Page 35 - Studio International - April 1972
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qualities, which insures that the emphasis is on ascertaining the tasks that we assign ourselves.
the process and not on the artist. This is The nature of our tasks is dealt with
especially clear in the first of four tapes which powerfully and clearly in the last tape to be
are discussed below. discussed. A small cube of dirt is placed in the
The first tape consists of continuous centre of the screen. A face (Stoerchle's) snaps
activation of Stoerchle's penis (through body down from the top of the rectangle accompanied
movement and tension only) shown upside by a rush of air and disappears up and off the
down, a device which immediately sets the tone screen. The short bursts of breath and
of personal versus impersonal elements. The hammer-like movement of the head are
general activity of the penis is a steady detached repeated at a quick regular pace for the
bobbing motion throughout the tape. The duration of the tape. The activity is ended
pattern is broken only when body tension causes when the cube is broken down and most of the
quick vibration in what appears to be a childish debris is cleared from the area. A response to
attempt at an erection, a brief urination, and the tape is dealt with in the description which
finally a violent flopping back and forth. follows. After only a few puffs a corner, a lump
In the second tape, small plastic replicas of of dirt, is forced from the cube. The purpose is
Disney cartoon characters are ejected with established, the procedure works, and
considerable effort as though born from completion should not take long. Several
beneath the foreskin. Sound which is generally dozen blows (beginning to be laboured ones)
an important element in Stoerchle's videotapes later, four corners are off and coercive success
(as well as in the plaster pieces when executed) begets confidence. Twenty or thirty hard
is noticeably absent in this tape. The deletion breaths later, it becomes clear that a cube
is important in that what could be interpreted missing four corners resembles a pyramid.
as an emphasis on the personal is seen as the Each breath simultaneously establishes the
impersonal activity it represents. The element stability of the remaining lump, the
of common childhood practice is wedded to the determination of the face, and the exhaustion
present with some wit when it is understood of Stoerchle. As he continues, new techniques
that Stoerchle teaches at the California are developed, blowing from left and then right
Institute of the Arts, and so indirectly the as progress is made, and a growing
Disney foundation is involved in supporting professionalism promises possible success
the production of the tape. The task which in barring his collapse, which appears to be
this tape is repeated to a quick conclusion imminent. The cube is in fact finally shattered,
becomes a long continuous performance in the leaving the previously positive space of the dirt
next piece under discussion. cube empty—a negative space now surrounded
A long thin box placed vertically on the by remnants of the cube—perhaps to be filled
right-hand side of the screen falls to the left by a cube of our own selection.
and hits the floor. Stoerchle repositions it This piece suggests some of the
vertically in its displaced position (perhaps implications present in a situation where
three inches to the left) resulting from the proper attention is put on process as a
horizontal force of the fall. The process is comprehensive concept. Through repetition, a
repeated complete with crashing sound and knowledge of materials and the willingness to
gradual movement of the box across the screen. let them function logically, and an
When the box passes off the screen on the left, unselfconscious use of visual organization,
the microphone, which has been in the box, is Stoerchle appears to be accomplishing just
removed and placed outside the box which is that. Although the videotapes successfully
returned using the same procedure to the right present a coherent and detailed look at a process
side of the screen and off. The process in this they tend to isolate the activity and make use of
tape is a simple one and, being one of Stoerchle's a singular image reminiscent of the object
longest tapes, is almost brazenly boring. (None concept. Consistent with his efforts to push
of the tapes uses boredom for its own sake, but himself beyond that state Stoerchle has
rather as a means of forcing attention on the continued to engage in performance situations
visual subtlety and intellectual implications of since the initial efforts with the California
the piece.) The question of visual considerations Time Machine several years ago. Daniel Lentz,
is a significant point. Having established that Harold Budd (composers) and Stoerchle
the videotape records the process and is not intend to culminate those experiments in a
involved with the object as such, Stoerchle is series of public presentations being scheduled
freed from the self-consciousness others have during the coming year. It is tempting to
felt at using controlled visual forms. The roles conjecture about the possible results of 'live'
have been reversed here, and with process as process and the complex possibilities of
the main concern, visual and auditory effects interacting and increasingly less fixed
are used as a technique to emphasize and to situations but this interest will be best served
define the exact nature of the activity. It is by a response to the reality of the events
interesting to note that Stoerchle virtually themselves. No doubt they will be dealt with
disappears in this tape, as the attention is in detail as they are carried out and as the
focused on the box. He performs anonymously importance of the contribution that Wolfgang
as a function of the process, just as in the end the Stoerchle is making to the concept of process is
task itself becomes a vehicle and a stimulus for recognized. q
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