Page 58 - Studio International - September October 1975

interaction between him and his audience. experiential quality of the work to a mere an idea of space by suggestion,
Because he was constantly physically record of the experience. Documentation projection or model only; the information
present (even though the evidence of this became the obverse of conceptual art. on space was acquired passively. But the
was only through his masturbating being Initial anti-object motives and direct passive role of the viewer could be
audible) the audience were implicated in experience criteria of such pieces were changed to an active one if the
an act which would normally be absorbed and muted by the medium of experience of the constructed space was
performed more privately, and which in `documentation.' the experience of the piece. Unlike the
public would normally be considered The documented projects transmitted quasi-theatrical interventions of Acconci,
`distasteful.' He relied on the footsteps of
his potential voyeurs to provide the
fantasy necessary to keep him at his task
for hours on end. Being 'underground,'
the pun on 'seedbed' created not only an
awareness of place for both him and the
audience but also the implied sense of
`growth' which the title inferred. But
the wish to create a powerfield — where
the audience could experience a new
perception of space and their movement
in it — could also be created by
construction, through the use of model,
rather than through direct physical
confrontation with the artists. 'There has
been this urge recently to find an
alternative to live performance, because
it seems that a power field can probably
exist without my physical presence. One
way that this can occur is if a space is
designed, directly oriented for my
potential use so that when a person came
into the space he would still be involved
in my presence . . . this interest hasn't
been totally devoid of an art context. It's
always been how to make an exhibition
area viable . . . to make those spatial
concerns "hard"."

Natural space
Dennis Oppenheim on the other hand
used 'natural space' (beach, mountain
side, ploughed field) to make direct
correlations between the body and the
space surrounding the body, rather than
constructions or directly interpersonal
performance as Acconci did.
`The body as place is a common
condition of body works. Oppenheim's
1969 earth works extended Carl Andre's
conception of "sculpture as place" to the
point where as he said "a work is not put
in a place, it is that place." This
sentiment applies equally to Oppenheim's
body works. In several works his body
is treated as place. Generally the body as
place acts as a ground which is marked in
ways quite similar to those employed in
earthworks."
In an interview with Willoughby
Sharp, Oppenheim emphasized that his
concern for the body came from
constant physical contact with large
bodies of land. He also said that working
with the land 'demands an echo from the
artist's body.' His Reading Position for a
Second Degree Burn (1970) illustrated
these complementary sensibilities, while
pointing also to a very different kind of
body art, less concerned with space or
place, but with inflicting marks and weals
on the body as affirmation of a deeply
personal physical consciousness of the
body as matter.
Constructed space
However this shift from object to place
was, ironically, finding its final form as a
photograph in a gallery. The photograph
(the pornography of art, according to Bruce Nauman Coloured Light Corridor 1971
Andre") reduced the emphatic 10 X 10 X 1 ft.

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