Page 20 - Studio International - July August 1972

suggested (in the 'Information' exhibition News The body as a
catalogue, N.Y. Museum of Modern Art, 197o,
p 89) that information 'tends to be ... dealt with and notes medium of
in either a practical or sensitive manner. Thus
INFORMATION which is handled in... (a) expression: a
sensitive way culminates in SI (Sensitivity
Information)'. Divisions of SI include S SI — manifesto
Sound Sensitivity Information (music, spoken
poetry, singing etc.), MSI—Moving Sensitivity
Information (movies, dance, mountain climbing, The Tate Gallery is holding an exhibition of An integrated programme on the Body will
etc.), as well as VSI—Visual Sensitivity the work of Caspar David Friedrich from 6 begin at the ICA in September—the first of its
Information, 'a term developed and used by the September to 15 October. kind to be attempted by any institution—
N.E. Thing Co. to denote more appropriately consisting of lectures, performances, workshops,
the meaning of the traditional words "art" and The Covent Garden Gallery, Floral Hall, demonstrations and exhibitions.
"fine art" or "visual art". Refers to the handling Covent Garden, London WC2, opened on 6
The body is the first and the most natural
of visual information in a sensitive manner. Also June with an exhibition of work by the Irish instrument of man. Marcel Mauss
refers to the "artist" as a VISUAL INFORMER, artist Joe McGill. The gallery is on the lower
as someone who knows how to handle visual ground floor of what it is hoped will eventually The body .. . the great central ground underlying
information sensitively.' be a substantial arts complex in Floral Hall. all symbolic reference. A. N. Whitehead
This at least suggests a possible definition
of the use to which information, other than the The Upper Street Gallery opened a new It is not to the physical object that the body may
purely practical, is put, but does not take us any branch at 239 Upper Richmond Road West, be compared, but rather to the work of art.
closer to understanding the kinds of London SW14 8QS, on ro June. The opening Maurice Merleau-Ponty
information sought and/or received exhibition was of bronzes by Arthur Dooley Nijinsky discarded the 'sauce' of the dance,
consciously or unconsciously by the artist. and drawings and water-colours by Elizabeth according to the critic Jacques Rivière, and
Scanning recent American art magazines Taggart. The following exhibition is of drawings returned to the 'natural pace' of the body 'in
one is aware of a high proportion of 'noise' to and paintings by Madeleine Pearson and Wendy order to listen to nothing but its most immediate,
information (excluding the strictly practical Yeo and sculpture by Joan Moore, from 9 to 28 basic, etymological signs'. Modern interest in
kind, eg addresses, dates, times, names, etc.) July. the body's expressive and symbolic resources
and amidst the lush verbiage it is refreshing to has been strongest in the dance world, but also
come across 'All Wall Drawings' of Sol The Moderna Museet, I I I 49 Stockholm, is recurs in the cinematic tradition of
Lewitt in Arts Magazine February 1972, offering a reward to anyone who can contribute Eisenstein and the theatrical tradition of Artaud
an oeuvre catalogue of one section of the works to the detection of the collage Tatlin at Home by and Grotowski. In the 'visual arts' context,
of a living artist published without any Raoul Hausmann. The work was lost while too, the body has been a compelling aesthetic
introduction or commentary, and appearing being transported from Arlanda airport outside concern for painters and sculptors, even for the
uniquely ( ?) in a magazine. This piece Stockholm to the Moderna Museet. It was most 'abstract' artists; and recently, several
approaches the state of VSI since the packed up in a box measuring 78 x 85 x 5 cm artists have turned away from external
instructions for the execution of each piece and had a weight of eight kilos. instrumentation towards the body itself (their
accompany the listing of sites. own or other people's).1
Another article in which words do not get in The Ibis Gallery, 16a Grafton Street, Bond Outside the world of accredited art, physical
the way of information which can lead to an Street, London WI, opened on 12 June with an games and sports are as popular as ever; the
understanding of the artworks, appeared exhibition of work by John Baum and Maurice circus and variety entertainment have not been
(amidst a sudden efflorescence of pieces Cockrill. completely killed by the mass media; a host of
occasioned by his 'resurfacing' at the cults to do with the body are flourishing, such
Guggenheim) in Artforum in February 1972, Corrections: The works by Dan Graham called as encounter groups, yoga and Reichian
and consisted of 'An Interview with John TV Cameral Monitor Performance 197o, and therapy. Best-sellers and newspaper articles are
Chamberlain' conducted with commendable Schema 1966, which were reproduced in the often published on clothing, cosmetics, sexual
personal reticence by Phyllis Tuchman. For an May issue of Studio International are owned habits, funerary customs etc.
interview it reads surprisingly well, John by the Belgian art collector Herman Daled; But understanding of the Body as a Medium
Chamberlain talks unpretentiously and `Art & Language Press' by Charles Harrison of Expression is rudimentary. Little serious
informatively about his aims and evolution. (Studio, June 1972). In the introductory lines, research has been done in this field compared to
Not only is there the interview, but it is followed for 'British' artists read 'international' artists; the rigorous attention given to verbal language.
by a commentary on the interview by Barbara `Inside the Bradford Print Biennale' by This is because verbal language is widely and
Rose. Edward Lucie-Smith (Studio, June 1972); for influentially regarded as the distinctively human
Finally a work highly charged with VSI: Elaine Goodwin read Betty Goodwin. capability. Linguists have recently ascribed
Duchamp's Large Glass is stripped of yet great technical importance to what are assumed
another layer of meaning by Jack Burnham in a to be syntactic universals; but the extreme
three-part article in Arts Magazine of March, respect accorded to verbal language is by no
This issue of Studio International is largely
April and May 1972. Burnham's approach to means new in our culture. It appears in fact to
devoted to The Peter Stuyvesant City Sculpture
the Large Glass is through the occult, be an entrenched orthodoxy; by one which, as
Project, and the questions raised by it. In the
particularly the Judaic hermetic tradition, and Julia Kristeva has pointed out,2 would seem to
preparation of material we wish particularly to
even incorporates a Tantric analogy. The SI be much more a product of the 'Greco-
acknowledge the assistance of Jeremy Rees and
in the article is very dense and makes for heavy Judaeo-Christian enclosure' than of cultures
Tony Stokes.
reading, but it is none the less a convincing outside it such as the Egyptian, Chinese, Indian,
The photographs are by Derek Balmer,
theory which reveals another substructure in Balinese and Japanese, where the body
the work. 11 H. Lane, Mark Lawrence, P. Martin, William blossoms. It is an orthodoxy, however, which
Pye, Tony Stokes, S. Tebby, Stephen Weiss.
CLIVE PHILLPOT the average reader of an art magazine