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(Nude) a comparison of the body of the artist in video from the 1970s and 1990s
by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson

(Nude) is an attempt to see the differing effects of contemporary culture, economy, politics, and sexuality on artists' depictions of themselves. Artists from each generation are paired together according to a shared theme or approach. The pairs of artists from the 1970s and 1990s respectively are: Paul McCarthy and Peter Land, Vito Acconci and Cheryl Donegan, Hannah Wilke and Scot Cohen, and Carolee Schneemann and Alix Pearlstein. Although the methods used differ, all of the tapes from the 1970s included in this exhibition address issues of sexuality — arguably the most personally liberating aspect of that generation's rebellion. Irony, rather than sexuality, is the unifying element in the tapes from the last six years.

As Amelia Jones has written, the meaning of the artist's body within the production and reception of art is often confusing and highly charged 1 . The desire to capture the human body on film, and subsequently on video, has intrigued artists since the invention of the moving picture. The fascination is partially based on the premise that the camera is a new eye able to see more clearly than the human one 2 . Issues of vanity and narcissism are most often raised in association with an artist's use of his or her body. But narcissism, contrary to the common, negative associations that classify it as a self-destructive "feminine" trait, can also "expose and complicate the classical duality still embedded in structures of art making and interpretation."3

The inception of artist's video occurred with the invention of the portopak in 1968. The portopak made video portable and available for use by an unassisted individual. 1968 also marks the apex of the counter-cultural revolution in the United States. The freedom of the new medium of video was often employed to capture the new political, social, and sexual freedom of contemporary society. In contrast to the societal openness that followed in the 1970s, the 1990s have been characterized by political apathy, social stagnation, economic frustration, and sexual fear.

In Up Down Penis Show, 1974, Paul McCarthy executes a rhythmic choreography, in which the motion is continuous but non-repetitive. The work begins with McCarthy's forefinger swinging in a motion paralleling his penis. At times, his torso is so abstracted that the orientation of his body is difficult to decipher or identify. Starting with "zippy dee yippee yippee," the personally-uttered soundtrack moves to humming and mouth-popping noises.

Peter Land, a Danish artist, dances passionately and with excitement in d.5.maj 1994, 1994, as he gradually strips out of his grey underpants and black socks. He is defiant in his knowledge of the largeness of his body as he slings it around in movements inspired by club music. Land documents the repetition of commonplace actions in the hope of inscribing them, and subsequently his life, with meaning.

Despite its recent date, Land's tape displays the immediacy and homemade quality of video art from the 1970s. It has the camera focused on a corner in a non-descript room by contrast to the McCarthy tape in which the camera is focused on the fragmented body of the artist. Land moves in and out of the frame, and closer to and further from, the camera. These two tapes are similar in that both capture a personal action: the purely pleasure-oriented experience of dancing naked and alone in a private space. Both artists convey an awareness that their spectacle is destined for a voyeur and that their hyper movements will provide a challenge to the viewer. They also diffuse the erotic tension through humor: the obscure angle and fragmented body in McCarthy's work and the ungainly stature of the body performing a striptease in Land's work. The compelling music in these tapes make the viewing experience enjoyable and mesmerizing. Contacts, 1971, is one of Vito Acconci's psycho dramatic tapes that "enforce an intensive dialogue between viewer and artist, body and self, public and private, subject and object, and absence and presence."4 The artist is blindfolded. A woman kneels in front of him with her face parallel to his belly button. She systematically places her hand over isolated parts of his body without touching it, says "now," and then waits for the artist to sense the location of her hand through the heat it generates before selecting another place. Applying intense mental concentration and intuition, he uses his body as a means of exploring perception and interactive communication 5. Suspense is created over when and whether the artist will successfully detect the woman's hand.

In Cheryl Donegan's Bodytype, 1993, the artist uses her body as a tablet on which to write. She scrawls single words, which range in implication, over most of her skin. Some are specific to the area: "spare" over her rib; others are non-sensical: "chair" written on the inside of her left forearm; and still others are colloquialisms: "to mouth" written on her right hand. The artist's body becomes increasingly marked, scarred, claimed by the texts. Each word seems to be independent, existing as a separate thought. In Donegan's work, the interest is in deciphering the possible associations between the words and the corresponding body parts.

The only sound in Bodytype is an anonymous, disembodied female voice directing the artist's movements to fit into the frame. The unidentified woman directs the artist and serves as a guide in each work. As Acconci is blindfolded and Donegan is in front of and not behind the camera, both artists must trust the woman. Acconci and Donegan explore the relationship between the controlled observation of their own bodies and the disintegration of the whole that occurs in the isolation of its fragments.

Hannah Wilke and Scot Cohen critique societally approved representations of beauty and how one attempts to alter her or his body to conform to sanctioned stereotypes. In Gestures of 1974, Wilke distorts her physical beauty by pulling and pinching her face. By making it ugly and mask-like, she raises issues regarding the superficiality and transiency of beauty. She also manipulates her face into "erotic orifices."6 Focusing the camera at increasing diminished parts of her upper torso and face, Wilke conveys extreme emotional intensity through simple actions, such as the slight movement of her mouth and/or eyes. She uses the camera as a mirror, directing her gaze out at the viewer. In describing this work in her 1989 retrospective catalogue, Joanna Früh writes, "Beauty can be dangerous to the status quo, especially when women, like Wilke, deal with it both gravely and playfully."7

Scot Cohen's 20% Less Fat, 1994-95, begins with the artist standing in white briefs in his living room. The passage of a year is revealed by the changes in the interior where the tape is filmed. The video is a series of fast, freeze-frame shots of the nude artist assuming different poses with an effect similar to a flip book. The body of the artist moves around the room in almost comically quick gestures and changes in size according to the location of the camera. His poses range from citations of Classical and Renaissance sculpture (L 'arringatore [The Orator] and David) to plies and body-building postures. The title indicates that the work documents the artist losing 20% of his overall body weight. The physique of the artist changes from fat to muscular over the course of the short tape. By striking the positions commonly held by, or associated with, classical figures in a humorous, ironic manner, Cohen emphasizes the difference between his body and that of the classical ideal.

Carolee Schneemann's Up To And Including Her Limits, 1973-76, documents a lengthy performance in which the artist slowly and languorously hangs from a strap harness suspended from the ceiling and marks on a wall. Schneemann's actions are ritualistic and introverted. She demonstrates endurance and fragility and utilizes unpredictability and randomness.8 The background sound alternates between the artist speaking from a diary and classical music reminiscent of the silent movies. Although the footage is edited down, the tape appears to be in real time. Schneemann and Alix Pearlstein are each femme fatales in their tapes.

Alix Pearlstein's Dirt, Blood, Spit, Piss, Hug..., 1993, is filled with erotica: a penis and testicles hanging out of jeans as a man urinates against a tree, a woman's jean-clad buttocks getting spanked, and a cotton ball being dragged along the crevice of a woman's buttocks. Due to the focus on conventional and unconventional erotic images, the appearance of non-sexual activities also become highly charged, including the cleaning of an ear with a Q-tip, and a balloon being popped with a pin. The tape also includes more standard romantic references: the artist nude, hugging herself and rubbing her hands up and down her back, in the childish prank of pretending to be engaged in making out, and two different scenes of the artist, nude, rolling on a bed, first, hugging a pillow, and second, covered with white clumps of cotton. The tape also contains images of violence against women: a battered woman with dirt on her face and blood dripping from her mouth; and a long shot of a nude woman submerged in a bathtub, each portrayed by the artist. Pearlstein's videos present a steady stream of unrelated images and any narrative associations are imposed by the viewer.

Both women create non-linear, feminist work in the tradition of French theorists such as Luce Irigaray who critique the construction of "feminine" gender. Schneemann's work is about intimacy and the permission to view the body. Her openness and availability differs from the pretense of everything in Pearlstein's work. Schneemann attempts to decipher what it takes for the body to replace itself, whereas Pearlstein states that the body has already been replaced. Video technology has advanced significantly from the 1970s to the 1990s. Originally a black and white medium that could not be edited, artist's video is currently projected from laser disc and characterized by MTV-speed editing. This rapid pace is indicative of contemporary society, which is covertly critiqued in the recent tapes. In contrast to the latent optimism or carefreeness of the tapes from the 1970s, a certain wry nihilism characterizes the work from the 1990s. The universality of the artist's actions in the tapes from the 1970s reflects the period's larger sense of community, whereas the extremity of mass culture and negation of individuality in the 1990s causes the artists to create tapes organized around highly personal concerns.

NOTES
1. Amelia Jones, "Intra-Venus and Hannah Wilke's Feminist Narcissism", in Intra-Venus (New York: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 1995), p. 5.
2. For a discussion of the role of the camera in the control of images of women and the evolution of pornography see Linda Williams: "Corporealized Observers: Visual Pornographies and the ‘Carnal Density of Vision'", in Patrice Petro (ed), Fugitive Images: From Photography to Video (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995), p. 3-41.
3. Jones, p. 5.
4. In: Lori Zippay (ed), “Electronic Arts Intermix: Video” (New York: Electronic Arts Intermix, 1991), p. 12.
5. Ibid., p. 13.
6. Jones, p. 4.
7. In: Thomas H. Kockheiser (ed), “Hannah Wilke - A Retrospective” (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri, Press, 1989), p. 51-61.
8. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (ed), “The Power of Feminist Art” (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994), p. 207.