[-empyre-] undocumented worker

[Johannes Birringer]

Dear all:


from a peripheral perspective on the discussion here, 
i was struck by Hana's (replying to Margaretha) comments on a desire for, or nostalgic longing for
something like an undocumentable/pure (?) presence --  in an event or an action or a performance

>>a moment without feedback, without a document, without a traceable trace -->>>
 
This was in response to Margaretha's claim (unfounded or uncorroborated, i assume)..


>>i too have created relational artworks that play with and overlap different periods of time to induce a re-orientation, but increasingly i am intrigued by practices that might bring people into the present moment, and that remain completely undocumented. it fills me with a sense of release and relief to even think of it - a moment in this hyper media saturated world, a moment without feedback, without a document, without a traceable trace - think of it!>>


While this indeed is an intriguing thought, i would venture to say it's impractical, from an artistic point of view;  
your work won't exist and won't have that many relations, and problems paying your rent, 
(and i don't want to go into the political implications here)
 if it is not recordable and (re) producible for dissemination,
and potentially able to be archived and collected.

the plots of collection for time based (live art) works, vis à vis other kinds or work,  would need to be differentiated. 

Your contesting of the archive does bring to mind some of the unusual/out of the ordinary, long durational works by Tehching Hsieh (http://www.tehchinghsieh.com/), who appeared on the scene in the 70s and 80s and then was almost forgotten/marginalized and deported from the scenes of mediation. banality, power and symbolic capital..


 I think the one-year piece where he punched a clock every day at the same hour, was documented by the self-same/framed photograph of the action repeated every day for a year, and in some of his performances (like the one where he lived with LInda Montano tied to her by a rope for a year) he did not collect documentation or refused to collect it or refused to have the audio tapes he made played back, etc.

Now this is all academic, of course, since this extraordinary work is visible to all in a fabulously edited catalogue (book) on Tehching Hsieh:  OUT OF NOW, edited by Adrian Heathfield earlier this year. 

I am so glad the work can be traced back now and tracked a little, and feedback forthcoming to Tehching Hsieh. 
the postcards with Tehching living outdoors for year look great. 


regards
Johannes Birringer
dap lab,
london

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 4148 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20090608/a1c682e0/attachment.bin