A term I‘m eager to use when assessing a work of art, a movie, a song, is "Firing on all cylinders”. When every component of a work feels pushed to its very limit, or, serves so wholly the greater sum, that no weakness is worthy of mention and not only the piece in and of itself but the medium in which it was presumably constrained is advanced in its capabilities or nature.
Le Coup, Philippe Petit, 1974.
This total greatness of a piece no matter how effective is still achieving its greatness within a glass sphere. In a different manner of evaluation: there may be works that break artistic barriers so totally and replace the rift with novelty in ways so effective, one might claim to “feel God” when witnessing it. I understand that sentiment. However, that sublime feeling is due to being shown unexpected human fortitudes.
Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile Slight Return, Philippe Petit’s “Le Coup”, and Michael Craig-Martin’s An Oak Tree are the works I will examine as sound Anarchistic contributions to the aesthetic canon.
First, what is an Anarchist contribution in any canon, let alone an aesthetic one?
Anarchism’s essence, which I posit is the most ubiquitous and natural human tendency, is the tendency to scrutinize authority, test its legitimacy, and dismantle authority if it is found illegitimate. Think of the irreverence one has for ridiculous-looking art in a prestigious museum. There at least two feelings here. One, it feels ridiculous to be asked to take something serious that looks like garbage. And, two, it feels like something is laughing at you after worming its way into the Museum.
What is authority? Authority is fear. We may say it is the power bestowed on some rather than others, but authority is first experienced not as the abstract designation with all its outfits and accolades, but as fear in the heart of someone without it. The overwhelming urge to behave in the halls of a museum, the towering heights of trade buildings, the horror of a disgusted audience below the stage.
An Anarchistic contribution to art is one that scrutinizes the authority of any or all aspects that chain behind the very impetus of making a work of art up until its consumption and even its potential placement in history.
What’s the difference between an Anarchistic contribution and what is deemed Avant-garde? Maybe nothing. However, the avant-garde is usually a title bestowed on works that advance a medium for art’s sake and not a greater leap to gain ground for human fortitude. That the art world took the newly broken ground of say Duchamp’s urinal and flooded it with art that paid little thought to its anarchistic DNA does not belittle the original act. But perhaps we overlook the original pieces because their once-radical natures have become homogenous with their mediums. Thus the breakthroughs become utilities of authority. Think of the bizarre, inscrutable, ugly conceptual art in the quiet, high-walled cathedral of a gallery. How that piece could even be considered to show in a gallery is a gift of anarchism, that it is now in service to authority is not.
In Voodoo Chile Slight Return, the previously ignored or avoided and unintended “noise” created by distortion and overload via pickups and amplification was utilized, not merely explored, as an instrument and further mastered, thus advancing not only a genre, but all the tools and motifs in its aggregate. The sound of the record itself totally captures the essence of its lyrical content and not in a treaded manner, but a wholly new sound that was not experimental nor given charity by critics, but singularly pioneered and honed by the artist himself.
In Philippe’s WTC tight rope walk, not only was an extreme athletic performance displayed perfectly, which could occur at ground level, but a transcendent irreverence for architectural authority and societal convention was achieved and shown to be achievable. An entire city had no choice but to stand bewildered by the weight of human possibility and, more acutely, the liberation of the act, showing that a human being can be so far removed from circumstantial restraint, cultural boundaries, and personal fear, that they seem to be more than human, yet entirely within the domains of human interest and capability. This work of art might be the most sharply spectacular anarchistic act in history given the magnitude of its medium, the setting, and the effect on such a grand number of people.
An Oak Tree, Michael Craig-Martin, 1973.
I’ve long since believed that Michael Craig-Martin’s An Oak Tree was the ultimate art piece in both denotations of the word. It is ultimate in and of itself and also final in that nothing has revealed the nature of art or broken our understanding of art since its creation. It uses the transmogrification of the Eucharist to show that the process of viewing art as a human being is no different. We create art, claim something about its meaning or purpose, and viewers enter a schizophrenic or forced nebuloturgic* perspective in witnessing it especially given the gallery’s power on perspective. The anarchistic aspect of the piece is in the courage to oust the nature of art regardless of the authority for institutions who’d wish to preserve art’s “sanctity” or mystique, and regardless of the authority of the history of making art. The work is a deflationist act that exposes what happens when we make and view art and the methods of meaning that follows.
These people are not geniuses for these works. There is no such thing as a genius. There are only Anarchists reaching the apogee of Anarchistic expression, and those who are momentarily too smothered by authority to express their nature.
*Nebuloturgy is the process of mental phenomenon being brought into the physical world.