Notations the Cage Effect Today Catalogue

NotatioNsT h e C a g e e f f e C T T o d ay 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 14: Photo © Loren Robare. Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Erec Koch. New York. Curatorial Assistant to the Director Phi Nguyen. 2011 White neon 40 x 1/2” (101.6 x 0. 69: © Ethan Cohen Fine Arts p. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery. Walker Acquisition Fund. 4:   Used by permission of C. 41:  © Marianne Filliou. Courtesy CNAC/MNAM/Dist. Buenos Aires p. Fortes Vilaça Gallery. New York p. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource. Executive Director Joachim Pissarro. New York p. 25: © Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. NY p. and Michelle Yun Hunter College/Times Square Gallery February 17-April 21. London p.000 ISBN 978-0-9839261-4-6 Cover image: Soledad Arias phonetic neon [aha] (detail). 61: Photo © Amy Thoner. F. New York. CT Edition of 1. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource. Minneapolis T. Chair of the Department of Art THE HUNTER COLLEGE ART GALLERIES Thomas Weaver. 57: © Christian Marclay. Peters Corporation. MFA Building Studio Director THE BERTHA AND KARL LEUBSDORF ART GALLERY Located in the Hunter West Building at the southwest corner of 68th Street and Lexington Avenue Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 6pm Information: 212. All rights reserved. 49:  © 2011 Estate of Douglas Huebler/Artist Rights Society (ARS). Interview Frank Scheffer with John Cage. Julio Grinblatt. p. NY p. Preparator Tim Laun.Published on the occasion of the exhibition Notations: The Cage Effect Today Curated by Joachim Pissarro. São Paulo. Chief Curator Michelle Yun.cuny. 59:  © Rivane Neuenschwander. 11: Photo © Albert Mendelewski p. NY p. Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource. 45: Photo © Jeffrey Sturges p. and Stephen Friedman Gallery. Curator Karli Wurzelbacher. 31:  © 2012 Artist Rights Society (ARS). 67: © Frank Scheffer. 88: Photo © Henning Lohner. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery. Assistant Curator Jessica Gumora. Dean. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust p. 23: Photo: Jason Mandella p. Photo © Philippe Migeat.772. L. President Vita Rabinowitz. Museum for Photography Berlin. Courtesy David Zwirner. 83: Courtesy of the John Cage Trust p. 6: Courtesy of the John Cage Trust p. August 1987. 71: Photo © Michael Fredericks p. 47: © Lynne Harlow p. Installation view. New York p. 53: © Reiner Leist. 65: © Estate of Fred Sandback. 51: Collection Walker Art Center. 2009 p. together with Bibi Calderaro. 55: Photo courtesy Jorge Macchi and Galeria Benzacar. 2012 HUNTER COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK Jennifer J. Courtesy Galerie Frank Elbaz.A. NY p. 33: © Matthew Deleget p.hunter.edu/art/galleries PHOTO CREDITS p. 2007 p. School of Art and Sciences Thomas Weaver. Bonn. Raab.B.4991 www. West Haven. New York/VG Bild-Kunst. 39: Courtesy of Fundación Augusto y León Ferrari and Haunch of Venison p. Bershad Professor of Art History and Director Katy Siegel.4991 HUNTER COLLEGE/TIMES SQUARE GALLERY 450 West 41st Street between 9th and 10th Avenues Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 6pm Information: 212. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust This book was designed by Tim Laun and Natalie Wedeking Set in Whitney type Edited by Claire Barliant and Michelle Yun Printing by GHP Media. Paris p.772.6cm) Collection of the artist photo: Jason Mandella . Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource. 2012 Curated by Joachim Pissarro. and Michelle Yun Hunter college / times square gallery 450 West 41st Street (between Dyer and 10th Avenues) New York. together with Bibi Calderaro. Julio Grinblatt.Notations T h e C a g e E f f e ct T o d ay February 17 – April 21. NY . of The Eileen and Michael Cohen Collection) .6 cm) The Museum of Modern Art. Untitled (640 numbers between 1 and 16). and gift. in part. and colored pencil on printed paper 11 x 8 1/2” (27.John Cage. The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift (purchase. 1969 Ballpoint pen.9 x 21. pencil. Hunter College 8 John Cage: The Multiple Paths of “Instantaneous Ecstasy” Joachim Pissarro Bershad Professor of Art History Director. Raab President.Co ntents 7 F oreword  Jennifer J. Hunter College Art Galleries 19 74 Plates Under the Influence of Cage Julio Grinblatt Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art 78 ON OR ABOUT CAGEness Bibi Calderaro 84 86 Checklist of the Exhibition Acknowledgments . John Cage. 1961) 6 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . preparing a piano (c. and in the writing of essays for the accompanying catalogue. As 2012 marks the centennial of John Cage’s birth. the selection of its textual elements. this exhibition serves as a timely platform to examine Cage’s diverse and widespread influence on contemporary art throughout America. We are grateful to Dr. and Michelle Yun. the Bershad Professor of Art History and Director of the Hunter College Art Galleries. Europe and Latin America. Dance. Religion. The impetus for Notations: The Cage Effect Today came from a graduate seminar on John Cage. Hunter College NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 7 . Notations: The Cage Effect Today exemplifies this unique cross-pollination. Thank you for joining us at this exciting exhibition. (MFA ‘10). We express our deep appreciation to the exhibit sponsors and lenders whose generosity made this project possible. Jennifer J. Bibi Calderaro. providing our graduate students with the unique opportunity to advance their talents as curators. Our Departments of Music. I welcome you to Notations: The Cage Effect Today. 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. Pissarro. our students had an extraordinary opportunity to be involved in the planning of the exhibition. Raab President. and Creative Writing helped shape the seminar content in the spirit of Cage’s interdisciplinary approach to art. Asia. by Joachim Pissarro. his talented co-curators Julio Grinblatt. In addition. and artists while working with the expert faculty of Hunter’s Department of Art.Foreword On behalf of Hunter College. taught first during the spring of 2008 and most recently in fall 2011. art critics. as an integral part of the seminar. Joh n Cage: Th e Mu ltiple Paths o f “ Insta n ta n eous Ecstasy” By J oac h i m P i ssa r ro In memory of Ralph Kaminsky 8 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . While I first discovered Cage through my abiding interest in Jasper Johns’s and Robert Rauschenberg’s artistic careers. in fact. . for instance. however. all of the arts formed a large. nor. continues to be divided up in countries). each one potentially enriching the other.“Most selflessly . without any particular form of art dominating the others. intellectually. contrary to my earlier assumptions. not to mention his contagious sense of humor. and endlessly fascinating. Cage was a true anarchist—artistically speaking. . there was not a single form of art that did not offer some points of fascination to Cage. continuum. he encouraged the young to discover new directions. and across continents. There are two simple reasons for this. in order to do justice to his multifarious and daunting practices. suddenly facing the task of teaching a seminar on this unclassifiable musician-artist-thinker-poet-critic-composermycologist was akin to facing an abyss: mesmerizing and scary. almost like a live wire—through generations of artists across the globe: this became the stimulus for the present exhibition. because our discipline. from drawing and printing to filmmaking. for some reason. He was not afraid of disciplines other than his own. reflection. Director of Piano Studies. From poetry to music. That first class led me to understand that. as an historical epiphenomenon of post-structuralism. Art historians continue to find him difficult and challenging. open-minded. Cage. The first class (spring of 2008) was co-taught with Professor Geoffrey Burleson. He was insatiably curious. still structured as it was in the 1950s. the discipline at large is still divided according to media—and according to continents (Africa. were difficult to convey in the confines of an academic classroom. Transcending fossilized labels. Asia. is not yet equipped to deal with such a phenomenon. John Cage cannot be dealt with as a normal academic topic. forces us to think across disciplines. Cage merrily crossed all such borders—physically. the only continent which. he continues to be alive in surprising ways. The operations set off by Cage throughout his incredibly rich life of experimentation. This was a set of qualities that made him a hero among artists. Latin America—and Europe. he made almost any artistic discipline his own. For Cage. The history of the arts (plural) is not used to thinking in this way. NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 9 . generous beyond words—and always willing to be challenged intellectually.” – John Cage on Henry Cowell1 Global “Experimental Actions” I dedicate this essay to my students in two seminars I taught on John Cage. artistically. 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.”2 In order to test the full measure of these unforeseeable strings of “outcomes. Art History. among them. The idea of relation being absent. and leads us to many different areas where he continues to be such a source of admiration and enablement among generations of artists. Under Professor Burleson’s cathartic aegis. unimpeded by the service to any abstraction. To get a sample of this. A “mistake” is beside the point. engagement in Cage’s own practice. David Duncan (both of whom were teaching assistants in 2008). Value judgments are not in the nature of this work as regards either composition. and infinitely rewarding system. almost physical. Martin Murphy. the presence of Cage was in each case very different but pivotal—this came as a total surprise to me. Silence. Steven Rose. an intense effort of reflection brings its fullest result only if it is co-extensive with an act of equally intense. and Studio Art departments). convinced me that “The Cage Effect” was vibrant and alive in today’s generation of artists. if Cage’s thinking and creative process was induced by cross-fertilization from one artistic medium to the next. In the end. 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.3 Cage’s words took on a different resonance (literally) after this performance (which can be seen on YouTube). he was also a restless traveler—from one world to the next. together with their MA and a couple of Ph. In fact. 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. Arrick Underhill.” we moved to the Hunter MFA building on 41st street. it takes us back upon the paths that Cage opened up half a century ago. for once anything happens it authentically is. the wide diversity of artists presented here. This exhibition explores this aspect of Cage’s personality. as can be gauged from one room to another in the present exhibition. colleagues: I would like to recognize. their 360 degrees of circumference free for an infinite play of interpenetration. anything may happen. For all of them and their artistic practices. made the rich and compelling complexity of “The Cage Effect” fully apparent to us. an experimental action is “simply an action the outcome of which cannot be foreseen. Not only did these MFA students articulate through their artistic practices one or several tropes of Cage’s incredibly complex. There. performance. and the multitude of propositions inherent in their works.4 10 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . or in any form of expression) was embodied in our MFA students’ daily creative practices. Going back to Cage’s inimitably direct and simple prose.Similarly. or listening. to name but a few. The sounds enter the time-space centered within themselves. In his seminal 1961 book. Cara Manes. and then in Brazil. Bill Abdale. and Lauren Pollock. the works by MFA students. Austin Willis (as well as Julio Grinblatt). 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. Paul Helzer. but they also produced some memorable essays. this class taught me that with Cage (maybe uniquely?).D. Cage’s unique sensibility triggered a dynamic still prevalent today. in 1962. His impact on the Western European scene (let alone the rise of Fluxus) needs no more corroboration. at least in principle. Except that. Suzuki Yuuko. This time. His visit to the dry garden of the Ryôan-ji Temple in Kyoto. instead. in the fall of 2011. as a young critic from Japan expressed in a seminar on Aesthetics at the University of Paris in 2005. His presence in Japan may be a little less known.More recently.” Yuuko refers to Ozu’s famous cuts on the Kyoto garden as mashots (ma means “interval”). examines Cage’s presence worldwide. its impeccably raked bed of sand and fifteen rocks. looking at Ozu’s film (which Cage knew well) insists. the irregular and the unpredictable. 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. and his impact across several generations. 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. we try to ward off. This exhibition. 15th century. when we read or phrase a sentence or melody. has drawn ample comments—though not much in art history. on the notion of “continuity of no-continuity. Kyoto NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 11 . His presence on the Latin American continent was scarcely known. these standard Western theoretical constructions have very little to do with a Japanese way of looking and thinking. this Kyoto garden gave rise to a whole Western-oriented form of literature. “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. plotting the tension between the impermanence of the sand versus the solid monumentality of the rocks. and its catalogue.”6 View of Ryôan-ji dry garden.5 In part due to Ozu Yasujirô’s famous film on the Ryôan-ji garden. Indeed. in order to readily adopt other concepts and ways of thinking. and cello). complementary) testify to the richness of Cage’s continuous impact in Japan. Bibi Calderaro. 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. he was endowed with an infinite capacity to shed any remnant of his Western upbringing.7 which might have been a perfect metaphor for Cage himself. in part. While examining the global effects of Cage today. and images. he turned to his host and suggested that if the planes of neatly raked sand were to be taken for the Void. and ideas that he left behind. works. Today. and unpredictability. This. is titled The Great Migrator. voice. 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. Renata Contins. who once told me that Cage had “authorized” him to do things he had not thought possible before. then the placement of the rocks could be seen as resulting from chance operations. In Ikegami’s book. and all the students who delved into this theme through class here receive my profuse thanks. elaborate on the impossible fusion of sound and sculpture (which are. This book. in truth. began composing his “Ryôan-ji series. instead of a binary system of oppositions. is a perfect case of compounded “experimentation” in the Cagean definition. he took to collecting rocks. Adjunct Professor of Art. being an American. He started drawing. Ryôan-ji made an impression on Cage: twenty years later. Cage had inverted the Western perspective on the enigma of this garden and. but also hinted at other possible directions of focus within the Cage studies. and of two artists a generation younger—Yukio Fujimoto and Kaz Oshiro—whose oeuvres. Here. Professor Harper Montgomery. oboe. by Hiroko Ikegami. the most obvious case of gaining new knowledge through this last seminar came from our immersion in Cage and Latin America. who came into contact with Cage via Rauschenberg and Johns in the early 1960s. one attends the spectacle of a double case of authorization: here. What is spectacular about Cage is that. Professor Julio Grinblatt. each with very individual tones. The nature of our knowledge of Cage in Japan was enriched by the welcome publication of a book packed with facts. finding in them the same riches as in an exhibition of several works of art. the presence in the exhibition of Ushio Shinohara. 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. archives.This is precisely where John Cage comes into it. the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Professor of Latin American Art. but in this context refers to the figure of Robert Rauschenberg. letting go of the principle of neatly separating the irregular from the orderly and predictable. texts. or for Infinite Emptiness.” It consisted of several superimposeable “gardens” of sounds for various instruments (flute. but was left incomplete when Cage passed away in 1992. permanent unsolvability. invited us to celebrate another reading of Ryôan-ji that would yield to irregularity. When he visited Ryôan-ji in 1962. and finally. however. contrabass. 12 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . and then published lithographs of these works. 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. as with all things Cagean. a composer even when the materials he worked with were linguistic rather than musical. they introduced Cage’s compositions (among other notorious European or American experimental composers) to the Brazilian public. De Campos is responsible for a vast effort of translation of Cage in Brazilian Portuguese. but independently) came to realize that one of the big attractions of John Cage to Brazil was concrete poetry. the relationship between Meireles and Cage. however. NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 13 . 2011: On Friday I attended a conference by the translator and scholar of Augusto de Campos. surprise has been the most consistent thread of our research. had not elicited much study: it is very likely that concrete poetry. dated November 15. for instance.9 Despite (or maybe because of) the differences in their poetic practices. and the unexpectedly high number of living artists. poetic density depends primarily on sound. Haroldo de Campos. Cage and de Campos remained close. coming from different generations. 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. and Willy Corrêa de Oliveira. with whom he shared many aesthetic principles and who have assiduously translated and disseminated his writings. They also gave “The Cage Effect” a distinctly political and radical inflection. whereas with Cage. as actualized in performance. I quote an email from Calderaro.” Marjorie Perloff. it is always the aural that has the upper hand. namely through the agency of Augusto de Campos.I believe that we have only begun to scratch the surface of a whole new field of research that indicates. 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.” Through the Não Música Nova Festival. Bibi Calderaro. launched the Musica Nova. after all. and shared this characteristic with many artists who developed an interest in him throughout the Latin American continent—which could only happily suit Cage. and I (almost on the same day. Once. and namely “the Brazilian Noigandres group (Augusto de Campos. and Decio Pignatari). his name is Charles Perrone from Univ. provided the link that tended to make Cage so widely known in Brazil. and more specifically the Noigandres. given his repeated intentions to “demilitarize language” and his close ties with anarchism. he proclaimed: “you must include Augusto in the show!” and “I have footage of Augusto embracing John when he came to São Paulo. who continue to explore through their own practices a particular Cagean problematic. and composed a manifesto declaring “their total commitment to the contemporary world.”8 But while the link with Brazilian concrete poetry existed. when struck by the number of artists who have found Cage conducive to their own research. Perloff further explains: However visually striking Cage’s verbal scores may be. But. as in Roaratorio.. Júlio Medaglia. of Florida. When I approached him to tell him about our show.. Renata Contins. was one of the first authors to have pointed out that one of the ties between Cage and Brazil was mainly through poetry. the mesostic column creating an interesting pattern and the punctuation marks of the original often strewn around the page. Cage’s abiding interest in the Latin American continent. Cage was. again in both directions. Rogério Duprat. Gilberto Mendes. the musicians Damiano Cozzela. and. and begins to give us a sense of the multiple directions that Cage explored through his career. This very fast and too short survey of the expansive presence of Cage almost all over the globe and through so many different media. This gives us a brief aperçu of the phenomenal diversity of interests that John Cage pursued. and generosity that is a very rare attribute.undeniably. and artistic practices.” John Cage during the performance of How to Get Started. 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. acted as an important cultural bridge that permitted the dissemination of Cagean aesthetics. also explains the considerable diversity of artists who responded in singular ways to the “The Cage Effect. with a degree of openness. curiosity. 1989 14 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . but in The Phenomenology of the Spirit. that of “the circle that returns into itself. Hegel says something that sounds oddly Cagean. I would like. is it actual. after seventy-seven years. 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. yes. and only by being worked out to its end. often infectious. planned for a sound design conference in Nicasio. now seventy-seven years old—not exactly a beginner anymore—about to begin a performance of How To Get Started. what was planned actually never happened. This is certainly an NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 15 . says Hegel. laughter are indelibly etched on his wrinkled. having its end also as its beginning. There is something deep. Here is Cage (in the photograph on the left). however. but about Cage’s “effect” on the contemporary art scene globally. daunting. Or.”13 Or again. the circle that presupposes its end as its goal. the circle that presupposes its beginning and reaches it only at the end. Three years before his death. California. Perhaps. so begin!”11 – Goethe Beginnings Ends Beginnings Strictly speaking. “is the process of its own becoming. generous. as if this new beginning (one of many thousands of beginnings in his incredibly rich and fertile career) was his first. yet youthful face. things were only just about to get started—and starting something is. but this moving photograph shows us the aging John Cage. The marks of his jovial. requires resurrection. with a deep air of gravity. The True.12 One ought to be careful when using the word “planned” while referring to John Cage: indeed. and light-hearted at the same time about his facial expression: as if nothing had ever begun. Hegel resumes the same metaphor. a performance that had not been planned took place. It is echoed by Cage: A finished work is exactly that. John Cage appeared in an interactive performance. was he thinking that. at any given point. in the end. Instead. the present exhibition is not about Cage. or as if everything was just about to get started.And what is the middles meanings and endings? And what is the beginnings middles and meanings ?10 be-ginning of no ending of no – John Cage “We’re here together.”14 This last sentence could read as the legend for the photograph above. to say a few words about a period of Cage’s work that is not much spoken about: The End.15 We will not know what Cage was thinking that day. as if he was experiencing some stage fright. grave. or any other art requiring performance (for this reason. As we are celebrating John Cage’s one hundreth anniversary. and thus to overlook. and relentless inventive creation. as in poetry (printing. has never stopped starting. oddly enough. nor am I going to read them. looks in the lens of one’s camera. the term “sand painting” is used: there is a tendency in painting (permanent pigments). knowing nothing. And I like to add: in our way of knowing newness.”20 The exhibition Notations: The Cage Effect Today.”19 or de Kooning: “The past does not influence me. also noticeable through younger generations of artists who have been deeply impacted in their practices and often in their lives by the Cage Phenomenon. Let us return to How To Get Started. instantaneous ecstasy. for instance: “I want to be as though new-born. And others are things that—most of them are things that have happened to me recently.16 This emphasis on the creative unit (any. are picking up where Cage left off. Cage has never been more alive than today—through generations of artists.” Cage had ten sheets of things written in front of him. and place nearly insurmountable obstacles in the path of. I’m not going to read them in the order that I wrote them. I’m going to use them as the basis for a kind of improvisation. all over the globe. as Gertrude Stein said.17 Each act is virgin. 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. After twenty years of his absence being felt in the art world. sits in front of one’s canvas. binding). and all creative instants) as a prime point of departure is a shibboleth with Cage: We are. seamless continuum.important aspect of the legacy of John Cage today: each time one stands on a stage. The one hundreth anniversary of his birth coincides with the twentieth anniversary of his death. and is about to get started again. Beginning and end mutually inform each other: younger and older artists. takes account of this fact—that beginnings and ends are inherently (if not dialectically) interwoven. or any other art requiring performance of music. who have been tenaciously exploring some of the tropes that Cage left behind.18 And when he refers to painters. the oldest country of the twentieth century. from all over. of the phenomenon of music. is always for the first time—ever—to experience “art for the now-moment”: This is the very nature of the dance.21 16 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Ironically. I influence it. it is fitting to observe that what he had started—and what he kept starting for about six decades of assiduous. even the repeated one. Some of these sheets—there are ten—I’ve jotted down ideas that I’ve had for a long time. his presence is. as if Cage had meant to conceive of his own biological cycle itself as a smooth. to be secure in the thingness of a work. absolutely nothing about Europe. to refer to René Char’s thought. he quotes Paul Klee. g.24� Exactly fifteen years later. in black and white. by setting the camera on an immobile tripod while the lens focused on the Empire State building. and the promises. Like the film. the material itself demonstrates the necessity for time (rhythmic) structure. Leonard and Schumacher recorded his voice. 103 is 90-minutes long. Cage began to tackle a medium he had never touched before: film. in an enlightening text titled “Forerunners of Modern Music. has a spectral and daunting quality.22 “This amounted to an experiment having to do with thinking in public. before a live audience. What is extraordinary about it is that Cage. In 1949. camera shots and the editing of the film. 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. no things. divided into seventeen parts—its density varies from solos.25 The film is very beautiful—the projection of light roaming around on white walls of a white room. A sublime performance for camera-person and light. The orchestral work 103 musically accompanies One11. no ideas about repetition and variation. duos. and then went on layering his voice as he was continuing to read (or not read) his ten sheets of notes. The light environment was designed and programmed by John Cage and Andrew Culver. randomly. literally a few months before his death. Closer even to his very end. Cage. perhaps. Chance operations were used with respect to the lighting. Dreams that Money can Buy. and with no anchoring spatial point. It recalls Cage’s early work: a full orchestra performs the score. There is light but no persons. The hypothesis of the seminar was to demonstrate that Cage was the first American artist who acquired a truly global dimension. under the sea. and create Empire (1964). almost perversely. despite his early interest in film—and having often appeared in films directed by others—never grappled himself with this medium. As Aaron Levy and Laura Kuhn put it. 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. The film is accompanied by 103. trios to full orchestral tuttis. arguably one of the most Cagean films.While Cage read (but didn’t really read) the first sheet that chance presented him. thus. the year of his death.” he opposes those who practice synthetic music working with magnetic wires (e. which NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 17 . before a live audience. practically unnoticeable given that the film fixes on a motionless subject: the Empire State Building. The introduction to his film on the UbuWeb website reads: John Cage created his only feature-length film in the year he died. One11 is a film without subject. The final impression is of another. in a very obvious way. timeless place—freely roaming the clouds or. 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. Andy Warhol would push the fullest implication of this analysis in film. a composition created independently of the film that is also ninety minutes long.” 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.”23 The present exhibition very much tests the possibilities. As if having read Cage’s remark about “the necessity for time (rhythmic) structure. until 1992.. laid out by this program: an experiment having to do with thinking in public. 11  Goethe. html?id=77 6 Ibid.. G. 25 Ubu Web.unice. “Lecture on Something.. 1961). 13  egel. http://www. “Introduction. that will include a series of works by artists who follow suit with Cage with this medium. 36.com/ watch?v=A0BNsBlzQII) 5  See Daniel Charles. 64. http:/ /revel. 67.howtogetstarted.” Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown.” August 31. 488. 24 Silence. Skywalker Ranch.org/cage. 2. 7  Hiroko Ikegami.26� The film One11 will open a program of films at Hunter. 73.includes instrumentation for solos.edu/epc/authors/perloff/cage.fr/cycnos/index. 1989) c.” http:/ /wings. 65. trans. 1989. California. 15 Cage. html 9 Ibid.263. The Music of Verbal Space: John Cage’s “What You Say.W. viewers would be led to find themselves. in Nicasio. 17 Ibid. an approximately five-minute odyssey of a bubble floating through a landscape.youtube.. Faust (New York: Anchor Books. 2010) 153 – 203. Silence. 4  The recording of our performance in 2008 at Hunter College/ CUNY can be found on YouTube : http:/ /www. CT: Wesleyan University Press.php?PHPSESSI D=626f9a8309beb1b2def6e0a0704245f5 22  “John Cage: How To Get Started.” Silence.php 23 Ibid. 21  Cage. 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.ii. 19 Ibid. together with the minimal yet highly poetic beam of light dancing on the walls of the room. Theater and Music” presented by Bay Area Radio Drama at Sprocket Systems. I.” 8  Marjorie Perloff. Silence. “History of Experimental Music in the United States. But no space is actually empty and the light will show what is in it. viewers will find themselves on the path that Cage began to pave for them. 16 Ibid. 71. Cage refers here to a discussion following a talk Willem de Kooning gave at the Art Alliance in Philadelphia.. 1961.. organized in concert with our colleagues from the Film Department. June 25. “Shattering Representation From Landscape to Soundscape : Cage/Japan.” http://www. These beautiful chords. 1981.org/introduction. http://www. This is what Cage had to say about this: Of course the film will be about the effect of light in an empty space. 12  “Sound Design: An Invitational Conference on the Uses of Sound for Radio Drama. Video.com/film/cage_one11. 59. Yet.” in Cycnos. 18 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . somehow. 2 3 Silence. “A Dialogue in Tokyo: Rauschenberg Meets the Japanese Avant-Garde. 2005. 1  John Cage. Cage seems to rewind his life back to the early days when he was studying under Arnold Schönberg. duets. The Great Migrator: Robert Rauschenberg and the Global Rise of American Art (Cambridge.V.howtogetstarted. 18 Ibid. 69. 65. through this film. See in particular chapter 4.. MA: MIT Press.html 26 Ibid. volume 20 no. 20  Ibid. carry together a magical effect. Film.buffalo. John Cage was quoted as saying that he hoped that. It is our hope that going through the present exhibition. 10. 14 Ibid. 65. And all this space and all this light will be controlled by random operations. H (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10 John Cage. 1977). A. and trios. such as Rivane Neuenschwander’s quasi-magical and ever-so-subtle Inventory of small deaths (blow) (2000).F.ubu. Miller. The Phenomenology of Spirit. PLATES 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 & Gareth James Lynne Harlow Douglas Huebler David Lamelas Reiner Leist Jorge Macchi Christian Marclay Rivane Neuenschwander Kaz Oshiro Edgardo Rudnitzky Fred Sandback Frank Scheffer Ushio Shinohara Linda Stillman Daniel Wurtzel 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 19 . wordpress. and the constant.” 1 The work occurs on the molecular level. Zachary Hale Sink. repeat. The conditions of the work are Anastasi’s: he set up and wrote the instructions.3cm) Collection of Michael Straus Notes 1 2 http://www. PA.”2 This is a quiet and contemplative site charged with the electric locus of ontological presence. comments on Eastern mysticism as being “the ‘silence of thunder.’ obtained in the midst of the flash and uproar of opposing electric currents.W i l l i a m A n astas i b. but also a verb.williamanastasi. somewhat tragically.T. so too does Anastasi’s Sink require the patience of attentive care and the passage of time. the action of descending below. One can find echoes of Chinese Gongshi—those scholars’ rocks that deeply fascinated Cage. D. The work only performs its function over time. Indeed. NY William Anastasi’s Sink involves a simple action that turns into a meditation. and the composition of Zen rock gardens also conjure up Anastasi’s Sink. 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.8 x 50. Yet the incarnation. variagated patina. a basin and a receptacle of water. “Sink” is a noun. objects are seen absorbing the impact of nature and time. the deft tending of Japanese bonsai. whose contours and capillaries are formed by river water working their surfaces over decades and centuries. without any human intention. 1933 Philadelphia. water 20 x 20 x 1/2” (50. Likewise. The physicality of Sink has to do with chemistry in service to aesthetics. through change and chance. other than setting up a context (such as placing the steel plate in a room and watering it).net/Mainframe. A humble thick steel slab occupies the floor. through discourse between materiality and constancy. The artist clears a space for this quiet collaboration to occur. and it is of no small significance that one found its way into the collection of John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Anastasi’s Sink implies such a dual nature. Sink consists of an edition of four. Each time the water evaporates. Lives and works in New York. but also in the tending of the piece itself. tracked by the evaporating water and the interaction between the art object and its caretakers. Anastasi’s Sink is a noun in its status as art object. 1963 Rusted steel. no wonder Cage wanted to have it. Cage’s mentor and professor of Zen Buddhism. yet a verb in its constant flux and oxidation. the devotional and softly intimate nature of Sink speaks to Cage’s sensibilities.htm shamansun. The accompanying artist’s instructions read: “Set a rectangular piece of hotrolled carbon steel level on floor. Suzuki.com/2010/10/27/d-t-suzuki-on-eastern-mysticism 20 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Just as a scholar’s rock is only realized after centuries of slow unnoticeable “sculpting” by nature. In each of these instances. the repetitive (daily) ritual of watering this slab ends up producing a rich. Pour on it a measure of tap water so that the resulting pond holds its position short of overflow. Yet the true potency of the work happens through the measure of time.8 x 1. slow. . pp 80-81).6cm) Collection of the artist 22 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Claire Breukel Notes 1 2 Interview with the artist. as well as to question the way in which it functions within a larger social and cultural context. Just as John Cage created drawings to illustrate his compositions. for instance. Lives and works in New York. 2011. NY Soledad Arias works in a variety of media including neon. 2011 White neon 40 x 1/4” (101. Argentina. oddly serene. Buenos Aires. In addition. Arias proposes an alternative method of relating to words and narrative by highlighting their physical nature. Arias imbues the words with an expressive physicality. text. for instance. 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. As Cage stated.So S o l e da d Ar A r i as b. the activity of reading/seeing/touching these word-objects activates their sound element. 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. In contrast to Bruce Nauman’s neon phrases. She is interested in exploring human relationships towards different modes of communication. and restrained. By combining visual effects with sounds and phonetics.”1 In doing so. However. and interventions. “what was needed in music when I came along was the necessity of being physical about hearing. Cage reinvented our experience and understanding of music by embracing everyday sound as part of his compositions: think of Water Walk (1959).6 x 0. Arias explains. with a haptic attribute. Arias’s “white neon” series transforms specific words and phrases by emphasizing their graphic properties. (Roth and Roth. Arias’s neon texts are monochromatic and linear. and in this way opens our minds to explore further how we mean what we mean. Her work offers a multi-dimensional didactic interpretation that alludes to the expansive possibility of meaning. installations.”2 These few words aptly describe the essence of Arias’s art practice. “I expose the intersection of the aural and the visual. This ensures an unmediated relationship between artwork and viewer and offers the possibility to assess the word individually. tantalizing with their bright colors and swirling shapes. Arias presents this physicality in a most fundamental form. prints. phonetic neon [aha]. and challenges conventional perceptions of language. she activates a multi-sensory experience. Arias highlights the manner in which people think about and relate to language. and involuntary sounds are transformed into a visible form. October 19. one where words. . New York Following in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades. he explores each of these objects’ ability to produce unexpected sounds. The most recent version.) 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. New York. 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. In his sound environments. glassware and miscellaneous porcelain float. In his untitled pool series (1998-2002). virus. 1-4. creating a soothing and meditative sonorous environment. “index. Following in the tradition of John Cage. In indexes (v. In the series from here to ear (2007–2012). 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.C é l e st e B o u r s i e r-Mo u genot b. and chords. Boursier-Mougenot places equal importance on the sounds created by the objects and on the transformation of the objects by the sounds they make. 1). 2012 Pleyel piano P190 with PianoDisc system. much as John Cage did decades earlier with his prepared piano compositions. included in this exhibition. pump. although similar in appearance. Boursier-Mougenot does not compose musical scores. No two installations sound alike. Boursier-Mougenot elevates the role of an ordinary object. Boursier-Mougenot positioned amplified electric guitars horizontally in a gallery space filled with finches. Lives and works in Sète. Boursier-Mougenot blurs the boundary between music and “sculpture as living sound. out of sight of gallery visitors. translating letters and phrases into pitch. The different pools in any one series are made up of the same type and number of technical components—inflatable swimming pool. France. NY (3/19 – 4/25/09) Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery. where visual information is expressed acoustically—a highly Cagean conundrum. The half-water-filled pieces of china swirl and gently collide with one another.1 x 102. repetition. This piece is an iteration of index (v. but rather provides opportunities and systems in which musical arrangements may occur. 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. water-heater system—and also a collection of dishware that. 1) (2012). Boursier-Mougenot extracts the musical potential of everyday objects by creating systems and rules for musical situations to generate and sustain themselves. solidvideo. has been chosen for its unique sound quality and the pitch of the note it produces when struck. the artist placed the viewer at the center of a chorus of guitars. each installation consists of a blue inflatable children’s wading pool filled with water in which china dishes and bowls. detail. 1) the artist reconfigures a traditional instrument by inserting a software system of his own design. so to speak. The software that Boursier-Mougenot wrote links linguistic properties to musical properties.2 x 151.” Misa Jeffereis 24 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . computer and software 74 1/2 x 59 1/2 x 40 1/2” (189. In this way.” Paula Cooper Gallery. indexes (v. By rejecting a traditional musical performance. conversely. 1961 Nice. in order to create a nonhierarchical experience of the piece.9cm) Installation view. In his piece indexes (v. whose gentle landing on the strings created a soundscape in which viewers were surrounded by the birds and discordant noises from the instruments. France French composer and artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates situations where sonic events take visual form or. . or any other medium. no palpable substance. Out of Place. University of Texas at Austin. these moments “remind us of how Caldas’s objects invade their surrounding territory. no. The structure holds up these tensions and contradictions to the viewer who may choose to look at the object. Quite the contrary. calling for a ‘life experience’ that would conform to art itself. 3 Guy Brett. and turned the public into the subject of aesthetic actions. Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro Waltercio Caldas does not wish to distance himself from art historical icons.. ‘absence’ and ‘presence’ become interchangeable. but it “rescued subjectivity.. and indeed. He willfully and playfully maintains an active dialogue with classical and modern works. Claire Bergeal Notes 1 Alicia Murria.Wa lt e rc i o C a l das b. at the artist’s hand. 2007). 1990). Caldas calls attention to transparency. fullness and emptiness. deserving as much consideration as sound. as the title suggests. Instead of merely presenting objects. The steel structures. affirmed the presence of the arts. Transparency is no longer merely the absence of material but acquires. 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 Combining disparate mediums. drawing and sculpture.’”4 This tension between presence and absence. Brazil.” Artecontexto. reminiscent of a Giorgi Morandi still life in terms of their sober and direct forms. 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. offers a launching pad from which the viewer can explore the framed transparency. Caldas says about his works that they evoke “sculptural moments. (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery. et al. enjoyable component of his compositions. et al. 70. His sculptures appear to activate objects between spaces.” he once said.. Transcontinental: An Investigation of Reality: Nine Latin American Artists (London. 2  Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro. 26 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . 58. conjures up Cagean notions of music as organized noise and silence. it can also be interpreted as a reference to Duchamp’s sculptures of etched and imaged glass (such as Large Glass and Small Glass). or alternatively (but not simultaneously) look through the object. 2008. Caldas ruptures any traditional definition of sculpture by allowing his work to oscillate between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. 20. O transparente (The Transparent [from the Veneza Series]) embodies the artist’s mandate of creating “maximum presence” and “maximum absence” at the same time. accessing the void. The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps Cisneros Collection (Austin: Blanton Museum of Art. Although Caldas’s O transparente (The Transparent [from the Veneza Series]) is decidedly hollow. New York: Verso. the same density—and power of fascination—as steel and glass. Neo-Concretism not only sought to reevaluate the principles on which concrete art had been founded. 30. et al. 4 Gary Dufour. with no tangible core. 44.”2 O transparente (da serie Veneza) (The Transparent [from the Veneza Series]). 1993). 1946 Rio de Janeiro. which was committed to non-figurative geometric art. and Man Ray. Farias aptly notes that “inside Caldas’s artistic universe.1 Caldas’s work is founded in Neo-Concretism. are made with scant material given the amount of square footage they occupy. “Let the Object become intermingled with the situation it creates. 5 Ibid. absence and presence. among others. and presenting an illusion of reality. in the same way that music intertwines with silence. namely by Marcel Duchamp. a movement that began in Brazil in 1959 by rejecting Concretism. it is far from empty. 22. virtually pervading the invisible and silent air trapped in between things that we casually call ‘emptiness.” As Agnaldo Farias writes. both inherently bound with each other through a carefully structured concept of duration.”5 Just as Cage drew attention to silence as an indispensable. Giorgio Morandi. and yet.3 His structures loom large as they define wide areas of space. . heightening their own consciousness in the act of seeing. subverting and thus reinforcing our awareness of the space and the manner in which we negotiate it. 1968 Rio de Janeiro. In 2 estudos sobre 1 dimensão perdida (2 Studies on 1 Lost Dimension). this simple gesture draws attention to the way in which we understand objects in terms of dimensionality. Viewers are always aware of themselves in relation to the work. Just as there is no such thing as true “silence. Damasceno’s work operates to transfigure space.” (one of Cage’s foremost concepts). 1996 Iron and elastic cord Installation dimensions approximately 7’ 7” x 15’ 10” x 35’ (230 x 482 x 1080cm) Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros 28 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Annie Wischmeyer 2 estudos sobre 1 dimensão perdida (2 Studies on 1 Lost Dimension). a dance is transformed into sculpture. one on top of another as a record of the utilization of space. Just as Cage’s composition 4’33” redefined the concept of silence. Damasceno’s work again toys with our relationship to the space. As the absent dancer’s movements are tracked across the floor. a small iron table lies on its side on the floor. with each step recorded in place by a marble footprint. 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. suspending it in a state of both tension and rest. the footprints begin to pile up. Space. making palpable that which is unseen. is never a passive void either. Brazil. Perspectival drawing is utilized as a means for depicting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. and the manner in which it is inhabited. In this exhibition. Here. and in this piece we are presented with the inversion of that mechanism. in Damasceno’s hands. In this work. Extending from each of its points. a line is drawn through space and anchored to the wall.Jos é Da m asc e n o b. nor can space ever be full: it is always activated by the way in which it is occupied. the threedimensional object becomes a two-dimensional abstraction. Damasceno’s piece titled Step by Step (2006) provides an interesting example of this concretization of space. Referencing perspectival rendering from the Renaissance. . ” This daily grind directly echoes John Cage’s own daily practice and more—it highlights their shared values: indifference. For Darboven it was about turning inward.”1 Indeed.” Cage said. but by a steadfast. She began her studies as a music student who played piano and ended her career by translating her number-based pieces into musical notation. “Hanne Darboven: Discipline and Obsession. fulfillment of duty—I am no worse a worker than someone who has built a road. I have written my thousand pages. Her daily practice of writing is The Museum of Modern Art. his artistic practice and value of such goals were developed through his dedicated study of Zen Buddhism. in comparison. comprising around 1. In the end.”3 For Cage this was achieved through severe reduction. developing her own very particular 28 panels: each 11 1/2 x 33” (29. http://www.H a n n e Da r rbov bov e n b.net/artist. the sounds would be given the shapes of words. overwhelming instead through her mass output of production.” Artist Portrait: Culturebase. Darboven.” Dia Art Foundation Website http://www. “Just an attention to the activity of sounds. offers a good example of this. is intimate: it is only comprised of only twenty-eight panels. pushing aside the ego. however through her obsessive dedicated repetition. in which a “short” piano composition is successively repeated 840 times. 30 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . continuous.culturebase. unaided by any traditional hierarchical context. Tryn Collins Notes 1 Petra Stegman. seemingly unstoppable application of her inner logic to create Schreibzeit— “writing time. 10. particularly without access to the codes required to make sense of it. he left the listener to wrestle with various sounds.589 identically sized sheets of paper and 19 sculptural objects. an opening up or emptying out. 1970–73 German artist Hanne Darboven moved to New York in 1966. Her relationship of time to music was constant throughout her life. She turned to mathematical writing as a “highly abstract language functioning in an entirely self-referential manner. Germany II-b.php?4060 2 Lynne Cooke. As we know with Cage. so that the world could rush in.net. where she soon met artist Sol LeWitt Ink and typewriting on twenty-eight and critic Lucy Lippard among many others. culminating in a performance lasting on average up to eighteen hours. Much of Cage’s work functioned the same way: having long abandoned Schönberg’s twelve-tone system. if it were being said. both gave the audience the space to build their own understanding out of a feeling of dislocation. Darboven’s II-b.diaart. 2009 Hamburg. “New music: new listening. the accretion of every square inch of her diaristic activities.8cm) use of the calendar as a foundation for much of her future work. for. Ungraspable time is a looming motif in Darboven’s works.3 x 83. in an attempt to close the gap between art and life. Germany. Creation for Darboven was not fueled by any Gift of Ileana Sonnabend kind of personal pathos. Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983 (Cultural History 1880–1983) is Darboven’s most colossal and all-encompassing work. the abundance of her work captures the feel of time passing. characterized by her extremely disciplined work ethic. “Introduction. much like that of a builder of a road—thousands of miles long. Not an attempt to understand something that is being said. indeed. d. once said: “I have a clear conscience. New York was then the cradle of Minimalism and pieces of paper Conceptual art. and ties her practice closely with Cage. and in turn her works feel disorienting and seemingly endless—almost like the sight of a highway crossing a desert.org/exhibitions/introduction/80 3 John Cage. Cage too. CT: Wesleyan University Press. Darboven began creating works on graph paper.”2 This lines up with Minimalist ideals of the time. 1961). speaking in terms that evoke this kind of spiritual investment. in order to enjoy the work. 1941 Munich. The viewer must submit to her inability to fully grasp the work in its entirety. In the sense of this responsibility—work. the drawings coalesce into a small ocean of methodical waves. The work is not easy to take in. loved confronting the limits of his listeners’ graspability—his orchestration of Erik Satie’s famous piece Vexations (1893). Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown. conscience. . M at th ew D e l eg e t b. in the words of Cage: “I have nothing to say and I’m saying it. Inspired by the slapdash over-painting of graffiti by landlords hasty to obliterate the illicit signatures of street artists. NY Cage’s use of systems and chance operations was a means by which he could divest his work of selfexpression. In Monochrome (Sleeper Cells) (2007).6 x 81. Matthew Deleget writes: “I am decidedly unromantic… it is all a means to an end.3 cm) Courtesy of Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery. and silver pushpins 40” x 8 ‘ 4” (101. 1972 Hammond. these paintings offer instead only a stoic silence. 2007 Latex paint on mirrored paper. or rather defacement. Taking up this mantle. his work turns into an investigation of reductive abstraction and its capacity as a vehicle for meaning—or lack of. The surface that had served as a mirror for both the artist and world is here rendered mute and impassive. Cage let go of the romantic notion of the artist’s hand: aesthetic decisions should have nothing to do with the artist. Miami.6 x 254 cm) overall. Deleget turns the gesture on himself. Lives and works in New York. 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. In an act of artistic self-effacement. and ever fearful to have them bear the burden of carrying some meaning. FL 32 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Refusing to divulge any information. preferring to let sounds be themselves. Deleget uses the same white paint of the gallery walls and a roller to paint over a trio of mirrored paper surfaces. IN. Or. each panel 40 x 32” (101.” Annie Wischmeyer Monochrome (Sleeper Cells). Cleansed of any expressionistic content.” 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. . 1978). 1984). he most likely heard about it. Artist. she is displaying. 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. Cohen. 2 David Nicholls. version 2).”4 Analogously. if not.3 Deschenes.2 It is quite possible that John Cage saw earlier studies of the 360° field-of-vision design. we have photographs—literally images of light taken when there is no light. Self-expression. et al. NY Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision. on every possible surface including floors and ceilings. 19. artworks were displayed at every angle. . and His Work. The message is conveyed by dirt which sticks to itself and to the canvas. This placed the focus instead on the viewer and their full physical experience as they moved through the space of the display. presenting the viewer with a circle of planes that hold no discernible picture.Li z D e sche n e s b. 2002). addresses both branches of this alternative—her art is a means of self-expression. Deschenes exposed photosensitive paper outside after dusk and brought the sheets indoors before sunrise. Claire Bergeal Notes 1 Arthur A.” Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage. 99. MA: MIT Press. 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. as part of a 1935 exhibition installation for the Baugewerkschafts Ausstellung (Building Workers’ Unions Exhibition) in Berlin. “On Robert Rauschenberg. 34 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . MA. Cage spent time with many Bauhaus artists. . and means of exploration of the world are. paradoxically. arguably. east and west. Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art. through which she tests the various methods and limits that photography presents. MA: MIT Press. 3 John Szarkowski. Deschenes is not saying. 1966). Bayer among them. As John Cage refers to Robert Rauschenberg’s White Paintings: “he is not saying. by simply focusing on and exploring the limits of the photographic medium. 23. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1966 Boston. This all-out exhibition design allowed the viewer’s eye to wander throughout the whole room: up and down. Cambridge Companion to John Cage (Cambridge. not a single wall was privileged. Deschenes’s work is aligned with Cage’s foray into the elimination of subjectivity. images made by the marks of light. left and right. Here. 289. Lives and works in New York.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). he is painting . Because of the reflective nature of the photograms. Herbert Bayer: The Complete Work (Cambridge. the two principal directions taken by much photography in the past. However. (Cambridge. There. Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision. Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision. We know that during his trip to Europe in 1930. 2010 Six unique silver toned black and white photograms Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery Deschenes’s installation follows suit with Herbert Bayer’s unprecedented exhibition design Diagram of a 360° Field of Vision. 4  John Cage. exposing. The sheets of paper captured nothing but the near-total darkness to which they were exposed: photographs are. version 2) is a series of six photograms—semi-reflective. etymologically. The message conveyed is determined by the viewer’s interaction with the work. imageless rectangles configured in a 360° viewing plane. Deschenes’s work accentuates the premises of Bayer’s installation. and reflecting. Deschenes’s present reinterpretation of Bayer’s design incorporates highly-reflective photograms. . The combination of these two forces (gravity and wind) interact to give the unrolling paper its own swirling. 1’ 14” Dialog with a Foghorn. 2003. as they trail it across the landscape enabling this prosaic everyday use object to acquire an arching poetic gesture. 2011. such as those from Cage’s Variations (1958–1967). 2’ 45” Unwind. Cage began to deploy a chance operation methodology as a structuring agent that allowed for both a conceptual and technical support for work. Dulzaides also uses chance operations in some of his video shorts. Felipe Dulzaides explores shifting perceptions of the natural world.Fe l i p e D u l z a i d e s b. Through this simple intervention. 2’ 13” Blowing Things Away. The I Ching became. 1999. In one print. not have been able to conceive or make. 1999–2011 Single channel video reel (looping video): Following an Orange. Resulting compositions. 2006). and Dialog with a Foghorn (1999) employ a mechanism used by John Cage starting in the early 1950s. 1’ 17” Courtesy of the artist 36 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Dulzaides further elaborates on Cage’s chance operation in his short videos. for Cage. to quickly constructed scaffolding whose function is to keep a ball from falling to the floor (Structure that keeps the ball off the ground. he relies on the forces of wind and gravity. 2007. the paper draws a line that the artist would. Taking Chances uses a very simple structure consisting of the interplay between gravity and wind acting upon the roll of toilet paper. 00’ 45” Welcome to the Other Side. Reid Strelow Selected Video Works. in the series of photographs Toilet Paper Interactions (2001– 2009). Dulzaides photographed and made short videos of a roll of toilet paper being thrown into the air and unraveled by the wind. 1965 Havana. a blank slab of black top is converted by placing parallel lines of toilet paper mimicking the painted lines of a parking lot. Dulzaides seeks to impose order onto an otherwise non-orderly space. lyrical arabesques. For his project Taking Chances (2009–2011). That same desire to apprehend the natural world through at least some kind of methodology attracted Cage to the I Ching. such as Unwind or Making a Road (2001). Originally exhibited in a Los Angeles International Airport terminal. 1999. and many of Dulzaides’s short videos. and displays his kinship with Cage’s desire to interact with the natural environment in pieces like Toilet Paper Interactions. In this way. in theory. Using toilet paper as drawing tool again. 1’ 40” Time in My Hand. 2002). were beyond the conceivable imagination of both composer and audience. Instead of relying on his own skills. 2000. Cuba. Lives and works in Havana Working in a variety of mediums and contexts. the structuring agent for his use of chance operation. including Unwind (2004). in which children can jump (What is essential is invisible to the eyes. Projects include installations such as an inflatable heart. 2001. Taking Chances. Blowing Things Away (2001). 4’ 32” In Between. Dulzaides inserts toilet paper into landscapes thereby altering them in provocative ways. . and all dominating Euro-American institutions for their interventionist policies. emerging in words. hypocrisy. Lives and works in Buenos Aires Incandescent lines define the work of León Ferrari. Argentina. Colgante Escultura Sonora (Hanging Sound Instrument) is three meters high. It hangs from the ceiling and the viewer is encouraged to enter the piece and take hold of the rods. each sound can be experienced as unique. In The Art of Meaning (1968). Raphael Moser Colgante Escultura Sonora (Hanging Sound Instrument). art will be efficacy and perturbation.Le ó n F e rr a r i b. “Art will neither be beauty nor novelty. and reach infinite pulsation. Myriad particulars are always sacrificed by any abstract unifying concept. in the same period. 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 Notes 1 León Ferrari.”1 With the Tucuman Arte project of 1968. each stainless steel element suspended from a square steel armature. and states. He argues that meaning is essential aesthetic material. Pope Paul VI. he criticizes avant-garde art that is restricted to formal innovation. 1920 Buenos Aires. as John Cage illustrated when he redirected our attention to the particulars of every single particular sound. state. By employing rhythmic structures and chance. are assembled in such a way that they condemn the church. newspaper reports. splintering subjectivity into an electric field. 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. complicity. as the reverberations redefine the vectors of listening. Immersed in this field. Johnson. Works such as the Words of Others. he moved closer to an activist role. rustling sound that envelops the viewer. 38 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . first appearing in his complex wire sculptures of the 1960s. 316. within a language meant to challenge violence and repression. a montage of the bible. With his musical sculptures. and President Lyndon B. quotes from Hitler. (Katzenstein 2004). consisting of slim metal rods. a dematerialization takes place. Squeezing them together produces a heavy. Ferrari manipulates and shapes experience as viewer and sound intersect. then. and immorality. . which describes the practice of meditation as “just sitting. As early as 1965. it is purely a “telepathic” experience that takes place between the participants and the artist.”1 This performance. just as Cage manipulated sounds and a silence that do not exist. each instrument player reading his score. Robert Filliou was in direct contact with John Cage. This sitting also references the Soto school of Zen. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift Silence and indeterminacy. Telepathic Music #5. and the silence of the body. The work features a roster of traditional music stands that conjure up the presence of a traditional orchestra. France. A performance can only commence when two people look at either side of the card that is hoisted in front of them. doing while he sat there in silence. 40 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Filliou’s action. constitutes both literal silence. ed. left to their own devices to “re-create” what Telepathic Music could be about. but also by Zen. Jennifer Wolf Notes 1 Ken Friedman. UK: Academy Editions. Instead of the traditional music score. though. France A French member of the international Fluxus movement in the 1960s. as he said nothing. 1926 Sauve. During the first half of this performance. Furthermore. inspired not only by the idea of silence. a double-sided playing card gives the potential orchestra member the clue of what s/he is to play or interpret. evoking the leftovers of non-musical performance. d. unmoving. Breathing and other necessary bodily functions. references Cage through Filliou’s deep involvement with both silence and Zen. on a stage while Allison Knowles described bodily systems. another key interest of Cage’s that reverberated on many of his friends and acquaintances. sounds different: it is telepathic—it truly depends on an (impossible?) communication between the artist (or the conductor) and his players. 108. 1987 Les Eyzies. 5. in this instance. opens up to a performance in which random passersby interact with one another. 5. that of simply being. These participants simply find themselves in the midst of a silent score for both a musical piece and a Fluxus performance. 32 playing cards and 34 small note cards Dimensions variable The Museum of Modern Art.Rob e rt F i l l i o u b. then. The Fluxus Reader (West Sussex. are sounds that fill Cage’s and Filliou’s silence. or lack thereof. in Telepathic Music No. in fact. In the experiential sense of the work. as in Telepathic Music No. looking at various cards. The music implied by the title of the piece and the inclusion of stands is nowhere to be heard. The artist has no control over who these individuals are or how they will interact with the installation. Knowles’ complementary recitation described all of the things that Filliou’s body was. This can be seen in his work predominantly through an ongoing exploration of the interplay between silence and music. Filliou sat. Filliou performed Yes – an action poem. Filliou’s installation. The concept of silence was important throughout Filliou’s career. indeterminacy dominates the performance aspect of this piece. 1976–78 33 music stands. as his sole activity was the most basic of all. 1998). Meanwhile. both key to Cage’s oeuvre. are crucial here. so too does Filliou allow silence to take the place of literal music—Filliou’s silence. . 1990 Installation Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist Notes 1 http://www. while activating all of their sensorial responses. Fujimoto. This annual show. 1950 Nagoya. Fujimoto studied the early advances made in this field. followed by his decadelong project “Bijutsukan-no-Ensoku” (“Audio Picnic at the Museum”) (1997–2006). Lives and works Osaka. Japan Yukio Fujimoto’s combinations of sound installation. and thus came across John Cage. and touch the art object. is more interested in activating all senses by creating interactions that encourage viewers to see. The two pipes connect the seated participant to sounds coming from the world “outside. thereby altering the participant’s experience of reality and proposing the existence of another dimension. At the same time. Yukio Fujimoto’s practice brings together everyday life and art through found objects and materials. across the globe. Inspired by the University’s program and its advanced use of electronic music equipment. the artist emphasizes the vulnerability of the participant. Fujimoto returned to the Venice Biennale. The artist describes these interactive provocations as “philosophical toys. The participant is thus encouraged to focus on the physical action of active listening. Often described as a sound artist. however. 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.Y u k i o F uj i moto b. 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. Fujimoto was the featured artist at the Japan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. afforded him much international acclaim. Fujimoto allows what Cage termed “chance sound” to inform the participant’s experience.html 42 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today .”1 Claire Breukel Ears with Chair. Fujimoto soon began to develop his own creative style that challenged the conventions of music making in Japan. Fujimoto goes further than Cage by literally cornering the viewer/listener at the intersection of two long tubes. 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. What activates the work. In so doing. and found objects challenge traditional Japanese art practice. In this way. like 4’33”. feel. is a conduit for an indeterminate audio experience and a “tool to appreciate the world. in fact. hear. In 2007. which turned the Otani Memorial Art Museum in Nishinomiya City into an interactive exhibition for a single day.osaka-brand. the ambient noise made by the circulation of other (potential) listeners/viewers. In 2001. Ears With Chair. this time contributing his installation Ears with Chair to the international exhibition curated by Robert Storr. In Ears with Chair. and second. A site-specific work. Japan.jp/en/kaleidoscope/art/index2.” The pipes alter the acoustics of incoming sound.” Fujimoto moved to Osaka in 1971 to study music at the Osaka University of Arts. as well as utilizing the artwork’s surroundings. . N ico l á s G uag n i n i b. 1966 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lives and works in New York Ga r e th 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. Break Even, 2006 Intervention in Artforum 10 1/2 x 10 1/2” (26.7 x 26.7cm) Private Collection 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 44 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today Lyn 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 46 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . 1997 Truro. Mike Kelley. but ultimately they dive into the unknown or ungraspable. 1997. Partial gift of the Daled Collection and partial purchase through the generosity of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann. Roberta Smith. 77. Kravis. 1997. ibid.com/c3inov/kelley.”1 The eerie parallel between this statement and some of the tenets of John Cage’s Zen-inspired philosophy has largely escaped attention. they used the constraints of time to explore the possibilities of chance. Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity (Cambridge. nothing but chance guides the artist in his grandiose. It was Cage who pioneered the way for such chance operations to provide a framework for future artists. Tryn Collins Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 Roberta Smith.”3 Huebler’s documentation work is “ephemeral and mind-teasing. “he [Huebler] consistently destabilizes the photo’s documentary status by pointing to the kinds of information it cannot convey. John Cage’s work operates within a similar paradox. Huebler exhibits six timed snapshots of a statue partly obscured by passing cement trucks in order to illustrate the “timeless serenity of the statue. 1924 Ann Arbor. such as Lawrence Weiner. whereas Cage tackled real time. “Double or Nothing. more or less interesting. in his Duration Piece #2 (1970). Jan Dibbets.html). simply to state the existence of things in terms of time and space.” a kind of systematic demystifying. It was Huebler who famously said. Similarly. MA: MIT Press.”5 This early work operates by a kind of gambling and humor leading to what is beyond our grasp.D o u g l as H u ebl e r b. all people—are equally worthy of attention. Yet. both artists’ individual research was characterized by an absolute openness to the flow of things.9 x 3cm) The Museum of Modern Art. “The world is full of objects. MI. “Shall We Kill Daddy. John Miller. impossible to measure. Variable Piece #70. (http:/ /strikingdistance. Marlene Hess and James D. Conceptual Artist. 2003). Photographing mostly groups of people in public. Agnes Gund. ibid. John Miller on the art of Douglas Huebler. Alexander Alberro. 1. or program—ultimately. Zirin. Both disciples of Marcel Duchamp. This ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary exercise exposes the camera’s weakness as a tool. and unreachable plan. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley 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. July 17. I prefer. all objects. revealing the “tension between surface blandness and infinite meaning. namely by being a proponent of dissolving or “dematerializing” the art object—which soon became a shibboleth of Conceptualism. The work is negating not only the object but the author as well. and Richard Long. Marie-Josée and Henry R. Mike Kelley. 72. the project—absurdly grandiose in its objective mission—was doomed from the start. only to create another shroud.9 x 101.” The New York Times. 6. 1971 Black-and-white photographs and typewriting on paper 17 5/16 x 40 1/8 x 1 3/16” (43.4 As critic John Miller wrote. a major figure in Conceptual Art in the late 1960s. I do not wish to add anymore.”6 Huebler’s work is both frustrating and funny. 48 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . d.2 Both artists were fascinated by the notion that all— all sounds. His writings in Silence seem straightforward. Huebler has held a critical role within the development of Conceptualism. MA Variable Piece #70 is one of many conceptual photographic works and documentations by Douglas Huebler.” Artforum. “Douglas Huebler. 4. and Jerry I. Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III. 3. Huebler documented the residual effects of time. (April 2006). A bit older than other Conceptual artists. Variation # 70 offers a marvelously futile attempt to photograph everyone without being dictated by any particular logic.” Origin and Destination. . in fact. and complex analysis of the unsolvable problematic of subjectivity in contemporary art. 1946 Buenos Aires. For instance. Without the engagement of the viewer the piece is incomplete. And. Overall. 2009 50 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Argentina. Minneapolis. the viewer’s imagination (and their own limitations) determine the limit to which meaning can be projected on to the piece. while yet retaining an over all ambiguous message. vice versa. the work questions who or what agent produces our experiences.87cm) diameter Collection Walker Art Center. They thus both bring attention to the significance of subjectivity (and inter-subjectivity). 1967 Theater spotlight in darkened room 63 (160cm) to 74 3/4” (189. The light is illuminating. but empty space. bright-white cone. Lamelas challenged societal conventions through the intentional mis-pouring of milk into a glass that was being progressively destroyed. There is no material object to observe. In this way. This work is formally minimal. Lives and works in Los Angeles. and pointed down to emit a field of photons. The analytical gaze of a participant is the condition of possibility of the meaning of this work. As both Lamelas and Cage are setting up environments for experiences. The room is darkened so that the pyramidal beam of light can be properly perceived. Walker Acquisition Fund. is related to his greater concern with the nature of information and the means of conveying that information. Lamelas’ work offers us a dynamic. with To Pour Milk Into a Glass (1972). T. The projected light forms an intense. and dies without it. both artists are delegating responsibility to the viewer—in a far more real and concrete way than Duchamp could ever have conceived. Limit of A Projection I constructs a sculpture with light. especially cinema. 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. but illuminates nothing. Conflict of Meaning (Film Script) (1972) consists of a set of images simply arranged in various configurations to alter their coded meanings. The experience of the viewer is predicated on the reception of this intense conical source of light. including the mundane ones we take for granted. The same year. Lamelas shares with Cage a deep sense of selflessness—a rare commodity in the art world. A theatrical spotlight is situated above the gallery floor. The light appears all the more significant in contrast to its immediate environment: darkness. His interest in media. B. CA David Lamelas helps us reconsider the forms and meanings applied to art in the ‘60s and ‘70s. inexistent. nothing tactile. Limit of A Projection I lives through its being perceived and processed through an observer.Dav i d L La a m e l as b. Matthew Cianfrani Limit of a Projection I. The persistent theme of audience dependency throughout Lamelas’ greater oeuvre conjures up the Cagean notion of engagement. yet conceptually loaded. . Leist’s work. their presence. 1995-ongoing (work on loan spans 1995-2005) Installation: film. wood and fluorescent lights Dimensions variable Installation view. or not. 1951). Rather. Consisting of not much more than a box with a small hole and a chemically treated sheet of tin. rather than what the artist sees (or decides to see. or. Photography. not merely seen. Berlin. as a romantic gesture to a long-distance lover. Leist understands that one’s subjective experience cannot be easily transmitted. The frame directs the viewer’s gaze down Eighth Avenue from the twenty-sixth floor of the artist’s building. Leist’s technical process for Window Project requires very little manipulation beyond opening the shutter for a calculated set of time. Leist. were selected for exhibition through various strategies. in 2006 at the Julie Saul Gallery. now numbering up to the thousands. For example. however. This primitive form of harnessing light allows for little control over the optical physics and image chemistry. seems to demand being read. merely presents these images in a gridded light-box. Matthew Cianfrani Window Project. The images are made using an archaic technique referred to as tin type. or not to see). and imprints itself against the film-plate without any aid from a lens or aperture. unedited—as in some of Cage’s compositions (think of Imaginary Landscape IV. organized chronologically. Abiding questions regarding authorship are shared concerns between Leist and Cage: the Window Project seems intent on delivering what is. though derived from personal experience. Lives and works in New York. pixel manipulation that is now possible. at least not through the limited technology of photography. and developing an individual interpretation of the work. seeks to be generative rather than representative. 2007 Courtesy Julie Saul Gallery and the artist 52 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . more than any other representational form. The light pours in. The images.Re i n e r Le i st b. The consecutive. Reiner Leist started taking a photograph from the same window of his midtown loft almost every day. bleeding at the edges. narrative implications are left to the curators’ choices. 1964 West Germany. within Leist’s images is very charged. The result is a grey. the technique was developed at the dawn of photography in the nineteenth century. Through relinquishing control of the image. 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. NY Beginning in 1995. extracting the elements of the image that are compelling. It is all there. Given the prominence of the World Trade Towers within the composition of these images. his system is one in which the viewer can engage on their own terms. Leist produces a situation allowing the viewer to create his or her own experience. low-contrast composition. glass. Museum for Photography. plexiglass. . Lives and works in Buenos Aires Chance. For example. 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. as an a priori system that allowed him to remove himself from the authorial position. a dictionary. postcards.” The product of a collaboration with poet María Negroni and composer Edgardo Rudnitzky. Cage utilized the I-Ching. booklets. and stamps Dimensions variable Private Collection In his piece Buenos Aires Tour. rather than the traditional city tour comprised of monuments and landmarks. chance represented an opportunity not only to distance himself from the burden of expression. 1963 Buenos Aires. offers the possibility of random yet often fortuitous moments that result in shifting conventional modes of understanding and the creation of new meaning. http://bombsite. and chance operates for him as a mechanism to conjure these notions in a manner that allows for their analysis. For Cage. and somewhat unexpected. The circumscription of chance within the confines of a system transforms the incidental into meaning. Annie Wischmeyer Notes 1 Interview with Edgardo Rudnitzky. Argentina. manner. affording the participant the chance to encounter the city in a new. Thus. Macchi superimposes the lines of fracture on a map of the city. a map. chance operations provide an opportunity to traverse unexpected and often overlooked environs. this piece is comprised of a guide.Jo rg e M Macch acchi i b. but also to open up the possibility of discovering unintended significance through happenstance. He is perpetually engaged with ideas of impermanence and circumstance. unchanging markers designed to operate as timeless definitions of the city. Instead of the staid routine of programmed sites. a project focused more on the creation of meaning than on the superficial description of a city. the ancient Chinese text. allowing the lines to suggest routes through the city streets and producing a series of “itineraries. rather than for divination as it was intended. This randomness. affords the opportunity for the creation of unforeseen significance. employed as a mechanism for creative production. 2003 in collaboration with María Negroni (texts) and Edgardo Rudnitzky (sound) Mixed media: box. Breaking a pane of glass. sounds. This idiosyncratic collection of texts. and objects becomes a subversive tour guide. The imprint of these unforeseeable and unquantifiable circumstances marked a radical shift in attitudes towards the authorial role of the artist.com/issues/106/articles/3218 54 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . This same interest in chance appears again in his utilization of radios and other such devices that when “played” during a piece. CD-Rom. Argentine artist Jorge Macchi shares a similar interest in the providential experiences that the utilization of chance creates. however. inviting the participant to engage in the randomness produced. Resorting to chance operations in his compositional process allowed John Cage to enter the realm of quotidian and prosaic circumstances.”1 Buenos Aires Tour. “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. one that toys with our conventional mode of navigation. introduce an element of chaos based on location and circumstance. a prayer book and other ephemera. Macchi orchestrates a tour guided by chance operations. map. Macchi’s tour offers an alternate view. . becomes the primary experience. Lives and works in London. Throughout the video. organized by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Joyce Theater in December. 2004 Single channel video Duration: 30 minutes Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery. indeed: an occasional car driving by. with the occasional oppressing density of silence. England and New York. one and the same tone dominates. who. In so doing. Marclay’s subject matter in Indian Point Road. Indian Point Road conjures up Cage’s famous dedication to. This video offers a moving homage to Cage’s life-long exploration of happenstance eventuality. can become monotonous—etymologically. By the same token. The random activity of the background traffic occurring on the screen is offset by the (necessarily unrelated) activities of the dancers. through the mechanical device of his video. the viewers/listeners. It becomes mesmerizing. the video. insects. Not much happens there (as on most rural roads). and autonomously from the performers on the stage. a breeze—that Cage would welcome in his own work. yet. Randomness compounds randomness. This work was commissioned as a backdrop for one of a series of eight “Events. These moments are punctured by ambient noises—birds. here. is an ordinary American rural road. CA. the indeterminate. the artist transmuted them into music. The video opens its lens to this: very little.” performances collaged from existing choreography. the artist seizes on time in its pure essence—not the time of an event (in which time itself is sunk). In a Cagean manner. indeterminate. broken only by the sudden. the world around the artist’s camera. 1955 San Rafael. a single frame captures. This pastoral cacophony escapes the intention of the artist. and indeterminable flow of events that occur alongside the route.C Ch hr r i st i an M a rc rcl l ay b. Yet. allowed them to be recorded. 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. anything. NY In Indian Point Road. something. 2004. an impossible silence: very little “happens” throughout this video and very little can be heard. thus confronting us. unedited. paradoxically. Jennifer Wolf Indian Point Road. Nothing. startling burst of noise from a passing automobile. in its naked and unedited simplicity. the slight wavering movement of the foliage of trees in the wind. At any time. but time as the event itself. is Marclay’s exploration of duration per se: by letting the video camera do the work. Pure indeterminacy. Indian Point Road proceeds freely—both independently of the will of the artist. and pursuit of. a camera was set on a tripod by the artist along a quiet country road in Maine. at times. Much like Cage’s music and Cunningham’s choreography. the peaceful tranquility of this slice of nature acquires a certain grandeur. in its perfect ordinariness. The dancers were accompanied by newly composed (or found) music: the sounds of Christian Marclay’s roadside. New York 56 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . Also Cagean. . 102–103. 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. to the floor. In her piece Starving Letters from 2000. gushes that they are “airports for light. 1993). shown at her New Museum show in 2010. referring to the White Painting from 1951. It is with this Cage-inspired openness that Rivane Neuenschwander is able to map the subtle beauty of the quotidian. For One Thousand and One Possible Nights from 2008. Silence: Lectures and Writings (MIddletown.”3 He embraced the unpredictability of the day-to-day: whatever noise occurred in his aural environment—whatever went on the radio. London be pure or neutral at all: there is no such thing as white. a sneeze. she let snails eat undetermined patterns onto rice paper and. Gathered dust onto squares of adhesive vinyl While she was living in London.. different effect.a painting constantly changing. An important precedent for this work can be found in Duchamp’s and Man Ray’s collaboration. Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander swept up all the debris in her Dimensions variable home onto large square adhesive sheets. Much of Neuenschwander’s work also embraces chance and uncertainty—and this astounding capacity to accept all. 2002). The Large Glass. acquires a more tongue-incheek and gritty tonality. 3  Brooks Williams. edited by David Nicholls (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. São Paulo. The Music of John Cage (Cambridge and New York: University of Cambridge Press. although still receptive to the dimensions of light and shadow. New York. (Cage’s description of Rauschenberg’s White Paintings) we move to sticky tapes for mosquitoes—same function. 58 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . In a lecture he gave late in life. letting the piles of clippings create arbitrary patterns on the floor. One sees here a direct parallel with Cage’s realization that there is no such thing as pure silence. Fortes Vilaça Gallery. CT: Wesleyan University Press. to accumulate dust for a whole year. 1998 O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work was originally exhibited during the 24th São Paulo Biennial in 1998. and acquiring still more dust and grime from daily visitors. But again. Far from the White Paintings.Ri va n e Ne u e n schwa n d er b. Cage. saying. 1920. the “color” white turns out not to Stephen Friedman Gallery. Lives and works in Belo Horizonte O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work. Dust Breeding. 2 James Pritchett. a fire truck hurtling by—was perfect. she punched holes out of a Portuguese translation of The Arabian Nights. “Music II: From the Late 1960’s. strangely enough.” The Cambridge Companion to John Cage. Cage explained his use of chance. and particles.. just an open ear and an open mind and the enjoyment of daily noises. Tryn Collins Notes 1 John Cage. and was always careful to add that this was for one’s “enjoyment. Man Ray photographed the results. After Duchamp allowed one of his works. built much of his work around the aesthetics of non-intention. Brazil. with the residue of daily life. These tiles remain active while they are being exhibited. 1961).”2 Cage indeed. O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work is a testament to the overlap between art and life. 1967 Belo Horizonte. the end result resembles maps. in contradistinction to this Franco-American duo and their careful and elegantly drawn lines of dust. from the walls Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. “I’m speaking of nothing special. the adhesive paper here conjures old-fashioned fly-traps and gives any neo-dada trope a different coloration: from airstrips for molecules.”1 But Neuenschwander’s piece. shadows. O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work also alludes to Rauschenberg’s White Paintings. In this piece. 145. The results were two cubicles entirely tiled. 135. . and allowing his viewer to have a glimpse of his construction method. Through an artistic tour de force that interweaves painting and sculpture.7 x 76. guitar amps. CA Everyday objects—trash dumpsters. and artists of the Pictures Generation who sampled commercial imagery. Oshiro represents ambient visual noise. Oshiro’s process is completely deliberate. Just as Cage often harnessed the unpredictable cacophony within our daily existence.Ka z Os h i ro b. highlighting elements that tend to fall within our peripheral vision and consciousness. John Cage’s interest in and elevation of ambient sounds and noise was what first attracted Oshiro to the elder artist’s work. and remain stubbornly silent. Reid Strelow Orange Speaker Cabinets and Gray Scale Boxes (18 parts). Japan. Unlike such predecessors Oshiro re-presents by re-constructing undecidedly close imitations of the real items he copies. Warhol’s screen-printed soup cans. only function as images.7 x 76. Lives and works in Los Angeles. Oshiro then paints a very convincing trompe l’oeil of the objects he recreates. washing machines—are the source of Kaz Oshiro’s imagery. thus revealing the stretched canvases that he assembles together.2 x 37. While Cage’s appropriation of ambient and found sounds incorporates a high level of indeterminacy however.2 x 37. 6 gray scale boxes: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4” (73. the artist quietly but deftly elucidates the gaps in our perception towards the banal elements we encounter within our daily lives. for example. Oshiro’s representations of guitar amps. Through Oshiro’s methods of construction and his choice of subject. Oshiro appropriates objects from everyday life. Oshiro incorporates the visual counterpart into his art making practice. Referencing Duchamp’s readymades. as exemplified by his commandeering of a live radio broadcast in Imaginary Landscape No. the artist creates deceivingly close representations of such objects. However. Stretching canvas over stretcher bars and assembling them together in a 3-d representation of these objects.5cm) each.5cm) each Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Frank Elbaz 60 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . 2009 Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas 12 orange cabinets: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4” (73. such as a Fender guitar amp covered by an impressively painted tweed or the water stain on a counter top. 4 (1951). 1967 in Okinawa. Oshiro is never shy about exposing the backs of his objects. . or clock using carefully constructed systems. recorded each instrument separately. The artist created a composition for a string quartet. The combination of sounds from the five boats. In its presentation. harmonized beautifully because of the pentatonic scale. The back of five paddleboats were rigged with a percussive African instrument called the kalimba. Rudnitzky’s works explore the nature of sound in its physical presence. reinventing the functionality of a boat. Here is another instance in which Rudnitzky. Lives and works in Berlin. record player. 2008 Turntable with four arms. whose practice incorporates sound and visual art in theatrical settings. and films. and percussionist. The tracks are distributed on the record so as to create a choreography of movement when each arm slowly shifts positions. composer. In another of his works from 2008.1 New Orleans.2cm) Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros 62 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today .2 x 63. whether a public space or a restrictive area. dance. To him. automatically moving to their proper location (track) on the vinyl. Octopus is a sound object in which Rudnitzky refashioned a turntable to incorporate four arms. each protruding from separate corners of the device. vinyl records 37 7/8 x 24 7/8 x 24 7/8” (96. each one with its own speaker. The combined motions of this hybrid creature is one of surprising gestural fluidity and musical splendor. and playing each phrase in sync with the other instruments (arms). Teeth were affixed to the paddles. the arms are motorized.2 x 63. 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). bringing new life to uncommon sites. The artist explores the limits and potential of musical instruments. and with each rotation they struck the metal keys on the kalimba. although random. 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. Little Music.Ed ga r d o Ru R u d n i tz k y b. the visual presentation of his art is as important as its aural component. 1956 Buenos Aires. and made a vinyl disc with each track containing one short musical phrase from one instrument. like his predecessor John Cage and his prepared pianos. Germany Edgardo Rudnitzky is a sound artist. The artist often incorporates the setting. allowing the peddlers to create music. Rudnitzky reconfigured a simple device that amplifies sonic vibrations into a functioning musical octopus. Misa Jeffereis Octopus. similar in theory to a music box. Argentina. . The demarcation of absence versus presence recalls Cage’s concept that there can never be “true” silence—Sandback creates volume from very little. bizarrely. the artist referred to his environments as “pedestrian spaces. NY. NY Fred Sandback’s breakthrough came in 1967 when. and creating works that appear to redefine the Renaissance concept of what is in and what is out. Two-part Vertical Construction). c. playing with the viewer’s perception. while still in graduate school. Sandback presented the absence of the mass by evoking this so-called mass with thin skeins of yarn. 1986/2008 Black acrylic yarn Spatial relationship established by the artist. Straight lines appear to be the effect of a pure geometrical flat construction. and the spectator. Sandback gave “form” to this quasi-impossible conundrum through acrylic yarn. overall dimensions vary with each installation Estate of Fred Sandback. 1943 Bronxville. Courtesy of David Zwirner. New York 64 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today .” Sandback’s oeuvre induces a true phenomenological experience of space and volume. 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. rejecting the notion that space can ever be truly empty. he outlined a twentyfoot-long 2 x 4 with string and wire. d. the space around each piece defines the piece itself. Consequently. but are actually the projection of a room-size volume. Julie Dentzer Untitled (Sculptural Study. With Sandback. 2003 New York.Fr e d Sa n d bac k b. The artist’s relation to the environment is crucial. the architecture. Fittingly. Sandback created pieces that fit within specific architectural spaces resulting in a close interdependence between the work. the presence of a viewer meandering through the artist’s work activates the installation and allows it to come to life. you are both in and out. . Claire Bergeal From Zero: Four Films on John Cage. is a cinematic take on a composition for fourteen parts by John Cage. from 1992. giving him a computer program made by his assistant. lighting is synched with the music. Scheffer creates a hypnotic film overlaying these elements with a series of blank screens. and three shades of grey in between. produced in collaboration with composer and musician Andrew Culver. whimsical. most notably on One11. the images on the screen are not about what they represent but rather “what they are. 1995 DVD Duration: 84 minutes Collection of the artist Notes 1  This system was explained in Making Fourteen. The musicians are each given a sheet of music and a stopwatch. choreographer Merce Cunningham. 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. From Zero: Four Films on John Cage is a series of four films involving John Cage. The second film. The Netherlands Frank Scheffer is a Dutch documentarian who focuses primarily on music. the musician must begin playing a B flat between 0’30” and 1’00” and end the note between 0’50” and 1’20. as is true of all of Scheffer‘s films relating to Cage. deeply ponderous light. The film casts Cage under a charming.” The duration of the note is up to the musician but. imitating the creative process between Cage and his long-time collaborator. because of Cage’s guidelines.1 In typical productions. For example. scenes from a forest. Working independently. each musician is instructed to play a specific note for a non-specific period of time during the piece. Cage suggested Scheffer begin using chance operations in 1988. The Netherlands. a “chance determined interview” in which Cage addresses nineteen different topics whose subject and answer-time are dictated by chance operations. released February. by Frank Scheffer and Andrew Culver. nine seconds on indeterminacy (“how to go out of one’s mind”). Ryôan-ji. cannot be longer than fifty seconds. and they are simply digital squares on a TV screen. and rather than reading a series of notes on a staff while adhering to a specific time signature. mischievous. Using a recording of John Cage’s mesostic poem. and always unexpected.. at times. one of the extras on the DVD version of From Zero: Four Films on John Cage. Paying Attention. Overpopulation and Art & Ryôan-ji is a collaboration between Cage and Scheffer. 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. white. but all broadly touch upon Cage’s vision of the world: e. as well as his musical composition Ryôan-ji. or.”2 The fourth and last film of the series. Overpopulation and Art. 2004. 66 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . 3 Ibid. 1956 Venlo. Andrew Culver. For Scheffer. 2 Email correspondence with Frank Scheffer. Scheffer has used that software for his own work.3 All four films in From Zero: Four Films on John Cage involve chance operations. three seconds on Zen Buddhism (“the structure of the mind”). The program simulated the I Ching coin-tossing method with which Cage was intimately familiar. and.g. 2011. Scheffer has collaborated with and documented John Cage in Chessfilmnoise (1988) and Time is Music (1988). in Kyoto (illustrated in Joachim Pissarro’s introductory essay): the solo parts represent the garden’s stones and the irregular rhythm the sand. similarly based on chance operations. Fourteen. The blank screens are black. including subjects such as the 1995 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam and the musician Frank Zappa. and snippets of Sixth Avenue in New York City. Andrew Culver composed the score and Frank Scheffer edited the visuals to make the third film. but in this case any synchronization is purely coincidental. The source of Cage’s composition is the Zen rock garden. who worked for Cage for eleven years. From then on. The result is odd. distributed by Allegri Films. Lives and works in Amsterdam. The topics vary wildly. December 28. The series begins with Nineteen Questions with John Cage.Fr a n k Sch effe r b. . Instead. and in response to. These performances consist of the artist dipping his boxing gloves in ink or paint and punching the canvas before him to create chance marks. however.Us sh h i o Sh Shi ino oh hara b. yeah. His work has since been exhibited internationally. draw straight lines and don’t think!” – Ushio Shinohara1 In 1952. with a spirited howl of ‘Yeah. 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. first created by Shinohara in 1964 and replicated by the artist over many years to follow. Don’t stop.5cm) Courtesy of the artist and Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Notes 1 2 Nicholas Lusher. “It’s Come to This: The Hell with It!. Shinohara and Cage shared a mutual admiration for each other’s cultures—Cage for Asian philosophies and Zen Buddhism. As a copy of Robert Rauschenberg’s 1958 Combine of the same name. Next. www. Ushio Shinohara (1932). and ultimately decided not to graduate. Shinohara negated his authorship.” made entirely of cardboard and found objects. In 1969. Made of found materials.nicholaslusher. Coca Cola Plan also embodies its Japanese origin through the particularity of its materials. The best-known “Imitation painting” is Coca Cola Plan. He disliked the strict curriculum. Shinohara travelled to New York City with a grant from the John D. most notably in his series “Boxing Paintings” and “Oiran. and Shinohara for American pop culture.” These paintings recreated American Pop-Art works. Rockefeller 3rd Fund and decided to stay. and in so doing. Claire Breukel Coca-Cola Plan. Shinohara recreated the look of the original materials using found objects inherent to his environment. While encapsulating the speed and rhythm embodied by American culture. 68 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . the year he began creating “Imitation or Appropriation paintings. the celebration of the picturesque in traditional Japanese art. Japan. Along with a pervasive energy. In a performative act.com Shuzo Takiguchi. these “bad sculptures” aimed to question what constituted “art” and “non art”—the most renowned of which is his “motorbike sculpture. Shinohara quickly became a leading figure in the Japanese avant-garde movement and participated in eight consecutive Yomiuri Independent Exhibitions until 1963. 1932 Tokyo. Ushio Shinohara attended the Tokyo University of the Arts to study painting. Made of Coca-Cola bottles produced and found in Japan. Shinohara created a replica that had subtle yet fundamental differences from Raushenberg’s piece. don’t think. Shinohara confronted Rauschenberg during an artist presentation with an imitation of Coca Cola Plan. particularly in his introduction of chance elements into his work.5 x 6.” Art column in Yomiuri Skimbum. This had the same effect for Shinohara whose work was termed “bad sculpture”2 in relation to. The painterly action of “Boxing Paintings” stands for a universal challenge against traditional conventions of art making.5 x 65. NY “Draw a line on the pure white virgin paper. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. an act that brought him international recognition. he helped found the prolific Neo-Dada Movement in Tokyo. Lives and works in New York. Oh!’ draw circles. Shinohara’s work questioned perceptions of “beauty” and “ugliness” and the implied social hierarchy of their meaning.” This notion of breaking down preconceived notions of what constituted “good” or “bad” was integral to John Cage’s sound compositions. and his “Boxing Painting” performances have been staged in museums and galleries all over the world. which was instrumental in transforming traditional art practices by creating work that did not conform to traditional aesthetics. Li n da St 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. 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 Collection of the artist 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 2 “Daily Paintings,” Linda Stillman, www.lindastillman.com/daily-paintings. Accessed on October 22 , 2011. Linda Stillman, email correspondence with author, January 1, 2012. 70 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today but also alludes to their ethos of progressive movement and experience. After Wurtzel sets the stage and flips the switch. This switching touch delivers an endless. 4 both turn over the artist’s will to the hazards of chance.Da n i e l W u rtz e l b. They behave as though they had been choreographed. to bridge the conceptual realm to the material world. Chance is overt in the indeterminacy of both works.com/sculpture-artist-statement-new-york. 2011 Fabric.” Further. the suspension of the artist’s subjectivity. CT: Wesleyan University Press. Wurtzel conjures dance. leap. and composer. swell. The works both capture the felicitous moment. In the early 1930s. Cunningham’s dance company became an ideal vessel for the execution of Cage’s compositions. arabesque. Cage’s relationship to dance is well known through his partnership with Merce Cunningham. “I determined to consider a piece of music only half done when I completed a manuscript. conductor. It was my responsibility to finish it by getting it played. and the felicitous theater of chance within the gossamer gymnastic poetry of twin pieces of textile caught inside air currents.” said Cage. Wurtzel describes his work as “an attempt to transform ordinary matter into something extraordinary. all trace Wurtzel’s artistic genealogy back to John Cage. D. 1962 Washington. particularly after meeting Cunningham and the half-century of collaborative performances that follow. The textiles surge. and mesmerizing dance of loops from this tape that seems to be animated by some kind of invisible force. Lives and works in Brooklyn. as with Cage. “Personality is a flimsy thing on which to build an art. The performers simply turned the radios on. wherein Cage conducted twenty-four players playing twelve analogue radio sets at Columbia University’s McMillin theater in May 1951. there’s no need for further intervention. transfixing the viewer. saying. skipped along the band through static crackle hiss and the errant phrase or melody. and from then on. Wurtzel’s Pas de Deux conjures up the spirit of Cage and Cunningham not merely through a superficial allusion to performing arts. However. 72 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . he recognizes “that modern dancers were grateful for any sounds or noises that could be produced for their recitals. 86. yet something more than chance feels palpably alive in each piece. Pas de Deux. It is undeniably beautiful. Daniel Wurtzel’s Pas de Deux elicits uncanny elegance in animating the inanimate.danielwurtzel. Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown. and dive weightlessly and voluminously.”1 Indeed. captured inside currents of air produced by a chorus of twelve household fans encircling them. witnessing the duet collapses any question of suspension of disbelief. Wurtzel’s Pas de Deux and Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. The armature of Cage’s practice lives in the sublime achievement of Wurtzel’s Pas de Deux. 1961). Consider Imaginary Landscape No. as well as employment of indeterminacy and chance. Pas de Deux denies the artist’s will that seems here to fly out.C. dissolution of subjectivity. air Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist The allusions to dance. Indeed. NY Twin crimson fabrics dance. 4. Cage made a contract with himself.”2 This symbiotic relationship would define Cage’s production. simplicity belies complexity. 4 divorces the articulation of the performance from the will of the performer. adjusted the volume. Zachery Hale Notes 1 2 http://www. Imaginary Landscape No. the adroit touch of luck and joy framed within the artists’ wish.cfm John Cage. . Un d e r t he Inf luenc e of Cage by J u l i o G r i nb l at t 74 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . And so I did. her relation with literature and poetry. and imagine. it is more important to explore that. so full of paradoxes and contradictions. The breakthrough of my life. While his writings demand a sophisticated reader. and the urge to act is in tune with Cage’s radical politics. While Zen NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 75 .A Mass media functions through the delivery of clear and explicit messages. The horizontal structure of the indignados all over the world. It may even inspire you to create something similar. As paradoxical as this may seem. And of course all Fluxus artists tried to co-opt Cage just as Dada attempted to co-opt Duchamp. related to their possibility to participate. paradoxically.”7 A customer review on Variations IV: “…This type of music is an amazing trip through an audio landscape. but especially by a genius like David Tudor. I see his music as even more politically effective than his writings. the use of chance and circumstance in her multimedia work. which are not presented via content but in form: the absence of a conductor. And edges destroy borders.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. the everyday with contemporary art). A fun disc. wrong ways of doing things also exist). the idea that there is no right way of doing things but rather a multiplicity (yet. think. One of the multiple paradoxes derived from Cage’s thought is the relationship with the ego. but also between media. Declarative or explicit artwork will be digested by the Empire through the Ether. his use of tape loops. Art is not powerful enough to react to these operations by using the same strategies. improbable mental connections between different sound sources. and the lack of a hierarchical structure among performers and instruments. between score and conductor. who explored the relationship between chance and memory and life and art. 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. painter Kaz Oshiro in his mixing of syntaxes and blurring the boundaries between media (painting and sculpture. 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. look: you can do anything. And I like that. Even John Cage. Resistance to classification is a difficult goal. I would list composer Terry Riley. Cage brought to A – The importance of Cage is such that his effect on culture is stronger than his legacy. Tacita Dean for her investigations on the boundaries between life and fiction. and how this participation can trigger unexpected possibilities of action. After years of indoctrination. and be responsive to it. this stance has been perceived as being in opposition with a presumed de-politicization of his music. her interest in time itself. and categories. 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.” Cartoonist Matt Groening: “…and what John Cage taught me was that there is a different way to approach life. It is evident from this short list that Cage crossed and melted not only the boundaries between art and life. where traces of his concepts can be experienced. But what remains irreducible is his effect on culture.” Writer Heiner Müller: “…and this edge was very very important. still others almost anonymously. performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson who uses extended instruments of her invention. others indirectly (yet consciously). the filmmaker Manon de Boer. dream.2 Literality allows discussion and comprehension that allows further control. we have come to accept those mandates almost without questioning them. 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. As some examples of artists who have been influenced by him. to incorporate the world. Instead. his effect is more powerful than his legacy. It will tell people what they have to do. someone who opened all the doors for me and said.” Musician John Zorn: “…when I think about Cage… he was really the first influence. and to have an active position towards life. and his use of humor. the difference in outreach is insurmountable. by echoing Cage’s legacy. as described by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. genres. the objectivity of the composer and the subjectivity of the performer after his postulation of indeterminacy. pop with minimalism. Some of his concepts spread directly. films. And that was a breakthrough. wear.” 8 B – John Cage’s work is full of contradictions and paradoxes. you’ll find yourself making the most fascinating. it will define for them the meaning of happiness. his compositions and related artworks point to deep and primary issues in his audience. At times. may elicit a similar effect from the audience. due to his use of chance through improvisation. and shows—including this one—on John Cage are proof of the possibility to classify his legacy. couldn’t fully escape this assimilation. both in the studio and during live performances.B Myriad books. his connection between the East and the West. In the words of some other artists: Composer Alvin Lucier: “…(John Cage has) that kind of force of saying to you: you got to try things.John Cage’s writings have an explicitly political dimension. Everything can go wrong. the lack of definite agenda. excellent fuel for the dynamism of any program. His work runs in the tensions between freedom and discipline. After several plays of this disc. His practice seems to be able to be executed by anyone. I contributed to this exhibition by gathering artists who. The category of chance in Cage is very liberating. I understand that the lack of contradictions is dogma. aside from his oft-cited friends Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. eat. hmm?! But it could go wrong. it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work. It is interesting to see the wide range of disciplines Cage affected. ” either by separating the performers in order to act. oblivious. Simone Forti. 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.D he later declared: “What I do. a flagrant contradiction with the spirit of the show. Another musical operation Cage implemented was to abandon harmony in order to open music to chance—to extinguish the artist’s personality. changed the definition of music with his piece 4’33” (1952). and Feminism. or by giving each performer the possibility to determine her position as central—adopting Cunningham’s idea of the lack of fixed points in space (taken in turn from Einstein’s theories). Cage’s intentions were to break down the barriers between art and life. 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. but also the performer. These radical elements. his memory. the players constitute a new sphere of influence. and his desires—in other words. four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence in three movements. Merce Cunningham) all advance the recognition that simultaneity—a co-presence of events internal and external to the text—can effect a nondirected field of spectator response. even in Science. in discussing ideas that beg to be transmitted in an experiential way. starting with giving entity to the performers. The interpenetration is complete when. If the creative process is always a poor emulation of the non plus ultra God’s creation of humanity from mud. in the early films of the Belgian filmmaker the issue of performance is a byproduct of a fixed. Although between 1949 and 1951 Cage attended the lectures of Master Daisetz Suzuki on Zen philosophy at Columbia University in New York. In other words. all those elements became common use.3 Echoing the transparent background of Duchamp’s Large Glass (started in 1912. and unmotivated camera modeled on Warhol and on structural filmmaking. Silence is. the Silent Mycologist had no less of a divine desire of trying to control chance. frustrating the acknowledgment of authorship and intention… In the second. a kind of “momentary authorship.” According to Margulies. the moment in which the exterior world is allowed to get into the work: during any performance of 4’33”. in his own words. refusing authorship. memories. In Cage’s own words. John Cage represents a pivotal moment in the history of twentiethcentury art. Cage. the year of Cage’s birth. syncretizing Duchamp’s revolutionary ideas with Zen philosophy. minimalist tendency. a spectator of both the audience and the world. if we can call the elimination of authorship a non-program. the performer turns into spectator as well. for Cage. on one side: “Fluxus group’s and John Cage’s performances. Quoting Akerman scholar Ivone Margulies quoting Akerman: “What I did in Jeanne Dielman are actions in real time: the fixed camera is not. and New American dance (Yvonne Rainer. each spectator will automatically become a performer. in 4’33”. the use of readymades such as radios. I do not wish blamed on Zen. Akerman’s work pivots around three main axes: structural filmmaking. 4’33” urges a state of awareness and responsibility. For Cage. either by action (noise) or omission (silence). silence allows the world to be the background. simplified shapes.advocates for the suppression of the ego. the reconstruction of life under Communism.”10 practice some tools he learned from Marcel Duchamp: applying chance to create a musical composition. or unconventional instruments. The author mentions a division between two tendencies in ’60s and ’70s art.”5 The use of chance operations works against the generation of a critical act. blurring the distinction between art and life— the music and the silence (or the surrounding noise in the auditorium). and declared “unfinished” in 1923). the performer and the viewer.4 A score needs to be executed by players. together with shifting the responsibility of authorship away from the composer and on to the performer and even the audience. all are part of the same scenario. and series of repeated images or forms seem both to block interpretation and to mock the immediacy of apprehension proposed in modernist art. proven mathematically by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: the need to provide a point of view in order to make an assertion makes subjectivity unavoidable. in Cage there is a strong affirmation of it. Through his works.C In this sense. the composer cannot only try to influence the audience. that different from… Warhol. Needless to say this text is. This point is of extreme importance as it transfers momentary authorship to the performers. a piece not consciously organized is “… therefore not subject 76 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . as well. a clearly determined program and clearly opposed to the non-programmatic one of Cage. Lucinda Childs. 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. This transference applies to the spectator as well. C – A good example of an artist opposite to Cage is Chantal Akerman. opening mind and art to chaos. as brave and not as sheep. the presence of the public in the piece fulfills the creative act. Allan Kaprow’s happenings. single events. postulating a state of enhanced awareness. and desires—turned Cage into one of the most influential authors of the century. to understand the world as a whole. The elimination of authorship is a performative contradiction. for me. the concept of silence in relation to the Large Glass. The spectator’s extended gaze over holistic forms displaces the burden of decentering entirely onto his or her perceptual and physical relation to the art object. infiltrated culture in an anonymous way. recordings.9 There is also another paradox here: the suppression of the idea of authorship—of extinguishing the artist’s personality. The idea of boredom. suggesting classical music. Cage/Cunnigham film. Marcel Duchamp and John Cage (Amsterdam. politics is found in the form.13 Notes 1  Richard Kostelanetz. even if their later montage turns them to a determined category. seven months after Pearl Harbor. this is. In his 1942 composition Credo in Us. 1981. Antonio Negri. written for a dance choreographed by Merce Cunningham. Mode. is always anchored in a specific weave of space and time. “Composition as Process–II. I can look through it to the world beyond.”6 Cage’s critical—and political—act in choosing to employ a system of chance operations is anti-authoritarian. In a recording of our performance at Hunter of Imaginary Landscape IV (1951). a piece for twelve radios. the reverse in Étant Donnés.” Moira Roth. In Cage’s work. and in their indeterminacy resides their power. NY: UbuWeb Papers) 1985. The form is the message. “The Anarchist Art of John Cage. 8 9 http:/ /www. 5. Toward a Corporeal Cinema: Theatricality in the ‘70s [1] http:/ /www.” Stephen Montague: “John Cage at Seventy: An interview. 2000). a musical equivalent of the studium defined by Roland Barthes for photographs.”11 What interests me here is how Cage permeated the practices of artists on the opposite side of the street. percussion. which Cage took from Satie’s Vexations and from Zen. 2008. D – Documentary Music: The interpenetration between between art and life started much earlier then his exposure to Master Suzuki’s teachings. 7  Henning Lohner. 5 6 John Cage. Camera Lucida—Reflections on Photography (New York: Hill and Wang). I am not suggesting that Cage invented boredom and long indeterminate shots. John Cage effects the most paradoxical of his operations: this anonymous infiltration is his greatest influence on culture. from the film The Revenge of the Dead Indians—In Memoriam John Cage. Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown.12 During a specific performance of Credo in Us back in 2008. Cage utilized a partly prepared piano. of course. or by using the procedures initiated and authorized by Cage without knowing their origin. and his first use of radio or phonograph. “Because you don’t need it in order to hear it. the thing that I like so much is that I can focus my attention whenever I wish. in fact.tate. A form that allows an indeterminate number of correct interpretations considerably complicates facile classification.net/john-cage/kostelanetz/index. CT: Wesleyan University Press. as is true of most art works. 1961). 10  Ivone Margulies. 4  “MR: Do you think your idea of silence has anything to do with Duchamp’s? JC: Looking at the Large Glass.to analysis.htm 12 Roland Barthes. 1991. 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.” 1993 http:/ /sterneck. while all other musicians were creating patriotic compositions.org. In 1977 Akerman’s News from Home. New York. 2008 http:/ /www. either via direct exposure to Cage’s oeuvre. Through his ubiquitous yet imperceptible presence. In the catalog of the 2007 Tate Modern show Sleep: Warhol/Cage/Satie we find: “Warhol was inspired to complete the film with a new repetitive editing structure after attending the writer and composer John Cage’s (1912–92) historic 1963 performance at the Pocket Theatre in New York of the French composer Erik Satie’s (1866– 1925) epic repetitive work for piano. Vexations.com/watch?v=A0BNsBlzQII NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 77 .de/themes/art_and_cinematography/akerman/print/ 11 http:/ /www. The Netherlands: Overseas Publisher’s Association. It helps me to blur the distinction between art and life and produces a kind of silence in the work itself.php 2 Michael Hardt. and this uniqueness is due to the specificity provided by the time and place in which each piece is executed. I learned both the weather report and that the fact that the police had just captured a bunch of white supremacists who were trying to kill then– Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. those ultra long shots in the subway subway with an immobile camera are indeterminate. Indeterminacy” Silence.uk/modern/thelongweekend2007/9028. Well. MA: Harvard University Press. Music.amazon. Live radio was in keeping with the inclusive model already explored by Eastern artists and Zen aesthetics—the use of radios in his pieces defines a completely new relationship between art and life: it is the invention of Documentary Music. The random possibilities brought by radio turn any execution of his pieces into a unique and unrepeatable experience. 325–350.medienkunstnetz. There is nothing in it that requires me to look in our place or another or. The combination of professional and amateur performers was also considered insulting at the time. Even those stances that were antithetical to his own have adopted and adapted his operations to suit their own practice.” American Music (New York. John Cage. but I do think that he authorized those elements/tools/operations in Western art. 3  4’33” is Cage’s most important work. 1998). Difference/Indifference: Musings on Postmodernism. elements that have a huge importance in the structuring of a film. The inclusion of radio or phonograph represented an insult to the composers and performers of the time. and Cage wanted to avoid those compositions and news programs. 35. by treating live and recorded sound as being on equal footing. Empire (Cambridge.youtube. requires me to look at all. in his own words. It was written during WWII. 1893. I learned about the music in vogue at the time. 80.com/Variations-IV-Performance-Gallery-Angeles/dp/B000QR0OSU from Elliot Caplan’s documentary. in the case of war or national emergencies. 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. is also key to the film. O N OR A BOUT CAGE n es s By b i b i ca l d e r a ro 78 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . where the potential to encounter an unknown is greater than in urban areas. where it becomes stale due to lack of flow. In the latter. a key ingredient in the Cagean undertaking of life as a NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 79 . where approximately two hundred people sat in silence early in the morning. its various identities: a piano that plays like an orchestra. Methods of multiplicity: simplicity and complexity in the single instrument backed up by the voices that echo the unmelodic resonances of its identities. Thought flow is unobstructed. too seriously. The concept of love as a force of trust and enabling. and a common willingness not to take anything. The pioneer. there needs to be a common understanding of the absurd in life. four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence incubating the audience as parabola. a mechanism as methodic as flexo-spastic its impact.At a recent Quaker meeting. Silence may be a gatekeeper. This exploration of new territory is similar to what happens in nature. particularly oneself. a method of multiplicity. twelve radios synchronically played. laughter as that which allows the ego to melt as it shakes the self (as with music). It induces a flow of thought leading to the unpredictable: the seed of an idea. 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. The open air. Silence is the field of possibilities. one for each month of the year. For laughter to exist there needs to be an Other with whom to commune and reflect. where thought is suppressed. multiplying the unique. For love to exist. allowing for the combination of multiplicity with singularity. – As an imposed foreclosure. Complexity = empathy of the single with the singles. there needs to be trust and a will to care beyond oneself. Simplicity = multiple as single. These three elements directly relate to the effacement of the ego. without expectations. The mind takes the form of the garden. are all constants in John Cage’s work and philosophy. Life would be a very individualistic and quite impractical practice were it not for laughter and love. a repressive tool that blocks the flow that occurs in communication— and silence may be an organic instrument that opens into the flow. with the intention to listen and grow. silence gives access to thought processes that are otherwise overlooked for their minuteness. These forces function as ballasts to create and balance collective authorship in society and in art. enduring. and silence as a tool that points to what has not yet been taken into consideration. a way of inducing. taking the given as is. the opener. A singularity that approaches infinity at the constant speed of light in vacuum. In keeping a balance. Peaceful interactions foster other peaceful interactions. into an event. and the process called Mind comes to the foreground. as alertness is precisely the state of allowing the unknown. Alertness does not happen if one believes that all there is to take into account is contained within the category of the already known. a plant. They continually shape the inherited values that guide us in a peaceful journey or a troubled one. identification. reflection. There is the imperative to act responsibly within parameters that teach us to improve the relationship with the Other: a person. what differs is the frequency and the character.matter to be handled with the utmost degree of responsibility. the unexpected. The exchange of the single with the singles occurs no matter what. 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. where the boundaries between subject-subject and subject-object are constantly being negotiated. the many artificial inventions that cling to our lives like they’re indispensable. an endeavor that requires the condition of freedom to be as close to one hundred percent as humanly bearable. This process. envisioned by an anarchist whose interests included mushrooms. 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. an animal. So far. is one of differentiation. 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. Time is not a causal arrow. Human beings are capable of grasping this. each and every one of us has the obligation to act responsibly to one another at all times. we have always been handed down a debt. indeterminacy. Communicating vessels of multiples and singles behave much as in any other participation of givens. 80 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . if they remain alert to its minute cues. whereas forceful interactions instigate ever more aggressive behaviors. Space as a human perception is not an absolute dimension. instead boundaries are constantly fluctuating and exchanging energy. Alertness has to do with one’s own idea of time and space. In such cases. Indeterminacy is a cognitive precondition for a state of alertness. These have developed by imitation over the thousands of years humans have inhabited earth. It is a process of identity-forming. this formula has been faltering for centuries now. and intentionality. this oscillating state of l’arte-alert. Through it we learn to accept and reject those instances referred to as “the world out there” from the membrane called self. an identity of sides. the cultural structure History is relegated to the background. an equation. as it establishes an open set of possibilities. One can understand history through a particular teleology—say. the notations that each instance abides. a mineral. synchronicity and indeterminacy are the elements that rule the chaotic continuum of time. 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. 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. A compassionate understanding of the Other is what differentiates it from other types of exchanges. other cognitive connections. other colors. affect in ripplelike patterns other invisible landscapes). your wallet is thinner. indeterminately. and some degree of laughter and love are exchanged. Yet it might yield. as the core activity of this exhibition. In an interview with Frank Scheffer. In other words. a respect for and understanding of the direct relationships that each of our own acts bestow upon ourselves and our environments (and which.Love is an exchange among the single with the singles that as intentionality encourages the pacific. Love is what remains when the day has gone. just as with NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 81 . 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. The open-air activity of hunting for mushrooms. Love is what makes the mark when you go through your day as reflected onto the mirror that is all that reflects you. the field included. a space that nurtures alertness. where silence is the framework that allows a moment in which the unknown may happen in the form of other sounds. some responsible connections may endure (mostly as we decide which mushrooms are edible). we programmed outings to forage for wild mushrooms. Early on. one reality reacts and affects the others indefinitely. your power down. when this show was merely a distant possibility. it is field and perception. Its differential value is empathy. This is all music for Cage. but now changed. of responsibly selecting from available options so that human life might endure as a highly developed form. both the base and the disruptions. A combinatory force of the simple and the complex. and some degree of freedom and responsibility. this activity still manages to reinforce connections amongst participants where some effacement of egos may happen. Wild-mushroom hunting is not the cure to all maladies. they pop up nonstop. in those who practice it even as a brief experiment. love) to rise. In order to incite a change of pace and direct experience. Love is the laborious meshing of singularities so that they can migrate from simple to complex and back to simple. laughter. love is the background and the foreground. ending in the shared cooking and eating of the day’s harvest. in turn. In spite of seasonal constraints. Once one includes them in the field of perception. nurtures the idea of communing. And so he took up wild-mushroom hunting. followed by their communal cooking and eating. of growing beyond the self. Wild mushroom hunting is the activity by which one becomes attuned to disruptions by becoming alert to where they grow. Bound in a continually mutating state of embrace. The forest bears the role of silent frame that allows for noise (mushrooms. Even though silence does not exist in pure form in this world. of enhancing an ethics of camaraderie among people who have just met. is proof that Cage did believe in harmony. The invisible and the inaudible used with the most transparent of all media: life. setting a distance—a tempo—to individual energies. Shattering the mirrors in which the arrogant self is trapped. silence allows us to hear what comes. and then they immediately come to the foreground. The impermanent and the permeable as the fluctuating~flickering matter of its force. within and without).sound: one usually blocks out ambient sounds until one starts paying attention to them. 82 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . and to laughter. water his plants. Within this landscape. Collaging selves. allows us to be alert. So hoped for John. to vacate life of the meaningless void of no intention. conducting an orchestra of people. first person plural) be (verb that denotes the ontological way of being alive. 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. while love enables us to take into consideration what is not oneself. the artists in this show encourage us to enter the realm of the will. Harmony for him was the balance—always an equilibrium is needed. yet never touching. Dissolving agency in action by multiplying subjectivities. egolessness. Zen. to rid us of the weight of the ego. can only be kneaded together with one part laughter and another part love—such arch freedom. Dismantling the cultural apparatus that distances the object and the subject in the survival of a culture of self-reflecting. present tense) in (preposition of place –inner space-) peace (noun that signifies a harmonious wellbeing in life in general. Unheard silence. anarchy. May (adverb of determinacy) we (pronoun. Then he would cook his own bread. subjectivities. infinity. together yet alone. this search for an ecumenical economy. zero. Abandoning the self to the collective as a volatile mass of willing powers. will. given to noise—such life. 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. an identity of sorts—of all energies involved in a given situation. the void. and laugh with his friends. In the construction of freedom. arranging chaos and order in movement. This exchange. working on Sonatas & Interludes (1947) 83 .John Cage. France Indexes (v. Miami. Lives and works in Sète.1 x 102. “index. Japan. 1912 Los Angeles. 1941 Munich. 2012 Pleyel piano P190 with PianoDisc system. Kravis. 00’ 45”. France Telepathic Music No. Lives and works in New York. and colored pencil on printed paper 11 x 8 1/2” (27. Argentina. 1997 Truro. Les Pianos Pleyel are proud to have participated with Céleste Boursier-Mougenot as they continue to support musical and artistic creation. 2’ 45”. 2’ 13”.8cm) The Museum of Modern Art.” Paula Cooper Gallery.6 x 254cm) overall. 2009 in Hamburg. 34 small note cards dimensions variable The Museum of Modern Art.9cm) Installation view. 1976-1978 33 music stands. d. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift Yukio Fujimoto b. d. 1) is presented in collaboration with Les Pianos Pleyel.7cm) Private Collection Lynne Harlow b.6 x 81.7 x 26. 1987 in Les Eyzies. 5. Cuba. virus. 1924 Ann Arbor. 1). 1965 Havana.1 x 245. Unwind. MA.6 x 0. NY Untitled (640 numbers between 1 and 16). Agnes Gund. Welcome to the Other Side. 1969 Ballpoint pen. 2010 Six unique silver toned black and white photograms Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery Felipe Dulzaides b. The manufacturers of exclusive pianos in Paris since 1807. CA. Japan Ears with Chair.9 x 3cm) The Museum of Modern Art. Lives and works in Havana Selected Video Works. 1946 Rio de Janeiro. Brazil. of The Eileen and Michael Cohen Collection) Waltercio Caldas b. Speyer and Katherine G. IN. 1999-2011 Single channel video reel (looping video): Following an Orange. 1968 Rio de Janeiro. 1926 Sauve. 1933 Philadelphia. MA Variable Piece #70.6cm) The Museum of Modern Art. 2007. computer and software 74 1/2 x 59 1/2 x 40 1/2” (189. 1’ 14”. Farley John Cage b. Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III. MI. 2006 Intervention on Artforum 10 1/2 x 10 1/2” (26. Time in My Hand. Brooklyn. live performance with musicians Painted square 8’ 5” x 8’ 5” (245. pencil. Partial gift of the Daled Collection and partial purchase through the generosity of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann.3 x 83. Lives and works in Buenos Aires Colgante Escultura Sonora (Hanging Sound Instrument). France.3cm) Collection of Michael Straus Soledad Arias b. 2003. 1990 Installation Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist Nicolás Guagnini b. Canada Break Even. In Between. NY Douglas Huebler b. 4’ 32”. 1966 Boston. Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro O transparente (da serie Veneza) (The Transparent [from the Veneza Series]). NY BEAT. FL Liz Deschenes b. Lives and works in New York Gareth James b. NY phonetic neon [aha]. detail.1cm) Courtesy of the artist and MINUS SPACE. MA. 1961 Nice. Brazil. 1963 Rusted steel. 1972 Hammond. 1966 Buenos Aires. 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. 2011 White neon 40 x 1/4” (101. each panel 40 x 32” (101. version 2). 2007 Acrylic paint. 1992 New York. Lives and works in Providence. Marlene Hess and James D. 1970 London. Blowing Things Away. 1971 Black-and-white photographs and typewriting on paper 17 5/16 x 40 1/8 x 1 3/16” (43. 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) Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Hanne Darboven b. and gift.8 x 50. Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro 2 estudos sobre 1 dimensão perdida (2 Studies on 1 Lost Dimension). PA. Gift of Ileana Sonnabend Matthew Deleget b. d. NY Monochrome (Sleeper Cells).3cm) Courtesy of Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery. RI and New York. 2011. José Damasceno b. and silver pushpins 40 x 8’ 4” (101.8 x 1.6cm) Collection of the artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot b. NY (3/19-4/25/09) Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery. 1’ 40”. water 20 x 20 x 1/2” (50. 1999. New York Indexes (v. drum kit. Lives and works in British Columbia. 1999. 1’ 17” Courtesy of the artist León Ferrari b. 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 84 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . d. NY Tilt/Swing (360° field of vision. Lives and works in New York. 2007 Latex paint on mirrored paper.9 x 21. Argentina. The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift (purchase. Lives and works in Osaka. New York. 1920 Buenos Aires. Germany.9 x 101. France. Germany II-b. England. 32 playing cards.Checklist of the exhibition William Anastasi b. Buenos Aires. 2001. Lives and works in New York. Dialog with a Foghorn. Marie-Josée and Henry R. NY Sink. 1970-73 Ink and typewriting on twenty-eight pieces of paper 28 panels: each 11 1/2 x 33” (29. solidvideo. Argentina. Lives and works in New York. 2000. Zirin. and Jerry I. 1968 Attleboro.2 x 151. in part. 1950 Nagoya. air Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 85 . Argentina.5cm) Courtesy of the artist and Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Ushio Shinohara (continued) Coca-Cola Plan. Lives and works in Brooklyn.5 x 6.5 x 65. England and New York.2 x 63.7 x 76.5cm) Ethan Cohen Collection Coca-Cola Plan.5cm) Courtesy of the artist and Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Coca-Cola Plan.David Lamelas b. glass. plexiglass.5cm) Private Collection Coca-Cola Plan.5 x 6.5 x 65. Brazil. New York Frank Scheffer b. NY Untitled (Sculptural Study.C. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. São Paulo.5cm) Private Collection Coca-Cola Plan. 1967 Okinawa. 1995-ongoing (work on loan spans 1995-2005) Installation: film. 1948 New York. 1946 Buenos Aires.5cm) each Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Frank Elbaz Edgardo Rudnitzky b. and Stephen Friedman Gallery.2 x 63.5 x 6.6 x 119. Courtesy of David Zwirner.5 x 6. 6 gray scale boxes: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4” (73. Lives and works in Belo Horizonte O trabalho dos dias/Day’s Work. T. map. Germany Octopus.5 x 6. Lives and works in New York and Hillsdale. Lives and works in Amsterdam. CD-Rom. CA.2 x 37. 1956 Venlo.5 x 6.4 x 1cm) overall Collection of the artist Daniel Wurtzel b. detail: 2007. 2008 Turntable with four arms. 2007 Courtesy Julie Saul Gallery and the artist Jorge Macchi b. Museum for Photography Berlin. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. London Kaz Oshiro b. Fortes Vilaça Gallery.5 x 65. 1967 Theater spotlight in darkened room 63 (160cm) to 74 3/4” (189.5cm) Private Collection Linda Stillman b. CA Orange Speaker Cabinets and Gray Scale Boxes (18 parts). vinyl records 37 7/8 x 24 7/8 x 24 7/8” (96. and stamps Dimensions variable Private Collection Christian Marclay b.5cm) Courtesy of the artist and Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Coca-Cola Plan. Walker Acquisition Fund. Lives and works in New York. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65. Japan. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71.5 x 65. NY Window Project. Lives and works in Los Angeles.5 x 65. NY Coca-Cola Plan.87cm) diameter Collection Walker Art Center. booklets. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. Japan. Minneapolis. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. The Netherlands. postcards. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. The Netherlands From Zero: Four Films on John Cage. New York Rivane Neuenschwander b. each one with its own speaker. D. 1986/2008 Black acrylic yarn Spatial relationship established by the artist. wood and fluorescent lights Dimensions variable Installation view. NY Indian Point Road. 2009 Reiner Leist b.5cm) Private Collection Coca-Cola Plan. Two-part Vertical Construction). c. Argentina.5 x 6.5 x 65. d. 2003 New York. 1998 Gathered dust onto squares of adhesive vinyl Dimensions variable Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. overall dimensions vary with each installation Estate of Fred Sandback. 2011 Fabric. 1956 Buenos Aires. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. Lives and works in Berlin. Argentina.5 x 6. NY Pas de Deux. 2004 Single channel video Duration: 30 minutes Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery. 1955 San Rafael. 1943 Bronxville.5 x 6.5 x 6. 2009 Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas 12 orange cabinets: 29 x 30 x 14 3/4” (73. 1967 Belo Horizonte. 2007 Acrylic and gouache on paper mounted on panels 365 panels: 77 x 47 x 3/8” (195. Lives and works in London. 1995 DVD Duration: 84 minutes Collection of the artist Ushio Shinohara b.2cm) Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Fred Sandback b. B. NY.5cm) Private Collection Coca-Cola Plan. 1964 West Germany. NY. 1963 Buenos Aires. 2011 Mixed media 28 1/8 x 25 13/16 x 2 9/16” (71. CA Limit of a Projection I.5cm) each.2 x 37.5cm) Private Collection Coca-Cola Plan. 1962 Washington. 1932 Tokyo. Lives and works in New York.7 x 76. Lives and works in Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Tour. NY Daily Paintings. 2003 in collaboration with María Negroni (texts) and Edgardo Rudnitzky (sound) Mixed media: box. Lives and works in Los Angeles.5 x 65.5 x 65.5 x 65. New York. This project was incubated in Professor Joachim Pissarro’s 2008 graduate seminar and we are grateful to the student participants. Founder of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. We thank Renata Contins and Alex Niemetz. Matthew Cianfrani. regions. Haunch of Venison Gallery. and encouragement of all intellectual projects that deepen and enrich our understanding of the complexities of the arts in Latin America. Julie Saul Gallery. and Jennifer Wolf. Zachary Hale. who have contributed to the elaboration of this complex show. John and Merce. for her own personal vision. David Duncan. Julie Dentzer. 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. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. We are profoundly grateful to Patricia Phelps de Cisneros for her generosity in supporting aspects of the project that further this dialogue—but also. Michael Straus. Paul Lehr also receives our hearty thanks—as do the YoungArts Fellows Sali Amabebe and Nicole Mourino. No project on Cage can happen without Margarete Roeder whose knowledge and passion for her two friends. commitment. John Cage Trust. Spring Dautel. Reid Strelow. whose generous support has been extended not only to this exhibition but towards the gallery programming at large. Bill Abdale. The Fred Sandback Estate and the David Zwirner Gallery. Gabriel Perez Barreiro. Henrique Faría. 86 NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today . the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Claire Breukel. Misa Jeffereis. disciplines. Annie Wischmeyer. and for the ongoing collaboration of Professor Geoffrey Burleson. Paula Cooper Gallery. The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Professor of Latin American Art. Executive Director. Cara Manes. and all media. for her solicitous help to secure important permission rights and for her support of the project at large. MINUS SPACE. the Departments of Drawings and Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art. from which this publication was formed and applaud all the students for their contributions to the catalogue: Claire Bergeal. who assisted on all aspects of this subsequent course. who co-taught the class. reflecting the broad scope of Cage’s influence across generations. Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery. New York. and The Walker Art Center. Stephen Friedman Gallery. The following individuals were also instrumental in the procurement of loans and we are deeply grateful to each of them: Anthony Allen. Director of Piano Studies. 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. Harper Montgomery’s critical contribution has helped us explore a new avenue of research on John Cage’s presence on the Latin American continent. Sydney Gilbert. 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. Indeed. and continues to be on the Latin American continent. Kathy Curry. and Steven Rose. Special thanks must be extended to Lin Arison. Our deep felt appreciation extends to the participating artists and the many lenders who generously loaned works to the exhibition: Miguel Abreu Gallery. Greg Lulay. Tryn Collins. Ethan Cohen Fine Arts. were especially crucial voices during the early stages of exhibition planning. Galeria Fortes Vilaça. We also would like to thank Laura Kuhn. Peter Eleey. Hunter College Music Department. Hiroko Ikegami. and Gretchen Wagner. Raphael Moser. are invaluable. Her Executive Director.Acknowledgments 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. Nayantara Bhattacharya. Galerie Frank Elbaz. Coordinator of the YoungArts Program at Hunter College deserves our thanks for her assistance with the website and public programs. Additional thanks go to Phi Nguyen and his staff for their preparation and installation of this complex project. Thanks also to Nina Grinblatt. Illana Hester. Julio Grinblatt salutes Nicolás Guagnini and Iair Rosenkranz for their keen insights regarding the project at large. Film & Media Studies for their insights and collaboration relating to the events accompanying the exhibition. Tisch Cinema Studies Program. Harper Montgomery. We thank Dan Streible. for her invaluable advice and suggestions throughout the planning process. Assistant Curator. We are also most appreciative of Thomas Weaver. the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA). have always availed their precious time and attention to help with this project. Curatorial Assistant to the Director. Chair of the Art Department. who collaborated with us to organize an artist talk with Frank Scheffer. Natalia Chorny and Edward Mapplethorpe deserve special thanks for their support. and Michelle Yun NOTATIONS: The Cage Effect Today 87 . Interim Chair of the Art Department. our heartfelt thanks go to Jennifer J. and the Hunter College Exhibition Fund. Mellon Foundation. who lent their generous support to this project. Andrew Lund. we are most appreciative of the dedication and careful work of Karli Wurzelbacher. Associate Professor. These include generous contributions from YoungArts. Thanks are also due to Reuben Blundell. we would like to also thank Katy Siegel. As well. 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. In the Hunter College Art Department. created through a grant from the Andrew W. for her patience and cheerful disposition throughout the planning process. Many thanks must also be extended to Claire Barliant for her meticulous editing skills. Additional support for public programming was provided by the Hunter College Arts Across the Curriculum Pilot Initiative. Julio Grinblatt. Raab. We salute her for her valiant support of the arts and in particular her commitment to champion the inimitable legacy of John Cage. Director of the Hunter Symphony. and our Dean of Arts and Sciences. 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. President of Hunter College. for her solicitous help. Joachim Pissarro. and Ivone Margulies. Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Erec Koch. Our provost. Assistant Professor Film & Media Studies. The fruition of this project would simply not have been possible without the generous financial supporters of the exhibition and catalogue. the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Professor in Latin American Art. Bibi Calderaro. especially relating to fundraising initiatives. 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. New York University. Vita Rabinowitz. and her commitment to rigorous scholarship. Associate Professor. for her ongoing patronage of the Hunter College Art Galleries and its programming—and for her unwavering support to this project.There are many people within the Hunter College community whose support made this project possible. Professor of Art History and Chief Curator of the Hunter College Art Galleries. Special thanks are also due to Jessica Gumora. At the Hunter College Art Gallery. our gratitude must first be directed to all members of the Gallery Committee for their crucial endorsement and support of the exhibition proposal. 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. First. the Foundation To-Life. and Jeffrey Mongrain. 1912 – 1992 .