Page 34 - Studio International - April 1972

Wolfgang obvious by the changes that were made when and replaced in faeces form in the hole. It is
carrying out the concept in a gallery suggested that however complex and visually
Stoerchle environment. varied the product, the process is by no means
In the spring of 1970, Stoerchle executed a unique or controlled. The inadequacy of the
Miles Varner series of plaster pieces at the University of object (photographic document in this case) to
California Art Gallery in Santa Barbara. This convey process and the use of people
series was particularly interesting in that his performing a usual function perhaps suggested
body was part of the pieces as he jumped, was the next piece.
pushed into, and swung through various 3. Reviews of non-existent exhibitions of
plaster plates. His environment, however, was Stoerchle's work were written by persons
The work of a young Californian artist, detached in that he utilized himself only as an ordinarily engaged in that type of activity.
Wolfgang Stoerchle, may insist on a more implement for the breakage. A better Thus the artist's role as stimulus for the review
comprehensive definition of what can be illustration of that point is the fact that a is retained, the object is eliminated, and the
involved in 'process art'. One becomes aware gymnast was engaged to break a line of slabs by process with a perceptive use of media is
in experiencing his work that much of what has turning flips, a task to which he was better presented directly. The process includes an
been viewed as process is in fact still concerned adapted. In this way the image is maintained illegitimate history, its own existence,
with the object as such. as a physical result, the personal involvement is anticipated reaction to it, and this description,
Several years ago, Stoerchle began de-emphasized, and the attention is again as elements of itself.
constructing sculpture consisting of large solid squarely on the process. The depersonalization 4. A newspaper clipping of his having won
plaster planks, hollow boxes, and other shapes of the process was enhanced by the fact that an award in an open print competition was
which were ceremoniously tipped and allowed television coverage of the performance tended submitted as a print to the judges of that
to fall on various surfaces and occasionally on to influence the sequence and pace of the same exhibition. This piece is similar to the
other plaster forms. The resulting images were activity, reducing it to set tasks to be previous one both in the confusion of sequence
clear, organized, and totally coherent. Nothing accomplished. The presence of the television and in the use of other people to complete the
was out of place, nor could it be where the crews, cameras, etc. also tended to amplify the process. The judges in this instance had the
interaction of physical materials is the only impression that one was watching a live opportunity to judge and to complete a piece
determining factor in the results. Obviously replay—a staged repetition of something which in the same action. By not awarding the prize,
Stoerchle was responsible for choices in had occurred sometime in the past. This the judges did not carry the process through,
material size and shape, but these decisions quality is consistent in Stoerchle's work, and consequently the piece was not successfully
were rendered inconsequential by the forceful resulting in an ambivalence in time perception completed nor could it in fact be judged.
clarity of what had happened—not why, when, which is especially engaging when witnessed 5. Stoerchle claimed as a piece a 4200-mile
where, how, or who. These elements do become directly. In that regard this event was horseback trip across the United States
important as possible implications, but only particularly strong as the pieces were all accomplished eight years earlier. The claim,
because the process is so clearly put. In the performed in the same general area, which the trip, and the intervening time are fused by
same way, the process is considered and defined required rearrangement of previous results in implication into one continuous process
by the obvious organization of the image. order to carry out current tasks, and yet dependent for their existence, as an element of
A comparison with Robert Morris's inevitably they influenced the subsequent the piece, on each other.
timber-spill pieces is revealing in that whereas activity. The 'combined' sculpture was then 6. (Arm wrestling.)
the similarity in technique is obvious, the points swept into a ten-foot square area of the floor for 7. Participation in performance situations
of emphasis are distinctly different. While the remainder of the exhibition. The piece in with the California Time Machine (a group of
Stoerchle places the significance on the process, this way avoided monumentalizing the past by composers and artists) required dealing with
Morris, through the use of immense size and destroying it, leaving no direct reference to the larger blocks of the process as product. This
specific relationships to gallery and museum completed activity. This erasing action in one led directly to the use of the videotape
space, evokes a presence which is more motion removes the possibility of reading the technique which can be used to present the
precisely environmental than procedural. The piece as the remnant-fixed-in-time (as an whole of an activity while retaining a sense of
herculean nature of the task, though it impresses object) and directs attention toward the missing the significant moment inherent in the process
us with the personal and professional resources element—the tape which was the only record and important to Stoerchle.
of the artist, does not direct attention to a and product of the event. This taping of the During the past year, Stoerchle has been
meaningful series of events. The massiveness of process undoubtedly suggested the use of the almost exclusively involved with the production
these pieces contributes also to the fixed (in videotape technique with which Stoerchle has of videotapes which give him the advantage of
time) quality which seems to be inherent in been recently most concerned. In the interim, being able to record an activity and play it back
works completed in the museum or gallery however, he has pursued some less tangible but at any time. This not only makes the implied
environment. Stoerchle manages to avoid this significant extensions of the concepts. continuousness of the process a reality, but
sense of completion in his work through a While these pieces are frequently successful also completely eliminates the fixed-time
sensitivity to the effect of the materials and as individual efforts, their cumulative effect is a interpretation of the remnant. Videotape has a
specific location of the pieces. The plaster, a manifesto of process. To illustrate, a selection sense of immediacy that creates an illusion of a
brittle and delicate medium, when it breaks, of pieces is described and discussed as follows : kind of perpetual present which Stoerchle uses
tends to elicit contemplation of its previous 1. A simultaneous disrobing and exchanging as a counterpoint to the formalized replay
state as much as its broken one. This fact and of clothes was concluded with another artist in attitude of his process mentioned before. Now
the location of the event in a situation where its a public place, after which they separated, the reality is made specific by reference to past
temporariness is assured combine to isolate the presumably to carry out their previously events, particularly those of childhood, or by
moment of the briefer process of the piece and intended activities. The depersonalization implications referring to numerous stages in
yet to tie it into a continuous time. For is here actualized in the dropping of the the continuousness of life. He can deal with
Stoerchle the moment when the sculpture is perceived image, disclaiming its importance to these personal subjects because of an emphasis
perceived is as much a part of the process as process in an aesthetic or social form. on general and universal types of imagery and
the fall or any previous point in time. That this 2. A core sample of earth was removed, the mechanical reproduction of the media.
is a conscious part of his thinking is made mixed with food and eaten (by three people), Consequently there is no loss of the impersonal
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