Earlier this January, I volunteered to collaborate in the performance and installation of a series of 1 minute Erwin Wurm sculptures with a group of student colleagues at Camden Arts Centre. We met with the curator of the gallery and he gave us a budget of £70 to purchase materials for the show. It lasted two days in one of the workshop gallery spaces which contains a spiral staircase and we were to perform the 1 minute sculptures. He gave us 6 instruction drawings by Erwin Wurm and then left us to our own devises. Not all the instruction drawings were titled but I will describe them. We decided we would each choose a sculpture and be responsible for buying the required materials and the presentation within the gallery space. For purposes of economy, we decided to purchase as many materials as possible from 1 pound and charity shops.This is a record of some of the conversations that arose from problems relating to the installation of the works.
In these thought processes and discussions I became aware of Erwin Wurm's work in a gallery context. Safety issues sometimes inhibited or limited the exciting possibilites of the performance shown in the instructions. In terms of instruction based art work, sometimes out of frustration I thought the artist should have thought of all these aspects, resolved and made them clear. However, if this was the case, there would be no challenge or collaboration on our behalf, and in the end I think it is important for the artist to not give away everything and allow a bit of creative license for the people carrying out his instructions. With the same group I was also involved in another instruction based project in the same gallery but by a different artist, Graham Hudson. I thought it would be important to mention the contrasting difference in terms of safety issues that were really not resolved enough. In brief, the project involved installing umbrellas in disused outdoor areas of the Camden Arts Centre site. On one occasion, I tied the umbrella using the artists instruction and taped it up using gaffa tape. In burst of gale wind force, the umbrella ripped out, flew in the middle of the road infront of a van. I was tied up with two other umbrellas so I could not go and collect the umbrella otherwise they would also fly into the road. Thankfully a lady with a pram picked up and brought it to me. It was a frightful incident which would have been avoided if the artist had considered a more sophisticated way of connecting the umbrellas or the gallery had allowed more than one assistant to do the job required. Safety and the amount of lee way and ambiguity left in instruction based collaborative art work isn't black and white but there are certain basic standards have to be upheld. Erwin Wurm certainly achieved the right balance.
2 Kubel, 5 Minuten
We discussed whether to use transparent or coloured buckets and the safety of standing in a bucket without falling over and getting hurt. Kimbo found it difficult to locate a bucket that was large enough to stand with two feet inside. The one we ended up using was still caused a few worries.
Drawing instruction featuring 1 minute sculpture featuring 3 planks: 1 supported by your toes, the second by your knees, and the 3rd with your hands and chin resting on it.
For this piece, again we considered what sort of material to use and how it would change it the objects' relationship with the body. Transparent planks would make the performer's body posture more prominent and consequently make her posture appear less purposeful. On the other hand opaque planks frame the body's posture by hiding bits of it. We thought about things like sharp edges, weight and the proportions of the plank. In the end I purchased live edge acrylic, neon orange in order to keep a playful quality to the objects and draw attention and invite viewers to perform. This certainly worked as individuals picked the slabs that were proped against the wall and tried the 1 minute sculpture.
Coffe + Milck
For this one the problem involved deciding what Erwin Wurm meant by the title and sculpture and the difficulty of carrying this out safely in a gallery and public environment. Were we going to use a china cup? Would it be full of milky coffee? One wrong movement and the china cup would crash and break into pieces and that would possibly be a hazard for young children and adults. Spillage of milky coffee on the floor would be slippery hazard but also a source of complaints for the public participants getting their clothes stained. In effect it would not be very audience friendly. Thus we decided to use a plastic cup and saucer without any milkey coffee.
Instruction Drawing showing individual sat on a yoga ball and holding one under each arm.
At first we considered using large balloons but thought Toni decided to purchase yoga balls as they seemed safer and more robust especially if it required for the performer to sit on the ball. These were one of the most expensive purchases and argos seemed to sell the cheapest. On the day of the performance this was one of the most interacted sculptures, although many little children just enjoyed bouncing around the room on the yoga balls
Instruction Drawing showing two hands holding taut elastic bands. This was a simple one. Pam drew the drawing of the instruction on a plinth and brought some household elastic bands which were placed on top.
Instruction Drawing showing performer stood against the wall with bottles propped between their body and the wall. Itziar brought some different coloured plastic bottles and we peeled the labels off. One of the bottles in the drawing appeared like a glass milk bottle so again the safety issue crept up. Although it would have been interesting and dramatic for the objects to change or break as a result of the performance, however safety aspects inhibited us from pursuing this.
In these thought processes and discussions I became aware of Erwin Wurm's work in a gallery context. Safety issues sometimes inhibited or limited the exciting possibilites of the performance shown in the instructions. In terms of instruction based art work, sometimes out of frustration I thought the artist should have thought of all these aspects, resolved and made them clear. However, if this was the case, there would be no challenge or collaboration on our behalf, and in the end I think it is important for the artist to not give away everything and allow a bit of creative license for the people carrying out his instructions. With the same group I was also involved in another instruction based project in the same gallery but by a different artist, Graham Hudson. I thought it would be important to mention the contrasting difference in terms of safety issues that were really not resolved enough. In brief, the project involved installing umbrellas in disused outdoor areas of the Camden Arts Centre site. On one occasion, I tied the umbrella using the artists instruction and taped it up using gaffa tape. In burst of gale wind force, the umbrella ripped out, flew in the middle of the road infront of a van. I was tied up with two other umbrellas so I could not go and collect the umbrella otherwise they would also fly into the road. Thankfully a lady with a pram picked up and brought it to me. It was a frightful incident which would have been avoided if the artist had considered a more sophisticated way of connecting the umbrellas or the gallery had allowed more than one assistant to do the job required. Safety and the amount of lee way and ambiguity left in instruction based collaborative art work isn't black and white but there are certain basic standards have to be upheld. Erwin Wurm certainly achieved the right balance.
2 Kubel, 5 Minuten
We discussed whether to use transparent or coloured buckets and the safety of standing in a bucket without falling over and getting hurt. Kimbo found it difficult to locate a bucket that was large enough to stand with two feet inside. The one we ended up using was still caused a few worries.
Drawing instruction featuring 1 minute sculpture featuring 3 planks: 1 supported by your toes, the second by your knees, and the 3rd with your hands and chin resting on it.
For this piece, again we considered what sort of material to use and how it would change it the objects' relationship with the body. Transparent planks would make the performer's body posture more prominent and consequently make her posture appear less purposeful. On the other hand opaque planks frame the body's posture by hiding bits of it. We thought about things like sharp edges, weight and the proportions of the plank. In the end I purchased live edge acrylic, neon orange in order to keep a playful quality to the objects and draw attention and invite viewers to perform. This certainly worked as individuals picked the slabs that were proped against the wall and tried the 1 minute sculpture.
Coffe + Milck
For this one the problem involved deciding what Erwin Wurm meant by the title and sculpture and the difficulty of carrying this out safely in a gallery and public environment. Were we going to use a china cup? Would it be full of milky coffee? One wrong movement and the china cup would crash and break into pieces and that would possibly be a hazard for young children and adults. Spillage of milky coffee on the floor would be slippery hazard but also a source of complaints for the public participants getting their clothes stained. In effect it would not be very audience friendly. Thus we decided to use a plastic cup and saucer without any milkey coffee.
Instruction Drawing showing individual sat on a yoga ball and holding one under each arm.
At first we considered using large balloons but thought Toni decided to purchase yoga balls as they seemed safer and more robust especially if it required for the performer to sit on the ball. These were one of the most expensive purchases and argos seemed to sell the cheapest. On the day of the performance this was one of the most interacted sculptures, although many little children just enjoyed bouncing around the room on the yoga balls
Instruction Drawing showing two hands holding taut elastic bands. This was a simple one. Pam drew the drawing of the instruction on a plinth and brought some household elastic bands which were placed on top.
Instruction Drawing showing performer stood against the wall with bottles propped between their body and the wall. Itziar brought some different coloured plastic bottles and we peeled the labels off. One of the bottles in the drawing appeared like a glass milk bottle so again the safety issue crept up. Although it would have been interesting and dramatic for the objects to change or break as a result of the performance, however safety aspects inhibited us from pursuing this.
2 comments:
the frustrating thing about Wurm's instructions is that the drawings, it seems leave little scope for imaginative involvement. What I mean is that the drawings have already stipulated exactly what is required from the performer; they are visual instructions for simply replicating a task rather than creating an imaginative new performance. What would be more interesting is a series of instructions that are open ended enough to allow the performer to bring a creative response, using their imagination to respond to the problem. Perhaps that is the thing that annoys me about these drawings - there is no problem - the performer simply replicates what is already laid out for them. Please get back to me and tell me what your thought on this are, Maria xx
Your point of view is very interesting and suggests new ideas. However, the drawings do create problems because they are challenging performances to execute. For example, holding three yoga balls in that position is not easy, one keeps popping out whilst the other stays in etc. Holding a cup of tea on your between your bum and backside is very tricky whislt your bent down. I think people performing his drawings is part of his art, getting the viewer directly involved in his work, breaking the boundary between the traditional relationship of viewer looking at picture on the wall. Also, people do bring their own take in the drawings. When I was setting the exhibition up we made aesthetic choices in terms of colour and material for the performance props.
Despite this, I can understand where you are coming from but I suppose the question is how far does the artists work remain his work when it is placed in the hands of the audience and particularly when they go in a tangent?
Do you remember Clare's work in the second year, I think the work there was very interesting and certainly allowed more flexibility and imaginative input on the behalf of the audience.
Maria xx
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