewer. immersed in this field, a dematerialization

takes place, as the reverberations redefine the vectors of listening, and reach infinite pulsation. Myriad

particulars are always sacrificed by any abstract unifying concept, as John Cage illustrated when he

redirected our attention to the particulars of every single particular sound. By employing rhythmic

structures and chance, each sound can be experienced as unique. with his musical sculptures, Ferrari

manipulates and shapes experience as viewer and sound intersect, splintering subjectivity into an

electric field.

Raphael Moser

Notes

1 León Ferrari. (Katzenstein 2004), 316.

Colgante Escultura Sonora

(Hanging Sound Instrument), 1979/2010

steel

118 1/8 x 15 3/4” (300 x 40 cm)

Courtesy of augusto and león Ferrari art & acquis

Foundation and haunch of Venison gallery


r o B e rt F i l l i o u r o B e rt F i l l i o u

b. 1926 sauve, france. d. 1987 les eyzies, france

a French member of the international Fluxus movement in the 1960s, robert Filliou was in direct

contact with John Cage. this can be seen in his work predominantly through an ongoing exploration

of the interplay between silence and music, as in Telepathic Music No. 5. the work features a roster

of traditional music stands that conjure up the presence of a traditional orchestra, each instrument

player reading his score. instead of the traditional music score, a double-sided playing card gives the

potential orchestra member the clue of what s/he is to play or interpret. Filliou’s installation, evoking

the leftovers of non-musical performance, opens up to a performance in which random passersby

interact with one another, looking at various cards, left to their own devices to “re-create” what

Telepathic Music could be about.

silence and indeterminacy, both key to Cage’s oeuvre, are crucial here, in Telepathic Music No. 5. the

music implied by the title of the piece and the inclusion of stands is nowhere to be heard; it is purely

a “telepathic” experience that takes place between the participants and the artist. in the experiential

sense of the work, just as Cage manipulated sounds and a silence that do not exist, so too does Filliou allow silence

to take the place of literal music—Filliou’s silence, though, sounds different: it is telepathic—it truly depends on an

(impossible?) communication between the artist (or the conductor) and his players. Furthermore, indeterminacy

dominates the performance aspect of this piece. a performance can only commence when two people look at either

side of the card that is hoisted in front of them. the artist has no control over who these individuals are or how they

will interact with the installation. these participants simply find themselves in the midst of a silent score for

both a musical piece and a Fluxus performance.

the concept of silence was important throughout Filliou’s career. as early as 1965, Filliou performed Yes – an action

poem, inspired not only by the idea of silence, but also by Zen, another key interest of Cage’s that reverberated on

many of his friends and acquaintances. during the first half of this performance, Filliou sat, unmoving, on a stage while

allison knowles described bodily systems. Filliou’s action, or lack thereof, constitutes both literal silence, as he said

nothing, and the silence of the body, as his sole activity was the most basic of all, that of simply being. Meanwhile,

knowles’ complementary recitation described all of the things that Filliou’s body was, in fact, doing while he sat there

in silence. Breathing and other necessary bodily functions, in this instance, are sounds that fill Cage’s and Filliou’s

silence. this sitting also references the soto school of Zen, which describes the practice of meditation as “just sitting.”1

this performance, then, references Cage through Filliou’s deep involvement with both silence and Zen.

Jennifer Wolf

Notes

1 Ken Friedman, ed. The Fluxus Reader (West Sussex, UK: Academy Editions, 1998), 108.

Telepathic Music #5, 1976–78

33 music stands, 32 playing cards

and 34 small note cards

dimensions variable


the gilbert and lila silverman Fluxus Collection gift


Telepathic Music #5, 1976–78

33 music stands, 32 playing cards

and 34 small note cards

dimensions variable



Y u k i o F u J i m oto Y u k i o F u J i m oto

b. 1950 nagoya, Japan. lives and works osaka, Japan

yukio Fujimoto’s combinations of sound installation, and found objects challenge traditional Japanese

art practice. often described as a sound artist, Fujimoto, in fact, is more interested in activating all

senses by creating interactions that encourage viewers to see, feel, hear, and touch the art object.

the artist describes these interactive provocations as “philosophical toys.”

Fujimoto moved to osaka in 1971 to study music at the osaka university of arts. inspired by the

university’s program and its advanced use of electronic music equipment, Fujimoto studied the early

advances made in this field, across the globe, and thus came across John Cage. Fujimoto soon began

to develop his own creative style that challenged the conventions of music making in Japan. in 2001,

Fujimoto was the featured artist at the Japan pavilion of the Venice Biennale, followed by his decade-

long project “Bijutsukan-no-ensoku” (“audio picnic at the Museum”) (1997–2006). this annual show,

which turned the otani Memorial art Museum in Nishinomiya City into an interactive exhibition

for a single day, afforded him much international acclaim. in 2007, Fujimoto returned to the Venice

Biennale, this time contributing his installation Ears with Chair to the international exhibition curated

by robert storr.

a site-specific work, Ears with Chair consists of three basic elements—an everyday chair (usually

an office chair) and two pipes on stands or adhered to the wall. what activates the work, however,

are two indispensable conditions: the viewer/listener’s participation in the act of sitting down and

grasping the two long tubes to bring them in contact with one’s ears; and second, the ambient noise

made by the circulation of other (potential) listeners/viewers. Ears with Chair conjures up Cage’s

body of work in that it boils down composition to its most fundamental form: it involves only what is

necessary to facilitate a viewing/listening experience. the two pipes connect the seated participant

to sounds coming from the world “outside.” the pipes alter the acoustics of incoming sound, thereby

altering the participant’s experience of reality and proposing the existence of another dimension.

the participant is thus encouraged to focus on the physical action of active listening. at the same

time, Fujimoto goes further than Cage by literally cornering the viewer/listener at the intersection of

two long tubes. in so doing, the artist emphasizes the vulnerability of the participant, while activating

all of their sensorial responses.

yukio Fujimoto’s practice brings together everyday life and art through found objects and materials,

as well as utilizing the artwork’s surroundings. in Ears with Chair, Fujimoto allows what Cage termed

“chance sound” to inform the participant’s experience. in this way, Ears With Chair, like 4’33”, is a

conduit for an indeterminate audio experience and a “tool to appreciate the world.”1

Claire Breukel

Notes

1 http://www.osaka-brand.jp/en/kaleidoscope/art/index2.html

Ears with Chair, 1990

installation

dimensions variable




installation

dimensions variable


n i Co l á s g uag n i n in i Co l á s g uag n i n ib. 1966 buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in new york

g a r e t H Ja m e s g a r e t H Ja m e s b. 1970 london, england. lives and works in british Columbia, Canada

in 2006 Nicolás guagnini, and his colleague, gareth James, made a proposal to the andrew roth

gallery to take a full-page ad in the summer issue of the art world’s holy grail, Artforum. the gallery

agreed and guagnini and James then invited seven artists: alejandro Cesarco, rodney graham, Jutta

koether, guillermo kuitca, seth price, Nancy spero, and lawrence weiner to create seven original

works within this format. the advertisement ran as a blank page in the magazine, and separately,

the works of art were sold as a deluxe edition. the resulting ad—which promoted work that was

entirely fictional—bypasses the magazine’s economy and undermines the conventional modes of

advertisement, promotion, and sales. this act exposes the intrinsically problematic nature of the

interdependency between the magazine’s content and its ever complicated relation to the market

and advertising.

guagnini and James were both founding members of the cooperatively owned exhibition and gallery

space, orchard 47, located on the lower east side of Manhattan from 2005 to 2008. the gallery,

like their work, was often associated with institutional critique, a practice that questioned and challenged the authority of the gallery

and museum. in their own art practice one can indentify common themes such as social division, repression, psychoanalysis, and the

capitalist structure in both gaugnini and James’s sculptural installations, guagnini’s films and photographs, and James’s typological work.

in Break Even, guagnini and James abandon traditional mode of authorship—following suit with Cage’s abiding attempt to eradicate

the artist out of the artwork. paying lip service to these kind of concerns, Artforum’s notoriously jam packed editions repeatedly affirm,

through advertisements and features, conventional ideas of what it means to be an artist; maker and product are inextricably linked.

guagnini and James’s white page halts the custom trajectory of the art magazine and creates a space where we are no longer given an

answer—any answer. the white page presses upon us an instant of silence that might frustrate, shock, surprise, or even better, spur

indifference. the artists’ intention, however, is to open the reader’s cognition beyond the limitations of prescribed paradigms. it is in

fact not silent at all, but asks the viewer questions about production, value, authorship and how all these functions relate to each other.

Furthermore, authorship shifts from guagnini and James when they ask others to intervene on the blank page. similar to Cage’s openness

to indeterminate and environmental noises, guagnini and James provide a structure, a 10 1/2 x 10 1/2” page, but allow a quasi-infinite

multiplicity of interpretations, reactions, and markings to constitute the final form.

it seems that guagnini and James, like Cage, want to reveal the substructure and logic governing various arenas of society—and of this

weird sub-strata, the art world. By highlighting—and abstracting—some of the key functions inherent in this world (promotion, visibility,

advertising) guagnini, James, (and Cage, before them) expose the absurdity of authoritarian systems. unlike Cage, however, guagnini’s

and James’s work is often intended to criticize the economic system and its failure through an appropriation of capitalist signifiers, such

as an Artforum ad. despite this difference, Cage and his younger colleagues share a desire to engage in a collaborative process that

challenges accepted norms and asks the viewer to reexamine the world in which s/he lives.

Sydney Gilbert

Break Even, 2006

intervention in Artforum

10 1/2 x 10 1/2” (26.7 x 26.7cm)

private Collection


Break Even, 2006

intervention in Artforum

10 1/2 x 10 1/2” (26.7 x 26.7cm)

private Collection

lY n n e H a r loWlY n n e H a r loW

b. 1968 attleboro, ma. lives and works in providence, ri and in new york, ny

“J’ai fait les gestes blancs parmi les solitudes.”

– Apollinaire

lynne harlow’s work questions the limits of art, both in terms of the notion of the traditional art

object and the viewer’s relation to it. pushing the work almost to the point of dissolution, her work

requires the participation of the viewer, even if only as witness, in order to operate—in order to rescue

its very existence. toeing the edge of this abyss, harlow pushes the limit of the physical presence

of her work. this emphasis on sensorial deprivation however, is offered by the artist as an act of

generosity. what she offers is an “incomplete choreography,” inviting the viewer to step outside

the traditional artist/audience relationship and instead engage in a dialectic investigation. in her

solicitation of the viewer, her work provides a space for an encounter, continuing the conversations

and propositions set forth by previous generations in the form of happenings.

the origin of happenings, a revolutionary performative practice that reached its apex in the ’60s,

can be traced back to John Cage and a particular event that occurred at Black Mountain College

in the summer of 1952. inspired by The Theatre and Its Double by antonin artaud, which encourages

the integration of theatre and life to create a new hybrid art form, Cage organized an evening that

combined painting, dance, a lecture, the recitation of poetry, and the playing of music. the traditional

notion of the stage was inverted with the performances taking place in and around the audience.

the result of this subversion of the traditional audience/performer relationship combined with the

heterogeneity of media and experience had the effect of dislocating the conventional status of art

in every sense.

Following in Cage’s footsteps, harlow plays with a similar disruption of relationships, both in terms of

the juxtaposition of media as well as between the viewer and the work. she describes her installation

BEAT as hovering on the border between drawing and sculpture. indeed, it is difficult to categorize

this work, which is composed solely of a monochromatic white drum kit oriented towards a large

yellow square painted on the facing wall. over the course of two hours a series of drummers play to

this yellow wall, creating an exchange between the visual and the aural. what harlow seems to be

proposing is that the interstice between these realms is the domain of the happening. the focus of the

work thus becomes a dialogue between two disparate elements, their shared space and the energy

created between them. all of this is then triangulated by the presence of the viewer, bearing witness

to this conversation and engaging in it.

Annie Wischmeyer

BEAT, 2007

acrylic paint, drum kit, live performance with musicians

painted square 8’ 5” x 8’ 5” (245.1 x 245.1cm)

Courtesy of the artist and MiNus spaCe, Brooklyn, Ny


d o u g l as H u e B l e r d o u g l as H u e B l e r

b. 1924 ann arbor, mi. d. 1997 Truro, ma

Variable Piece #70 is one of many conceptual photographic works and documentations by douglas

huebler, a major figure in Conceptual art in the late 1960s. a bit older than other Conceptual artists,

such as lawrence weiner, Jan dibbets, and richard long, huebler has held a critical role within the

development of Conceptualism, namely by being a proponent of dissolving or “dematerializing” the

art object—which soon became a shibboleth of Conceptualism. it was huebler who famously said,

“the world is full of objects, more or less interesting; i do not wish to add anymore. i prefer, simply

to state the existence of things in terms of time and space.”1

the eerie parallel between this statement and some of the tenets of John Cage’s Zen-inspired

philosophy has largely escaped attention. yet, both artists’ individual research was characterized

by an absolute openness to the flow of things. Both disciples of Marcel duchamp, they used the

constraints of time to explore the possibilities of chance. huebler documented the residual effects

of time, whereas Cage tackled real time.2 Both artists were fascinated by the notion that all—

all sounds, all objects, all people—are equally worthy of attention.

Variable Piece # 70 offers a perfect illustration of this excessive interest in the whole world: this piece was meant to

document the existence of everyone alive. photographing mostly groups of people in public, the project—absurdly grandiose

in its objective mission—was doomed from the start. this ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary exercise exposes the camera’s

weakness as a tool, revealing the “tension between surface blandness and infinite meaning.”3 huebler’s documentation work

is “ephemeral and mind-teasing,” a kind of systematic demystifying, only to create another shroud.4 as critic John Miller

wrote, “he [huebler] consistently destabilizes the photo’s documentary status by pointing to the kinds of information it

cannot convey.”5 this early work operates by a kind of gambling and humor leading to what is beyond our grasp, impossible

to measure. the work is negating not only the object but the author as well.

John Cage’s work operates within a similar paradox. his writings in Silence seem straightforward, but ultimately they dive

into the unknown or ungraspable. similarly, in his Duration Piece #2 (1970), huebler exhibits six timed snapshots of a statue

partly obscured by passing cement trucks in order to illustrate the “timeless serenity of the statue.”6 huebler’s work is both

frustrating and funny. it was Cage who pioneered the way for such chance operations to provide a framework for future

artists. Variation # 70 offers a marvelously futile attempt to photograph everyone without being dictated by any particular

logic, or program—ultimately, nothing but chance guides the artist in his grandiose, and unreachable plan.

Tryn Collins

Notes

1 Roberta Smith. “Douglas Huebler, 72, Conceptual Artist.” The New York Times. July 17, 1997.

2 Alexander Alberro. Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 77.

3 Mike Kelley. “Shall We Kill Daddy.” Origin and Destination. 1997, (http://strikingdistance.com/c3inov/kelley.html), 3.

4 Roberta Smith. ibid, 1.

5 John Miller. “Double or Nothing, John Miller on the art of Douglas Huebler.” Artforum. (April 2006), 4.

6 Mike Kelley. ibid, 6.

Variable Piece #70, 1971

Black-and-white photographs and typewriting on paper

17 5/16 x 40 1/8 x 1 3/16” (43.9 x 101.9 x 3cm)


partial gift of the daled Collection and

partial purchase through the generosity of

Maja oeri and hans Bodenmann,

sue and edgar wachenheim iii,

Marlene hess and James d. Zirin, agnes gund,

Marie-Josée and henry r. kravis, and

Jerry i. speyer and katherine g. Farley


dav i d l a m e l as dav i d l a m e l as

b. 1946 buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in los angeles, Ca

david lamelas helps us reconsider the forms and meanings applied to art in the ‘60s and ‘70s. his

interest in media, especially cinema, is related to his greater concern with the nature of information

and the means of conveying that information. For instance, Conflict of Meaning (Film Script) (1972)

consists of a set of images simply arranged in various configurations to alter their coded meanings,

while yet retaining an over all ambiguous message. the same year, with To Pour Milk Into a Glass

(1972), lamelas challenged societal conventions through the intentional mis-pouring of milk into

a glass that was being progressively destroyed. overall, lamelas’ work offers us a dynamic, and

complex analysis of the unsolvable problematic of subjectivity in contemporary art.

Limit of A Projection I constructs a sculpture with light. a theatrical spotlight is situated above the

gallery floor, and pointed down to emit a field of photons. the projected light forms an intense,

bright-white cone. the room is darkened so that the pyramidal beam of light can be properly

perceived. this work is formally minimal, yet conceptually loaded. the experience of the viewer

is predicated on the reception of this intense conical source of light. the light appears all the more

significant in contrast to its immediate environment: darkness. the light is illuminating, but illuminates

nothing, but empty space. there is no material object to observe, nothing tactile, nothing visible—

nothing one would want to grasp. the only factor that brings this cone of light into existence is the

passage of a viewer-observer. the analytical gaze of a participant is the condition of possibility of the

meaning of this work. and, vice versa, the viewer’s imagination (and their own limitations) determine

the limit to which meaning can be projected on to the piece. without the engagement of the viewer

the piece is incomplete, in fact, inexistent. Limit of A Projection I lives through its being perceived and

processed through an observer, and dies without it.

lamelas shares with Cage a deep sense of selflessness—a rare commodity in the art world. the

persistent theme of audience dependency throughout lamelas’ greater oeuvre conjures up the Cagean

notion of engagement. as both lamelas and Cage are setting up environments for experiences, both

artists are delegating responsibility to the viewer—in a far more real and concrete way than duchamp

could ever have conceived.

they thus both bring attention to the significance of subjectivity (and inter-subjectivity). in this way,

the work questions who or what agent produces our experiences, including the mundane ones we take

for granted.

Matthew Cianfrani

Limit of a Projection I, 1967

theater spotlight in darkened room

63 (160cm) to 74 3/4” (189.87cm) diameter

Collection walker art Center, Minneapolis.

t. B. walker acquisition Fund, 2009


r e i n e r l e i s t r e i n e r l e i s t

b. 1964 west germany. lives and works in new york, ny

Beginning in 1995, as a romantic gesture to a long-distance lover, reiner leist started taking a

photograph from the same window of his midtown loft almost every day. the frame directs the

viewer’s gaze down eighth avenue from the twenty-sixth floor of the artist’s building. the images

are made using an archaic technique referred to as tin type. Consisting of not much more than a box

with a small hole and a chemically treated sheet of tin, the technique was developed at the dawn of

photography in the nineteenth century. this primitive form of harnessing light allows for little control

over the optical physics and image chemistry, or, pixel manipulation that is now possible.

the images, now numbering up to the thousands, were selected for exhibition through various

strategies. For example, in 2006 at the Julie saul gallery, leist selected images produced throughout

eleven subsequent months of september in reference to 9/11 as a rebuking gesture of that date’s

loaded association. given the prominence of the world trade towers within the composition of these

images, their presence, or not, within leist’s images is very charged. leist, however, merely presents

these images in a gridded light-box, organized chronologically. the consecutive, narrative implications

are left to the curators’ choices.

leist’s work, though derived from personal experience, seeks to be generative rather than

representative. photography, more than any other representational form, seems to demand being read,

not merely seen. leist understands that one’s subjective experience cannot be easily transmitted,

at least not through the limited technology of photography. rather, his system is one in which the

viewer can engage on their own terms, extracting the elements of the image that are compelling,

and developing an individual interpretation of the work.

abiding questions regarding authorship are shared concerns between leist and Cage: the Window

Project seems intent on delivering what is, rather than what the artist sees (or decides to see, or not

to see). it is all there, unedited—as in some of Cage’s compositions (think of Imaginary Landscape IV,

1951). leist’s technical process for Window Project requires very little manipulation beyond opening the

shutter for a calculated set of time. the light pours in, bleeding at the edges, and imprints itself against

the film-plate without any aid from a lens or aperture. the result is a grey, low-contrast composition.

through relinquishing control of the image, leist produces a situation allowing the viewer to create his

or her own experience.

Matthew Cianfrani

Window Project, 1995-ongoing

(work on loan spans 1995-2005)

installation: film, glass, plexiglass,

wood and fluorescent lights

dimensions variable

installation view, Museum for photography, Berlin, 2007

Courtesy Julie saul gallery and the artist


J o r g e m aCC H iJ o r g e m aCC H i

b. 1963 buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in buenos aires

Chance, employed as a mechanism for creative production, offers the possibility of random yet

often fortuitous moments that result in shifting conventional modes of understanding and the

creation of new meaning. resorting to chance operations in his compositional process allowed John

Cage to enter the realm of quotidian and prosaic circumstances. the imprint of these unforeseeable

and unquantifiable circumstances marked a radical shift in attitudes towards the authorial role of the

artist. For example, rather than for divination as it was intended, Cage utilized the i-Ching, the ancient

Chinese text, as an a priori system that allowed him to remove himself from the authorial position.

this same interest in chance appears again in his utilization of radios and other such devices that

when “played” during a piece, introduce an element of chaos based on location and circumstance. For

Cage, chance represented an opportunity not only to distance himself from the burden of expression,

but also to open up the possibility of discovering unintended significance through happenstance.

argentine artist Jorge Macchi shares a similar interest in the providential experiences that the utilization

of chance creates. he is perpetually engaged with ideas of impermanence and circumstance, and chance

operates for him as a mechanism to conjure these notions in a manner that allows for their analysis. the

circumscription of chance within the confines of a system transforms the incidental into meaning.

“even when music is a consequence of chance… what appears in the first place is an obsessive desire to assign sense or logic to the nonsensical. that’s how i understand the work we developed in Buenos Aires Tour: a tourist guide of Buenos aires based on a chance operation like the breaking of a glass, a project focused more on the creation of meaning than on the superficial description of a city.”1

in his piece Buenos Aires Tour, Macchi orchestrates a tour guided by chance operations, inviting the participant

to engage in the randomness produced. this randomness, however, affords the opportunity for the creation of

unforeseen significance. Breaking a pane of glass, Macchi superimposes the lines of fracture on a map of the

city, allowing the lines to suggest routes through the city streets and producing a series of “itineraries.” the

product of a collaboration with poet María Negroni and composer edgardo rudnitzky, this piece is comprised

of a guide, a map, a dictionary, a prayer book and other ephemera. this idiosyncratic collection of texts,

sounds, and objects becomes a subversive tour guide, one that toys with our conventional mode of navigation.

thus, rather than the traditional city tour comprised of monuments and landmarks, unchanging markers

designed to operate as timeless definitions of the city, Macchi’s tour offers an alternate view. instead of the

staid routine of programmed sites, chance operations provide an opportunity to traverse unexpected and

often overlooked environs, affording the participant the chance to encounter the city in a new, and somewhat

unexpected, manner.

Annie Wischmeyer

Notes

1 Interview with Edgardo Rudnitzky, http://bombsite.com/issues/106/articles/3218

Buenos Aires Tour, 2003

in collaboration with María Negroni (texts)

and edgardo rudnitzky (sound)

Mixed media: box, booklets, postcards,

map, Cd-rom, and stamps

dimensions variable

private Collection


C H r i s t i a n m a r C l aY C H r i s t i a n m a r C l aY

b. 1955 san rafael, Ca. lives and works in london, england and new york, ny

in Indian Point Road, a camera was set on a tripod by the artist along a quiet country road in Maine.

throughout the video, a single frame captures, unedited, the indeterminate, and indeterminable flow

of events that occur alongside the route. pure indeterminacy, indeed: an occasional car driving by, the

slight wavering movement of the foliage of trees in the wind. Nothing; something; anything. at any

time. this video offers a moving homage to Cage’s life-long exploration of happenstance eventuality.

this work was commissioned as a backdrop for one of a series of eight “events,” performances

collaged from existing choreography, organized by the Merce Cunningham dance Company at the

Joyce theater in december, 2004. the dancers were accompanied by newly composed (or found)

music: the sounds of Christian Marclay’s roadside. Much like Cage’s music and Cunningham’s

choreography, Indian Point Road proceeds freely—both independently of the will of the artist, and

autonomously from the performers on the stage. the random activity of the background traffic

occurring on the screen is offset by the (necessarily unrelated) activities of the dancers. randomness

compounds randomness.

Indian Point Road conjures up Cage’s famous dedication to, and pursuit of, an impossible silence:

very little “happens” throughout this video and very little can be heard; yet, Marclay known for his

acute dedication to the perfection of sound—carefully refrained himself here from adding (or editing)

any prescribed audio to the video, thus confronting us, the viewers/listeners, with the occasional

oppressing density of silence. these moments are punctured by ambient noises—birds, insects, a

breeze—that Cage would welcome in his own work. this pastoral cacophony escapes the intention of

the artist, who, through the mechanical device of his video, allowed them to be recorded. in so doing,

the artist transmuted them into music.

Marclay’s subject matter in Indian Point Road, is an ordinary american rural road. Not much happens

there (as on most rural roads). the video opens its lens to this: very little. in a Cagean manner, the

video, at times, can become monotonous—etymologically, one and the same tone dominates. yet,

paradoxically, the peaceful tranquility of this slice of nature acquires a certain grandeur. it becomes

mesmerizing, broken only by the sudden, indeterminate, startling burst of noise from a passing

automobile.

also Cagean, here, is Marclay’s exploration of duration per se: by letting the video camera do the work,

the artist seizes on time in its pure essence—not the time of an event (in which time itself is sunk),

but time as the event itself. By the same token, the world around the artist’s camera, in its perfect

ordinariness, in its naked and unedited simplicity, becomes the primary experience.

Jennifer Wolf

Indian Point Road, 2004

single channel video

duration: 30 minutes

dimensions variable

Courtesy of the artist and

paula Cooper gallery, New york


r i va n e n e u e n s C H Wa n d e r r i va n e n e u e n s C H Wa n d e r

b. 1967 belo horizonte, brazil. lives and works in belo horizonte

O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work was originally exhibited during the 24th são paulo Biennial in 1998.

while she was living in london, Brazilian artist rivane Neuenschwander swept up all the debris in her

home onto large square adhesive sheets. the results were two cubicles entirely tiled, from the walls

to the floor, with the residue of daily life. these tiles remain active while they are being exhibited,

acquiring still more dust and grime from daily visitors. in this piece, the “color” white turns out not to

be pure or neutral at all: there is no such thing as white. one sees here a direct parallel with Cage’s

realization that there is no such thing as pure silence. O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work also alludes to

rauschenberg’s White Paintings. Cage, referring to the White Painting from 1951, gushes that they are

“airports for light, shadows, and particles...a painting constantly changing.”1 But Neuenschwander’s

piece, although still receptive to the dimensions of light and shadow, acquires a more tongue-in-

cheek and gritty tonality. Far from the White Paintings, the adhesive paper here conjures old-fashioned

fly-traps and gives any neo-dada trope a different coloration: from airstrips for molecules, (Cage’s

description of rauschenberg’s White Paintings) we move to sticky tapes for mosquitoes—same function; different effect.

an important precedent for this work can be found in duchamp’s and Man ray’s collaboration, Dust Breeding, 1920.

after duchamp allowed one of his works, The Large Glass, to accumulate dust for a whole year, Man ray photographed

the results. But again, in contradistinction to this Franco-american duo and their careful and elegantly drawn lines of dust,

Neuenschwander’s industrial adhesive captures all and everything: the dirt and dust that sticks around is there to remind

us what even duchamp would have rather forgotten.

in a lecture he gave late in life, Cage explained his use of chance, saying, “i’m speaking of nothing special, just an open

ear and an open mind and the enjoyment of daily noises.”2 Cage indeed, built much of his work around the aesthetics of

non-intention, and was always careful to add that this was for one’s “enjoyment.”3 he embraced the unpredictability of the

day-to-day: whatever noise occurred in his aural environment—whatever went on the radio, a sneeze, a fire truck hurtling

by—was perfect. Much of Neuenschwander’s work also embraces chance and uncertainty—and this astounding capacity

to accept all. in her piece Starving Letters from 2000, she let snails eat undetermined patterns onto rice paper and, strangely

enough, the end result resembles maps. For One Thousand and One Possible Nights from 2008, shown at her New Museum

show in 2010, she punched holes out of a portuguese translation of The Arabian Nights, letting the piles of clippings create

arbitrary patterns on the floor. it is with this Cage-inspired openness that rivane Neuenschwander is able to map the subtle

beauty of the quotidian. O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work is a testament to the overlap between art and life.

Tryn Collins

Notes

1 John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings (MIddletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), 102–103.

2 James Pritchett, The Music of John Cage (Cambridge and New York: University of Cambridge Press, 1993), 145.

3 Brooks Williams, “Music II: From the Late 1960’s,” The Cambridge Companion to John Cage, edited by David Nicholls (Cambridge and New York:

Cambridge University Press, 2002), 135.

O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work, 1998

gathered dust onto squares of adhesive vinyl

dimensions variable

Courtesy of tanya Bonakdar gallery, New york;

Fortes Vilaça gallery, são paulo; and

stephen Friedman gallery, london




dimensions variable




k a Z o s H i r o k a Z o s H i r o

b. 1967 in okinawa, Japan. lives and works in los angeles, Ca

everyday objects—trash dumpsters, guitar amps, washing machines—are the source of kaz

oshiro’s imagery. through an artistic tour de force that interweaves painting and sculpture, the

artist creates deceivingly close representations of such objects. stretching canvas over stretcher

bars and assembling them together in a 3-d representation of these objects, oshiro then paints a

very convincing trompe l’oeil of the objects he recreates, such as a Fender guitar amp covered by an

impressively painted tweed or the water stain on a counter top. oshiro is never shy about exposing

the backs of his objects, thus revealing the stretched canvases that he assembles together, and

allowing his viewer to have a glimpse of his construction method.

referencing duchamp’s readymades, warhol’s screen-printed soup cans, and artists of the pictures

generation who sampled commercial imagery, oshiro appropriates objects from everyday life. unlike

such predecessors oshiro re-presents by re-constructing undecidedly close imitations of the real

items he copies. however, oshiro’s representations of guitar amps, for example, only function as

images, and remain stubbornly silent.

John Cage’s interest in and elevation of ambient sounds and noise was what first attracted oshiro

to the elder artist’s work. oshiro represents ambient visual noise, highlighting elements that tend to

fall within our peripheral vision and consciousness. Just as Cage often harnessed the unpredictable

cacophony within our daily existence, as exemplified by his commandeering of a live radio broadcast

in Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951), oshiro incorporates the visual counterpart into his art making

practice. while Cage’s appropriation of ambient and found sounds incorporates a high level of

indeterminacy however, oshiro’s process is completely deliberate. through oshiro’s methods

of construction and his choice of subject, the artist quietly but deftly elucidates the gaps in our

perception towards the banal elements we encounter within our daily lives.

Reid Strelow

Orange Speaker Cabinets and

Gray Scale Boxes (18 parts), 2009

acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas

12 orange cabinets: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4”

(73.7 x 76.2 x 37.5cm) each;

6 gray scale boxes: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4”

(73.7 x 76.2 x 37.5cm) each

Courtesy of the artist and galerie Frank elbaz


e d g a r d o r u d n i tZ k Y e d g a r d o r u d n i tZ k Y

b. 1956 buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in berlin, germany

edgardo rudnitzky is a sound artist, composer, and percussionist, whose practice incorporates sound

and visual art in theatrical settings, dance, and films. rudnitzky’s works explore the nature of sound in

its physical presence. to him, the visual presentation of his art is as important as its aural component.

the artist explores the limits and potential of musical instruments, reinventing the functionality of

a boat, record player, or clock using carefully constructed systems. the artist often incorporates the

setting, whether a public space or a restrictive area, bringing new life to uncommon sites.

Octopus is a sound object in which rudnitzky refashioned a turntable to incorporate four arms, each

protruding from separate corners of the device. the artist created a composition for a string quartet,

recorded each instrument separately, and made a vinyl disc with each track containing one short

musical phrase from one instrument. in its presentation, the arms are motorized, automatically

moving to their proper location (track) on the vinyl, and playing each phrase in sync with the other

instruments (arms). the tracks are distributed on the record so as to create a choreography of

movement when each arm slowly shifts positions. the combined motions of this hybrid creature is

one of surprising gestural fluidity and musical splendor. rudnitzky reconfigured a simple device that

amplifies sonic vibrations into a functioning musical octopus.

in another of his works from 2008, Little Music, rudnitzky and the artist and collaborator Jorge Macchi

(whose work is also represented in this exhibition and catalogue) created an interactive musical

piece in the Bayou saint John for Prospect.1 New Orleans. the back of five paddleboats were rigged

with a percussive african instrument called the kalimba, similar in theory to a music box. teeth were

affixed to the paddles, and with each rotation they struck the metal keys on the kalimba, allowing

the peddlers to create music. the combination of sounds from the five boats, although random,

harmonized beautifully because of the pentatonic scale. here is another instance in which rudnitzky,

like his predecessor John Cage and his prepared pianos, has reconfigured an object to function

quite differently from its original role—and to produce quite a different sound—a hidden Noise (as

duchamp would have it).

Misa Jeffereis

Octopus, 2008

turntable with four arms, each one

with its own speaker, vinyl records

37 7/8 x 24 7/8 x 24 7/8” (96.2 x 63.2 x 63.2cm)



F r e d sa n d B aC k F r e d sa n d B aC k

b. 1943 bronxville, ny. d. 2003 new york, ny

Fred sandback’s breakthrough came in 1967 when, while still in graduate school, he outlined a twenty-

foot-long 2 x 4 with string and wire, removing the board so that only the outline remained. this was

the beginning of a long-held artistic process and exploration into the representation of presence

versus absence. sandback gave “form” to this quasi-impossible conundrum through acrylic yarn. the

artist’s relation to the environment is crucial. Consequently, the space around each piece defines the

piece itself; the presence of a viewer meandering through the artist’s work activates the installation

and allows it to come to life. sandback created pieces that fit within specific architectural spaces

resulting in a close interdependence between the work, the architecture, and the spectator. Fittingly,

the artist referred to his environments as “pedestrian spaces.”

sandback’s oeuvre induces a true phenomenological experience of space and volume, playing with

the viewer’s perception, and creating works that appear to redefine the renaissance concept of what

is in and what is out. with sandback, bizarrely, you are both in and out. straight lines appear to be the

effect of a pure geometrical flat construction, but are actually the projection of a room-size volume.

sandback presented the absence of the mass by evoking this so-called mass with thin skeins of yarn.

the demarcation of absence versus presence recalls Cage’s concept that there can never be “true”

silence—sandback creates volume from very little, rejecting the notion that space can ever be

truly empty.

Julie Dentzer

Untitled (Sculptural Study, Two-part Vertical

Construction), c. 1986/2008

Black acrylic yarn

spatial relationship established by the artist,

overall dimensions vary with each installation

estate of Fred sandback; Courtesy of david Zwirner, New york


F r a n k s C H e F F e r F r a n k s C H e F F e r

b. 1956 Venlo, The netherlands. lives and works in amsterdam, The netherlands

Frank scheffer is a dutch documentarian who focuses primarily on music, including subjects such as

the 1995 Mahler Festival in amsterdam and the musician Frank Zappa. scheffer has collaborated with

and documented John Cage in Chessfilmnoise (1988) and Time is Music (1988).

From Zero: Four Films on John Cage is a series of four films involving John Cage, produced in

collaboration with composer and musician andrew Culver, who worked for Cage for eleven years,

most notably on One11, from 1992.

the series begins with Nineteen Questions with John Cage, a “chance determined interview” in which

Cage addresses nineteen different topics whose subject and answer-time are dictated by chance

operations. the topics vary wildly, but all broadly touch upon Cage’s vision of the world: e.g., three

seconds on Zen Buddhism (“the structure of the mind”), or, nine seconds on indeterminacy (“how to go

out of one’s mind”). the result is odd, whimsical, and always unexpected. the film casts Cage under a

charming, mischievous, and, at times, deeply ponderous light.

the second film, Fourteen, similarly based on chance operations, is a cinematic take on a composition for fourteen parts by John Cage. the musicians

are each given a sheet of music and a stopwatch, and rather than reading a series of notes on a staff while adhering to a specific time signature, each

musician is instructed to play a specific note for a non-specific period of time during the piece. For example, the musician must begin playing a B flat

between 0’30” and 1’00” and end the note between 0’50” and 1’20.” the duration of the note is up to the musician but, because of Cage’s guidelines,

cannot be longer than fifty seconds. the lighting system in the film is similarly operated—the lighting designer created a chance-operated system by

which the lights turn on and off.1 in typical productions, lighting is synched with the music, but in this case any synchronization is purely coincidental.

working independently, andrew Culver composed the score and Frank scheffer edited the visuals to make the third film, Paying Attention, imitating

the creative process between Cage and his long-time collaborator, choreographer Merce Cunningham. the film is composed of clips from an interview

scheffer conducted with Cage in 1982—the images and sound are distorted to the point of abstraction and incomprehension. For scheffer, the images

on the screen are not about what they represent but rather “what they are, and they are simply digital squares on a tV screen.”2

the fourth and last film of the series, Overpopulation and Art & Ryôan-ji is a collaboration between Cage and scheffer. using a recording of John Cage’s

mesostic poem, Overpopulation and Art, as well as his musical composition Ryôan-ji, scheffer creates a hypnotic film overlaying these elements with a

series of blank screens, scenes from a forest, and snippets of sixth avenue in New york City. the blank screens are black, white, and three shades of

grey in between. the source of Cage’s composition is the Zen rock garden, ryôan-ji, in kyoto (illustrated in Joachim pissarro’s introductory essay): the

solo parts represent the garden’s stones and the irregular rhythm the sand.3

all four films in From Zero: Four Films on John Cage involve chance operations, as is true of all of scheffer‘s films relating to Cage. Cage suggested

scheffer begin using chance operations in 1988, giving him a computer program made by his assistant, andrew Culver. the program simulated the i

Ching coin-tossing method with which Cage was intimately familiar. From then on, scheffer has used that software for his own work.

Claire Bergeal

Notes

1 This system was explained in Making Fourteen, one of the extras on the DVD version of From Zero: Four Films on John Cage,

by Frank Scheffer and Andrew Culver, distributed by Allegri Films, released February, 2004.

2 Email correspondence with Frank Scheffer, December 28, 2011.

3 Ibid.

From Zero: Four Films on John Cage, 1995

dVd





dVd



u s H i o s H i n o H a r a u s H i o s H i n o H a r a

b. 1932 Tokyo, Japan. lives and works in new york, ny

“draw a line on the pure white virgin paper. don’t stop, don’t think. Next,

with a spirited howl of ‘yeah, yeah, oh!’ draw circles, draw straight lines and don’t think!”

– Ushio Shinohara1

in 1952, ushio shinohara attended the tokyo university of the arts to study painting. he disliked

the strict curriculum, however, and ultimately decided not to graduate. instead, he helped found

the prolific Neo-dada Movement in tokyo, which was instrumental in transforming traditional art

practices by creating work that did not conform to traditional aesthetics. shinohara’s work questioned

perceptions of “beauty” and “ugliness” and the implied social hierarchy of their meaning, most

notably in his series “Boxing paintings” and “oiran.”

this notion of breaking down preconceived notions of what constituted “good” or “bad” was integral

to John Cage’s sound compositions, particularly in his introduction of chance elements into his work.

this had the same effect for shinohara whose work was termed “bad sculpture”2 in relation to, and in

response to, the celebration of the picturesque in traditional Japanese art. Made of found materials,

these “bad sculptures” aimed to question what constituted “art” and “non art”—the most renowned

of which is his “motorbike sculpture,” made entirely of cardboard and found objects.

shinohara quickly became a leading figure in the Japanese avant-garde movement and participated in eight consecutive Yomiuri Independent Exhibitions

until 1963, the year he began creating “imitation or appropriation paintings.” these paintings recreated american pop-art works, and in so doing,

shinohara negated his authorship. the best-known “imitation painting” is Coca Cola Plan, first created by shinohara in 1964 and replicated by the

artist over many years to follow. as a copy of robert rauschenberg’s 1958 Combine of the same name, shinohara created a replica that had subtle yet

fundamental differences from raushenberg’s piece. while encapsulating the speed and rhythm embodied by american culture, Coca Cola Plan also

embodies its Japanese origin through the particularity of its materials. Made of Coca-Cola bottles produced and found in Japan, shinohara recreated

the look of the original materials using found objects inherent to his environment. in a performative act, shinohara confronted rauschenberg during an

artist presentation with an imitation of Coca Cola Plan, an act that brought him international recognition.

in 1969, shinohara travelled to New york City with a grant from the John d. rockefeller 3rd Fund and decided to stay. his work has since been

exhibited internationally, and his “Boxing painting” performances have been staged in museums and galleries all over the world. these performances

consist of the artist dipping his boxing gloves in ink or paint and punching the canvas before him to create chance marks. the painterly action of

“Boxing paintings” stands for a universal challenge against traditional conventions of art making.

along with a pervasive energy, shinohara and Cage shared a mutual admiration for each other’s cultures—Cage for asian philosophies and Zen

Buddhism, and shinohara for american pop culture. they also shared a motivation to break down the boundaries of conventional creative practice

by negating self-expression in their work in place of collaboration and cross-cultural dialogue.

Claire Breukel

Notes

1 Nicholas Lusher; Ushio Shinohara (1932), www.nicholaslusher.com

2 Shuzo Takiguchi, “It’s Come to This: The Hell with It!,” Art column in Yomiuri Skimbum.

Coca-Cola Plan, 2011

Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

Courtesy of the artist and ethan Cohen Fine arts


l i n da s t i l l m a nl i n da s t i l l m a n

b. 1948 new york, ny. lives and works in new york and hillsdale, ny

“i paint a section of the sky every day and display them by the month or the year. here is a year’s

worth…”1 this is how linda stillman describes her Daily Paintings. a large grid of small rectangles

in varying shades of blue and gray, the Daily Paintings resemble a heavily pixilated image from afar.

up close, however, the nuances of each panel become more apparent, providing glimpses of clouds

here and there. as stillman’s statement implies, this series is an ongoing project in which the artist

undertakes the daily task of painting a small section of the sky and adding each panel to her growing

collection. the result is a conceptually and visually compelling summary of an amount of time

determined by the artist. though stillman does not set any strict time limit for her work, she paints

the view from a predetermined windowpane in her studio (real or imagined) to achieve a specific

angle every day, no matter where she is, in order to assure continuity within the series. the specific

time, date, and location are recorded on the back of each panel. her practice reminds us of another

project exhibited here, reiner leist’s Window Project.

the conceptual basis of stillman’s oeuvre, ranging from these Daily Paintings to photographs of found gloves to a project recording the

progression of a vegetable garden over the course of a few months, finds its origins in the paradoxical work of John Cage. Most important

here, is stillman’s also paradoxical reliance on chance and her inherent daily discipline in maintaining rigorous parameters in her work. she

has specifically highlighted Cage’s impact on her work, citing her own interest in “the everyday stuff and found objects of daily life…[and] the

relation of order and chaos, purpose and chance.”2 stillman, however, does not use any strict form of chance operations—such as Cage’s use

of the i-Ching—daily weather conditions or the survival of vegetation, however, are naturally outside of the control of the artist.

stillman is more attracted to Cage’s interest in indeterminacy than his foray into chance per se. (Chance can be calculated according

to probability theory; indeterminacy cannot). stillman relies on indeterminacy, as she relies on nature. the counterpart is that stillman

rigorously follows the demands of her self-imposed observance of the daily sky conditions, whatever that might be. duration, another

important concept in Cage’s compositions, also plays an important role, as stillman must choose a set period of time to execute her works in

order to control the number of panels in each piece. in this instance, an entire year is used, but she has also displayed individual months.

stillman’s use of her surroundings also finds a parallel in Cage’s concept of silence in music. For Cage, no true silence ever exists. silent

passages in his music, such as the entire composition of the infamous 4’33”, were filled with everyday, ambient noise. the sky takes on a

similar purpose within stillman’s Daily Paintings. like ambient noise, the color of the sky is an unavoidable element of our daily lives, yet one

that few people pay much attention to. By focusing an entire series of works on the sky, viewers are forced to focus their attention on it and

think of their surroundings, just as Cage hoped to do with music through his heavy use of silence. in stillman’s own words, this “silence”

allows her, and Cage, to prove that “we should marvel at the natural world and our material culture and not take it for granted.”3

Jennifer Wolf

Notes

1 “Daily Paintings,” Linda Stillman, www.lindastillman.com/daily-paintings. Accessed on October 22 , 2011.

2 Linda Stillman, email correspondence with author, January 1, 2012.

Daily Paintings, detail: 2007, 2007

acrylic and gouache on paper mounted on panels

365 panels: 77 x 47 x 3/8” (195.6 x 119.4 x 1cm) overall



da n i e l W u rtZ e l da n i e l W u rtZ e l

b. 1962 washington, d.C. lives and works in brooklyn, ny

twin crimson fabrics dance, captured inside currents of air produced by a chorus of twelve

household fans encircling them. daniel wurtzel’s Pas de Deux elicits uncanny elegance in animating

the inanimate. the textiles surge, swell, arabesque, leap, and dive weightlessly and voluminously.

they behave as though they had been choreographed. wurtzel describes his work as “an attempt

to transform ordinary matter into something extraordinary, to bridge the conceptual realm to the

material world.”1 indeed, witnessing the duet collapses any question of suspension of disbelief,

transfixing the viewer.

the allusions to dance, the suspension of the artist’s subjectivity, as well as employment of

indeterminacy and chance, all trace wurtzel’s artistic genealogy back to John Cage. Cage’s

relationship to dance is well known through his partnership with Merce Cunningham. Cunningham’s

dance company became an ideal vessel for the execution of Cage’s compositions. in the early 1930s,

Cage made a contract with himself, saying, “i determined to consider a piece of music only half

done when i completed a manuscript. it was my responsibility to finish it by getting it played.” Further, he recognizes

“that modern dancers were grateful for any sounds or noises that could be produced for their recitals.”2 this symbiotic

relationship would define Cage’s production, particularly after meeting Cunningham and the half-century of collaborative

performances that follow. wurtzel’s Pas de Deux conjures up the spirit of Cage and Cunningham not merely through a

superficial allusion to performing arts, but also alludes to their ethos of progressive movement and experience.

“personality is a flimsy thing on which to build an art,” said Cage. indeed, Pas de Deux denies the artist’s will that seems

here to fly out. after wurtzel sets the stage and flips the switch, there’s no need for further intervention. however, as

with Cage, simplicity belies complexity. this switching touch delivers an endless, and mesmerizing dance of loops from

this tape that seems to be animated by some kind of invisible force. Consider Imaginary Landscape No. 4, wherein Cage

conducted twenty-four players playing twelve analogue radio sets at Columbia university’s McMillin theater in May 1951.

the performers simply turned the radios on, and from then on, adjusted the volume, skipped along the band through static

crackle hiss and the errant phrase or melody. Imaginary Landscape No. 4 divorces the articulation of the performance from

the will of the performer, conductor, and composer. wurtzel’s Pas de Deux and Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 4 both turn

over the artist’s will to the hazards of chance. Chance is overt in the indeterminacy of both works, yet something more

than chance feels palpably alive in each piece. the works both capture the felicitous moment, the adroit touch of luck and

joy framed within the artists’ wish.

the armature of Cage’s practice lives in the sublime achievement of wurtzel’s Pas de Deux. wurtzel conjures dance,

dissolution of subjectivity, and the felicitous theater of chance within the gossamer gymnastic poetry of twin pieces of

textile caught inside air currents. it is undeniably beautiful.

Zachery hale

Notes

1 http://www.danielwurtzel.com/sculpture-artist-statement-new-york.cfm

2 John Cage. Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), 86.

Pas de Deux, 2011

Fabric, air

dimensions variable



uNder the iNFlueNCe oF Cage

By Julio griNBlatt


John Cage’s writings have an explicitly political dimension. at times, this stance

has been perceived as being in opposition with a presumed de-politicization of his

music. instead, i see his music as even more politically effective than his writings.

while his writings demand a sophisticated reader, his compositions and related

artworks point to deep and primary issues in his audience, related to their possibility

to participate, and how this participation can trigger unexpected possibilities

of action.

i contributed to this exhibition by gathering artists who, by echoing Cage’s

legacy, may elicit a similar effect from the audience. in a moment in which mass

media demands isolation—for people to relate to representations of life rather than

life itself—Cage calls for integration, to incorporate the world, and be responsive

to it, and to have an active position towards life. there is a resonance between the

spirit of the show and the incipient state of global awareness as a result of 2011’s

arab spring. the horizontal structure of the indignados all over the world, the lack of

definite agenda, and the urge to act is in tune with Cage’s radical politics, which are

not presented via content but in form: the absence of a conductor, the idea that there

is no right way of doing things but rather a multiplicity (yet, paradoxically, wrong

ways of doing things also exist), and the lack of a hierarchical structure among

performers and instruments.1

the relevance of a show of artists who worked or work under the influence of

John Cage—besides the fact that it is the centennial of his birth and the twentieth

anniversary of his passing—is in providing a perceptual plateau, where traces of

his concepts can be experienced. the artists in the show represent a very limited

sampling of the wide universe of artists infected by Cage and a very modest

catalogue of the enormous influence that Cage had on contemporary culture. some

of his concepts spread directly, others indirectly (yet consciously), still others almost

anonymously. Cage’s effect on culture is evinced by the wide array of artists of

different origins working in all disciplines who are influenced by him. as paradoxical

as this may seem, his effect is more powerful than his legacy.a

Mass media functions through the delivery of clear and explicit messages. it will

tell people what they have to do, think, eat, wear, dream, and imagine; it will define

for them the meaning of happiness. after years of indoctrination, we have come

to accept those mandates almost without questioning them. art is not powerful

enough to react to these operations by using the same strategies; the difference

in outreach is insurmountable. declarative or explicit artwork will be digested

by the empire through the ether, as described by Michael hardt and antonio

Negri.2 literality allows discussion and comprehension that allows further control.

resistance to classification is a difficult goal. even John Cage, so full of paradoxes

and contradictions, couldn’t fully escape this assimilation.B Myriad books, films, and

shows—including this one—on John Cage are proof of the possibility to classify

his legacy. But what remains irreducible is his effect on culture. Cage brought to

a – the importance of Cage is such that his effect on a – the importance of Cage is such that his effect on culture is stronger than his legacy. as some examples of culture is stronger than his legacy. as some examples of artists who have been influenced by him, aside from his artists who have been influenced by him, aside from his oft-cited friends Jasper Johns and robert rauschenberg, i oft-cited friends Jasper Johns and robert rauschenberg, i would list composer terry riley, due to his use of chance would list composer terry riley, due to his use of chance through improvisation, his connection between the east through improvisation, his connection between the east and the west, his use of tape loops, both in the studio and the west, his use of tape loops, both in the studio and during live performances; the filmmaker Manon de and during live performances; the filmmaker Manon de Boer, who explored the relationship between chance and Boer, who explored the relationship between chance and memory and life and art; painter kaz oshiro in his mixing memory and life and art; painter kaz oshiro in his mixing of syntaxes and blurring the boundaries between media of syntaxes and blurring the boundaries between media (painting and sculpture, pop with minimalism, the everyday (painting and sculpture, pop with minimalism, the everyday with contemporary art), and his use of humor; tacita with contemporary art), and his use of humor; tacita dean for her investigations on the boundaries between dean for her investigations on the boundaries between life and fiction, the use of chance and circumstance in her life and fiction, the use of chance and circumstance in her multimedia work; performance artist and musician laurie multimedia work; performance artist and musician laurie anderson who uses extended instruments of her invention, anderson who uses extended instruments of her invention, her relation with literature and poetry, her interest in time her relation with literature and poetry, her interest in time itself. and of course all Fluxus artists tried to co-opt Cage itself. and of course all Fluxus artists tried to co-opt Cage just as dada attempted to co-opt duchamp. it is evident just as dada attempted to co-opt duchamp. it is evident from this short list that Cage crossed and melted not only from this short list that Cage crossed and melted not only the boundaries between art and life, but also between the boundaries between art and life, but also between media, genres, and categories. it is interesting to see the media, genres, and categories. it is interesting to see the wide range of disciplines Cage affected.wide range of disciplines Cage affected.

in the words of some other artists:in the words of some other artists:

Composer alvin lucier: Composer alvin lucier: “…(John Cage has) that kind of force “…(John Cage has) that kind of force of saying to you: you got to try things, it doesn’t matter if it of saying to you: you got to try things, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work, it is more important to explore that. And so I did. doesn’t work, it is more important to explore that. And so I did. And that was a breakthrough. The breakthrough of my life.”And that was a breakthrough. The breakthrough of my life.”

Cartoonist Matt groening: Cartoonist Matt groening: “…and what John Cage taught me “…and what John Cage taught me was that there is a different way to approach life.”was that there is a different way to approach life.”

Musician John Zorn: Musician John Zorn: “…when I think about Cage… he was “…when I think about Cage… he was really the first influence, someone who opened all the doors for really the first influence, someone who opened all the doors for me and said, look: you can do anything.”me and said, look: you can do anything.”

writer heiner Müller: writer heiner Müller: “…and this edge was very very “…and this edge was very very important. And edges destroy borders, hmm?! But it could go important. And edges destroy borders, hmm?! But it could go wrong. Everything can go wrong. And I like that. The category wrong. Everything can go wrong. And I like that. The category of chance in Cage is very liberating.”of chance in Cage is very liberating.”77

a customer review on a customer review on Variations IVVariations IV: : “…This type of music “…This type of music is an amazing trip through an audio landscape. After several is an amazing trip through an audio landscape. After several plays of this disc, you’ll find yourself making the most plays of this disc, you’ll find yourself making the most fascinating, improbable mental connections between different fascinating, improbable mental connections between different sound sources. A fun disc. It may even inspire you to create sound sources. A fun disc. It may even inspire you to create something similar.”something similar.”

88

B – John Cage’s work is full of contradictions and B – John Cage’s work is full of contradictions and paradoxes, excellent fuel for the dynamism of any program. paradoxes, excellent fuel for the dynamism of any program. i understand that the lack of contradictions is dogma. his i understand that the lack of contradictions is dogma. his work runs in the tensions between freedom and discipline, work runs in the tensions between freedom and discipline, the objectivity of the composer and the subjectivity of the the objectivity of the composer and the subjectivity of the performer after his postulation of indeterminacy, between performer after his postulation of indeterminacy, between score and conductor. his practice seems to be able to score and conductor. his practice seems to be able to be executed by anyone, but especially by a genius like be executed by anyone, but especially by a genius like david tudor. one of the multiple paradoxes derived from david tudor. one of the multiple paradoxes derived from Cage’s thought is the relationship with the ego. while Zen Cage’s thought is the relationship with the ego. while Zen


practice some tools he learned from Marcel duchamp: applying chance to create a

musical composition; the concept of silence in relation to the Large Glass; the use of

readymades such as radios, recordings, or unconventional instruments. through his

works, all those elements became common use. these radical elements, together

with shifting the responsibility of authorship away from the composer and on to

the performer and even the audience, infiltrated culture in an anonymous way.

the use of these elements by artists—even those who seem completely at odds

with Cage’s way of working and aesthetic—testify to the way the Cage effect

permeated culture.C

in this sense, John Cage represents a pivotal moment in the history of twentieth-

century art. his works intensified and further developed the new era opened by the

rupture created by duchamp’s Fountain (1917) that changed the definition of art.

Cage, syncretizing duchamp’s revolutionary ideas with Zen philosophy, changed the

definition of music with his piece 4’33” (1952), four minutes and thirty-three seconds

of silence in three movements.3 echoing the transparent background of duchamp’s

Large Glass (started in 1912, the year of Cage’s birth, and declared “unfinished” in

1923), silence allows the world to be the background; the presence of the public in

the piece fulfills the creative act.4

a score needs to be executed by players. For Cage, the players constitute a new

sphere of influence; the composer cannot only try to influence the audience, but

also the performer. this point is of extreme importance as it transfers momentary

authorship to the performers. this transference applies to the spectator as well.

silence is, for Cage, the moment in which the exterior world is allowed to get into

the work: during any performance of 4’33”, each spectator will automatically become

a performer, either by action (noise) or omission (silence). the interpenetration is

complete when, in 4’33”, the performer turns into spectator as well, a spectator of

both the audience and the world. 4’33” urges a state of awareness and responsibility,

to understand the world as a whole, blurring the distinction between art and life—

the music and the silence (or the surrounding noise in the auditorium),

the performer and the viewer, all are part of the same scenario.

another musical operation Cage implemented was to abandon harmony in order

to open music to chance—to extinguish the artist’s personality, his memory, and

his desires—in other words, refusing authorship. Cage’s intentions were to break

down the barriers between art and life, postulating a state of enhanced awareness,

opening mind and art to chaos. although between 1949 and 1951 Cage attended the

lectures of Master daisetz suzuki on Zen philosophy at Columbia university in New

york,d he later declared: “what i do, i do not wish blamed on Zen, though without

my engagement on Zen…i doubt whether i would have done what i have done…

i mention this in order to free Zen of any responsibility for my actions.”5

the use of chance operations works against the generation of a critical act. in

Cage’s own words, a piece not consciously organized is “… therefore not subject

advocates for the suppression of the ego, in Cage there is advocates for the suppression of the ego, in Cage there is a strong affirmation of it, starting with giving entity to the a strong affirmation of it, starting with giving entity to the performers, a kind of “momentary authorship,” either by performers, a kind of “momentary authorship,” either by separating the performers in order to act, in his own words, separating the performers in order to act, in his own words, as brave and not as sheep, or by giving each performer the as brave and not as sheep, or by giving each performer the possibility to determine her position as central—adopting possibility to determine her position as central—adopting Cunningham’s idea of the lack of fixed points in space Cunningham’s idea of the lack of fixed points in space (taken in turn from einstein’s theories).(taken in turn from einstein’s theories).99

there is also another paradox here: the suppression there is also another paradox here: the suppression of the idea of authorship—of extinguishing the artist’s of the idea of authorship—of extinguishing the artist’s personality, memories, and desires—turned Cage into personality, memories, and desires—turned Cage into one of the most influential authors of the century. if one of the most influential authors of the century. if the creative process is always a poor emulation of the the creative process is always a poor emulation of the non plus ultranon plus ultra god’s creation of humanity from mud, the god’s creation of humanity from mud, the silent Mycologist had no less of a divine desire of trying silent Mycologist had no less of a divine desire of trying to control chance. the elimination of authorship is a to control chance. the elimination of authorship is a performative contradiction, proven mathematically by performative contradiction, proven mathematically by heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: the need to provide heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: the need to provide a point of view in order to make an assertion makes a point of view in order to make an assertion makes subjectivity unavoidable, even in science. Needless to say subjectivity unavoidable, even in science. Needless to say this text is, as well, a flagrant contradiction with the spirit this text is, as well, a flagrant contradiction with the spirit of the show, in discussing ideas that beg to be transmitted of the show, in discussing ideas that beg to be transmitted in an experiential way.in an experiential way.

C – a good example of an artist opposite to Cage is C – a good example of an artist opposite to Cage is Chantal akerman. Chantal akerman.

akerman’s work pivots around three main axes: structural akerman’s work pivots around three main axes: structural filmmaking, the reconstruction of life under Communism, filmmaking, the reconstruction of life under Communism, and Feminism. in other words, a clearly determined and Feminism. in other words, a clearly determined program and clearly opposed to the non-programmatic program and clearly opposed to the non-programmatic one of Cage, if we can call the elimination of authorship one of Cage, if we can call the elimination of authorship a non-program.a non-program.

Quoting akerman scholar ivone Margulies quoting Quoting akerman scholar ivone Margulies quoting akerman: “what i did in akerman: “what i did in Jeanne DielmanJeanne Dielman are actions in real are actions in real time: the fixed camera is not, for me, that different from… time: the fixed camera is not, for me, that different from… warhol.” according to Margulies, in the early films of the warhol.” according to Margulies, in the early films of the Belgian filmmaker the issue of performance is a byproduct Belgian filmmaker the issue of performance is a byproduct of a fixed, oblivious, and unmotivated camera modeled on of a fixed, oblivious, and unmotivated camera modeled on warhol and on structural filmmaking.warhol and on structural filmmaking.

the author mentions a division between two tendencies the author mentions a division between two tendencies in ’60s and ’70s art, on one side: “Fluxus group’s and in ’60s and ’70s art, on one side: “Fluxus group’s and John Cage’s performances, allan kaprow’s happenings, John Cage’s performances, allan kaprow’s happenings, and New american dance (yvonne rainer, simone and New american dance (yvonne rainer, simone Forti, lucinda Childs, Merce Cunningham) all advance Forti, lucinda Childs, Merce Cunningham) all advance the recognition that simultaneity—a co-presence of the recognition that simultaneity—a co-presence of events internal and external to the text—can effect a events internal and external to the text—can effect a nondirected field of spectator response, frustrating the nondirected field of spectator response, frustrating the acknowledgment of authorship and intention… in the acknowledgment of authorship and intention… in the second, minimalist tendency, simplified shapes, single second, minimalist tendency, simplified shapes, single events, and series of repeated images or forms seem both events, and series of repeated images or forms seem both to block interpretation and to mock the immediacy of to block interpretation and to mock the immediacy of apprehension proposed in modernist art. the spectator’s apprehension proposed in modernist art. the spectator’s extended gaze over holistic forms displaces the burden extended gaze over holistic forms displaces the burden of decentering entirely onto his or her perceptual and of decentering entirely onto his or her perceptual and physical relation to the art object.”physical relation to the art object.”1010


to analysis.”6 Cage’s critical—and political—act in choosing to employ a system of

chance operations is anti-authoritarian. in Cage’s work, politics is found in the form.

the form is the message. a form that allows an indeterminate number of correct

interpretations considerably complicates facile classification.

John Cage is one of those artists who affected society by infecting countless

artists who in turn developed their practices through the operations introduced

directly by him, either via direct exposure to Cage’s oeuvre, or by using the

procedures initiated and authorized by Cage without knowing their origin. even

those stances that were antithetical to his own have adopted and adapted his

operations to suit their own practice. through his ubiquitous yet imperceptible

presence, John Cage effects the most paradoxical of his operations: this anonymous

infiltration is his greatest influence on culture.

Notes

1 Richard Kostelanetz, “The Anarchist Art of John Cage,” 1993

http://sterneck.net/john-cage/kostelanetz/index.php

2 Michael Hardt; Antonio Negri, Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 325–350.

3 4’33” is Cage’s most important work, in his own words. “Because you don’t need it in order to hear it.”

Stephen Montague: “John Cage at Seventy: An interview,” American Music (New York, NY: UbuWeb

Papers) 1985.

4 “MR: Do you think your idea of silence has anything to do with Duchamp’s?

JC: Looking at the Large Glass, the thing that I like so much is that I can focus my attention whenever I wish.

It helps me to blur the distinction between art and life and produces a kind of silence in the work itself.

There is nothing in it that requires me to look in our place or another or, in fact, requires me to look at all.

I can look through it to the world beyond. Well, this is, of course, the reverse in Étant Donnés.”

Moira Roth, Difference/Indifference: Musings on Postmodernism, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage

(Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Overseas Publisher’s Association, 1998), 80.

5 John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), 5.

6 John Cage, “Composition as Process–II. Indeterminacy” Silence, 35.

7 Henning Lohner, from the film The Revenge of the Dead Indians—In Memoriam John Cage, Mode,

New York, 2008.

8 http://www.amazon.com/Variations-IV-Performance-Gallery-Angeles/dp/B000QR0OSU

9 from Elliot Caplan’s documentary, Cage/Cunnigham film, 1991.

10 Ivone Margulies, Toward a Corporeal Cinema: Theatricality in the ‘70s [1]

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/art_and_cinematography/akerman/print/

11 http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/thelongweekend2007/9028.htm

12 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida—Reflections on Photography (New York: Hill and Wang), 1981.

13 Video by Nick Enright of the performance by students of Professor Joachim Pissarro and

conducted by Professor Geoffrey Burleson at Hunter College on December 5, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0BNsBlzQII

in the catalog of the 2007 tate Modernin the catalog of the 2007 tate Modern show show Sleep: Sleep: Warhol/Cage/SatieWarhol/Cage/Satie we find: “warhol was inspired to we find: “warhol was inspired to complete the film with a new repetitive editing structure complete the film with a new repetitive editing structure after attending the writer and composer John Cage’s after attending the writer and composer John Cage’s (1912–92) historic 1963 performance at the pocket theatre (1912–92) historic 1963 performance at the pocket theatre in New york of the French composer erik satie’s (1866–in New york of the French composer erik satie’s (1866–1925) epic repetitive work for piano, 1925) epic repetitive work for piano, Vexations,Vexations, 1893.” 1893.”1111

what interests me here is how Cage permeated the what interests me here is how Cage permeated the practices of artists on the opposite side of the street, practices of artists on the opposite side of the street, elements that have a huge importance in the structuring elements that have a huge importance in the structuring of a film. in 1977 akerman’s of a film. in 1977 akerman’s News from HomeNews from Home, those , those ultra long shots in the sultra long shots in the subway with an immobile camera ubway with an immobile camera are indeterminate, and in their indeterminacy resides are indeterminate, and in their indeterminacy resides their power, even if their later montage turns them to a their power, even if their later montage turns them to a determined category. the idea of boredom, which Cage determined category. the idea of boredom, which Cage took from satie’s took from satie’s VexationsVexations and from Zen, is also key and from Zen, is also key to the film.to the film.

i am not suggesting that Cage invented boredom and long i am not suggesting that Cage invented boredom and long indeterminate shots, but i do think that he authorized indeterminate shots, but i do think that he authorized those elements/tools/operations in western art.those elements/tools/operations in western art.

d – d – Documentary MusicDocumentary Music: the interpenetration betw: the interpenetration between een art and life started much earlier then his exposure to art and life started much earlier then his exposure to Master suzuki’s teachings. in his 1942 composition Master suzuki’s teachings. in his 1942 composition Credo in Us, Credo in Us, written for a dance choreographed by Merce written for a dance choreographed by Merce Cunningham, Cage utilized a partly prepared piano, Cunningham, Cage utilized a partly prepared piano, percussion, and his first use of radio or phonograph, percussion, and his first use of radio or phonograph, suggesting classical music, in the case of war or national suggesting classical music, in the case of war or national emergencies. it was written during wwii, seven months emergencies. it was written during wwii, seven months after pearl harbor, while all other musicians were creating after pearl harbor, while all other musicians were creating patriotic compositions, and Cage wanted to avoid those patriotic compositions, and Cage wanted to avoid those compositions and news programs. the inclusion of radio compositions and news programs. the inclusion of radio or phonograph represented an insult to the composers and or phonograph represented an insult to the composers and performers of the time, by treating live and recorded sound performers of the time, by treating live and recorded sound as being on equal footing. the combination of professional as being on equal footing. the combination of professional and amateur performers was also considered insulting and amateur performers was also considered insulting at the time.at the time.

live radio was in keeping with the inclusive model already live radio was in keeping with the inclusive model already explored by eastern artists and Zen aesthetics—the use of explored by eastern artists and Zen aesthetics—the use of radios in his pieces defines a completely new relationship radios in his pieces defines a completely new relationship between art and life: it is the invention of between art and life: it is the invention of Documentary Documentary MusicMusic. Music, as is true of most art works, is always . Music, as is true of most art works, is always anchored in a specific weave of space and time. the anchored in a specific weave of space and time. the random possibilities brought by radio turn any execution random possibilities brought by radio turn any execution of his pieces into a unique and unrepeatable experience, of his pieces into a unique and unrepeatable experience, and this uniqueness is due to the specificity provided and this uniqueness is due to the specificity provided by the time and place in which each piece is executed, by the time and place in which each piece is executed, a musical equivalent of the a musical equivalent of the studiumstudium defined by roland defined by roland Barthes for photographs.Barthes for photographs.1212 during a specific performance during a specific performance of of Credo in Us Credo in Us back in 2008, i learned both the weather back in 2008, i learned both the weather report and that the fact that the police had just captured a report and that the fact that the police had just captured a bunch of white supremacists who were trying to kill then–bunch of white supremacists who were trying to kill then–presidential Candidate Barack obama. in a recording of our presidential Candidate Barack obama. in a recording of our performance at hunter of performance at hunter of Imaginary Landscape IV Imaginary Landscape IV (1951)(1951), , a a piece for twelve radios, i learned about the music in vogue piece for twelve radios, i learned about the music in vogue at the time.at the time.1313


oN or aBout CagenessBy BiBi Calderaro


at a recent Quaker meeting, where approximately two hundred people sat in silence early in the

morning, it occurred to me that silence can be dealt with in two very different ways:

– as a humming of collective breaths where thought is allowed to grow and flow intersubjectively.

– as an imposed foreclosure, where thought is suppressed, where it becomes stale

due to lack of flow.

silence may be a gatekeeper, a repressive tool that blocks the flow that occurs in communication—

and silence may be an organic instrument that opens into the flow.

in the latter, silence gives access to thought processes that are otherwise overlooked for their

minuteness. it induces a flow of thought leading to the unpredictable: the seed of an idea. this

exploration of new territory is similar to what happens in nature, where the potential to encounter

an unknown is greater than in urban areas. the open air, the opener. the pioneer. thought flow is

unobstructed, taking the given as is, without expectations. the mind takes the form of the garden,

with the intention to listen and grow. silence is the field of possibilities, a method of multiplicity, a way

of inducing, enduring, multiplying the unique.

Methods of multiplicity: simplicity and complexity in the single instrument backed up by the

voices that echo the unmelodic resonances of its identities, its various identities: a piano that plays

like an orchestra; twelve radios synchronically played, one for each month of the year; four minutes

and thirty-three seconds of silence incubating the audience as parabola, a mechanism as methodic as

flexo-spastic its impact. a singularity that approaches infinity at the constant speed of light

in vacuum.

simplicity = multiple as single.

Complexity = empathy of the single with the singles.

life would be a very individualistic and quite impractical practice were it not for laughter and

love. these forces function as ballasts to create and balance collective authorship in society and in

art, allowing for the combination of multiplicity with singularity. For laughter to exist there needs to

be an other with whom to commune and reflect, and a common willingness not to take anything,

particularly oneself, too seriously; there needs to be a common understanding of the absurd in life. For

love to exist, there needs to be trust and a will to care beyond oneself.

the concept of love as a force of trust and enabling, laughter as that which allows the ego to

melt as it shakes the self (as with music), and silence as a tool that points to what has not yet been

taken into consideration, are all constants in John Cage’s work and philosophy. these three elements

directly relate to the effacement of the ego, a key ingredient in the Cagean undertaking of life as a


matter to be handled with the utmost degree of responsibility, an endeavor that requires the condition

of freedom to be as close to one hundred percent as humanly bearable. the pivotal element in all of

Cage’s work is the question of the utter responsibility inherent in freedom—freedom taken as the

only possible way to approach life as we know it: freedom to have the courage to make one’s life into

something other than an act of survival. the many layers of the span of his work embody not only the

individual search for joyful answers to this question but also the larger mise-en-scène of the forces

implicated in the game called life, envisioned by an anarchist whose interests included mushrooms,

indeterminacy, and intentionality.

indeterminacy is a cognitive precondition for a state of alertness, as it establishes an open set

of possibilities. alertness does not happen if one believes that all there is to take into account is

contained within the category of the already known, as alertness is precisely the state of allowing the

unknown, the unexpected, into an event. alertness has to do with one’s own idea of time and space.

time is not a causal arrow; synchronicity and indeterminacy are the elements that rule the chaotic

continuum of time. space as a human perception is not an absolute dimension, instead boundaries

are constantly fluctuating and exchanging energy. human beings are capable of grasping this, if

they remain alert to its minute cues. in such cases, the cultural structure history is relegated to the

background, and the process called Mind comes to the foreground. this process, this oscillating

state of l’arte-alert, is one of differentiation, identification, reflection. through it we learn to accept

and reject those instances referred to as “the world out there” from the membrane called self. it is a

process of identity-forming, where the boundaries between subject-subject and subject-object are

constantly being negotiated.

one can understand history through a particular teleology—say, indeterminacy—yet operate on

a daily basis with an ethics that resonates with a knowledge of equilibrium between oneself and the

other, a civic order that responds to individuality: because there is no outside pattern, each and every

one of us has the obligation to act responsibly to one another at all times. there is the imperative

to act responsibly within parameters that teach us to improve the relationship with the other: a

person, an animal, a plant, a mineral, the many artificial inventions that cling to our lives like they’re

indispensable. in keeping a balance, an equation, an identity of sides, this formula has been faltering

for centuries now. so far, we have always been handed down a debt.

Communicating vessels of multiples and singles behave much as in any other participation of

givens. peaceful interactions foster other peaceful interactions, whereas forceful interactions instigate

ever more aggressive behaviors. the exchange of the single with the singles occurs no matter what;

what differs is the frequency and the character, the notations that each instance abides. these have

developed by imitation over the thousands of years humans have inhabited earth. they continually

shape the inherited values that guide us in a peaceful journey or a troubled one.


love is an exchange among the single with the singles that as intentionality encourages the pacific.

a compassionate understanding of the other is what differentiates it from other types of exchanges.

love is the laborious meshing of singularities so that they can migrate from simple to complex and

back to simple, but now changed, the field included. a combinatory force of the simple and the

complex, love is the background and the foreground; it is field and perception. Bound in a continually

mutating state of embrace, one reality reacts and affects the others indefinitely, indeterminately. its

differential value is empathy. love is what remains when the day has gone, your wallet is thinner, your

power down. love is what makes the mark when you go through your day as reflected onto the mirror

that is all that reflects you.

wild-mushroom hunting is not the cure to all maladies. yet it might yield, in those who practice

it even as a brief experiment, a respect for and understanding of the direct relationships that each

of our own acts bestow upon ourselves and our environments (and which, in turn, affect in ripple-

like patterns other invisible landscapes). in an interview with Frank scheffer, Cage distinguishes his

understanding of indeterminacy as a teleology that is different from his need to counter it with a

practice that reflects one of human beings’ differentiating acts: that of choice; of responsibly selecting

from available options so that human life might endure as a highly developed form. and so he took up

wild-mushroom hunting.

early on, when this show was merely a distant possibility, the idea arose to highlight the need for a

space where attention and direct experience are nurtured: a space equivalent to Cage’s use of silence,

where silence is the framework that allows a moment in which the unknown may happen in the form

of other sounds, other colors, other cognitive connections. in other words, a space that nurtures

alertness. in order to incite a change of pace and direct experience, and some degree of freedom and

responsibility, we programmed outings to forage for wild mushrooms, followed by their communal

cooking and eating, as the core activity of this exhibition.

the open-air activity of hunting for mushrooms, ending in the shared cooking and eating of the

day’s harvest, nurtures the idea of communing, of growing beyond the self, of enhancing an ethics

of camaraderie among people who have just met. in spite of seasonal constraints, this activity still

manages to reinforce connections amongst participants where some effacement of egos may happen,

some responsible connections may endure (mostly as we decide which mushrooms are edible), and

some degree of laughter and love are exchanged. the forest bears the role of silent frame that allows

for noise (mushrooms, laughter, love) to rise.

even though silence does not exist in pure form in this world, the idea that the base of sounds

in a natural setting can be understood as silence reveals the framework in which noise is perceived:

that which disrupts the base. this is all music for Cage, both the base and the disruptions. wild

mushroom hunting is the activity by which one becomes attuned to disruptions by becoming alert to

where they grow. once one includes them in the field of perception, they pop up nonstop, just as with


sound: one usually blocks out ambient sounds until one starts paying attention to them, and then they

immediately come to the foreground.

within this landscape, silence allows us to hear what comes, allows us to be alert, while love

enables us to take into consideration what is not oneself, to rid us of the weight of the ego. Collaging

selves, arranging chaos and order in movement, conducting an orchestra of people, setting a

distance—a tempo—to individual energies, together yet alone. dismantling the cultural apparatus that

distances the object and the subject in the survival of a culture of self-reflecting, yet never touching,

subjectivities. abandoning the self to the collective as a volatile mass of willing powers, and to

laughter. dissolving agency in action by multiplying subjectivities. shattering the mirrors in which the

arrogant self is trapped.

this exchange, this search for an ecumenical economy, is proof that Cage did believe in harmony.

harmony for him was the balance—always an equilibrium is needed, an identity of sorts—of all

energies involved in a given situation. then he would cook his own bread, water his plants, and laugh

with his friends.

in the construction of freedom, that which cannot be experienced unless it is put in dire contrast

with its opposite—constraint—is translated as love—that which cannot be felt unless put in touch

with the other. the invisible and the inaudible used with the most transparent of all media: life. the

impermanent and the permeable as the fluctuating~flickering matter of its force.

if a master is one who creates volume where apparently there is a single plane—just as in nature

mushrooms pop up from the earth—in the methods used to shatter our cultural inheritance, the

artists in this show encourage us to enter the realm of the will, to vacate life of the meaningless void of

no intention.

Zen, zero, infinity, anarchy, will, egolessness, the void, can only be kneaded together with one part

laughter and another part love—such arch freedom.

unheard silence, given to noise—such life.

May (adverb of determinacy) we (pronoun, first person plural) be (verb that denotes the ontological way

of being alive, present tense) in (preposition of place –inner space-) peace (noun that signifies a harmonious

wellbeing in life in general, within and without).

so hoped for John.


John Cage, working on Sonatas & Interludes (1947)

8383

William Anastasi

b. 1933 philadelphia, pa. lives and works in New york, Ny

Sink, 1963

rusted steel, water

20 x 20 x 1/2” (50.8 x 50.8 x 1.3cm)

Collection of Michael straus

Soledad Arias

b. Buenos aires, argentina. lives and works in New york, Ny


white neon

40 x 1/4” (101.6 x 0.6cm)


Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

b. 1961 Nice, France. lives and works in sète, France

Indexes (v. 1), 2012

pleyel piano p190 with pianodisc system, computer and

software

74 1/2 x 59 1/2 x 40 1/2” (189.2 x 151.1 x 102.9cm)


paula Cooper gallery, New york, Ny (3/19-4/25/09)


Indexes (v. 1) is presented in collaboration with Les Pianos Pleyel. The manufacturers of exclusive pianos in Paris since 1807, Les Pianos Pleyel are proud to have participated with Céleste Boursier-Mougenot as they continue to support musical and artistic creation.

John Cage

b. 1912 los angeles, Ca. d. 1992 New york, Ny

Untitled (640 numbers between 1 and 16), 1969

Ballpoint pen, pencil, and colored pencil on printed paper

11 x 8 1/2” (27.9 x 21.6cm)

the Museum of Modern art. the Judith rothschild

Foundation Contemporary drawings Collection gift

(purchase, and gift, in part, of the eileen and Michael Cohen

Collection)

Waltercio Caldas

b. 1946 rio de Janeiro, Brazil. lives and works

in rio de Janeiro




79 1/8 x 59 7/8 x 59 7/8” (201 x 152 x 152cm)


José Damasceno

b. 1968 rio de Janeiro, Brazil. lives and works

in rio de Janeiro

2 estudos sobre 1 dimensão perdida

(2 Studies on 1 Lost Dimension), 1996

iron and elastic cord

installation dimensions approximately 7’ 6 9/16” x 15’ 9 3/4”

x 35’ 3/16” (230 x 482 x 1080cm)


Hanne Darboven

b. 1941 Munich, germany. d. 2009 in hamburg, germany

II-b, 1970-73

ink and typewriting on twenty-eight pieces of paper

28 panels: each 11 1/2 x 33” (29.3 x 83.8cm)

the Museum of Modern art. gift of ileana sonnabend

Matthew Deleget

b. 1972 hammond, iN. lives and works in New york, Ny

Monochrome (Sleeper Cells), 2007

latex paint on mirrored paper, and silver pushpins

40 x 8’ 4” (101.6 x 254cm) overall, each panel 40 x 32”

(101.6 x 81.3cm)

Courtesy of alejandra Von hartz gallery, Miami, Fl

Liz Deschenes

b. 1966 Boston, Ma. lives and works in New york, Ny

Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision, version 2), 2010

six unique silver toned black and white photograms

dimensions variable

Courtesy of the artist and Miguel abreu gallery

Felipe Dulzaides

b. 1965 havana, Cuba. lives and works in havana

Selected Video Works, 1999-2011

single channel video reel (looping video): Following an

Orange, 1999, 1’ 14”; Dialog with a Foghorn, 1999, 1’ 40”; Time

in My Hand, 2000, 2’ 13”; Blowing Things Away, 2001, 2’ 45”;

Unwind, 2003, 00’ 45”; Welcome to the Other Side, 2007, 4’

32”; In Between, 2011, 1’ 17”


León Ferrari

b. 1920 Buenos aires, argentina. lives and works

in Buenos aires

Colgante Escultura Sonora (Hanging Sound Instrument),

1979/2010

steel

118 1/8 x 15 3/4” (300 x 40 cm)

Courtesy of augusto and león Ferrari art & acquis

Foundation and haunch of Venison gallery

Robert Filliou

b. 1926 sauve, France; d. 1987 in les eyzies, France

Telepathic Music No. 5, 1976-1978

33 music stands, 32 playing cards, 34 small note cards

dimensions variable



Yukio Fujimoto

b. 1950 Nagoya, Japan. lives and works in osaka, Japan


installation

dimensions variable


Nicolás Guagnini

b. 1966 Buenos aires, argentina.

lives and works in New york

Gareth James

b. 1970 london, england. lives and works in British

Columbia, Canada

Break Even, 2006

intervention on artforum

10 1/2 x 10 1/2” (26.7 x 26.7cm)

private Collection

Lynne Harlow

b. 1968 attleboro, Ma. lives and works in providence, ri

and New york, Ny

BEAT, 2007

acrylic paint, drum kit, live performance with musicians

painted square 8’ 5” x 8’ 5” (245.1 x 245.1cm)

Courtesy of the artist and MiNus spaCe, Brooklyn, Ny

Douglas Huebler

b. 1924 ann arbor, Mi. d. 1997 truro, Ma

Variable Piece #70, 1971

Black-and-white photographs and typewriting on paper

17 5/16 x 40 1/8 x 1 3/16” (43.9 x 101.9 x 3cm)

the Museum of Modern art. partial gift of the daled

Collection and partial purchase through the generosity

of Maja oeri and hans Bodenmann, sue and edgar

wachenheim iii, Marlene hess and James d. Zirin, agnes

gund, Marie-Josée and henry r. kravis, and Jerry i. speyer

and katherine g. Farley

CheCklisT of The exhibiTionCheCklisT of The exhibiTion


David Lamelas

b. 1946 Buenos aires, argentina. lives and works

in los angeles, Ca

Limit of a Projection I, 1967

theater spotlight in darkened room

63 (160cm) to 74 3/4” (189.87cm) diameter

Collection walker art Center, Minneapolis. t. B. walker

acquisition Fund, 2009

Reiner Leist

b. 1964 west germany. lives and works in New york, Ny

Window Project, 1995-ongoing (work on loan

spans 1995-2005)

installation: film, glass, plexiglass, wood

and fluorescent lights

dimensions variable

installation view, Museum for photography Berlin, 2007

Courtesy Julie saul gallery and the artist

Jorge Macchi

b. 1963 Buenos aires, argentina. lives and

works in Buenos aires

Buenos Aires Tour, 2003

in collaboration with María Negroni (texts) and

edgardo rudnitzky (sound)

Mixed media: box, booklets, postcards,

map, Cd-rom, and stamps

dimensions variable

private Collection

Christian Marclay

b. 1955 san rafael, Ca. lives and works in london, england

and New york, Ny

Indian Point Road, 2004

single channel video


dimensions variable


Rivane Neuenschwander

b. 1967 Belo horizonte, Brazil. lives and

works in Belo horizonte



dimensions variable




Kaz Oshiro

b. 1967 okinawa, Japan. lives and works in los angeles, Ca

Orange Speaker Cabinets and Gray Scale Boxes (18 parts), 2009

acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas

12 orange cabinets: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4” (73.7 x 76.2 x 37.5cm)

each; 6 gray scale boxes: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4” (73.7 x 76.2 x

37.5cm) each

Courtesy of the artist and galerie Frank elbaz

Edgardo Rudnitzky

b. 1956 Buenos aires, argentina. lives and

works in Berlin, germany

Octopus, 2008

turntable with four arms, each one with

its own speaker, vinyl records

37 7/8 x 24 7/8 x 24 7/8” (96.2 x 63.2 x 63.2cm)


Fred Sandback

b. 1943 Bronxville, Ny. d. 2003 New york, Ny

Untitled (Sculptural Study, Two-part Vertical Construction),

c. 1986/2008

Black acrylic yarn

spatial relationship established by the artist,

overall dimensions vary with each installation

estate of Fred sandback; Courtesy of

david Zwirner, New york

Frank Scheffer

b. 1956 Venlo, the Netherlands. lives and

works in amsterdam, the Netherlands


dVd



Ushio Shinohara

b. 1932 tokyo, Japan. lives and works in New york, Ny


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)



Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)



Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)


Ushio Shinohara (continued)


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

ethan Cohen Collection


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

private Collection


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

private Collection


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

private Collection


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

private Collection


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

private Collection


Mixed media

28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65.5 x 6.5cm)

private Collection

Linda Stillman

b. 1948 New york, Ny. lives and works in New york and

hillsdale, Ny

Daily Paintings, detail: 2007, 2007

acrylic and gouache on paper mounted on panels

365 panels: 77 x 47 x 3/8” (195.6 x 119.4 x 1cm) overall


Daniel Wurtzel

b. 1962 washington, d.C. lives and works in Brooklyn, Ny

Pas de Deux, 2011

Fabric, air

dimensions variable



Notations: The Cage Effect Today has been an ambitious undertaking three years in the making and we are

tremendously grateful for the generous contributions from the many individuals who helped make this

exhibition possible.

this project was incubated in professor Joachim pissarro’s 2008 graduate seminar and we are grateful to the

student participants, and for the ongoing collaboration of professor geoffrey Burleson, director of piano studies, hunter

College Music department, who co-taught the class. Bill abdale, Nayantara Bhattacharya, david duncan, Cara Manes,

and steven rose, were especially crucial voices during the early stages of exhibition planning.

the present exhibition stems directly from another Cage seminar (fall 2011) in which the hypothesis of “the Cage

effect” on contemporary art—globally—was being tested systematically. we thank renata Contins and alex Niemetz,

who assisted on all aspects of this subsequent course, from which this publication was formed and applaud all the

students for their contributions to the catalogue: Claire Bergeal, Claire Breukel, Matthew Cianfrani, tryn Collins, Julie

dentzer, sydney gilbert, Zachary hale, Misa Jeffereis, raphael Moser, reid strelow, annie wischmeyer, and Jennifer

wolf. the patricia phelps de Cisneros professor of latin american art, harper Montgomery’s critical contribution has

helped us explore a new avenue of research on John Cage’s presence on the latin american continent.

indeed, the hypothetical premise of the 2011 seminar was met with surprisingly wide results: the exhibition and

accompanying catalogue feature the work of 28 internationally based artists, reflecting the broad scope of Cage’s

influence across generations, regions, disciplines, and all media. our deep felt appreciation extends to the participating

artists and the many lenders who generously loaned works to the exhibition: Miguel abreu gallery, tanya Bonakdar

gallery, the Colección patricia phelps de Cisneros, paula Cooper gallery, ethan Cohen Fine arts, galerie Frank elbaz,

stephen Friedman gallery, alejandra Von hartz gallery, haunch of Venison gallery, MiNus spaCe, the departments

of drawings and prints and illustrated Books at the Museum of Modern art, the Fred sandback estate and the david

Zwirner gallery, New york, Julie saul gallery, Michael straus, galeria Fortes Vilaça, and the walker art Center. the

following individuals were also instrumental in the procurement of loans and we are deeply grateful to each of them:

anthony allen, gabriel perez Barreiro, kathy Curry, spring dautel, peter eleey, henrique Faría, hiroko ikegami, greg

lulay, and gretchen wagner. we also would like to thank laura kuhn, executive director, John Cage trust, for her

solicitous help to secure important permission rights and for her support of the project at large. No project on Cage can

happen without Margarete roeder whose knowledge and passion for her two friends, John and Merce, are invaluable.

special thanks must be extended to lin arison, Founder of the National Foundation for advancement in the arts,

whose generous support has been extended not only to this exhibition but towards the gallery programming at large.

her executive director, paul lehr also receives our hearty thanks—as do the youngarts Fellows sali amabebe and

Nicole Mourino, who have contributed to the elaboration of this complex show.

this project’s principal new contribution to scholarship on John Cage is to have begun to establish how wide his

presence (or “effect”) has been, and continues to be on the latin american continent. we are profoundly grateful to

patricia phelps de Cisneros for her generosity in supporting aspects of the project that further this dialogue—but also,

for her own personal vision, commitment, and encouragement of all intellectual projects that deepen and enrich our

understanding of the complexities of the arts in latin america.

aCknowledgmenTsaCknowledgmenTs


there are many people within the hunter College community whose support made this project possible. First, our

heartfelt thanks go to Jennifer J. raab, president of hunter College, for her ongoing patronage of the hunter College art

galleries and its programming—and for her unwavering support to this project. our provost, Vita rabinowitz, and our

dean of arts and sciences, erec koch, have always availed their precious time and attention to help with this project.

thanks are also due to reuben Blundell, director of the hunter symphony; andrew lund, assistant professor Film &

Media studies, and ivone Margulies, associate professor, Film & Media studies for their insights and collaboration

relating to the events accompanying the exhibition. we thank dan streible, associate professor, tisch Cinema studies

program, New york university, who collaborated with us to organize an artist talk with Frank scheffer.

in the hunter College art department, our gratitude must first be directed to all members of the gallery Committee

for their crucial endorsement and support of the exhibition proposal. harper Montgomery, the patricia phelps de

Cisneros professor in latin american art, has been an essential and welcome collaborator throughout the planning

process and we are indebted to her for her keen suggestions for additional loans within this exhibition. we are also

most appreciative of thomas weaver, Chair of the art department, and Jeffrey Mongrain, interim Chair of the art

department, who lent their generous support to this project. as well, we would like to also thank katy siegel, professor

of art history and Chief Curator of the hunter College art galleries, for her invaluable advice and suggestions

throughout the planning process, and her commitment to rigorous scholarship.

at the hunter College art gallery, we are most appreciative of the dedication and careful work of karli

wurzelbacher, assistant Curator. special thanks are also due to Jessica gumora, Curatorial assistant to the director,

for her solicitous help, especially relating to fundraising initiatives. additional thanks go to phi Nguyen and his staff for

their preparation and installation of this complex project. illana hester, Coordinator of the youngarts program at hunter

College deserves our thanks for her assistance with the website and public programs.

the dynamic design of this catalogue is credited to the talents of tim laun and Natalie wedeking and we thank

them for their steadfast collaboration. Many thanks must also be extended to Claire Barliant for her meticulous

editing skills. Bibi Calderaro would like to express special thanks to Nova Benway and Jeanne Marie wasilik for their

generous support during the writing of her essay. Julio grinblatt salutes Nicolás guagnini and iair rosenkranz for their

keen insights regarding the project at large. thanks also to Nina grinblatt, for her patience and cheerful disposition

throughout the planning process. Natalia Chorny and edward Mapplethorpe deserve special thanks for their support.

the fruition of this project would simply not have been possible without the generous financial supporters of the

exhibition and catalogue. these include generous contributions from youngarts, the core program of the National

Foundation for advancement in the arts (NFaa), Colección patricia phelps de Cisneros, the Foundation to-life, and the

hunter College exhibition Fund. additional support for public programming was provided by the hunter College arts

across the Curriculum pilot initiative, created through a grant from the andrew w. Mellon Foundation. we wish here

to take this opportunity to thank agnes gund for her ongoing patronage of the hunter College art galleries—and to

their publications. we salute her for her valiant support of the arts and in particular her commitment to champion the

inimitable legacy of John Cage.

Joachim Pissarro, Bibi Calderaro, Julio Grinblatt, and Michelle Yun


1912 – 1992

T h e C a g e e f f e C T T o d ay

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