Dead Hare (FIG. 36-77). This one-person event consisted of styl-
ized actions evoking a sense of mystery and sacred ritual. Beuys ap-
peared in a room hung with his drawings, cradling a dead hare to
which he spoke softly. Beuys coated his head with honey covered
with gold leaf, creating a shimmering mask. In this manner, he took
on the role of the shaman, an individual with special spiritual pow-
ers. As a shaman, Beuys believed he was acting to help revolutionize
human thought so that each human being could become a truly free
and creative person.
JEAN TINGUELYThe paradoxical notion of destruction as an
act of creation surfaces in a number of kinetic artworks, most notably
in the sculpture ofJean Tinguely(1925–1991). Trained as a painter
in his native Switzerland, Tinguely gravitated to motion sculpture. In
the 1950s, he made a series ofmetamatics,motor-driven devices that
produced instant abstract paintings. He programmed these meta-
matics electronically to act with an antimechanical unpredictability
when viewers inserted felt-tipped marking pens into a pincer and
pressed a button to initiate the pen’s motion across a small sheet of
paper clipped to an “easel.” Viewers could use different-colored mark-
ers in succession and could stop and start the device to achieve some
degree of control over the final image. These operations created a se-
ries of small works resembling Abstract Expressionist paintings.
In 1960, Tinguely expanded the scale of his work with a kinetic
piece designed to “perform” and then destroy itself in the sculpture
garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He created
Homage to New York (FIG. 36-78) with the aid of engineer Billy
Klüver (1927–2004), who helped him scrounge wheels and other
moving objects from a dump near Manhattan. The completed struc-
ture, painted white for visibility against
the dark night sky, included a player piano
modified into a metamatic painting ma-
chine, a weather balloon that inflated dur-
ing the performance, vials of colored
smoke, and a host of gears, pulleys, wheels,
and other found machine parts.
This work premiered (and instantly
self-destructed) on March 17, 1960, with
New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller,
an array of distinguished guests, and three
television crews in attendance. Once
36-78Jean Tinguely,Homage to New
Yo r k ,1960, just prior to its self-destruction
in the garden of the Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
Tinguely produced motor-driven devices
programmed to make instant abstract
paintings. To explore the notion of destruc-
tion as an act of creation, he designed this
one to perform and then destroy itself.36-77Joseph Beuys,How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare,1965.
Performance at the Schmela Gallery, Düsseldorf.
In this one-person event, Beuys coated his head with honey and gold
leaf. Assuming the role of a shaman, he used stylized actions to evoke a
sense of mystery and sacred ritual.
Performance and Conceptual Art and New Media 1019