Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys was a prominent German performance artist, social activist and environmentalist throughout his life. He believed that art has healing powers and could invoke a spiritual response from the audience, comparing his role as an artist to that of a shaman. He called his performances 'actions', encouraging the audience to incorporate his political and social messages into their everyday life. These actions were often ritualistic, incorporating ideas of birth, death and transformation. Calling them actions and not performances, makes the piece for accessible to the audience, as everyone is familiar with actions but not everyone can relate to performances. Calling them actions also suggests to the audience that they are not planned, that the artist is just reacting to what is happening in his immediate environment, even if that environment is premeditated. 

Throughout his work Beuys used similar materials such as fat, felt, earth, honey and blood. As well as ritualised movement he also incorporated repeated sound during his actions. Felt for me is a rigid material that I can easily acquire in a variety of different colours, so it is useful for trying out ideas. For Beuys, it was important because of its ability to absorb whatever it came into contact with. It could also muffle sound, and during his career he wrapped a piano, a tv, and a loudspeaker, rendering them useless. Felt is also an insulator and a symbol of warmth. Beuys often worn clothing made out of felt, culminating in his series of 'felt suits'; a hundred identical two piece felt suits instructed by the artist to be displayed in any way - ‘I don’t give a damn. You can nail the suit to the wall. You can also hang it on a hanger, ad libitum! But you can also wear it or throw it into a chest’ (Beuys in Schnellman and Klüsser 1980). I think I need to think more about the meaning behind the materials that I am using, and the significance of them, and how the meaning of my work could possibly change depending of which material I pick. This is also the same for colours, as different colours have different associations. 



In arguably his most famous 'action', 'I like America American likes me' (1974), Beuys locks himself in a gallery with a coyote for 3 days. When he arrived in New York, he went through customs with his hands over his eyes, and before even getting out of the airport he was wrapped up in felt and transported in an ambulance to the gallery, where the coyote was waiting for him. In his words ‘I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote.’ During the action, Beuys gloves, walking stick and piece of felt became props, and he would wear them hunched over like a shepherd while he performed routine actions with the coyote. Throughout the 3 days the coyote's behaviour changed from detached to aggressive to sometimes friendly and companionable. 



Looking at the documentation of Beuys work has made me think about the documentation of my own work and the importance of it. I have never been very good at keeping up to date with the documentation of my work, as I have always thought that my work is about the live performance or interaction. However, having videos and photographs makes the work more accessible to everyone, as they can be shown in many different situations very easily, without the need for a planned performance or anything like that. The other barrier that I have found with planning a performance or even just doing something live is that I am not sure I want it to be me that is performing, as I would rather document, so I can dictate movement and such. I would also like to witness peoples reactions to my work, and I can do that if I am in one of my pieces. This means that if I want to create more planned performance based works in any context (both gallery and festival) then I am going to put more effort into finding other people to wear my pieces for me.