Hybridity, does it trivialize art?
“If a painter also does performance art, the art world is extremely skeptical - it’s considered a trivialization of one form by another.” Carolee Schneemann, 1988 (Cited by Kaye,1996 a)
This essay will explore which philosophical outlooks might have lead to the statement above being true at the time of writing, assess whether these are still prevalent attitudes today and hypothesis how this might affect current and future practitioners. Within the text I aim to define some key terms, identify hybridity as an area of exciting development, indicate some interesting practitioners in the field and place current developments in a wider social context.
Performance art is a loose term ‘often used simply to describe, identify or quantify a certain work of art as having a relation to performance or performance-like attributes ... Performance art does not present the illusion of events, but rather presents actual events as art.’ (Hoffmann and Jonas, 2005) ‘... It can be any artistic manifestation or action that is presented in front of an audience, although, in contrast to theatre, it is not based on a pre-determined set of dialogues.(Hoffmann and Jonas, 2005, citing Goldberg, 1979)’
To consider an art-form ‘trivialized’, it is necessary for it to have been transformed from another state, one of greater importance. It is also necessary to accept that some critics believe the arts are more important when they are distinct from each other, when they are ‘pure’. This idea of artistic purity within a singular medium is one that Modernist, Abstract Expressionist painters and theorist Clement Greenberg explored (Marthinsen 2002), echoing Plato’s discussions of art and what is desirable in his ideal society(Melling 1987).
Current, postmodern, artists are, by default, influenced by modernist thought. ‘Postmodern’ is also a loose term and many art movements can be included under its banner. Postmodern reactions to modernist ideas may include questioning ideas of originality, status and purity and a desire to break free from categorization. Bricolage is strongly associated with Postmodernism and it can be described as the joining together of fragments not previously associated with each other. Derrida(1967), suggested that we are all bricoleurs as we are all influenced by many things. (1)
It is against this well established background of critical thinking that hybrid and multi-disciplinary artists such as Schnemann find themselves working. If ‘multi-disciplinary’ is taken to describe an artist who works with different genres in separate pieces, the term ‘hybrid’ could be used to describe one who uses different genres in the same piece of work.
Hybridity, perhaps, is an expanded form of bricolage, related but separate from Jorg Heiser’s (2010) ‘super-hybridity’. The concept of hybridity is closely linked to postmodern questions relating to modernist ideas such as purity and abstraction. It is a word with negative connotations(Cohen &Toninato, 2007) but Leah Marthensen(2002) and I argue that ‘it can represent increased intensity, knowledge and experience.’ RoseLee Goldberg(1979) believes artists have always been multi-disciplinary and that the separation of the disciplines is relatively recent, suggesting that current hybrid practices are a return to an older, more holistic view of the creative arts.
‘
‘If there is one generally acknowledged characteristic of post-modernism, it is profound skepticism about the universal validity of any single narrative, or theoretical ‘story’ concerning human affairs.’ (Blake, 1996, citing Lyotard, 1979)
Modern Painters magazine (March 2011) wrote that ‘theatricality has been a prominent mode of contemporary art since the decline of modernism... a reaction against the modernist emphasis on purity, abstraction, materiality and concept.’ They go on to say that much of the most interesting work, currently, is film and video, a medium which, due to it’s nature and its relative newness, is hybrid in the extreme.
The problem with being someone who doesn’t fit in one or the other form is that you get trashed from both sides. The visual arts people say it’s not hip enough, but the theatre people think it’s too cold.’ Ping Chong, 1990 (cited by Kaye, 1996 b)
Schneemann’s comment implies a rejection of Modernist values such as purity and an attempt at breaking down traditional genre boundaries. This sentiment is echoed by theatre maker and artist Ping Chong who demands that the scenography associated with his productions is ‘not just passively sitting there ... it’s a statement that has it’s own weight.’ As Penny Saunders of Forkbeard Fantasy says ‘details have to say something to be pertinent (Crawley 2007 cited by Burnett 2007).’ Chong and Saunders are both expressing a need for the performances they are engaged with to be read as complete texts, the scenography is not simply a pretty backdrop to the ‘real action’, any visual or aural details have the same importance as the performed elements and can be read in similar terms to sculpture or painting. There are interesting questions here surrounding what can now be considered the defining factors within each genre when performances might be durational to the extent that the audience now needs to relate to them in a manner previously associated with the visual arts and sculptures may be presented as performances (Gaggie, 1986).(2)
Within Performance Art, attitudes have changed. Marina Abramovic has moved from describing theatre as ‘the enemy’(Kaye 1996 c) to re-creating her Performance Art history in a theatrical context, blurring boundaries between ‘pure’ performance art and ‘pure’ theatre. Staged...and yet real. Circus, a medium currently enjoying rapid growth(Micklem 2006) and being often incorporated in hybrid work(Wilson 2011), seems ideal for these explorations as, when circus skills are performed(3), to use a quote from Abramovic, ‘the knife is real, the blood is real’ (Ayers 2010) and yet the event is (normally) thoroughly staged, presenting a dichotomy between usual distinctions in live arts - the ‘illusion’ of theatre and the ‘truth’ of performance art.
Circus, Burlesque and many other entertainments are traditionally viewed as ‘low brow’ despite, or indeed because of their popularity, in comparison to the ‘high culture’ arts such as opera, ballet and classical music where education is deemed to increase understanding and appreciation (Arts Council England 2005). There can be no comprehensive list of what may be considered low-brow but postmodernism has blurred the status boundaries and now ‘low brow’ works have been accepted into the canon of high art, for example Robert Mapplethorp’s photography, Annie Sprinkle’s burlesque shows (Schneider 1997) and Rasp Thorne’s performances (O’Reilly 2010).
Here I am reminded of John Cage saying ‘through the way i place my intention I create the experience that I have.’ (Kaye 1996 d) I interpret this as meaning a pieces’ status as ‘high-brow’ or ‘low-brow’ is irrelevant to a works status as ‘art’ or ‘not art’. It is, rather, dependent on the engagement of the viewer. I am not suggesting that all work in all genres, e.g. all pornography or all paintings, be considered art. Robert Pacitti (2010) talks of the works shown at SPILL 2007 as being performed with ‘absolute conviction’ and discusses ‘agency’ to include ideas of deliberate choices being made. I associate this with ideas, noted previously, that Saunders and Chong expressed. They, Cage and Pacitti seem to be echoing another of Plato’s ideas, that of mimesis, which would be excluded from the ideal state (Jones 2003). This essay was inspired by the original question ‘What’s the difference between ‘art’ and ‘popular entertainment’?’. At this point I answer that with ‘Nothing, though there is a difference between ‘authenticity’ and ‘mimesis’.’
It is not only artists who are blurring the dividing lines, the art world recognizes this new dynamic too. The Prague Quadrennial, a festival of theatre design, is ‘taking vigorous action to dissolve the borders of it’s historic identity’ (Total Theatre 2011) and it is moving towards a hybrid of exhibition, live performance and scenography. Journals such as Total Theatre and Dance Theatre Journal write almost exclusively about works existing at this edge of hybrid performance. SPILL: Festival of Performance (Pacitti & Ghelani 2010) and What If... (Cash & Schmidt 2011) are including explorations of the written word and it’s interaction with live art. The Inbetween Time Festival programmed several interactive performance works (e.g. Hunt and Darton, Low Profile) (Cole 2010) and, like SPILL and What if..., sought to integrate documentation into the festival in innovative ways.
The mixing of art forms, far from trivializing them, could equally be understood as creating meaningful and accessible opportunities for new audiences. The public seem happy to engage with hybrid works, Forkbeard Fantasy, Brith Gof and Dogtroep all evolved their unique, ground breaking styles while using unusual locations, including the street(Mason 1992). The street is a harsh barometer of the public’s reaction - if it doesn’t engage them, they walk away. It is common occurrence now for high levels of participation to be encouraged. Diverse events such as Inbetween Time Festival and The Invisible Circus’s ‘Carny-Ville’(Lathan 2007), invite such a high degree of participation that it is hard to know where the performance ends and the viewers continue. It would seem that the public have embraced hybridity so strongly even, that artists such as Tim Crouch, I infer, may be finding it difficult to generate appropriate excitement about their work, despite it being interesting work that pushes at the boundaries of theatre, simply because they are working within a single-genre and do not have the word ‘hybrid’ attached to it(Max Prior 2011).
Science is also offering itself for cross-fertilisations with artists. Science has long influenced art and now, conversly, artists such as Kira O’Reilly(O’Reilly 2010) and Helen Storey (Storey 2005) are being invited to speak at scientific conferences, to reveal connections that scientists may not have made. Kira O’Reilly was engaged as festival philosopher (thinker-in-residence) for SPILL 2007 in a reversal of the accepted ‘artist-in-residence’ format where as Dance Theatre Journal (2011) has published writing by science writer Ken Grimes. In this way, art is being placed alongside science and intuitive associations are being given equal status to logos, in contrast to traditional, logically sequential, thought.
Although the public, science and art institutions seem responsive to hybrid thinking, academia may be slower to change. A broad range of creative interests was not supported in my school in the 1990‘s. Students could choose only one GCSE in either Drama, Music or Art. I chose Art and my path through education has been a juggling act of trying to find support for my varied interests. Some tutors have been supportive of my desire to work across disciplines, in these cases the difficulties have been predominantly logistical as the courses were set up as single discipline courses with pre-supposed notions of the way in which an artist, performer or designer would choose to work. There were also issues surrounding the assessment of either live work or object based work depending on the criteria of different courses. (5)
Hybridity in art is growing within a society that seeks an increasingly multi-cultural polyphony(ONS 2009). Where Gilbert and George lead with their poetic postcard bricolage(Tate 2011), capitalist corporations(Nike 2011) now follow - individuality and participation are now key. In directing the viewer to read their postcards like visual poetry, they encouraged us to create our own narrative, narratives as diverse as our individual cultural backgrounds. This love of our differences could be seen as a reaction to modernism, an acceptance that our lives are far from pure and we wouldn’t want them to be.
‘In June 1970, the French writer Jean Clay observed: "It is clear that we are witnessing the death throes of the cultural system maintained by the bourgeoisie in its galleries and its museums." ‘(Witcome 2000)
We have seen what hybridity is and how modernist and post-modern thought has influenced it. We have seen how artists, the scientific community and the public have engaged with hybridity and that the art world no longer views it as trivialization. In light of this, Schneemans statement seem partially outdated. The art world has, it seems, accepted hybridity but, for it to be fully accepted, it needs to be supported by our education system as well. It is beyond the scope of this essay to look into education systems other than the current model which constrains budding artists through it’s need to categorize subjects into distinct genres. It is also beyond the scope of this essay to examine what proportion of artists or art students have a multi-discipline or hybrid practice. There are also interesting questions regarding how the content of university level creative courses might have changed over the years or whether the content of new courses is becoming broader. Answering these questions would lead to a greater understanding of how to best support the next generation of artists.
- More information on Postmodernism can be found here: Encyclopedia of Postmodernism (2001) [online] http://www.credoreference.com/entry/routpostm/postmodernity accessed: 25/04/2011
- For example, entering and exiting performances at will (e.g. Abramovic’s ‘The Artist is Present’ or Wilsons ‘The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin’), viewing sculpture that consists only of sounds in a space (E.g. Barry Le Va’s ‘Velocity Piece’) or a sculpture that includes elements traditionally associated with performance Ee.g. Segal’s ‘Alice Listening’ or Tinguelys ‘Homage to New York’). Examples from Kaye, N (1996), Gaggi (1986) and www.MoMa.org
- Other than acts based on Illusion. E.g. Tightrope, juggling, acrobalance, tumbling, most arial work. For more detail see ‘Strange Feats & Clever Turns’ by Charlie Holland.
- Taken to mean entertainments popular in less advanced cultures - from the facial features of neanderthal hominids in comparison with the higher brow bones of contemporary man. Encompasses boxing, wrestling, burlesque, reality television shows and more.
- The Performance course I studied had no criteria for assessing performance related objects. The Theatre Design course had no criteria for assessing performance work. The Fine Art course has limited media and performance resources and is directed towards showing tutors objects, not live performance. Neither Theatre Design or Fine Art had any space, training or industry specific advice for students engaged with physical work.
Bibliography
Arts Council England (2006), Micklem, D. ‘Circus Health Check’. [online] www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/documents/publications/phpXkUNtd.pdf accessed on 25/04/2011
Arts Council England (2005) ‘Traditional Culture Vultures’ Arts Based Segmentation Research [online] www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us/research/arts-based-segmentation-research/13-segments/traditional-culture-vultures/ accessed 27/04/2011
Ayers, R. (2010) ‘The knife is real, the blood is real, the emotions are real - Robert Ayers in conversation with Marina Abramovic’ A Sky filled with Shooting Stars [online] www.askyfilledwithshootingstars.com/wordpress/?p=1197 accessed: 27/04/2011
Blake, N. (1996) ‘Between Postmodernism and Anti-Modernism: The Predicament of Educational Studies’
British Journal of Educational Studies Vol. 44, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 42-65 London: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Educational Studies [online] http://www.jstor.org/stable/3121703 Accessed: 27/04/2011
Burnett, K. (2007) ‘Collaborators: UK Design for Performance’ London: SBTD pp. 26 - 31
Cash & Schmidt (2011) Dance Theatre Journal Vol 24, No.1 London: Laban
Cole, H. (2010) Inbetween Time Programme also available online: http://www.inbetweentime.co.uk/festival/programme/ibt2010/all/ [27/04/2011]
Derrida, J. (1967) ’Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences’ ‘Writing and Difference’, trans. Alan Bass. London: Routledge, pp 278-294
Gaggi, S. (1986). ‘Sculpture, theatre and art performance: notes on the convergence of the arts’. Leonardo, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 45-52 The MIT Press [online] http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578301 Accessed: 11/03/2011
Goldberg, R. (1979) ‘Performance: Live Art 1009 to the Present’ London: Thames & Hudson a) Kaye, N. (1996) ‘Art into Theatre, Performance interviews and documents’ Netherlands. Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH pp.23
Heiser, J. (2010) ‘What is ‘Super-hybridity’?’ Freize, Aug 2010 [online] http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/pick-mix/ 25/04/2011
Hoffmann and Jonas, (2005). ‘Perform’ London: Thames & Hudson pp.14 - 15
Holland, C. (1998) ‘Strange Feats and Clever Turns’. London: Holland & Palmer
Jones, R. (2003) Becoming-hysterical - becoming-animal - becoming-woman in The Horse Impressionists [online] http://www.ruthjonesart.co.uk/essays.html 27/04/2011
a) Kaye, N. (1996) ‘Art into Theatre, Performance interviews and documents’ Netherlands. Harwood
Academic Publishers GmbH pp.148
- Kaye, N. (1996) ‘Art into Theatre, Performance interviews and documents’ Netherlands. Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH pp 181
- Kaye, N. (1996) ‘Art into Theatre, Performance interviews and documents’ Netherlands. Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH pp. 23
Lathan, P. (2007) ‘Carny-Ville’ The British Theatre Guide [online] www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/carnyville-rev.htm [accessed] 28/04/2011
Marthensen, L. (2002) ‘Purity’ [online] http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/purity/ 06/04/2011
Mason, B. (1992) ‘Street Theatre and other outdoor performance’ London: Routledge
Max Prior, D. (2011) ‘The Works: A personal view of the works of Tim Crouch’ Total Theatre Magazine, Vol 23 Issue 01 UK: University of Winchester pp. 10 - 13
Melling, D. (1987) ‘Understanding Plato’ Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.86-88
Modern Painters Magazine, (march 2011) Editorial, NYC
Nike (2011) ‘Nike Official Store: Nike iD’ [online] www.nike.com/nikeid [accessed 27/04/2011]
Office for National Statistics (2009) ‘Migration: Net Migration Remains High’ [online] www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=260 accessed 27/04/2011
O’Reilly, K. (2010) ‘The Weaver’ SPILL Festival of Performance: On Agency. UK: Pacitti Company pp. 9 - 21
Pacitti, R & Ghelani, S. (2010)‘Introduction’ ‘SPILL Festival of Performance: On Agency’. UK: Pacitti Company pp. 5
Schneider, R. (1997) ‘The Explicit Body in Performance’ London: Routledge pp.11 - 14 & pp 53 - 65
Storey, H. (2005) ‘Eye & I’ Helen Storey Foundation [online]http://www.helenstoreyfoundation.org/pro5.htm [accessed] 27/04/2011
Tate Liverpool (2011), gallery text accompanying Gilbert & George’s ‘Postcard Sculpture’ (1974)
Total Theatre Magazine (2011) ‘Update’ Total Theatre Magazine, Vol 23 Issue 01 UK: University of Winchester pp 37
University of Warwick. Cohen, R and Toninato, P. reviwed in 200.7 ‘Hybridity’ [online] www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/rsw/current/cscs/creolizationconcepts/hybridity (accessed on 23/04/2011)
Wilson, T. (2011) ‘When the Circus Comes to Town’ Total Theatre Magazine, Vol 23, Issue 01
Witcome, C. (2000) ‘The End of Art’ [online] http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism-b/endofart.html [accessed 27/04/2011]
