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Paige, Chelsey

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GLOBAL CONTEMPORARY ARTIST ANALYSISARCHIVE PROJECTLYGIA PAPE: Exploring the Body in Public SpaceChelsey Paige, BA Art History, 2021 (expected graduation May 2021)Lygia Pape, Divisor (“Divider”), Photograph of performance, 1968. Image from Hyperallergic.Paige 1Lygia Pape is a Brazilian artist known for her work with the Concrete art movement andcredited as a key founder of the Neoconcrete art movement in 20th century Brazil. Her practicewas formative in exploring contemporary art in Brazil and engaging geometric art around themesof politics and the body. As a Neoconcrete artist, Pape expanded this abstraction of geometricshape in relation to public spheres and body sensations. For this paper, Pape’s Divisor and Tteiawill be analyzed through the frameworks presented in Judith Butler’s Bodies in Alliance and thePolitics of the Street. While both of these pieces originated before Judith Butler’s piece, thisrecognition of the senses in the public sphere, exploration of body, and relationship betweenparticipant/observer are all frameworks both are exploring in their own respects.Pape was born April 7, 1929 in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Shestudied at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro that led to her introduction of the Concreteart movement.1 Concrete art is based in geometric abstraction and is free of any symbolicmeaning. Concrete art is a practice “free of any basis in observed reality” meaning that this stylewas primarily focused on abstract and studying the visual form rather than perceptions of it.2 TheConcrete art movement formed two Brazilian Concrete art groups that embraced this style, theRuptura based in Sao Paulo and the Grupo Frente in Rio de Janeiro. Pape joined the GrupoFrente with her colleagues Lygia Clark, Helio Oiticica, and Aluísio Carvão, all working underIvan Serpa, who formed the group in 1952. The Grupo Frente is credited as founding theNeoconcrete art movement. Neoconcrete art is a more phenomenological approach and interestedin the sensations created by Concrete art.3 Their approach was more based on sensuality, colour,and poetic feeling rather than the pure aesthetics of Concrete art. The Grupo Frente did not3Martins, “Phenomenological Openness: Historicist Closure: Revisiting the Theory of the Non-Object.”2 Barnitz, Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America.1 Meghreblian, "Pape, Lygia (1929–2004)," in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture.Paige 2necessarily reject concreticism, more so they expanded this practice into three-dimensionalspaces and dealt with the ways in which the body responds to works. Pape’s works areexceptional in Neoconcrete art as her practice often deals with the relationship between theparticipant and the observer.After breaking off from the Grupo Frente, Pape’s practice started to grow larger withinstallations and videos. During the 1960s and 1970s, her works became more political againstthe military dictatorship in Brazil. During this period, she taught semiotics at the School ofArchitecture at the Universidade Santa Úrsula in Rio de Janeiro. She is remembered for being atodds with Academia and challenging the education system.4 It is recalled that she encouraged herstudents to engage with space creatively and push boundaries which is very characteristic of heras a Neoconcrete artist.While teaching in the 1970s, she began experimenting with her students using threads innature to develop an architectural form.5 It was through this exploration of materials that wouldinspire her to create her Ttéia installations. Pape’s Ttéia installations are significant inhighlighting her transition from Concrete art to Neo-concrete. During her practice as a Concreteartist, she was interested in the woodcuts in her Tecelares series. These woodcuttings wereclassic of Concrete art as they were geometric in design and straightforward in their aesthetics.The series abstracts form and emphasizes line quality and texture. Pape revisits this appreciationfor the weaving and wefting of line in her Ttéia installations. These installations consist of goldor silver threads extended from the ceiling to the floor intersecting in these geometric patterns.Lights are directed on the threads to play out this space and prompt participants to engage withthe space. The title comes from a combination of two Portuguese words “teia” for web and5 Alvarez, “Neoconcretism and the Making of Brazilian National Culture, 1954–1961”.4 Almino, “Channeling Lygia Pape’s Radical Relationship to Space.”Paige 3“teteia” which is a colloquial expression for a graceful and delicate person or thing.6 Papeexaggerated this sense of elegance in this installation by immersing the viewer in this room.Neoconcrete art sought to create an experience of the senses while simultaneously abstractinggeometric forms. The Ttéia installations are significant of Pape’s practice because they highlighthow Neoconcrete did not reject Concrete but an expansion.The awareness of space and appreciation for senses has been analyzed by Americanphilosopher Judith Butler in Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street. While Butlerapproaches this through considering bodies in protest and collecting in the streets, Butler spendstime recognizing how the space interacts with the senses. The Ttéia installations liberate a spaceand engulf the viewer through the senses. “The body, defined politically, is precisely organizedby a perspective that is not one’s own and is, in that sense, already elsewhere, for another, and soin departure from oneself.”7 Butler considers the appearance of self and space, and she notes thatspace is not all inclusive of everywhere. Here the space being discussed is the gallery space, andthe participation in the space lends itself to the departure of self. It is as if for the time in thegallery space, the viewer is literally inside one of Pape’s pieces. The viewer becomes a part ofthe installation, so they lose that selfness. It is a political in a sense of surrendering self to aspace, allowing the space to fill the senses. The Ttéia installations offer a space for the viewer toimmerse themselves in these abstract forms.Pape’s Divisor (1968) features Neo-concretism with the body, space, and exploration ofgesture. Divisor is a large white sheet of fabric with slits cut for individuals to poke their bodiesout of. It was intended for a gallery space in which hot air would be used to further the“dividing” experience in the space. Unfortunately, the piece did not get approved for museum7 Butler, “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street.”6 Fer, “Lygia Pape: Magnetized Space.”Paige 4space for protocols and limitations with controlling the space -which is quite ironic consideringthat Pape was attempting to critique space in this piece. However, Pape did not hesitate to takethis piece to the streets where it took on an even stronger meaning than it did in the gallery space.In the streets, Pape would have participants walk as a unit each poking out of the sheet.Individuals would rely on each other to move as a unit and trust that they would look out foreach other. The people on the outskirts of the piece would have more visibility whereas those onthe inside were reliant on the movement of the group to keep going. Pape first attempted thisduring the military dictatorship, which gave people the opportunity to engage in public protest bymoving as a mass unit during a period of street surveillance. While there is a huge relationshipbetween participants as they are reliant on each other and building a sense of group identity,there is a role that the observer plays.8 Considering the context of this piece, Pape was aware ofthe repercussions her piece would have on the military and response to the dictatorship. Thepiece acts as a physical representation of the divide between those rejecting the dictatorship andthe military. It presents the participants as one unit working together against this observer, themilitary. Pape commented that in creating this piece she wanted this piece to be a collective piecethat could be reenacted even when she was not present.9 Divisor has since been used globally asa means to explore protest and bring forth engagement with the arts and community. In 2017, theMET replicated Divisor as a part of the exhibit they hosted to celebrate the achievements ofPape.10Judith Butler presents this framework that politics has surpassed government andbusiness in a way that now “politics is already in the home, or on the street, or in the10Almino, “Channeling Lygia Pape’s Radical Relationship to Space.”9 Pape, Lygia, Iria Candela, Glória Ferreira, Sérgio B. Martins, and John Rajchman, Lygia Pape : aMultitude of Forms.8 Mueso Nacional Centro de Arte, “Divisor. A Lygia Pape performance.”Paige 5neighborhood, or indeed in those virtual spaces that are unbound by the architecture of the publicsquare.”11 Pape was already drawing upon this ideology in Divisor. In taking this performance tothe streets, Pape is breaking out of what is public space. While it remains political in a sense,Pape is building an even stronger argument towards communal effort in this piece. Butlerexplores how bodies in crowds can work as a unit while remaining individualism. In Divisor, theparticipants are positioned to move singularly and made hyper-aware of their role in moving withthe group. Butler draws attention to the body as individuals can become part of this“togetherness” through public demonstrations.12 It is this phenomena of feeling the dividebetween yourself and the group that both are tackling. Divisor is a performance that exhibits thissense of body navigating public space through a heightened experience.Pape’s practice was formative in defining the framework of Neoconcrete art. Her practicereconsidered geometric form and line through the body and senses to create these out of bodyexperiences in public spaces. Her works align with the theories presented by Butler and furtherexpand on this relationship between public spheres and phenomenology. Pape’s works stand as areminder that the artist, the participant, and the observer each play a significant role inunderstanding and appreciating Neoconcrete artworks.12Butler, “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street.”11 Butler, “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street.”Paige 6ArtworksLygia Pape, Ttéia 1,C, Installation, 2003/2012. (Image from Projeto Lygia Pape and Hauser & Wirth.)Lygia Pape, Divisor (“Divider”), Photograph of performance, 1968. (Image from Hyperallergic.)Paige 7BibliographyAlmino, Elisa Wouk. 2017. “Channeling Lygia Pape’s Radical Relationship to Space.”Hyperallergic, March 30, 2017.https://hyperallergic.com/368222/channeling-lygia-papes-radical-relationship-to-space/.Alvarez, Mariola V. “Neoconcretism and the Making of Brazilian National Culture, 1954–1961”.ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2012.Barnitz, Jacqueline. Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America. 1st ed. Austin: University of TexasPress, 2001.Butler, Judith. “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street.” (September 2011).Fer, Briony. “Lygia Pape: Magnetized Space.” Artforum international 50, no. 2 (2011): 303–304.Martins, Sérgio Bruno. “Phenomenological Openness: Historicist Closure: Revisiting the Theoryof the Non-Object.” Third text 26, no. 1 (2012): 79–90.Meghreblian, Caren A. "Pape, Lygia (1929–2004)." Encyclopedia of Latin American History andCulture, edited by Jay Kinsbruner and Erick D. Langer, 2nd ed., vol. 5, Charles Scribner'sSons, 2008, p. 54. Gale eBooks,link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3078904162/GVRL?u=tel_a_utc&sid=GVRL&xid=be4796f1.Mueso Nacional Centro de Arte. “Divisor. A Lygia Pape performance.” Mueso NacionalCentro de Arte, May 24, 2011.https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/actividades/divisor-lygia-pape-performance.Nelson, Adele. “Sensitive and Nondiscursive Things: Lygia Pape and the Reconception ofPrintmaking.” Art journal (New York. 1960) 71, no. 3 (2012): 27–.Pape, Lygia, Divisor, Photograph of performance, 1968, (Image from Hyperallergic)https://hyperallergic.com/368222/channeling-lygia-papes-radical-relationship-to-space/.Paige 8Pape, Lygia, Ttéia 1,C, Installation, 2003/2012. (Image from Projeto Lygia Pape and Hauser &Wirth.) https://www.modernamuseet.se/stockholm/en/exhibitions/lygia-pape/Pape, Lygia, Iria Candela, Glória Ferreira, Sérgio B. Martins, and John Rajchman. Lygia Pape : aMultitude of Forms. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.Quiles, Daniel. “‘CONCRETE MATTERS.’” Artforum international 56, no. 5 (2018): 89–89.

LYGIA PAPE: Exploring the Body in Public Space

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LYGIA PAPE: Exploring the Body in Public Space

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