Destroying the Frame, Expanding the MediaJonathan DinuAugust 2009

Figure 1: Stop Making Sense Promo-tional Video: David Byrne’s Disguises

Figure 2: Stop Making Sense Pro-motional Video: David Byrne SelfInterview (body double used)

David Byrne once interviewed himself using video editingtricks and six disguises (figure 1, 2) in a televised promotion of StopMaking Sense — Talking Heads’ concert film directed by JonathanDemme. Wearing an oversized suit used to make his "head appearsmaller," Byrne questions himself about the stylistic and thematicideas behind the film and the music. In Neo-Dadaist manner Davidmocks the formality of an interview as well as the spontaneity of atypical interview’s question and answer dialogue. By interviewinghimself — supplying both questions and answers — Byrne decon-structs the hierarchy of an ignorant interviewer probing an eruditeinterviewee, putting both on equal footing. Also, Byrne breaks thedynamic relationship between the interviewer and the intervieweethrough the use of video cuts, replacing the chronology of real timewith that of the finished video production. Byrne employs the au-dience’s perceptions and expectations as media to sculpt his artisticrebellion against tradition and convention1.

1 David Byrne. Stop making sensepromo, b. URL http://www.youtube.

com/watch?v=dE-mxVxFXLg

In Modernist tradition, Byrne constantly "criticizes from the in-side"2 through his appropriation of non-artistic media. Byrne turns

2 Clement Greenberg. Modernistpainting. In F. Frascina, C. Harrison,and D. Paul, editors, Modern Art AndModernism: A Critical Anthology, Iconeditions. Harper & Row, 1982. ISBN9780786741908

the limits of media in on themselves as in E.E.E.I (2001-2004) (fig-ure 3, 4), a purely aesthetical PowerPoint presentation, in order topush the boundaries of those very media. In Sea of Possibilities (fig-ure 4), a still from E.E.E.I., the chaotic tangle of multicolor ClipArtarrows laid upon a placidly horizontal wood grain exemplifies therestrictive freedom of PowerPoint’s user-friendly creativity. Throughthe capitalization on PowerPoint’s restrictive yet productive opera-tion, Byrne paradoxically expands the imaginative restrictions inher-ent in its design.

Figure 3: Envisioning Emotional Epis-temological Information (E.E.E.I.):PowerPoint Presentation. Exhibited at"Tokyo Art Jungle," Tokyo InternationalForum (2002)

destroying the frame, expanding the media 2

Figure 4: Sea of Possibilities: Power-Point Still (2001-2004)

A thematic allusion to Kurt Schwitters’ Merz work of the earlytwenties and beyond, and also to the assemblagists of the 50’s, theconnotational baggage that PowerPoint carries exhibits itself inthe catholicity of the medium. In contrast to Schwitters’ anecdotalMerz work with "not only formal, but also expressive significancethrough literary and symbolic allusions,"3 E.E.E.I relates more closely

3 Pierre Guéguen. Esthétique del’identité: la sculpture (II). XXe Siécle,(2):47–48, 1938

to Rauschenberg’s "referential associations of his derelict and banalobjects but, unlike the Surrealists, did not capitalize on the narra-tive overtones produced by their juxtapositions."4 E.E.E.I. utilizes

4 B. Haskell, J.G. Hanhardt, and Whit-ney Museum of American Art. Blam!the explosion of pop, minimalism, andperformance, 1958-1964. Whitney Mu-seum of American Art in associationwith W.W. Norton & Co., 1984. ISBN9780393019353

PowerPoint’s corporate undertones in conjunction with "how par-ticipatory and democratic it is" since "high school kids use it, rabbisuse it, people even use it for wedding toasts" in order to allow thegeneral public (as opposed to only art critics) to appreciate the slides’"engage[ment] with the audience both verbally and nonverbally."5

5 Bonnie Azab Powell. David ByrneReally Does ♥ PowerPoint, BerkeleyPresentation Shows. URL http:

//www.davidbyrne.com/art/eeei/

press/EEEI_UCBerkeleyNews.php

Through E.E.E.I., Byrne manages to reflexively criticize the limitingprofessionalism of PowerPoint, as well as the elitism of art producedfor erudite "taste bureaucracies."6

6 H. Rosenberg. The Tradition of theNew. Perseus Books Group, 1994. ISBN9780306805967

In Byrne’s expropriation of media, he deconstructs the media’scontextual role into one of raw material, mere fodder for his catapultaimed at the public’s expectations and values. In his hands advertis-ing becomes a canvas, found photos become a paintbrush, the publicbecomes paint, and the city is transformed into a gallery. What is It?(2002-2003) (figure 5) takes the object out of the context, and in thisprocess the subtext disappears leaving pure media to mold. Byrne’sannotations pose three possible answers as to the identity of the ob-ject and his answer, the title of the piece, apportions a new contextonto the photo. His commentaries on the photos project Neo-Dadaistsatire onto the absurdity of design. Drawing on the gullibility of itsaudience, the Tokyo subway display of What is it? (2002) (figure 5)relies on the faith of the public in the verity of mass media to recur-sively challenge the role of advertising.

Figure 5: What is it?: A Truck MadeBy Someone Who Had Never SeenOne, Photo with Textual Editing, 2003

(left) and Photos in Subway Train, 2002

(right)

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In this self-referential criticism, the Greenbergian model of Modernart elucidates itself, but in Byrne’s appropriation of new media heturns Greenberg against himself. Greenberg’s belief:

That the task of self-criticism became to eliminate from the specificeffects of each art any and every effect that might conceivably be bor-rowed from or by the medium of any other art. Thus would each artbe rendered ’pure,’ and in its ’purity’ find the guarantee of its stan-dards of quality as well as of its independence. ’Purity’ meant self-definition, and the enterprise of self-criticism in the arts became one ofself-definition with a vengeance.7 7 Clement Greenberg. Modernist

painting. In F. Frascina, C. Harrison,and D. Paul, editors, Modern Art AndModernism: A Critical Anthology, Iconeditions. Harper & Row, 1982. ISBN9780786741908

Byrne’s self-criticism derives from the satirical employment ofnew, often public, media in order to comment on the limits of artisticmedia. His art criticizes both the traditional (conventional) use ofhis media, as well as the Greenbergian ’purity’ of art and media.With such a maneuver, Byrne’s art "borrows from the medium"8 of 8 Ibid.

not even art, but of pragmatic societal media — a debasement ofGreenberg’s Modernist vision of art’s direction in 1960. In this sense,Byrne’s Postmodernism distorts the traditions of Modernism in muchthe same way that his art deconstructs professional media into artistictools.

Just as Byrne’s non-traditional media challenge the acceptednorms of art, his public exhibitions question the limits of the galleryand in this inquiry a criticism of the boundary between art and lifearises. The Tokyo train display of What is it? (figure 5) preys on theperceptions and presumptions of an unsuspecting public — one thatis foreign to David Byrne and his art — in order to scrutinize thecurrent pervasive role of advertising and design in every aspect oflife. Not even the tired commuter can escape capitalist media tryingto sell an idea, just as the Tokyo public — a foreign and naïve audi-ence — cannot even escape the art and satire of David Byrne. In suchexhibitionism, David Byrne not only uses the media of advertisingto degrade the integrity of marketing, but he also breaks down therestrictions of the gallery. Byrne’s brandishing of his art in a Tokyotrain allows him to test a virgin audience, while simultaneously dis-mantling the Occidental "taste bureaucracies."8 8 H. Rosenberg. The Tradition of the

New. Perseus Books Group, 1994. ISBN9780306805967

Byrne’s 2003 solo exhibit of What is it? at the Southeastern Centerfor Contemporary Art came a year after its Tokyo debut. In con-trast to the Tokyo display, the SCCA show embodies the archetypalmuseum exhibit presented to a self-selecting critical aristocracy. Togo from the most viewed public art on the busiest train line in theworld9, to a sedate museum exhibit in the States creates a contrast 9 Ltd. 2dk Co. Tokyo international

forum 5th anniversary tokyo art jungletrain. URL http://www.2dk.net/

exhibition/e_taj_train.html

that challenges the critical power of museums and galleries and thevery hierarchy of art institutions. In such a maneuver, Byrne poses aquestion that may not have an answer: Is having you work seen by

destroying the frame, expanding the media 4

more than a million ignorant observers more poignant than havingfar fewer lettered critics? Byrne constantly challenges the boundariesof the gallery and the distinction between art and. . . everything else.

In 2008, the Department of Transportation in NYC held a competi-tion to design a bike rack to replace the current standard. Byrne waschosen as a judge but, inspired by the competition, decided to sketchimaginative designs for specific neighborhoods. The DoT respondedto the sketches with an offer that if Byrne made them, they wouldplace them in the city for 364 days until they will be sold in Byrne’sgallery.10

10 David Byrne. Bike racks, a. URLhttp://www.davidbyrne.com/art/bike_

racks/index.php

Figure 6: The Wall Street, Pen Designof Powder Coated Steel Rack, 2008.Located on Wall Street (North Side)between Pearl and Water Streets

In this spark of opportunity, Byrne’s avid love of biking and hisvanguard artistic drive overlap in a public display functional beauty.Byrne’s practical yet referential designs (2008) (figure 6, 7) — a dollarsign for Wall Street, a stalwart dog for the Village, and a high heelfor 5th Avenue boutiques — further obscure the bounds of media.Steel has been a sculptural material for decades, but it is not thesteel that Byrne appropriates as his unconventional medium, butrather the institution of the bike rack. Such a pragmatic structureremains a banal utility unless it is borne of the gallery, yet publicizedin the street. The publicity of the bike racks distinguishes them fromtraditional contemporary sculpture (i. e. the industrial minimalismof Judd or Oldenburg’s grandeur) since their municipality preservesfunction and their form perpetuates individuality. Byrne’s studiomanager realized such a contradiction when she asked: "’Well, David,these are practical, how can they be sold as art?’ he said. ’I didn’thave a good answer for that.’"11

11 Ariel Kaminer. David Byrne, CulturalOmnivore, Raises Cycling Rack to anArt Form. URL http://www.nytimes.

com/2008/08/09/arts/design/09bike.

html

Figure 7: The Villager (left), PowderCoated Steel, 2008. Located on La-Guardia Place in front of AIA, NYC andThe Ladies’ Mile (right), Powder CoatedSteel, 2008. Fabrication: New Project,Brooklyn, NYC (Rack placed @ 5thAvenue between 57th and 58th Streets,in front of Bergdorf Goodman)

Byrne’s use of the medium itself, rather than anecdotal reliantcontextualization and conceptualization, turn mundane profanityinto the sacred exotic. The assemblagists of the 50’s rely on the un-

destroying the frame, expanding the media 5

derstated implications of each component of combines as well as thecontextualization of the gallery. Rauschenberg’s Pilgrim (1960) (fig-ure 8) utilizes a common chair, which Rauschenberg subsequentlystreaks with paint and places in front of an abstractly painted canvas.The painted chair assumes the identity of an ordinary piece of fur-niture until Rauschenberg submerses it in his combine, situating it infront of the suggestive canvas contained in the milieu of a museum.Once localized in such surroundings, the chair evolves to artistic me-dia inheriting the intrinsic connotations of the medium while "theiroriginal identity [was] stolidly kept."12

12 Martha Jackson Gallery. New Forms -New Media 1: Junk Culture as a Tradition/Lawrence Alloway; Some Observations onContemporary Art/Allan Kaprow; Pho-tographs/Rudolph Burckhardt: [exhibition1960]. 1960

Figure 8: Robert Rauschenberg, ThePilgrim, mixed mediums with woodenchair (79 x 54 x 19 in.), 1950, Ham-burger Kunsthalle

Unlike Rauschenberg and the Junk artists such as Kaprow andDine, Byrne does not try to privatize the reality of street in a gallery,but rather publicizes his art, which in turn adds a new dynamicaspect to his bike racks: the spontaneous and constantly evolvinginteraction of pedestrians locking unique sizes, styles and color ofbikes to the racks. By placing his bike racks all around NYC, eachwith its specific referential neighborhood, Byrne has expanded thegallery to encompass the entire city, utilizing the public and societalconstructions (Bike racks) as his media.

The "Environments" of Kaprow and Dine recruit the walls of thegallery to frame the alleyways and trash of the city, much in the sameway that Cezanne used the frame of the canvas to draw attentionto spatial and designed elements of his still-life. In framing the city,Kaprow declares that by his artistry and the authority invested in thegallery the trash from the city assumes an anecdotal significance justas Schwitters gave his Merz objects "the care that bibliophiles give tofirst editions, that bereaved families give to Grandmother’s hair."13 13

The "environments" use the gallery to construct borders around theirart and by "capturing" (bottling) the street in a gallery they create acontextual canvas on which newspaper becomes a medium and analleyway becomes an artistic statement due to the connotations anddenotations that an exhibition instills in the audience.

The "Environmentalists" and the assemblagists appropriate thegallery as a canvas in order to showcase their work for people toview it as art. Byrne turns the world into his canvas through hisself-referential media. It is this universality that elevates Byrne’spublic art into the omnipresent gallery that is an entire city, or evencountry (as it the case with his Tokyo train art) and through thisascension into the artistic context, his work develops a whole new setof connotations and contexts in addition to those "traditional" ones italready has.

destroying the frame, expanding the media 6

References

Ltd. 2dk Co. Tokyo international forum 5th anniversary tokyo artjungle train. URL http://www.2dk.net/exhibition/e_taj_train.

html.

David Byrne. Bike racks, a. URL http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/

bike_racks/index.php.

David Byrne. Stop making sense promo, b. URL http://www.

youtube.com/watch?v=dE-mxVxFXLg.

Martha Jackson Gallery. New Forms - New Media 1: Junk Cultureas a Tradition/ Lawrence Alloway; Some Observations on ContemporaryArt/Allan Kaprow; Photographs/Rudolph Burckhardt: [exhibition 1960].1960.

Clement Greenberg. Modernist painting. In F. Frascina, C. Har-rison, and D. Paul, editors, Modern Art And Modernism: A CriticalAnthology, Icon editions. Harper & Row, 1982. ISBN 9780786741908.

Pierre Guéguen. Esthétique de l’identité: la sculpture (II). XXe

Siécle, (2):47–48, 1938.

B. Haskell, J.G. Hanhardt, and Whitney Museum of American Art.Blam! the explosion of pop, minimalism, and performance, 1958-1964.Whitney Museum of American Art in association with W.W. Norton& Co., 1984. ISBN 9780393019353.

Ariel Kaminer. David Byrne, Cultural Omnivore, Raises CyclingRack to an Art Form. URL http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/

arts/design/09bike.html.

Bonnie Azab Powell. David Byrne Really Does ♥ PowerPoint,Berkeley Presentation Shows. URL http://www.davidbyrne.com/

art/eeei/press/EEEI_UCBerkeleyNews.php.

H. Rosenberg. The Tradition of the New. Perseus Books Group, 1994.ISBN 9780306805967.