‘WILL AND ACTION : BECOME ONE WITH I THE AESTHETICS OF '
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Visual Art
River, rock and smoke. No.1
Touching nothing
Alexander Kennedy looks at the work of John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and finds glimpses of grace in their paintings and drawings
‘ erce has now thrown the dice and the M change-over dates are as follows . . .‘ So
begins an email with lists of information. names and numbers from Paul Nesbit. the director of lnverleith House. The information resembles a score or sheet of instructions by the composer John Cage (1912-1992). the dancer Merce Cunningham's life— long partner. lover. friend and the absent collaborator of this curated ‘conversation‘. Both men lived and worked together for ()0 years or so - it's difficult to pin-point exact dates. as neither discussed the details of their relationship. To be explicit would be to over- simplify. to lie. So. a life. an aesthetic programme. and now an exhibition with No Fixed Points (the title of this show) moves slowly forward.
In the work of Cage and Cunningham. the quest for meaning is pointless yet necessary and this quest forms the subject matter of much of their work. Within dance and music this kind of gloriously empty
formalism is not only welcomed. it is the guarantor of
aesthetic success. Both artists follow on from a late. high modernism. a Beckettian bleakness that is shot through with the light of illumination — a kind of Zen transcendence of binaries (both were interested in Zen philosophy).
This is evidenced in the paintings by Cage that are exhibited in the gallery (before Cunningham's drawings replace them later in the month). These minimal yet expressive pieces are the result of chance operations. more specifically. the Chinese I-Ching
system of divination. where coins. sticks or sheets of
paper are shuffled or thrown to provide guidance.
88 THE LIST 7—21 Jun 2007
Cage’s horizontal lines and coloured circles could be read as referring to the sign system that is used to
record the results of the l-Ching: long lines. dashes
and circles denote specific configurations. But the forms are also the outlines of stones lifted from a river bed. transformed into temporary islands as Cage tickled their edges with coloured washes.
Only two works by Cunningham are currently on
display. but this will change with time. In the foyer of the gallery a garish tiger head faces a blank wall. a , wild ‘childish' Blakean beast. with a luminous orange ;
coat. hairy teeth and neon blue gums. On a small screen in the gallery a 5()-something Merce twitches and dances in front of a blue screen. Everyday actions are exaggerated and repeated before the camera focuses in on his gesticulating elegant hands — hands acting as the tool used to create a gesture in life. in a dance or on a canvas.
‘I cooked and Merce did the dishes.‘ Cage once famously said when asked about their friendship (and now imagine those hands in yellow Marigolds). The specifics of their relationship will always be vague. Many critics have tried to reduce their aesthetic sensibility to a kind of ‘cIoset aesthetic‘. where ‘saying nothing‘ meant the artists could avoid revealing their sexuality in their work. But maybe the artists set themselves a more difficult task — to attempt to annunciate and gesture towards the nothingness at the heart of sex. self and art.
Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, until Sun 8 Jul 0000
EXISTENCE' j
THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
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* Cunningham and Cage: No Fixed Points An exhibition of drawings by choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage. This legendary couple dramatically changed the contemporary dance and music scene in America, creating highly influential, provocative yet essentially abstract works that refused to act as royal roads into the artist’s psyche. See preview, opposite. Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, until Sun 8 Jul.
ti: Rodderick Buchanan: Histrionics Photography, film and wall-based work examining the relationship between Catholic and Protestant, Celtic and Rangers fans in Glasgow. Buchanan uses his personal experience as part of a ‘mixed couple' to examine his and his wife’s genealogy, demonstrating their similar socio-economic backgrounds. Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sun 28 Oct. >l< The Scottish Show
The work of 34 of Scotland ’3 best up and coming designers (hairdressers, cabinet makers, architects, ceramicists, clothes designers, etc) forms part of the Six Cities Design Festival. Highlights include work by Alex Milton, Leigh Ferguson, Hill, Jephson and Robb, and Marianne Anderson, with most of the exhibits already feeling very domesticated and familiar. The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Sun 12 Aug.
* David Musgrave
The London-based artist's work continues to examine Being and Nothingness, enormous themes that collide on his canvases and in his drawings, leaving representational, indexical figures where objects used to be. He continues his ‘Television' series with paintings and works on paper that translate one form of representation into another, dissolving the surety of everyday reality in the process. See preview, page 89. Sorcha Dal/as, Glasgow, until Sat 30 Jun.