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Thursday, 7 Feb 2008
Writers for
We Need to Talk about Live Art
are: Tim Atack, Rachel Lois Clapham, Mary Patersonand Theron Schmidt.We’re here to spark debate and stimulate conversation. Each writer’s opinions are personal,
unltered, unspun and not necessarily shared by the group.Disagree? Leave your comments at the front desk, contact us at www.writingfromliveart.co.uk, or
come talk to us at the NRLA.
We Need to Talk about Live Art
is an independent project and is not afliated with the National Review of Live Art.
Thursday7 Feb 2008
page 1
We Need to Talk about Live Art
is a writer-led initiative made possible by support from
www.writingfromliveart.co.uk
www.liveartuk.com
In at the Deep End
Kris Verdonck,
IN
(Tramway 1)
6 February 2008
It’s the rst day of the National Review of LiveArt and the rst work I’ve seen and I’m alreadychallenged. NRLA Artist in residence, KrisVerdonck, has put me in a difcult position. Iam led into the darkness of Tramway’s T1along with twenty other audience members tolook at a woman in a maid uniform submerged
in a tank of water. The woman, who I can onlyassume is the female performer listed in the
brochure, Sanne Wutzke, breathes througha pipe supplying her oxygen. The difculty of
my position, my unease, does not stem forconcern for Wutzke’s safety, she is clearly in no
immediate danger of drowning, but from whereto position myself as audience member, paying
customer and participant in this work.
Verdonck has submerged and displayed Wutzke,with her staring eyes, goose pimpled esh,tiny maid uniform and high heels, specicallyfor my viewing pleasure. The questions I amasked by Wutzke’s watery gaze, and ultimately
by Verdonck, is ‘Why are
you here watching this?’,’What are you gettingout of it?’ ‘Moreover, is
this offensive to Wutzke,
or to women generally?’
My sincere hope is thatVerdonck is aware- and
therefore grappling with
–these very same issues inthe work. I have to assumethis since these concernsare so blatant in
IN
. IfVerdonck
is
highlighting a
contemporary relationshipwith feminism and theethics of performance
and manipulating our expectations of these two
issues then, with
IN
, he
is successfully creating atesting ground in which to explore problematic
economic, ethical and artistic power dynamics
of live art. Within this reading, the submergedbody of Wutzke is revealed as something other than the exploited, offensive, anti feminist freak-
Sparking Debate. Stimulating Conversation. Supporting Artists. Taking LiveArt Seriously
.
We Need to Talk about Live Art
is a daily, ash publication printed about NRLA events and for NRLA
readers.
We Need to Talk about Live Art
writers will respond to work during each day of the NationalReview, and publish it the day after. We are not afliated with the National Review of Live Art, but
we’re here to start conversations and support the work shown.
You can nd our publications every day, at the Tramway Arts Centre, from 2pm onwards.
Apology!
We’re very sorry to Caroline Smith for getting her name wrong in the interview we
published yesterday.Writers for
We Need to Talk about Live Art
are: Tim Atack, Rachel Lois Clapham, Mary Patersonand Theron Schmidt.We’re here to spark debate and stimulate conversation. Each writer’s opinions are personal,
unltered, unspun and not necessarily shared by the group.Disagree? Leave your comments at the front desk, contact us at www.writingfromliveart.co.uk, or
come talk to us at the NRLA.
We Need to Talk about Live Art
is an independent project and is not afliated with the National Review of Live Art.
Photo: Kris Verdonck
Thursday7 Feb 2008
page 2
We Need to Talk about Live Art
is a writer-led initiative made possible by support from
www.writingfromliveart.co.uk
www.liveartuk.comWriters for
We Need to Talk about Live Art
are: Tim Atack, Rachel Lois Clapham, Mary Patersonand Theron Schmidt.
We Need to Talk about Live Art
is an independent project and is not afliated with the National Review of Live Art.
show exhibit I at rst think it is. And the artist’spower to display, objectify and exploit abstractyet tangible –contractual- factors of the femaleperformer or ‘model’, the paying festival tourist’s
insatiable desire for the live, and the artist’sdesire to feed it are clearly played out. And yet Iam still uncomfortable with this.
Perhaps my unease in seeing Wutzke’s bodysubmerged in water, and in being manipulated
in and by Verdonck, is compounded by theentertainment factor or spectacular nature ofthe work; the fact that we have been lead into adarkened performance area at a set time for a
xed duration as captive audience, rather than
left to wander past or incidentally encounterWutzke in her tank. This theatre-style structure
could be due to the practical or logisticalconcerns of submerging a woman in a tank of water but within the context of
IN
’s critique thistheatricality needs to be knowing on the partof Verdonck. Deliberately choreographing thescene and making the audience passive putsspecic pressure on his questioning of his
artistic power (over the model/performer, over
our emotions, over our desire for the live) in this
dynamic.
Verdonck is not alone in using the live, alongwith real men and women, to knowinglyexploit political, economic and artistic power
dynamics inherent within art. Conceptual artistXu Zhen made a sculptural installation out ofthe suspended bodies of two real-life Chinese
migrant workers in In Just a
Blink of an Eye
(2007). Santiago Sierra sprayed ten Iraqiimmigrant workers with polyurethane foam for
his
Polyurethane Sprayed on the Backs ofTen Workers
(2004). Perhaps the clearest
comparison to Verdonck’s live display of Wutzkein
IN
is the work of Vanessa Beecroft.
VB55
(2005) saw Beecroft exhibit one hundred womenstanding still in Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie for three hours in nothing but their knickers. Later that year she artfully arranged models next toLouis Vuitton handbags on the shelves of thesame fashion designer’s agship Paris store.
And for the 2007 Venice Biennale she paidthirty Sudanese women to lie face-down anddeathly still on a white canvas while she poured
venereal dark red liquid over them.Following in the hotly debated footsteps of such
work,
IN
raises important ethical questionsof live art: Is displaying a woman in a tank of water -and so objectifying her as an art object
for the audience’s dubious consumption - an
interesting and productive political comment? Or
does the pervasiveness of art- with its markets,
biennales and annual reviews- along with our
desire to buy into and witness it, ensure thatthe criticality of
IN
fails and so perpetuates theethically problematic art historical position it
tries to tackle?
Answers on a
We Need To Talk About Live Art
postcard please......
Written by Rachel Lois Clapham
Gift Economies
Shelia Ghelani,
Covet Me, Care For Me
(Stable 4)
Micol Hebron,
Depicting Action
(Tramway 2)
6 February 2008Sheila Ghelani’s
Covet Me, Care For Me
takes
a matter-of-fact approach to heartbreak. Justput on protective gloves and a face mask, taplightly with a hammer (“Don’t try to break it inone go,” she says), and it just shatters into tiny,
sharp pieces.
This shattering is repeated time after time
inside Stable 4 of the Tramway, which has been
remade into a luxury space which is part shrine,part upscale boutique. There are opulent red
curtains, tastefully framed illustrations of hearts,
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