Page 54 - Studio International - March 1969

about making the 'art experience' an integral
part of life, as though reading a poem or hear-
ing a poet declaim it in person were not a part
of life. What they are really saying is that ab-
sorption and contemplation seem impossible
for a sizeable portion of the population, and
that they must use subterfuges to claim its
attention, or content themselves with a very
small audience indeed. They are turning a
situation to their advantage, and there is no
objection to that. The objection enters only
when they heap banal explanations over the
hard facts. There is nothing 'environmental'
about a telephone. The bad poems, of which
there are several, sound just as bad, and the
good ones (Ginsberg among those I was able to
catch) just as alive as if they were read in a
book or listened to in an auditorium. I should
add that I like the idea and have spent consid-
erable time trying to get one of the six lines
when it wasn't busy, which it almost always is.
Better poetry than prayers !
Quite another form of disembodiment occurs
in an 'event' which is called an exhibition, and
whose makers are, or consider themselves,
visual artists. The exhibition, as Seth Siegelaub
announces it, 'consists of (the ideas communi-
cated in) the catalog,' which is a spiral-bound
opus of some twelve pages. As for the (ideas
communicated in) the catalogue, they are
rather limited, and do not bear the strain of
constant repetition. Basically, these four artists
are bored with art, as perhaps the poets are
bored with poetry, and are looking for the
an event. By throwing away good lines (there nearest way out. The nearest way out for the
must have been some, although I can't re- visual artist is the word. He, however, being
member them) they dissolve themselves as traditionally awed by verbalization, reveres
poets and might just as well have called their what he calls 'ideas', and so his favourite words
event an event rather than a poetry event. are designed to suggest that they conceal some
The drive to disembody, which we see in the real ideas.
visual arts increasingly, has achieved epidemic The world is full of objects, writes Douglas
proportions. Aldous Huxley's 'Time Machine' Huebler, I do not wish to add any more. In-
is obsolete as literature, but his prophecy holds stead, he adds a few inscrutable notions accom-
true. Another poetry event has been with us panied by documentation that 'takes the form
for several weeks, this one sponsored by the of photographs, maps, drawings and descrip-
ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK in their tive language'. Joseph Kosuth, who has gotten
series of experimental events, and it furthers a lot of mileage out of his 'Art as Idea as Idea'
Huxley's image of a society which communes by inserting thesaurus definitions into the
only through electronic instruments and re- newspaper, is too bored or muddled to make
mote, very remote control. even that much of a statement and is content
This event is called 'Dial-A-Poem' and was to repeat a dadaist formula ad nauseam. Law-
conceived by John Giorno. Anyone, anywhere rence Weiner in a stylized little entry in this
in the world, can dial a given number and hear clever logbook of futility notes: '1. The artist
two-minute recordings of poems read by some may construct the piece. 2. The piece may be
fifteen poets. In America we have the possi- fabricated. 3. The piece need not be built. 3
Susana Salgado Bride dress
bility to dial for a weather report, dial for the Each being equal and consistent with the in- Photo: Jim Stephens
time, dial for a prayer, dial for consolation tent of the artist the decision as to condition
4
(several cities have special numbers for suicide rests with the receiver upon the occasion of Michael Bigger Love me no. 6. 1967
steel, 108 in. high
prevention) and now we can dial for a poem. receivership.' Coll: Joseph S. Sinclair, Providence, R.I.
The telephone as Giorno sees it can be a new All this may be interpreted as a criticism of
5
form of publication; an opportunity for poets certain contemporary 'ideas' concerning the Robert Murray Chinook 1968
aluminium and steel painted dark blue, 144 in. high
to achieve world-wide exposure and for their nature of a work of art, but it is weak criticism, On rear wall: Eva Hesse's Relief
poetry to be heard rather than just read. He, and not amusing enough to hold attention. We
6
too, does not wish to be overheard, but heard, now know what these artists are unwilling to do Bill Geis III Perusal's oar 1968
and heard often and far afield. (why?) but we don't know what they can do. 7
George Sugarman Square spiral 1965-8
The Dial-A-Poem promoters use the rhetoric of Doing is out, but is thinking in?
111 in. x 126 in.
all intermedia practitioners, and keep talking THE WHITNEY ANNUAL is an antidote to the (Photo from model)