4.31977KraussNotesonIndexPartII

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Notes on the Index: Seventies Art in America. Part 2Author(s): Rosalind KraussReviewed work(s):Source: October, Vol. 4 (Autumn, 1977), pp. 58-67Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778480 .

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Noteson theIndex:SeventiesArt n AmericaPart2

ROSALIND KRAUSS

Nothingcould seemfurtherpart thanphotographynd abstract ainting,theone wholly dependentupon the world for he sourceof ts magery, he othershunningthatworld and the mages itmightprovide.Yet now, in the 70s,overlarge stretches f the abstractart that is being produced, the conditions ofphotographyhave an implacable hold. Ifwe could sayofseveralgenerations fpainters n the ate 19th nd early20thcenturies hattheconsciousaspirationfortheirworkwas that t attainto the conditionofmusic,we have now todeal withan utterly ifferent laim. As paradoxical as it mightseem,photographyhasincreasingly ecometheoperativemodel for bstraction.I am not so much concernedhere withthegenesisof thiscondition withinthe arts,its historicalprocess,as I am with its internalstructure s one nowconfrontst in a variety f work.That photography hould be the model forabstraction nvolves an extraordinarymutation,the logic ofwhich is, I think,important ograsp.In tryingo demonstrate ow this s at work wish tobeginwith n exampledrawn not frompainting or sculpture,but rather from dance. The instanceconcerns performancehatDeborah.Hay gave last fall nwhichsheexplainedtoher audience that nsteadofdancing, she wished to talk. For well over an hourHay directed quiet but insistentmonologue at herspectators, hesubstanceofwhich was that she was there,presentingherself o them,but not throughtheroutines fmovement, ecause thesewereroutines orwhich shecould no longerfind nyparticularustification. he aspirationfordance towhich she had come,shesaid,was to be in touchwith themovement fevery ell inherbody;that, ndtheone heraudience was witnessing: s a dancer,to have recourse o speech.The event I am describingdivides into threecomponents.The first s arefusal odance,orwhatmightbe characterizedmoregenerally s a flightrom heterms faesthetic onvention.The second s a fantasy ftotalself-presence:o bein touch with the movement f every ell in one's body.The third s a verbaldiscoursethroughwhich thesubjectrepeatsthesimple factthat she is present-thereby uplicating through peechthecontent f the secondcomponent. f tisinterestingr important o list thefeatures f theHay performance,t is because


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Notes on the ndex: SeventiesArt n America 59

there seems to be a logical relationshipbetweenthem,and further,hat logicseemsto be operative n a greatdeal of theart that s being producedat present.This logic involvesthe reduction f the conventional ignto a trace,whichthenproducesthe need for supplementaldiscourse.Within theconvention fdance,signsareproducedbymovement. hroughthespace of thedance these ignsare able to be coded both withrelationto oneanother,and in correlationto a tradition of other possible signs. But oncemovements understood s something hebodydoes notproduce nd is, nstead,circumstancehat s registeredn it or, nvisibly,within t),there s a fundamen-talalteration n the natureofthesign.Movement easesto function ymbolically,and takeson the character f an index.By index I mean thattypeofsignwhicharisesas thephysicalmanifestationf a cause,of whichtraces,mprints,nd cluesareexamples.The movement o whichHay turns-a kindofBrownianmotionoftheself-has about it thisqualityof trace. t speaksof a literalmanifestation fpresence n a waythat s likea weathervane'sregistrationfthewind. But unlikethe weathervane, which acts culturallyto code a natural phenomenon,thiscellularmotionofwhichHay speaks is specificallyncoded. It is out of reachofthedance conventionthatmightprovidea code. And thus,although there s amessagewhich can be read or inferredrom histrace f thebody's ife-a messagethattranslatesnto the statement I am here"-this message s disengagedfromthecodes of dance. In the contextof Hay's performancet is, then, messagewithouta code. And because it is uncoded-or ratheruncodable-it mustbesupplementedbya spokentext, ne thatrepeatsthemessageofpurepresence nan articulated anguage.If I am using the term messagewithout code" todescribe henatureofHay's physicalperformance, do so in ordertomake a connectionbetween hefeatures f that eventand the inherent eatures f thephotograph.The phrase"messagesanscode" is drawn fromn essay nwhichRoland Barthes ointstothefundamentally ncoded natureof thephotographic mage. "What this[photo-graphic] messagespecifies," e writes, is, in effect,hat therelationof signifiedand signifiers quasi-tautological.Undoubtedly hephotograph mpliesa certaindisplacement f thescene cropping,reduction, lattening),utthispassage isnota transformationas an encodingmustbe). Here there s a loss of equivalency(properto true ign systems) nd the mpositionof a quasi-identity. ut anotherway,thesignofthismessage sno longerdrawnfromn institutional eserve;t snot coded. And one is dealing herewith the paradox of a messagewithout acode."1It is theorderof thenaturalworldthat mprintstself n thephotographicemulsion and subsequently n thephotographicprint.This qualityoftransferrtracegivesto thephotograph tsdocumentarytatus, tsundeniableveracity. utat the same time this veracity s beyond the reach of those possible internal1. Roland Barthes, Rhetoriquede l'image," [mytranslation], ommunications, o. 4 (1964),42.


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adjustmentswhich are thenecessary roperty f anguage.The connective issuebindingtheobjectscontainedbythephotograph s that f the world tself, atherthanthatof a culturalsystem.In thephotograph'sdistancefromwhat could be called syntax ne finds hemutepresenceof an uncoded event.And it is thiskindofpresencethat bstractartistsnow seekto employ.2Severalexamplesare in order. takethem ll from n exhibition astyear tP. S. 1,1 n exhibitionthat had theeffect f surveyingmuch of theworkthat sbeing producedby thecurrent enerationof artists.Each of the cases I have inmind belongs to thegenreof installationpiece and each exploitedthederelictconditionof thebuilding itself: tsrotting loors,tspeelingpaint, tscrumblingplaster.The work by Gordon Matta-Clarkwas produced by cutting away thefloorboardsnd ceiling from round the oists of three uccessive tories f thebuilding, thereby hreading n open, vertical shaftthroughthe fabric of therevealed structure.n East/West Wall MemoryRelocated,Michelle Stuarttookrubbings fsections fopposing sidesof a corridor,mprintingn floor-to-ceilingsheets fpaper thetraces fwainscotting,rackedplaster, ndblackboardframes,and then nstalling ach sheeton thewall facing ts ctualorigin.Or, n theworkbyLucio Pozzi, a seriesof two-color, ainted panels weredispersed hroughoutthebuilding,occuringwhere, or nstitutional easons, hewalls of the choolhadbeen designatedas separateareasbyan abrupt change in thecolor of thepaint.The small panels that Pozzi affixedo thesewalls aligned themselveswith thisphenomenon,bridging cross the ine ofchange,and at the ametime eplicatingit. The color of each half of a givenpanel matchedthecolorof theunderlyingwall; the ine ofchangebetween olorsreiterated hediscontinuityf theoriginalfield.In this et ofworksbyPozzi one experiences hat uasi-tautologicalrelation-ship between ignifiernd signifiedwithwhichBarthes haracterizes hephoto-graph. The painting's colors, the internaldivision betweenthose colors, areoccasionedbya situation n the worldwhichtheymerely egister. he passage ofthe features f theschool wall onto theplane of thepanel is analogous tothose fthephotographicprocess:cropping,reduction, nd self-evidentlattening.heeffect f the work is that its relation to its subject is thatof the index, the2. The pressureto use indexical signs as a means of establishingpresencebegins in Abstract-Expressionismwithdepositsofpaintexpressed s imprints nd traces.Duringthe1960s, his oncernwas continued lthoughchangedin its mport n, for xample,theworkofJasperJohns nd RobertRymrnan.his developmentforms historicalbackgroundforthephenomenonI am describing sbelongingto 1970s rt.However, tmustbe understood hat there s a decisivebreakbetween arlierattitudes owards he index and thoseat present, breakthathas todo withtheroleplayedbythephotographic, ather hanthepictorial, s a model.3. P.S.1 is a public schoolbuilding n Long IslandCitywhich has beenleasedto the nstitute orArt nd UrbanResourcesforuse as artists' tudios nd exhibition paces.The exhibition n questionwas called "Rooms." Mounted in late May, 1976, it was the inaugural show of the building. Acataloguedocumenting heentire xhibitionwas issued n Summer1977, nd isavailable through heInstitute.


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Gordon Matta-Clark.Doors, Floors,Doors. 1976.Removal offloorthrough st,2nd and 3rdfloors.p. 62:Lucio Pozzi. P.S.1 Paint. 1976.Acrylic nwoodpanel.


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impression, he trace.The paintingis thusa signconnected o a referentlong apurelyphysicalaxis. And this ndexicalquality is precisely heone ofphotogra-phy. n theorizingbout thedifferencesmong thesign-types-symbol,con,andindex-C. S. Peirce distinguishesphotographsfrom cons even though icons(signswhich establishmeaning through he effectfresemblance) orm class towhichwe would suppose thephotographtobelong. "Photographs,"Peircesays,"especially nstantaneous hotographs, reverynstructive,ecausewe knowthattheyare in certain respects exactly like the objects theyrepresent.But thisresemblances due to thephotographshavingbeenproducedundersuchcircum-stances hattheywerephysically orced ocorrespond oint bypointtonature. nthat aspect, then,they belong to the second class of signs [indices],thosebyphysicalconnection."4I am claiming,then, hatPozzi is reducing he bstract ictorial bjecttothestatusofa mould or impression r trace.And it seemsrather learthatthenatureof this reduction s formallydistinctfromothertypesof reductionthathaveoperatedwithin thehistory frecent bstract rt.Wecould,for xample,comparethisworkbyPozzi with a two-colorpaintingbyEllsworthKellywhere, s in thecase of thePozzi panels, twoplanes ofhighlysaturated olor abut one another,withoutany internal nflection f thecolorwithin thoseplanes, and wherethisunmodulated color simplyruns to theedgesof the work'sphysicalsupport.Yetwhatever hesimilaritiesn format hemostobviousdifferenceetween he two sthatKelly'swork s detachedfrom tssurroundings. othvisually nd conceptu-ally it is free fromany specific ocale. Thereforewhateveroccurs within theperimetersfKelly'spaintingmust be accounted forwithreference osomekindofinternal ogic of thework.This is unlike thePozzi,where olor and the ine ofseparationbetween olors are strictlyccountable to thewall withinwhich theyare visuallyembedded nd whose features hey eplicate.In thekind ofKelly have in mind,thedemandsof an internal ogic are metbytheuse of oined panels, so thattheseambetween hetwocolorfieldsmarks nactual physicalriftwithinthefabric f the workas a whole. The field ecomesaconjunction of discreteparts,and any drawing (lines of division) thatoccurswithinthatfield s coextensivewith the real boundaries of each part. Forcing"drawn" edge to coincide with thereal edge of an object (a givenpanel), Kellyaccountsfortheoccurance of drawingby iteralizing t. If thepaintinghas twovisual parts,that s because it has two real parts.The message mpartedbythedrawing s thereforene ofdiscontinuity, messagethat s repeated n two evelsof thework:the magistic thesplitbetween olorfields) nd theactual (thesplitbetweenpanels). Yet whatwemustrealize s that hismessage-"discontinuity"-is suspended within a particularfield:that of painting,painting understoodconventionally s a continuous,bounded,detachable,flat urface. o that fwewishto interprethemessageofthework "discontinuity")we do sobyreading t4. C.S. Peirce,"Logic as Semiotic: The TheoryofSigns," Philosophic Writings fPeirce,NewYork,DoverPublications,1955,p. 106.


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againstthegroundwithinwhich t occurs.Painting n this ense s likea noun forwhich discontinuousis understoodas a modifier,nd the coherenceof Kelly'sworkdependson one's seeingthe ogicofthat onnection.What this ogic sets utis thatunlike the continuumoftherealworld,painting s a field farticulationsor divisions. t is onlybydisrupting tsphysicalsurface nd creating iscontinu-ous units that tcan producea systemfsigns, nd through hose igns,meaning.An analogy we could make here is to the color spectrumwhich languagearbitrarily ivides up into a setof discontinuous terms-thenames of hues. Inorderfor language to exist,thenatural ordermustbe segmentedntomutuallyexclusiveunits. And Kelly'swork s about defining hepictorialconvention s aprocessofarbitraryupture f thefield a canvas surface) nto thediscontinuousunits that re thenecessary onstituentsf signs.One could say,then, hat hereduction hat ccurs nKelly'spaintingresultsin a certain schematization f the pictorial codes. It is a demonstration f theinternalnecessity fsegmentationn orderfor naturalcontinuum to be dividedintothemostelementarynitsofmeaning.However wemayfeel bout thevisualresults fthat chematic-that tyields ensuousbeauty oupledwiththepleasureof intellectualeconomy,or that t is boringlyminimal-it is one thattakestheprocessofpictorialmeaningas itssubject.Now, in the 70s,theres ofcourse tremendous isaffection iththekindofanalyticproducedby the artof the1960s,of whichKelly'swork s one ofmanypossible nstances. n place ofthat nalytic heres recourse o the lternative etofoperationsexemplified ytheworkofPozzi. If thesurface fone ofhis panels isdivided,thatpartition an onlybe understood s a transferr impression f thefeaturesfa naturalcontinuumonto thesurface fthepainting.The painting sa whole functionsto point to the natural continuum,theway the word thisaccompaniedbya pointinggesture solatesa pieceoftherealworldandfills tselfwitha meaningbybecoming,forthatmoment, hetransitoryabel ofa naturalevent.Painting s not takento be a signifiedowhichindividualpaintingsmightmeaningfully efer-as in thecase ofKelly.Paintingsareunderstood,nstead, sshifters,mpty igns (like thewordthis) thatarefilledwithmeaningonlywhenphysicallyuxtapposedwith an externalreferent,r object.The operationsone finds n Pozzi's workare theoperationsof theindex,which seemto act systematicallyo transmute ach of theterms f thepictorialconvention.Internaldivision (drawing) is converted rom ts formalstatusofencodingreality oone of mprintingt.The edgeofthework sredirectedromtscondition as closure (the establishment f a limit in responseto the internalmeaning of the work) and given the role of selection (gatheringa visuallyintelligible ample of theunderlying ontinuum).The flatness f thesupport sdeprived f tsvariousformal unctionsas theconstraintgainstwhich llusion isestablished and tested; as the source of conventional coherence) and is used insteadas the repository of evidence. (Since this is no longer a matterof convention but


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merelyof convenience,the support for the index could obviously take anyconfiguration,wo-or three-dimensional.)ach ofthese ransformationsperatesin the direction fphotography s a functionalmodel. The photograph's tatus sa traceor index, tsdependenceon selectionfrom henaturalarraybymeansofcropping, ts indifferenceo the terms f its support holographyconstitutingthree-dimensionalizationf thatsupport), re all to be found n Pozzi's effortstP.S. 1. And ofcourse,notinhisalone. The workbyMichelleStuart-a rubbing-is even morenakedly nvolved n theprocedures f thetrace,while theMatta-Clark cut throughthebuilding's interiorbecomes an instanceof cropping, norderthatthe void createdbythecut be literally illed ya naturalground.In each of theseworks t is thebuilding itself hat s takento be a messagewhichcan be presented ut notcoded. The ambitionoftheworks s tocapture hepresence fthebuilding,to find trategiesoforce t to surfacentothefield fthework.Yet even as thatpresencesurfaces,t fills hework withan extraordinarysenseof time-past. hough they reproducedbya physicalcause, thetrace, heimpression, heclue,arevestiges f that ausewhich is itself o longerpresentnthegivensign.Like traces, heworks have beendescribing epresenthebuildingthroughthe paradox of being physicallypresentbut temporally emote.Thissense is made explicit in the title of theStuart workwheretheartist peaksofrelocationas a form f memory. n thepiece byMatta-Clark hecut is able tosignifyhebuilding-to pointto it-only through process fremovalorcuttingaway. The procedureof excavationsucceedsthereforen bringingthebuildinginto theconsciousnessof theviewer n theform f a ghost.For Pozzi, theact oftakingan impressionsubmitsto the logic of effacement.he paintedwall issignified y theworkas somethingwhichwas therebut has now been coveredover.Like theotherfeatures f theseworks,this one of temporaldistance s astrikingaspect of the photographicmessage. Pointing to this paradox of apresence eenas past,Barthes aysof thephotograph:The type fperception timplies is trulywithoutprecedent. hotogra-

phy setup, in effect,ot a perceptionof thebeing-theref an object(which all copies are able to provoke,but a perception f itshaving-been-there.t is a question thereforef a newcategory fspace-time:spatial immediacy nd temporal nteriority.hotography roduces nillogical conjunctionof thehere nd theformerly.t is thus t the evelof thedenotatedmessageormessagewithout ode thatone canplainlyunderstand herealunreality fthephotograph. tsunrealitys that fthehere, incethephotograph s never xperienced s an illusion; it snothingbut a presence onemustcontinuallykeep nmindthemagicalcharacter f the photographic mage). Its reality s thatof a having-been-there,ecause in all photographs here s theconstantly mazingevidence: this tookplace in thisway.We possess,then,as a kindof


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preciousmiracle, realityfromwhich we are ourselves heltered.5This conditionof thehaving-been-thereatisfiesuestionsofverifiabilitytthe evelof thedocument.Truth is understood s a matter fevidence, ather hana function f ogic. In the1960s, bstract rt,particularly ainting,had aspiredtoa kind of logical investigation, ttempting o tie the eventof the worktowhatcould be truly tated bout the nternal elationspositedbythepictorialcode. Inso doing, thisart tied itself o the conventionof painting or sculpture) s thatcontinuouspresentwhichboth sustained theworkconceptually nd was under-stoodas itscontent.In the work at P. S. 1, we are obviouslydealing with a jettisonningof

convention, rmoreprecisely heconversion fthepictorialand sculptural odesinto that of thephotographicmessagewithout a code. In order to do this,theabstract rtist daptshis workto theformal haracter f the ndexicalsign.Theseprocedures omplywith two of thecomponents f theHayperformanceescribedat thebeginningof this discussion. The thirdfeature f thatperformance-theadditionofan articulated iscourse,or text, o theotherwisemute ndex-was, Iclaimed,a necessary utcomeof thefirst wo. This need to inktext nd imagehasbeen remarked pon in the literature f semiologywhenever hephotograph smentioned.Thus Barthes, n speaking of those images which resist nternaldivisibility, ays,"this is probablythereasonforwhich these ystemsrealmostalways duplicated by articulatedspeech (such as thecaption of a photograph)whichendowsthemwith thediscontinuousaspectwhich theydo not have."6Indeed, an overt use of captioning is nearly always to be found in thatportionofcontemporaryrtwhichemploysphotography irectly.tory rt,bodyart,some ofconceptualart,certaintypes fearthworks,mountphotographs s atypeof evidenceand join to thisassembly written ext r caption.7But in thework havebeendiscussing-the abstractwingof this rtofthe ndex-we do notfind written ext ppendedto theobject-trace.hereare,however, therkindsoftexts orphotographsbesides written nes, as WalterBenjamin pointsout whenhe speaksof thehistory f therelationofcaption to photographic mage. "Thedirectivewhich the captions give to those looking at pictures in illustratedmagazines,"he writes, soon becomeevenmoreexplicitand more mperativenthefilmwherethemeaningofeach singlepicture ppears tobe prescribed ythesequence of all precedingones."'8 In filmeach image appears fromwithin asuccessionthatoperatesto internalize hecaption,as narrative.At P. S. 1 theworksI have been describing ll utilize succession.Pozzi'spanels occurat variouspointsalong thecorridors nd stairwells f thebuilding.5. Barthes, Rhetoriquede l'image," p. 47.6. Roland Barthes,Elements of Semiology, trans.AnnetteLavers and Colin Smith, Boston,Beacon Press,1967,p. 64.7. See Part ofthisessay,October,3 (Spring 1977),82.8. WalterBenjamin,"The WorkofArt n theAgeofMechanicalReproduction," lluminations,trans.HarryZohn,New York,SchockenBooks, 1969,p. 226.


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Stuart'srubbings re relocated crossthefacingplanes of a hallway.The Matta-Clarkcut involves he viewer n a sequenceof floors. he "text"that ccompaniesthework s,then, heunfolding f thebuilding's spacewhich the uccessive artsof the works n question articulate nto a kind of cinematicnarrative; nd thatnarrativen turnbecomesan explanatory upplement o the works.In the first art of thisessay I suggestedthatthe index must be seen assomething hat hapes thesensibility f a largenumberofcontemporaryrtists;thatwhether hey re consciousof it or not,manyof them ssimilatetheirwork(in part fnotwholly)to the ogicofthe ndex.So, for xample,at P. S. 1 MarciaHafifused one of the former lassroomsas an arena in which to juxtaposepainting nd writing.On thewalls above theoriginalblackboardsHafif xecutedabstractpaintings of repetitive olored strokeswhile on the writingsurfacesthemselves he chalked a detailed, first-personccount of sexual intercourse.Insofar s thenarrative id not stand n relation o the magesas an explanation,thistextbyHafifwasnot a true aption.But tsvisual and formal ffect as that fcaptioning: of bowing to the implied necessityto add a surfeit f writteninformationo thedepletedpowerof thepaintedsign.

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MarciaHafif.Untitled. 976.Paint and chalk on wallsand blackboards.

4.31977KraussNotesonIndexPartII

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