Notes on the Index: Seventies Art in America

Author(s): Rosalind Krauss

Reviewed work(s):
Source: October, Vol. 3 (Spring, 1977), pp. 68-81
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778437 .
Accessed: 21/01/2013 07:36

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to October.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Notes on the Index:
SeventiesArtin America

ROSALIND KRAUSS

1. Almost everyoneis agreed about '70s art. It is diversified, split,factional-

ized. Unlike the art of the last severaldecades, its energydoes not seem to flow
througha single channel forwhich a syntheticterm,likeAbstract-Expressionism,
or Minimalism,mightbe found. In defianceof thenotion of collectiveeffort that
operatesbehind the veryidea of an artistic'movement','70s art is proud of itsown
dispersal. "Post-MovementArtin America"is thetermmostrecentlyapplied.' We
are asked to contemplatea greatplethoraof possibilitiesin thelistthatmustnow
be used to draw a line around theartof thepresent:video; performance;bodyart;
conceptual art; photo-realismin painting and an associated hyper-realismin
sculpture; storyart; monumental abstractsculpture (earthworks);and abstract
painting, characterized,now, not by rigor but by a willful eclecticism.It is as
thoughin thatneed fora list,or proliferating stringof terms,thereis prefigured an
of of
image personal freedom, multipleoptions now open to individual choice or
will, whereas beforethese thingswere closed offthrougha restrictive notion of
historicalstyle.
Both the criticsand practitionersof recentarthave closed ranksaround this
'pluralism' of the 1970s. But what, really, are we to think of that notion of
multiplicity?It is certainlytruethat the separatemembersof thelistdo not look
alike. If theyhave any unity,it is not along the axis of a traditionalnotion of
'style'.But is the absence of a collectivestylethe tokenof a real difference? Or is
therenot somethingelse forwhichall thesetermsare possible manifestations? Are
not all these separate 'individuals' in factmoving in lockstep,only to a rather
different drummerfromthe one called style?
2. My list began with video, which I've talkedabout before,attemptingto
detail theroutinesof narcissismwhich formbothitscontentand its structure.2
But
now I am thinkingabout Airtime,theworkthatVitoAcconci made in 1973,where
for40 minutestheartistsitsand talksto his reflectedimage. Referringto himself,

1. This is the titleof a book by Alan Sondheim,Individuals: Post MovementArtin America,New

York, Dutton, 1977.
2. See my "Video: The Structureof Narcissism,"October,no. 1 (Spring 1976).

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Notes on theIndex: SeventiesArt in America 69

he uses 'I', but not always. Sometimeshe addresseshis mirroredselfas 'you'. 'You'
is a pronoun thatis also filled,withinthespace of his recordedmonologue,byan
absentperson,someone he imagines himselfto be addressing.But thereferent for
this 'you' keeps slipping, shifting,returningonce again to the 'I' who is himself,
reflectedin the mirror.Acconci is playing out the drama of the shifter-in its
regressiveform.
3. The shifteris Jakobson'stermforthatcategoryof linguisticsign whichis
"filledwith signification"only because it is "empty." The word 'this' is such a
sign, waiting each timeit is invokedforits referent to be supplied. "This chair,"
"this table," or "this .. ." and we to
point somethinglyingon thedesk."Not that,
this," we say. The personal pronouns 'I' and 'you' are also shifters.
As we speak to
one another,both of us using 'I' and 'you', the referentsof those words keep
changing places across the space of our conversation.I am thereferent of 'I' only
when I am the one who is speaking. When it is your turn,it belongs to you.
The gymnasticsof the "empty" pronominal sign are thereforeslightly
complicated. And though we might think that very young children learning
language would acquire theuse of 'I' and 'you' veryearlyon, thisis in factone of
thelast thingsto be correctlylearned.Jakobsontellsus, as well, thatthepersonal
pronouns are among thefirstthingsto breakdown in cases of aphasia.
4. Airtimeestablishes,then,the space of a double regression.Or rather,a
space in which linguistic confusion operates in concert with the narcissism
implicit in the performer'srelationship to the mirror.But this conjunction is
perfectlylogical, particularlyif we considernarcissism-a stage in the develop-
ment of personalitysuspended betweenauto-eroticismand object-love-in the
termssuggestedby Lacan's concept of the "mirrorstage." Occurringsometime
betweenthe ages of six and 18 months,the mirrorstage involvesthechild's self-
identificationthroughhis double: his reflected image. In moving froma global,
undifferentiatedsense of himself towards a distinct, integrated notion of
selfhood-one that could be symbolizedthroughan individuateduse of 'I' and
'you'-the child recognizes himself as a separate object (a psychic gestalt) by
means of his mirroredimage. The selfis felt,at thisstage,only as an imageof the
self; and insofar as the child initially recognizeshimselfas an other, thereis
inscribed in that experience a primaryalienation. Identity(self-definition) is
primallyfusedwith identification (a feltconnectionto someone else). It is within
that condition of alienation-the attemptto come to closure with a self that is
physically distant-that the Imaginary takes root. And in Lacan's terms,the
Imaginary is the realm of fantasy,specifiedas a-temporal,because disengaged
fromthe conditionsof history.For thechild, a senseof history,both his own and
particularlythat of others,wholly independentof himself,comes only with the
full acquisition of language. For, in joining himselfto language, thechild enters
3. See, Roman Jakobson,"Shifters,verbal categories,and the Russian verb,"Russian Language
Project, Harvard UniversityPress, 1957; also, Jmile Benveniste,"La nature des pronoms," in
Problemesde linguistiquegenirale, Paris, Gallimard, 1966.

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
70 OCTOBER

a world of conventionswhich he has had no role in shaping. Language presents

him with an historicalframeworkpre-existentto his own being. Following the
designationof spokenor writtenlanguage as constitutedof thattypeof sign called
thesymbol,Lacan names thisstageofdevelopmenttheSymbolicand opposes it to
the Imaginary.
5. This opposition betweenthe Symbolic and the Imaginaryleads us to a
furthercommenton the shifter.For the shifteris a case of linguisticsign which
partakesof the symboleven while it shares the featuresof somethingelse. The
pronouns are partof thesymboliccode oflanguage insofaras theyare arbitrary: 'I'
we say in English, but 'je' in French, 'ego' in Latin, 'ich' in German.. . But
insofaras theirmeaning depends on the existentialpresenceof a given speaker,
thepronouns (as is trueof theothershifters) announce themselvesas belongingto
a different typeofsign: thekind thatis termedtheindex.As distinctfromsymbols,
indexes establishtheirmeaning along the axis of a physicalrelationshipto their
referents. They are the marksor tracesof a particularcause, and thatcause is the
thingto which theyrefer,theobjecttheysignify.Into thecategoryof theindex,we
would place physical traces(like footprints),medical symptoms,or the actual
referents of the shifters.Cast shadows could also serveas the indexical signs of
objects...
6. Tu m' is a paintingMarcelDuchamp made in 1918.It is, one mightsay,a
panorama of the index. Acrossits ten-footwidthparade a seriescast shadows,as
Duchamp's readymadesput in theirappearance via the index. The readymades
themselvesare not depicted. Instead the bicycle wheel, the hatrack, and a
corkscrew,are projectedonto the surfaceof the canvas throughthefixingof cast
shadows, signifyingtheseobjects by means of indexical traces.Lest we miss the
point, Duchamp places a realisticallypainted hand at the centerof the work,a
hand that is pointing, its index fingerenacting the processof establishingthe

Marcel Duchamp. Tu M'. 1918. Oil and pencil on canvas with bottlebrush,threesafety
x 1221/4inches.(Yale University
pins, and a bolt. 271/2 ArtGallery,New Haven, Bequest of
KatherineS. Dreier,1952.)

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Notes on theIndex: SeventiesArt in America 71

connectionbetweenthelinguisticshifter'this ...' and its referent. Given therole

of the indexical sign within thisparticularpainting,its titleshould not surprise
us. Tu m' is simply 'you'/'me'-the two personal pronouns which, in being
shifters,are themselvesa species of index.
7. In contributingan essay to the catalogue of the recentDuchamp retro-
spective,Lucy Lippard chose to writea mock shortstoryabout a personageshe
characterizedin the title as "ALLREADYMADESOMUCHOFF.''4 Indeed, the
seemingly endless stream of on
essays Duchamp thathave appeared over thelast
severalyearscertainly does discourage one from wanting to add yetanother word
to the accumulatingmass of literatureon the artist.Yet Duchamp's relationship
to theissue of theindexical sign,or rather,theway his artservesas a matrixfora
relatedsetof ideas which connectto one anotherthroughtheaxis of theindex,is
too important a precedent (I am not concerned here with the question of
'influence')for '70s art,not to explore it. For as we will see, it is Duchamp who
firstestablishes the connection between the index (as a type of sign) and the
photograph.
8. A breakdownin the use of the shifterto locate the selfin relationto its
world is not confinedto the onset of aphasia; it also characterizesthe speech of
autistic children.Describingthe case of Joey,one of the patientsin his Chicago
clinic, Bruno Bettelheimwrites,"He used personal pronouns in reverse,as do
most autistic children. He referredto himselfas you and to the adult he was
speaking to as I. A year later he called this therapistby name, though still not
addressing her as 'you', but saying 'Want Miss M. to swing you."' 5 In an
4. In Marcel Duchamp, ed. Anned'Harnoncourtand KynastonMcShine,New York,The Museum
of Modern Art,1973.
5. Bruno Bettelheim,The EmptyFortress,InfantileAutismand theBirthof theSelf,New York,
1967,p. 234. My attentionto this passage was called by AnnetteMichelson in the essaycitedbelow.

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
72 OCTOBER

importantessay drawing the parallels between those symptomsthat formthe

psychopathological syndromeof autism and specificaspects of Duchamp's art,
AnnetteMichelson pointed to theautist'scharacteristic fascinationwithrevolving
disks, the fantasy(in some cases) thathe is a machine,and the withdrawalfrom
language as a formof communicationby means of speaking in privateallusions
and riddles.' All of these featuresoccur, of course, in Duchamp's art with a
vengeance.But forthemomentI would like to focuson theautist'sproblemwith
the shifter-the problem of naming an individuated self-a dramatizationof
which is also to be found throughoutthe laterwork of Duchamp.
Tu m' is one way of signaling this.Anotheris thedivisionof theselfinto an
'I' and a 'you' through the adoption of an alter-ego. "Rrose Sdlavy and I,"
Duchamp writesas thebeginningof thephrase he inscribesaround therevolving
disk of the Machine Optique (1920). Duchamp's photographic self-portraits in
drag, as Rrose Sdlavy,announce a self that is split, doubled, along the axis of
sexual identity.But the veryname he uses forhis 'double' projectsa strategyfor
infectinglanguage itselfwith a confusion in the way that words denote their
referents. "Rrose Sdlavy" is a homophone suggestingto its auditors two entirely
different meanings.The first is a propername; theseconda sentence:thefirstof the
double Rs in Rrose would have to be pronounced(in French)'er',makingEr-rose
Sdlavyinto Eros, c'est la vie,a statementinscribinglifewithina circleoferoticism
which Duchamp has elsewhere characterizedas "vicious."7 The rest of the
sentencefromthe Machine Optique performsanotherkind of indignityon the
body of language-at least in termsof its capacityformeaning. Overloaded with
internalrhyme,the phrase "estimons les ecchymosesdes Esquimaux aux mots
exquis" (we esteemthe bruises of the Eskimos with beautifullanguage) substi-
tutessheermusicalityfortheprocessof signification. The elisions and inversions
of the es, ex, and mo sounds upset thebalance ofmeaningthroughan outrageous
formalism.The confusion in the shiftercouples then with another kind of
breakdown,as formbegins to erode the certaintyof content.

9. The collapsed shifterannounced itselfthrougha specificuse of language,

and throughthe doubled self-portrait. But then,up to 1912 Duchamp had been
concernedas a painteralmost exclusivelywith autobiography.Between1903and
1911 his major subjectwas thatof his family,and lifeas it was lived within the
immediateconfinesof his home. This seriesofexplicitportraiture-hisfather,his
brothersplaying chess,his sistersplaying music-climaxes with the artist'sown
as The Sad Young Man on a Train (1911).8 In mostof theseportraits
self-portrait
thereis an insistentnaturalism,a directdepictionof thepersonswho formedthe
6. AnnetteMichelson, "'Anemic Cinema' Reflectionson an EmblematicWork," Artforum, XII
(October 1973),64-69.
7. This is from"the litanies of theChariot" one of thenotesfromthe GreenBox. See, The Bride
StrippedBare by Her Bachelors,Even. A typographicalversionby Richard Hamilton of Duchamp's
Green Box, trans.George Heard Hamilton, London, Lund, Humphries, 1960,n. p.
8. The inscriptionon the back of this painting reads: Marcel Duchamp nu (esquisse) Jeune
homme tristedans un train/MarcelDuchamp.

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Nlachinc
,.1larrel
Duchauip.
1920.
opti(Itic.

lp-*,W

Ia a
Duhrp sRoeU'lv, htgrpe y

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
74 OCTOBER

extensionsof Duchamp's most intimateworld. Only by the end, in The Sad

Young Man ... do we findthatdirectnessswamped by the adoption of a cubist-
informedpictoriallanguage, a language Duchamp was to continueto use forjust
six more monthsand thento renounce,witha ratherbitterand continuingseries
of castigations,forever.It was as if cubism forcedfor Duchamp the issue of
whetherpictorial language could continue to signifydirectly,could picture a
world with anything like an accessible set of contents.It was not that self-
portraiturewas displaced within Duchamp's subsequent activity.But only that
the projectof depictingthe selftook on thosequalities of enigmaticrefusaland
mask with which we are familiar.
10. The Large Glass is of course anotherself-portrait.In one of the little
sketchesDuchamp made forit and includedin the GreenBox he labels theupper
register"MAR" and the lower half "CEL." And he retainsthesesyllablesof his
own name in the titleof thefinishedwork:La marieemisea nu par ses chlibataires
the MAR of marieelinked to the CEL of celibataires;theselfprojectedas
mrme; Within thisfieldof the
double. we are made to feelthepresence
split self-portrait
of theindex. The "Sieves," forexample,are coloredby thefixingof dust thathad
fallenon thepronesurfaceof theglass overa periodofmonths.The accumulation

Elevagede poussiere(DustBreeding).
1920.
(Photograph byMan Ray.)

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Notes on the Index: SeventiesArt in America 75

of dust is a kind of physicalindex forthepassage of time.Dust Breeding(Elevage

de poussiere) Duchamp calls it, in thephotographof thework'ssurfacethatMan
Ray took and Duchamp included in thenotes fortheLarge Glass. The signatures
of both men appear along the bottomof the photograph.
Man Ray intersectswith Duchamp's careernot onlyin thisdocumentforthe
Large Glass but in thoseotherphotographicoccasions of Duchamp's work:in the
production of the film Anbmic Cinema; and in the transvestiteportraitsof
Duchamp/RroseSdlavy.Which is interesting.Because Man Ray is theinventorof
theRayograph-that subspeciesof photo which forcestheissue ofphotography's
existence as an index. Rayographs (or as they are more generically termed,
photograms) are produced by placing objects on top of light-sensitivepaper,
exposing theensembleto light,and thendevelopingtheresult.The image created
in thisway is of theghostlytracesof departedobjects; theylook like footprints in
sand, or marksthathave been leftin dust.
But the photogram only forces,or makes explicit, what is the case of all
photography.Everyphotographis theresultof a physicalimprinttransferred by
lightreflections onto a sensitivesurface.The photographis thusa typeof icon, or
visual likeness,which bears an indexical relationshipto its object. Its separation
fromtrueicons is feltthroughthe absolutnessof this physical genesis,one that
seem to short-circuitor disallow those processesof schematizationor symbolic
interventionthatoperatewithinthegraphicrepresentations of mostpaintings.If
the Symbolic findsits way into pictorial art throughthe human consciousness
operating behind the formsof representation,forminga connection between
objects and theirmeaning,thisis not thecase forphotography.Its power is as an
index and itsmeaningresidesin thosemodes ofidentification whichare associated
with the Imaginary. In the essay "The Ontology of the Photographic Image,"
AndreBazin describesthe indexical conditionof the photograph:

Painting is, afterall, an inferiorway of making likenesses,an ersatzof

theprocessesof reproduction.Only a photographiclens can giveus the
kind of image of the object thatis capable of satisfyingthe deep need
man has to substituteforit somethingmore than a mereapproxima-
tion ... The photographicimage is the object itself,the object freed
fromthe conditionsof time and space thatgovernit. No matterhow
fuzzy,distorted,or discolored,no matterhow lacking in documentary
value the image may be, it shares,by virtueof the veryprocessof its
becoming,the being of the model of which it is thereproduction;it is
the model.9

Whatever else its power, the photograph could be called sub- or pre-
symbolic,ceding the language of art back to the impositionof things.

9. In AndreBazin, What Is Cinema?, trans.Hugh Gray,Berkeley,Universityof CaliforniaPress,

1967,p. 14.

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ~l~~41.

.-n-'Afti~
.i-i
.::i-i~~s LM~ii-'ii
;AIm
o?
wo. WO

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Notes on theIndex: SeventiesArt in America 77

11. In this connectionthe prefaceto the Large Glass makes fairlyarresting

reading. It begins, "Given 1. the waterfall2. the illuminating gas, we shall
determinetheconditionsfortheinstantaneousStateof Rest. . . ofa
succession...
of various facts. . in orderto isolate thesign of theaccordancebetween. . this
State of Rest. . . and ... a choice of Possibilities. .." And therefollow two other
notes: "For the instantaneousstateof rest= bring in the term:extra-rapid;"and
"We shall determinetheconditionsof [the]bestexposureof theextra-rapidState
of Rest [of theextra-rapidexposure. This language of rapid exposureswhich
.."
produce a stateof rest,an isolated sign, is of course thelanguage ofphotography.
It describesthe isolation of somethingfromwithinthesuccessionof temporality,
a process which is implied by Duchamp's subtitleforLa mariee mise a nu...
which is "Delay in Glass."
If Duchamp was indeed thinkingof theLarge Glass as a kindofphotograph,
its processesbecome absolutelylogical: not only the markingof the surfacewith
instances of the index and the suspension of the images as physical substances
within the fieldof the picture;but also, theopacityof theimage in relationto its
meaning. The notes forthe Large Glass forma huge, extendedcaption,and like
the captions under newspaper photographs,which are absolutelynecessaryfor
theirintelligibility,theveryexistenceof Duchamp's notes-their preservationand
publication-bears witnessto thealteredrelationshipbetweensign and meaning
within this work.In speaking of theriseof photographyin thelate 19thcentury,
Walter Benjamin writes,"At the same time picturemagazines begin to put up
signpostsfor[the viewer],rightones or wrongones, no matter.For thefirsttime,
captions have become obligatory.And it is clear that theyhave an altogether
different characterthan the titleof a painting. The directiveswhich thecaptions
give to those looking at picturesin illustratedmagazinessoon become even more
explicitand moreimperativein thefilmwherethemeaningofeach singlepicture
appears to be prescribedbythesequence of all precedingones." 10The photograph
heraldsa disruptionin theautonomyof thesign. A meaninglessnesssurroundsit
which can only be filledin by the addition of a text.
It is also, then, not surprisingthat Duchamp should have describedthe
Readymade in just these terms.It was to be a "snapshot" to which therewas
attacheda tremendousarbitrarinesswith regardto meaning,a breakdownof the
relatednessof the linguisticsign:
Specificationsfor"Readymades."
by planning fora moment
to come (on such a day, such
a date such a minute), "to inscribe
a readymade."-the readymade
can later
be looked for.(with all kinds of delays)
10. Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,"in Illumina-
tions,New York, Schocken Books, 1969,p. 226.

MarcelDuchamp.The BrideStrippedBarebyHer Bachelors,

Even(The LargeGlass).1915-23.
(Philadelphia Museum of Art,Bequest of KatherineS. Dreier,1953.)

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
78 OCTOBER

The importantthingis just

this matterof timing,this snapshot effect,
like
a speech deliveredon no matter
what occasion but at such and such an hour."
The readymade'sparallel with the photograph is establishedby its process of
production.It is about thephysicaltranspositionof an objectfromthecontinuum
of realityinto the fixedcondition of the art-imageby a momentof isolation, or
selection.And in thisprocess,it also recalls thefunctionof theshifter.It is a sign
which is inherently"empty,"its significationa functionofonly thisone instance,
guaranteed by the existentialpresence of just this object. It is the meaningless
meaning thatis institutedthroughthe termsof the index.

12. There is a late workby Duchamp thatseems to commenton thisaltered

relationshipbetweensign and meaninggiven theimposition,withintheworkof
art,of the index. WithMy Tongue in My Cheek (1959) is yetanotherself-portrait.
This time it is not split along the lines of sexual identity,but ratheralong the
semioticaxis of icon and index. On a sheetofpaper Duchamp sketcheshis profile,
depictinghimselfin therepresentationaltermsof thegraphicicon. On top of this
drawing,coincidentwith part of its contour,is added thearea of chin and cheek,
cast fromhis own face in plaster.Index is juxtaposed to icon and both are then
captioned. "With my tongue in my cheek," is obviouslya referenceto theironic
mode,a verbaldoubling to redirectmeaning. But it can also be takenliterally.To
actually place one's tongue in one's cheek is to lose the capacity for speech
altogether.And it is this rupturebetweenimage and speech,or morespecifically,
language, thatDuchamp's art both contemplatesand instances.
As I have been presentingit, Duchamp's workmanifestsa kindof traumaof
signification,deliveredto him by two events:thedevelopment,by theearlyteens,
of an abstract(or abstracting)pictoriallanguage; and theriseofphotography.His
art involved a flightfromthe formerand a pecularilarlytelling analysis of the
latter.

13. If we are to ask what theartof the'70s has to do withall of this,we could
summarizeit verybriefly by pointing to thepervasivenessof thephotographas a
means of representation. It is not only therein theobvious case of photo-realism,
but in all thoseformswhich dependon documentation-earthworks, particularly
as theyhave evolvedin thelast severalyears,body art,storyart-and of course in
video. But it is not just the heightenedpresenceof the photograph itselfthatis
significant.Rather it is the photograph combined with the explicit termsof the
index. For, everywhere one looks in '80s art,one findsinstancesof thisconnection.
In the work that Dennis Oppenheim made in 1975 called IdentityStretch,the
11. See The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. A typographicalversion by Richard
Hamilton, op. cit.,n. p.
Marcel Duchamp. With My Tongue in My Cheek,
1959. Plaster,pencil and paper, mounted on wood.
x inches.(Coll: RobertLebel, Paris.)
913/1657/8

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 &a

A .
..... ... xi . .
-. ,, ., .

abC
*4i!i i,J ....aat An.....

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
80 OCTOBER

Dennis Oppenheim. IdentityStretch.1975.

Photographs mountedon board. (Courtesy:The
John Gibson Gallery.)
Pit
MAN
---------------------

........... *Is -------

---
--

gI IBM
...........
..
14
Nil
lig m ...........
artisttransfers theimage (index) of his own thumbprintonto a largefieldoutside
of Buffaloby magnifyingit thousandsof timesand fixingits tracesin theground
in lines ofasphalt.The meaningof thisworkis focusedon thepure installationof
presence by means of the index. And the work as it is presentedin the gallery
involvesthedocumentationof thiseffort throughan arrangement ofphotographs.
Or, the panels thatcomprise the works of Bill Beckley are also documentsof
presence, fixedindexically.A recent object combines photographicenlargements
of fragmentsof the artist'sbody with a panel of textgiving us the 'story'of his
physicalposition at a given timeand place.
Or, David Askevold'swork The Ambit:Part I (1975) is likewisemade up of
photographicpanels captionedby text.In his case, like Oppenheim's,we findthe
index pure and simple: theimages are of thecast shadows of an outstretched arm
falling onto a luminous plane. The textspeaks of an of
interruption meaning:
"... an abstractionwithintheorderofreference whichresemblesanotherand also
is the identitywithin thisorder."The meaning of thesethreeworksinvolvesthe
fillingof the "empty"indexical sign witha particularpresence.The implication
is that thereis no conventionfor meaning independentof or apart fromthat
presence.
This senseof isolation fromtheworkingsofa conventionwhichhas evolved
as a succession of meanings throughpainting and sculpture in relation to a
historyof styleis characteristicof photo-realism.For theretheindexical presence
of eitherthe photographor the body-castdemands thatthe work be viewedas a
deliberateshort-circuiting of issues of style.Countermandingtheartist'spossible
formalinterventionin creatingtheworkis theoverwhelmingphysicalpresenceof
the original object,fixedin this traceof the cast.

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Notes on theIndex: SeventiesArt in America 81

14. The functioningof the index in the art of the present,the way thatit
operates to substitutethe registrationof sheer physical presencefor the more
highly articulatedlanguage of aestheticconventions(and the kind of history
which theyencode), will be the subject of the second part of thesenotes. The
instancesinvolve a much widerfieldthan the typesof objects I have just named.
They include a shiftingconceptionof abstractartas well, one collectiveexample
of which was mountedlast springin the opening exhibitionof P.S. 1.
An enormous,derelictbuilding in Long Island City,P.S. 1 was takenoverby
the Institutefor Art and Urban Resources and, renamed Project Studios One,
became the siteforshowing theworkof 75 artists,mostofwhom did "installation
pieces." There was tremendousvariationin thequalityof theseworks,but almost
none in theirsubject. Again and again this group of artists,workingindepen-
dently,chose theterminology of theindex.Their procedureswereto exacerbatean
aspect of the building's physical presence,and therebyto embed within it a
perishabletraceof theirown. (Part one of an essay in two parts.)
N.Y., 1976

..
.!iii
i~iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

David Askevold.The Ambit.Part I. 1975. Photographs

mountedon board. (Courtesy:The John Gibson Gallery.)

This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:36:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions