Paula Gaetano Adi: Desiring Machine

Artist Biography Born in San Juan, Argentina, Paula Gaetano Adi is an artist, researcher, and educator working in sculpture, performance, interactive installation, and robotic agents. Using the human and nonhuman body as a point of departure, her work deals with different cultural studies of technoscience, particularly in regard to how its discursive effects and affects are inscribed in human subjectivity and how they can be reflected through art.

Gaetano Adi earned a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a postgraduate degree in New Media Arts, both from Blas Pascal University in Argentina. She holds an MFA with emphasis in Art & Technology from Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Currently, Gaetano Adi is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at the University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts and Design, where she coordinates the New Media Art program.

Desiring-Machine II (pique de carbón), 2012, installation/ performance, ac motor, wood, powdered coal, fabrics, assorted hardware

Gaetano Adi’s works have been presented internationally in venues including the National Art Museum of China; MejanLabs, Stockholm, Sweden; ARCO Fair, Madrid, Spain; FILE Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil; TransitioMX Festival, Mexico City, Mexico; BIOS4, Seville, Spain; National Museum of Poznan, Poland; BrandenburgerTor Foundation, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and The National Centre for Contemporary Art, Russia.

She received the First Prize in VIDA 9.0, the international competition on Art & Artificial Life—Fundacion Telefonica; and the First Prize LIMBØ, Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has received numerous grants including San Juan Bank Foundation, Argentinian National Endowment for the Art, Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación Argentina, Blas Pascal University, Ohio State University Presidential Fellowship, the Fergus Memorial Award (2009 and 2010), and the 2012 VIDA 14.0 Artistic Production Incentive Grant for Ibero-American Artists.

The William H. Van Every and Edward M. Smith Galleries play a fundamental role in the life of Davidson College. The Galleries support the academic mission of the College through the presentation, interpretation, and discussion of primarily contemporary artworks in all media. Gallery exhibitions and programs nurture individual thinking, develop visual literacy, and inspire a lifelong commitment to the arts.

Van Every/Smith Galleries Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Art Center 315 North Main Street, Davidson, NC 28035 704.894.2519 www.davidsoncollegeartgalleries.org Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–5pm Saturday & Sunday, 12–4pm while classes are in session Lia Newman, Director/Curator, linewman@davidson.edu Rosemary Gardner, Assistant Curator, rogardner@davidson.edu

Paula Gaetano Adi Desiring Machine Publication © 2013 All rights reserved.

Essay by Lia Newman © 2013 Images © Paula Gaetano Adi This publication was produced in conjunction with Desiring Machine, featuring the work of Paula Gaetano Adi, presented in the Smith Gallery at Davidson College, October 24–December 13, 2013.

Design: Graham McKinney Printing: ImageMark cover: Desiring-Machine II (pique de carbón), detail, 2012, installation/performance, ac motor, wood, powdered coal, fabrics, assorted hardware

SMITH GALLERY THE VAN EVERY/SMITH GALLERIES

Paula Gaetano Adi Desiring Machine

Paula Gaetano Adi Desiring Machine Performing the Authentic Self According to Greek mythology, the cunning and deceitful King Sisyphus of Ephyra was condemned to a life of hard labor. His eternal punishment—rolling a boulder uphill, only to watch it tumble back down, before beginning the arduous task again—is an effort in absurdity and futility. It is with this story in mind that Paula Gaetano Adi began her Desiring Machine series. Through these works, Gaetano Adi positions herself as Sisyphus, unquestioningly engaged in nonsensical tasks at the helm of two bizarre contraptions.

Gaetano Adi’s Desiring Machine series was conceived amidst a major change for the artist, namely, relocating from Argentina to the United States for graduate school. Paralleling Sisyphus’ struggle with the seemingly uphill battle of graduate school might seem comical at first glance, but for Gaetano Adi, the works reflect serious inquiries around her relocation—more aptly, dislocation perhaps—as a consequence of her choice of study.

She contemplated if art making was really worth the difficult immigration process, the experience of culture shock, and the complexities associated with her new identity as Other. Gaetano Adi questioned, “Why am I making art? What is my purpose? Am I the female Sisyphus? Am I the ‘absurd’ heroine? If so, is my revolt against a particular kind of absurdity? Is it against art or my own artistic practice? Or is it a response to my condition as Latina making art and working in the U.S.?” Within such a framework, the Desiring Machines may be read as acts of rebellion.

The Desiring Machines act in direct opposition to the work method typically associated with robotic art— Gaetano Adi’s main field of study and research—a process more akin to science and engineering than art in many ways. Before project construction can even begin, the robotic artist must have a clearly articulated concept, in part, simply to find necessary funding for such works. The process involves researching, planning, creating, programming, testing for desired results, and finally reworking or reprogramming. In contrast, Gaetano Adi’s Desiring Machines were constructed rather intuitively, and the resulting machines lack practical applications. Coupled with their reliance on a human operator, these works of art contradict the very notion of the artist’s primary practice in robotics, while opening a dialogue about status, manual labor, and the relationship between humans and machines.

While most of Gaetano Adi’s works are “intelligent machines,” the Desiring Machines are simple mechanical constructions. Robots are typically programmed to perform tasks regardless of human participation, yet a laborer is integral to the action of her works. In the Desiring-Machine I (y/o la reencarnación femenina de Sísifo), milk is driven through a horizontal hose and slowly drips out of the machine. Gaetano Adi awaits the milk at one end of the machine, wearing a white dress of special design. Loops at the hem of the dress are positioned around her wrists; each time she bends her arms at the elbow, the dress is transformed into a tray or tableaux. Gaetano Adi

performs the task for hours at a time. Tired arms positioned at waist height, she catches the liquid and transports it behind closed curtains, depositing it into an unseen receptacle. This esoteric act is at once imbued with myth, mystery, and magic.

After creating and performing the Desiring-Machine I, Gaetano Adi developed a second work of art, DesiringMachine II (pique de carbón). In this piece, the artist is perched several feet high, atop a conveyor belt approximately sixteen feet long. Dressed in attire reminiscent of a blue-collar laborer, the artist fills small wooden boxes with powdered coal from saddlebags worn around her waist. The boxes travel down the angled conveyor belt and are then dumped out onto the floor. The action continues until all of the coal has been deposited. Gaetano Adi then climbs down from her workstation, collects the coal, and begins the action again. Together, the two absurd machines initiate dialogue around a set of binaries: horizontal versus vertical; metal versus wood; white versus black; and liquid versus powder. To operate Desiring-Machine I, the performer stands; the performer sits to manipulate Desiring-Machine II. While the first machine is relatively clean, the second machine produces a mess; the performer and the exhibition space are quickly covered in coal dust. Desiring-Machine I is inherently feminine in its allusion to milk production. Desiring-Machine II feels more masculine in its illustration of manual labor and mining.1 The poetic nature of the materials, machines, and performances become politically charged, however, when framed within the context of cultural studies.

Portraying the body of the Other engaged in labor to investigate race, relocation, and status is a reoccurring concept in contemporary art. Four years after Tehching Hsieh arrived in the United States, he began a series of five One Year Performances.2 In Time Clock Piece (April 11, 1980-April 11, 1981), Hsieh “punched in” every hour on the hour, every day of the year. The artist’s use of the time clock may refer specifically to the type of manual labor jobs available to him at the time as an undocumented individual. Like Gaetano Adi, he too reinforced the connection to labor by wearing a uniform, complete with an embroidered name badge. In both Time Clock Piece and Gaetano Adi’s Desiring-Machine II, the artists must interact with mechanical apparatuses in order to complete the performance. Time Clock Piece, however, is only an allusion to work; unlike Gaetano Adi, Hsieh did not actually perform a task reminiscent of labor. However, he used (magnified) constraints of manual labor to illustrate the psychological state he occupied as an undocumented “alien.”3 In this way, Time Clock Piece and the DesiringMachine II explore the relationship between labor and authenticity or validity.

Though Gaetano Adi designed Desiring-Machine II to be operated by her own body, viewers will most often experience an idle machine. They will encounter only the remnants of the previous actions—a dirty space I n an interview between the writer and artist, Gaetano Adi, born into a family of miners, articulated an Argentinian superstition that prohibits women from going to the mines.

2 Hsieh was born in Taiwan in 1950 and jumped ship in 1974, during the height of Taiwanese immigration to the U.S. He spent the next fourteen years of his life in the United States, as an undocumented immigrant.

3 The demanding schedule of the Time Clock Piece restricted all of Hsieh’s activities to less than one hour, including sleep. He portrayed depression, paranoia, confusion, and physical exhaustion—resulting from his illegal status, presumably magnified by sleep deprivation.

1

Desiring-Machine I (y/o la reencarnación femenina de Sísifo), 2010, installation/performance, fabrics, silicon hose, milk, motor, milk container

with a strange, static contraption. In the artist’s absence, however, Desiring-Machine II will be performed periodically by female students, all specially trained by the artist. Ideally, viewers will have the opportunity to see both a passive and active space, and thus, compare these two experiences. By using different performers, the artist considers how the piece is read when performed, for example, by someone of another ethnicity. Does the work change when performed by a young person? What if the artist had selected male performers? How is the viewer’s response altered when the performer is someone he or she recognizes? Does the reading change if the performer is volunteering versus being paid to perform such ridiculous tasks?

Gaetano Adi’s Desiring-Machine II, in its presentation of a work-like scenario that is tedious, physically draining, dirty, and, more importantly, futile, is an exploration of authenticity in relation to both the artist’s cultural identity and artistic practice. The performer is elevated above the viewer, with her actions on display. However, nothing is accomplished in this counterproductive performance, and there is little gained for the laborer herself. Just when it seems that the job is complete, the artist, like Sisyphus, is destined to begin the meaningless task again.

Still, the performer is unquestioning in her perseverance. The Desiring-Machine II becomes a powerful statement in determination, particularly from an artist experiencing an important life transition, immersed in an emerging, yet constantly evolving technological field. Through the creation and performance of the Desiring Machines, Paula Gaetano Adi engages in enquiries around notions of the unknown or unfamiliar—both professionally and personally.

– Lia Newman, Director/Curator