JOSEPH NECHVATAL
nOise anusmOs
by
Robert C. Morgan
Published
in the June 2012 issue of The Brooklyn Rail
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2012/06/artseen/joseph-nechvatal-noise-anusmos
GALERIE
RICHARD | APRIL 12 to MAY 26, 2012
Besides the anti-Oedipalist pairing of
Deleuze with Guattari, the fatal actor Antonin Artaud, and the undaunted
ex-Minister of Excess, Georges Bataille, there are few others who could escape
the scathingly promiscuous beauty inscribed in the paintings and sensuous
auditory and multimedia works of Joseph Nechvatal. This was recently shown at
Galerie Richard in a suite of 10 new paintings (2011) by the artist, titled nOise
anusmOs, in which he explores the primordial ecstasy of BatailleÕs
locus solusÑthe anal sphincter of the ÒviractualÓ (the artistÕs word)Ñwhereby
harmonic intervals between the virtual and the actual find their correspondence
within the visual field. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Nechvatal evolved a
poetics of technology in working with dense overlays of information gathered
from the web that he programmed robotically as paintings on canvas. At a later
stage in the mid-1990s he developed a degenerative digital virus that would eat
away at his design.
blackeye
2010
Computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas and screen with digital animation
screen
Virtually all of NechvatalÕs early mentors lived on the dark side, more or less (one might add the French Symbolists to the list above.) They have all indulged in a type of Dionysian abandon whereby guilt is disarmed through the absence of denial. An artist of Bohemian origins, he deems the dark side as being anathema to the feckless, lovelorn squanderers who landed on Plymouth RockÑcorrupt officials steeped in a bogus religiosity, all figure and no ground. Nechvatal regards such callous machinations as a persistent aggravation that stands in the face of art. An artist refugee from the East Village era, he decided to take leave from the unthinkably tasteless mannerisms that had come to occupy the old neighborhood and made his way to Paris.
His defense was to immerse those linear
maritime spoilers in the ecstasy of scatology by transmitting his Òviral
symphOnyÓ that has now become a masterpiece. To hear this symphony of auditory
elements loop through an unharnessed eschato-scatological chamber of noise may
stir the emotional sensorium beyond reprieve, a psychedelic interstice if one
is to be found amid the currency of overwrought calculations. Òviral symphOnyÓ
was transmitted in New York on the occasion of nOise anusmOs as a counterpart to
further enhance the effect of intelligent immersion, and thus, to defrock
advanced art of its ritualized theoretical lassitude. These velvety dark black
fields with brilliant red vectors immerse our sight and sound sensibilities in
a scintillating cauldron of incestuous rare-bits. The paintings are filled with
contorted calamities as the subtle lip between interior and exterior reveals a
hint of aestheticized corporeal excess, which, in turn excites, if not
detonates, an apotheosis of digestion. Such tantrums are beguiled by insolence.
The unholy farthing reaps its vengeance by sustaining the omniscient cursor
that moves unevenly throughout the incendiary birth of scented language.
What words do we have for NechvatalÕs porous
subject matter? We may doubt our vision at every turn. The viral specimens move
within a tightly contracted fleshy fieldÑred against blackÑas tender vessels
quicken within the smarting breadth of the sphincter. It is not surprising that
one of the artistÕs favorite works of art is the Mannerist BerniniÕs ÒThe
Ecstasy of Saint TeresaÓ (1645 Ð 52). During TeresaÕs levitation, the feeling
of ecstasy swirled throughout her entrails as she passed beyond the reach of
desire into a world removed from the Western duality of physical and spiritual
existence, beyond pain and into a sustained, trembling delight. But the
question lingers as to whether this is the goal of NechvatalÕs art. Is nOise
anusmOs attempting to reach beyond the reachable through some form of
aesthetic disjunction? Is there any social dimension that pertains to this
solipsism of transcendence?
One might argue the following in NechvatalÕs
defense: Having read the artistÕs essays and books, including his recent and
deftly important, Immersion Into Noise (University of Michigan: Open
Humanities Press, 2011), there is clearly an attempt to transform social
attitudes with regard to the persistent mediation that inhabits and plunders
our historical consciousness in the present era of transition, as we struggle
to find the equation between an ever-advancing technology and the quality of
life. Some observers believe this quality is diminishing rapidly as Òthe
futureÓ advances, and is soon to be forgotten. Joseph Nechvatal takes a
humanist approach in this regard, advocating that the new technology may
enhance life, not through denial or begging-off from the inexorable speed of
information layering (noise), but by immersing ourselves in this condition via
the reintroduction of pleasure as something essential to life. I emphasis
pleasure as in Eros -- not pornography, which Nechvatal would understand as a
trap (trebuchet) of mind control, including economics and politics. Instead
Eros is a combined mental and physical endorsement bereft of violence coming
down to Earth again where the body retains its significance (and identity) as a
source of knowledge. Through this evocation we may enter with one another into
an agreement that the quality of life carries a certain ineffability and
socially responsible dimension. In this way, we honor the rights of others to
discern pleasure, not outside of ourselves, but through a clearer focus on the
aesthetic dimensions of our own bodies as vulnerable, yet life-fulfilling
organisms.
autOmata libertine
2011 66x44Ó computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas