Coyote
Caroline Tisdall / Joseph Beuys
11 Oct–31 Dec 2011 This exhibition consists of a newly produced set of documentary prints of Joseph Beuys’s legendary 1974 performance, Coyote, by Caroline Tisdall, a collaborator and friend of Beuys.
In May 1974, at Rene Block Gallery in New York, Beuys spent one week (day and night) in a cage with a wild coyote. Beuys described his desire and hope for the performance as an attempt to capture the possibilities of dialogue between humans and animals. He titled the piece I Like America and America Likes Me, passing an ironic comment on the relationship between European arrivals to North America and the native population, for whom the coyote is a sacred animal, rather than a feral pest.
Caroline Tisdall was present during Beuys’s performance, watching from outside the cage. With these photographs she has created a vivid document of the work. She writes:
‘This is one of the most powerful art works of the twentieth century. I have often wondered how so many people who were not present at the performance are still drawn to the encounter and instinctively relate to the warmth and optimism of its meaning. I am delighted to show my photographs at Large Glass where I hope visitors will identify with nature’s powerful languages, the scapegoat and the outsider, with love for other forms of life, and above all, respect for them.’
Coyote (2011) is a collaboration between Caroline Tisdall and Large Glass, realised as a special set of documentary prints, digitised by Coppipress. The photographs were originally taken on a hand-held Pentax 500 using a 28mm lens. The film was Kodak Tri-X rated at ASA 400. The prints are archival pigment prints made from scans of the original negatives.
In May 1974, at Rene Block Gallery in New York, Beuys spent one week (day and night) in a cage with a wild coyote. Beuys described his desire and hope for the performance as an attempt to capture the possibilities of dialogue between humans and animals. He titled the piece I Like America and America Likes Me, passing an ironic comment on the relationship between European arrivals to North America and the native population, for whom the coyote is a sacred animal, rather than a feral pest.
Caroline Tisdall was present during Beuys’s performance, watching from outside the cage. With these photographs she has created a vivid document of the work. She writes:
‘This is one of the most powerful art works of the twentieth century. I have often wondered how so many people who were not present at the performance are still drawn to the encounter and instinctively relate to the warmth and optimism of its meaning. I am delighted to show my photographs at Large Glass where I hope visitors will identify with nature’s powerful languages, the scapegoat and the outsider, with love for other forms of life, and above all, respect for them.’
Coyote (2011) is a collaboration between Caroline Tisdall and Large Glass, realised as a special set of documentary prints, digitised by Coppipress. The photographs were originally taken on a hand-held Pentax 500 using a 28mm lens. The film was Kodak Tri-X rated at ASA 400. The prints are archival pigment prints made from scans of the original negatives.