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Pictures
DOUGLAS
CRIMP
76
OCTOBER
77
Pictures
JackGoldstein.StillsfromThe Jump.1978.
Two years ago Goldstein presentedTwo Fencers at the Salle Patino in
feetfromtheaudience,bathedin thedimredglowof
Geneva.Distancedsomefifty
musictakenfromHollywood
a spotlight,
accompaniedbythesoundofrecorded
theirathletic
in
enacted
two
men
swashbuckler
soundtracks,
routine.6
fencing
gear
as
if
as
present.Like
yetjust certainly,
spectral,
Theyappeared
deja vu,remote,
and gymnastof Goldstein'searlierperformances,
the contortionist
theywere
looked
nevertheless
of
the
but
in
the
there,performing
space
spectators, they
After
one
vivid
of
but
like
the
nebulous
virtual,
dematerialized,
images holograms.
fencerhad appearedto defeatthe other,the spotlightwentdown,but the
continued;leftin darknessto listento a replayofthebackground
performance
to remember
thatimageoffencingthathad
the
audience
wouldattempt
music,
In
if
in
this
as
memory.
alreadyappeared
doublingbymeansof themnemonic
mechanism
the
by whichmemoryfunctionsis made
experience, paradoxical
the
is
replaced.(Roget'sThesaurusgivesa child's
apparent: image forgotten,
ofmemory
as "thethingI forget
definition
with.")
Goldstein's"actors"do notperform
roles;theysimplydo what
prescribed
would
the
German
as
do, professionally,
Hollywood-trained
they
ordinarily
just
in
and
on
film
A
and a
barks
cue
Goldstein's
GermanShepherd,
shepherd
growls
in a golden
ballerinadescendsfrompointein A BalletShoe,and a lion framed
Thesefilmsshoweither
logo tosseshis headandroarsin Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
or
with
little
or no difference,
that
are
repeated
simple,split-second
gestures
exhaust
themselves.
for
actions
that
to
more
extended
Here,
appear
slightly
example,is thescenarioforA BalletShoe:thefootofa dancerin toeshoeis shown
on pointe;a pairofhandscomesin fromeithersideofthefilmframeandunties
theribbonoftheshoe;thedancermovesoffpointe;theentirefilmlaststwenty-two
seconds.The sensethatitsgestureis a completeone is therefore
byits
mitigated
and
multiplepsychological tropologicalresofragmented
images (generating
6.
Goldstein's phonograph records,intendedboth as independentworks and, in some cases, as
sometimesno longer than a
soundtracksforperformances,
are made by splicing togetherfragments,
fewseconds,of sound fromexistingrecordings,paralleling his use of stockfootageto make films.
80
OCTOBER
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rdlDi
me-?
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...wi
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83
Pictures
84
OCTOBER
whose subject matteris, froma humanist point of view, the most loaded, most
chargedwith meaning,but which are revealedin his work to be utterlyopaque.
Here is a picture:
1:_-::
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.
sm.:: ':"'-'::--'Zii
It appeared as an illustrationto the memoirsof AlbertSpeer with the caption
"Hitler asleep in his Mercedes,1934."11Brauntuchhas reproducedit as thecentral
image of a recentthree-part
photographicprint.The degreeto which theimage is
fetishizedby its presentationabsolutelypreventsits re-presentation;
itselfphotographic, Brauntuch's work cannot in turnbe photographicallyreproduced.Its
exacting treatmentof the most minute details and qualities of scale, color,
framing,relationships of part to part would be completelylost outside the
presenceof theworkas object.The above photograph,forexample,is enlargedto
a widthof eighteeninches,therebymakingitshalftonescreenvisible,and printed
on the left-handside of a seven-footlong bloodred field.To the rightof this
pictureis a further
enlargedexcerptof it showingthebuildingin thedistanceseen
just above thewindshieldof the Mercedes.The panel on which thesetwo images
so thattheensembleof
appear is flankedby two otherpanels positionedvertically,
photographslooks diagrammaticallylike this:
photoill.
above
excerpt
photoof Nuremberg
rallylights
Pictures
85
The two verticalpanels are blown up photographs,as well, although theyare too
abstractedto read as such. They are, in fact,reproductionsof a fragmentof a
photographof the Nurembergrally lightsshining in parallel streaksagainst the
vast expanse of darkness. They are, of course, no more recognizable than the
right-handfigurein the above photograph is recognizable as Hitler, nor do
theydivulge anythingof the historytheyare meant to illustrate.
Reproduced in one book afteranother about the holocaust, already excerpted, enlarged, cropped, the images Brauntuch uses are so opaque and
as to be utterlymute regardingtheirsupposed subject.And indeed
fragmentary
the most opaque of all are the drawingsby Hitler himself." What could be less
revealing of the pathology of their creator than his perfectlyconventional
drawings?Everyoperation to which Brauntuchsubjectsthesepicturesrepresents
thedurationof a fascinated,perplexedgaze,whose desireis thattheydisclose their
secrets;but the resultis only to make the picturesall the more picturelike,to fix
foreverin an elegant object our distance fromthe historythat produced these
images. That distanceis all that thesepicturessignify.
Although the manipulations to which SherrieLevine subjectsher pictures
are farless obsessivethan Brauntuch's,her subject is the same: the distancethat
separatesus fromwhat those picturessimultaneouslyprofferand withhold and
the desirethatis therebyset in motion. Drawn to pictureswhose statusis thatof
cultural myth, Levine discloses that status and its psychological resonances
throughthe imposition of verysimple strategies.In a recenttripartiteseries,for
example, Levine cropped threephotographsof a motherand child accordingto
theemblematicsilhouettesofPresidentsWashington,Lincoln, and Kennedy.The
currencyof the mythswith which Levine deals is exemplifiedby those profiles,
takenas theyare fromthefacesof coins; thephotographsare cut out of a fashion
magazine. The confrontationof the two images is structuredin such a way that
theymustbe read througheach other:theprofileof Kennedydelineatesthepicture
of motherand child, which in turnfills in the Kennedyemblem.These pictures
have no autonomous power of signification(picturesdo not signifywhat they
picture); theyare provided with significationby the manner in which theyare
presented(on the facesof coins, in the pages of fashionmagazines). Levine steals
themaway fromtheirusual place in our cultureand subvertstheirmythologies.
11. AlbertSpeer,Inside the ThirdReich, New York,Macmillan, 1970,ill. followingp. 166.It was of
courseWalterBenjamin, a victimof the veryhistorythismemoirwould recount,who asked,"Is it not
the task of the photographer-descendentof the augurs and the haruspices-to uncover guilt and
name the guiltyin his pictures?"But thenhe added, "'The illiterateof the future',it has been said,
'will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph'.But
mustwe not also count as illiteratethephotographerwho cannot read his own pictures?Will not the
caption become the most importantcomponent of the shot?" ("A Short Historyof Photography,"
Screen,Spring 1972,24).
Brauntuchhas used these drawings,which have been extensivelypublished, in severalof his
12.
works.Perhaps even moresurprisingthan thebanalityof Hitler'sdrawingsis thatoftheartproduced
inside the concentrationcamps; see Spiritual Resistance: ArtfromConcentrationCamps, 1940-45,
New York, JewishMuseum, 1978.
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87
Pictures
Shown as a slide projection last Februaryat the Kitchen,the mother-andchild/Kennedypicture was magnifiedto a height of eight feet and diffused
througha streamof light.This presentationof theimage gave it a commanding,
theatricalpresence.But what was the medium of that presenceand thus of the
work? Light? A 35-mm. slide? A cut-out picture from a magazine? Or is the
medium of this work perhaps its reproductionhere in thisjournal? And if it is
impossible to locate the physical medium of the work,can we then locate the
original artwork?'3
At thebeginningof thisessay,I said thatit was due preciselyto thiskind of
abandonmentof the artisticmedium as such thatwe had witnesseda breakwith
modernism,or more preciselywith what was espoused as modernismby Michael
Fried. Fried's is, however,a veryparticularand partisan conceptionof modernism, one thatdoes not, forexample, allow fortheinclusion of cinema ("cinema,
even at its most experimental,is not a modernistart") or for the preeminently
theatricalpainting of surrealism.The workI have attemptedto introducehereis
whose roots are in the symbolist
related to a modernismconceived differently,
aestheticannounced by Mallarm,'4 which includes works whose dimension is
of
literallyor metaphoricallytemporal,and which does not seekthetranscendence
the materialcondition of the signs throughwhich meaning is generated.
a
Nevertheless,it remainsuseful to considerrecentwork as having effected
as postmodernist.But ifpostmodernismis to
breakwith modernismand therefore
have theoreticalvalue, it cannot be used merelyas anotherchronological term;
ratherit mustdisclose theparticularnatureof a breachwith modernism.15
It is in
thissense thattheradicallynew approach to mediumsis important.If it had been
characteristicof the formaldescriptionsof modernistart that theywere topographical, that theymapped the surfacesof artworksin orderto determinetheir
structures,then it has now become necessary to think of description as a
stratigraphicactivity.Those processesof quotation, excerptation,framing,and
stagingthatconstitutethe strategiesof theworkI have beendiscussingnecessitate
Needlessto say,we are not in searchof sources
uncoveringstrataofrepresentation.
or origins, but of structuresof signification:underneatheach picture thereis
always anotherpicture.
A theoreticalunderstandingof postmodernismwill also betrayall those
attemptsto prolong the life of outmoded forms.Here, in brief,is an example,
Levine initially intended that the threeparts of the work take threedifferent
13.
formsfor the
purposesof thisexhibition:theKennedysilhouetteas a slide projectionin thegallery,theLincoln as a
postcard announcement,and the Washingtonas a poster,thus emphasizing the work's ambiguous
relationshipto its medium. Only the firsttwo partswere executed,however.
For a discussion of this aestheticin relation to a pictorial medium, see my essay "Positive/
14.
Negative:a Note on Degas's Photographs," October,5 (Summer 1978), 89-100.
15. There is a dangerin thenotion ofpostmodernismwhichwe begin to see articulated,thatwhich
sees postmodernismas pluralism, and which wishes to deny the possibilitythat art can any longer
achieve a radicalismor avant-gardism.Such an argumentspeaks of the "failureof modernism"in an
attemptto institutea new humanism.
1978.
SherrieLevine.Untitled.
88
OCTOBER
16.
In RichardMarshall,New Image Painting,New York,WhitneyMuseum ofAmericanArt,1978,
p. 56.