New York, Beside Itself

This reading looks at how contemporary artists use the city as a space as an existential being. They use it similar to a human being in that it is a living, breathing entity that also has "physical and emotional expressions". Johanna Burton begins the essay by addressing a writing from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick describing her experiences of walking through Manhattan after 9/11. The writing described how Sedgwick felt shame every time she would turn in the direction of where the towers once stood. The artists that were written about in this chapter not only use the city as an existential being but also look to the history of significant events within it.

There is very little documentation from Joan Jonas's Delay Delay, a performance done in 1972. There is one image, however, in particular that has captured the attention of Burton and has changed her view of Manhattan ever since. I think that what Burton is describing is that through Jonas's portrayal and use of Manhattan, Burton's view of the city is altered. The image that Jonas created is considered in experiencing the actual city.

Another artist that was brought up in the reading was Tom Burr. In Burr's Deep Purple, he references Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, a 1981 steel sculpture installed in Federal Plaza in New York City. After a big controversy, Serra's sculpture was removed because it was a 120 foot long wall in the middle of a public area and people did not want to have to walk all the way around it. Regarding the complaints of Tilted Arc, Serra stated "The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environment changes." (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/visualarts/tiltedarc_a.html)

Richard Serra, Tilted Arc. 1981.

Tom Burr, Deep Purple. 2000

Burr's Deep Purple is made of wood and is much more movable. Unlike Serra's piece, this one is not site specific. This piece is not necessarily as interested in obstructing the viewer's path (though that is still a part of it) but is more concerned with presenting a shield, which may or may not have illicit activities going on on the other side. It is about the visual uncertainty of what lies ahead within the public realm. In Burr's In Loving Memory of: An American Garden (for Frank O'Hara, "meet me in the park if you love me", addresses his unhappiness with the consistent ending of public cruising zones. Here he has collaged paper and photographs and under plexiglass, adhered them to a wooden box.

Tom Burr, In Loving Memory of: An American Garden (for Frank O'Hara, "meet me in the park if you love me"). 1993/2007