Henry - Punk and Avant-Garde Art

Henry, Tricia, Punk and Avant-Grade Art , Journal of Popular Culture, 17:4 (1984:Spring) p.30

Punk and Avant-Garde Art Tricia Henry

Punk and all avant-garde art, reacts against established theories and techniques of art as well as against the society which produces them. Both prize the artist as revolutionary and project themselves tiJward the future to what they consider a more pertinent view of the world than that reflected by traditional values. They also create an artist's world-a social strata specifically oriented toward the arts. "Avant-garde" is comparable to the punk idea of the "new wave." Both describe active forces at the edge of change creating a new aesthetic.

In building a meaningful aesthetic early punks used many of the same revolutionary tactics employed by members of earlier twentieth century avant-garde movements: unusual fashions, the blurring of boundaries between art and everyday life, juxtapositions of seemingly disparate objects and behaviors, intentional provocation of the audience, use of untrained artists or transcendence of technical expertise, and drastic reorganization (or disorganization) or accepted performative styles and procedures.

The punk scene first crystallized in England in the late 1970s but its roots are undeniably North American. In the late 1960s and early 1970s New York bands such as the "Velvet Underground" (whose lead singer Lou Reed later became known as the "Godfather of Punk), "The New York Dolls" and "The Ramones" began producing a new kind of rock which was self-consciously street-wise and pessimistic about the future. The monolithic beat, abrasive sound and connection with the New York avantgarde art scene 1 set this new music apart from the more optimistic world view and technical polish of mainstream rock. With the success of the Mercer Arts Center, CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and other emerging forums for underground rock, New York became a showcase for new bands from all over the country.

One notable example is Iggy Pop of Detroit's "Iggy and the Stooges" who became well known for harassing his audiences and cutting himself with broken glass during performances. The English adapted the form to its own domestic situation and developed what became known as punk rock. With one of the highest unemployment rates since World War II and a steadily rising cost ofliving, the irony, pessimism and amateur style ofthe new underground rock aesthetic took on overt social and political implications, and the English punk scene became as self-consciously proletariat as it 'Nas esthetic.

In London in 1975 Malcolm McLaren, former manager of "The New York Dolls," masterminded a group called the "Sex Pistols," first and most notorious of the punk bands. In their wake a number of other bands emerged-"The Clash," "The Damned," "The Jam," "Generation X" and "The Stranglers," to name a few. Many of the members opfthese groups had had no previous musical training and because of lack of funds, musical instruments and equipment were often low budget and make-shift. Punk

30

Copyright (c) 2000 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company Copyright (c) Popular Press


Punk and A vant-Garde Art 31

culture, whose members came from backgrounds which off~;;red little opportunity for technical training in any field, stressed the importance of the inexperienced. A distinct sound developed which was intentionally noncommercial and amateur. It was performed at a jarring decibel level, emphasized an incredibly fast, repetitive rhythm rather than a melody and screamed lyrics which were largely unintelligible though important anthems to the punk cause (titles include, for example, "Pretty Vacant," "Anarchy in the U.K.," "White Riot" and "Right to Work.")

Members of the movement were basically lower class white youths who were hit hard by England's economic situation. They felt that they had "no future" (one of the slogans which became synonymous with the punk world view), and that their lives had been predestined hy a society run by people with unfair advantages (i.e., money and political power). If they finished high school, they either couldn't find work or were doomed to jobs which they found unbearably boring and which offered no creative challenge and very little pay. Like members of earlier avant-garde movements they were anti-bourgeoise and anti-capitalist. Mary Harron, of the Village Voice, described the situation in 1977:

Unemployment in Brita~n has hit teenagers harder than any other group. According to the New Statesman: "The proportion of unemployed under-25s is likely to exceed 35 percent in the New Y car." This sumcr thousands of 16 year-olds will leave school and go straight on the dole. The longer they go without work, the longer they go without training, and the less employable they become. Being on the dole means living with your parents and watching the wallpaper fade; $15 to $25 a week doesn't leave much for entertainment. This isn't suburban boredom-it's desperation. You can sec why Hichard Hell's song "(I Belong to) The Biank Generation" wm: seized as a new teenage anthem."

Aside from politics and economic status, one of the most important issues of the punk movement was dissatisfaction with the state of rock 'n' roll. To the punks, mainstream rock carried no meaningful message. It supported a vast hierarchy of super stars with super money and a seemingly impenetrable recording industry, a paradigm of England's oppressive economic climate and of commercialized art.

In order to protest their situation, the punks presented themselves as society's garbage, as if to say, "We are your children, what do you think of your creation?" Punk fashion drew on cultural sore points such as sadomasochism. The point was to look as horrifyingly repugnant as possible; sex was meant to horrify rather than entice.

Aspects of fascism, as an element of fashion, was another shock tactic. Punk fashion was anti-fashion-everything that was offensive to the general public, anything "unnatural"-multi-colored hair spiked up with vaseline, the ragged haircut, exaggerated mak::!-up, the 1940s horror movie look. Vivienne Westwood, a London clothing designer who was responsible for creating much of the punk aesthetic, became known for what Dike Blair calls her "manifesto":

Vivienne Westwood ... sloganizcs her designs as 'Clothes for Heroes,' and says that to wear them is to express an attitude and a commitment-and you have to be brave to wear her clothes. You make a spectacle of yourself on the streei, and a



32 Journal of Popular Culture

spectacle is a show of force inviting opposition: the irony of bondage wear .... However, clothes can often express ideas better than words. They can be as subversive a weapon as a book, poster or pamphlet: the person sitting next to you on the bus in an 'Anarcy in the U.K.' T·shirt has an immediate impact.'

The punks used fashion as a revolutionary tool in much the same way the Russian futurists had. Futurism was a movement founded in 1909 by Fillippo Marinetti with his "Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism," published in the large-circulation Paris daily Le Figaro. Like the other avant-garde movements discussed in this paper, it was an interdisciplinary movement which included visual art, literature and performance. It was dedicated to the rejection of traditional art forms, non-naturalist expression and audience involvement. The Hussian futurists, according to Goldberg, " ... took their futurism to the public: they walked the streets in outrageous attire; their faces painted, sporting top hats, velvet jackets, earrings, and radishes or spoons in their buttonholes."'• The punks, who wanted to take their social sentiments to the streets, walked the Kings Hoad in London sporting chains, dog collars, multi-colored hair and horror movie style make-up with similarly disturbing effects.

Among the punk population much exchange of information took place through the local distribution of small publications called "fanzines." Besides providing information about events and performances, and alternatives to mainstream criticiBm, these fanzines included a variety of what Hebdige refers to as manifestoes. In describing one such item, he writes:

Sni{{in Giuc, the first fanzine and the one which achieved the highest circulation, contained perhaps the single most inspired item of propaganda produced by the subculture-the definitive statement of punk's do·it.-yourself philosophy-a diagram showing three finger positions on the neck of a guitar over the caption: 'Here's one chord, here's two more, now fonn your own band.'•;

In addition to providing a network of philosophical exchauge within the punk tradition, the fanzines contributed another important element: the establishment of a graphic aesthetic. Like punk fashion, punk art was low budget and easily accessible. It was anti-glossy: handwritten, xeroxed, black and white (high contrast) and collage. It suggested subversion by its very appearance, especially in its shock effect.

Punk collage echoed the juxtaposing of disparate elements in punk fashion. Such activity is also a well-known aspect of dada and surrealism. Dada, generally placed around 1916-1922, emerged in France shortly after World War I and vigorously rejected all previously existing social and aesthetic values. It preached nonsense and anti-art and used parody and off-color humor to antagonize its audiences. Marcel Duchamp, a leading figure in dada, became famous for his "Readymades" which he created by simply putting his signature on objects such as urinals, bottle racks and snow shovels and exhibiting them as works of art. Another dadaist, Hans Arp, invented a kind of collage in which he dropped bits of colored paper onto a larger sheet to create works of art that incorporated chance relationships.

Surrealism, founded in 1924 by a group of Duchamp's colleagues, was



Punk and Avant-Garde Art 33

interested in the non-rational, non-logicaF mind rather than the raiional, logical one. Surrealism did not project the canceling-out of one thing by another as dada did, but rather allowed the coexistence of separate, incongruous realities. It sought to express the workings of the subconscious 111ind, particularly as manifested by dreams, and "untranslated" by the conscious, analytical mind. The landscapes (or "dreamscapes") of Salvador Dali are good examples.

1'he punk collages varied in their attitudes from the absurdity of dada to what Michael Kirby, a professor at New York University and a noted authority on the avant·garde, describes as the "piercing through of another reality" of surrealism. For instance, the example of xerox art of safety pin and pipecleaners seems in keeping with the dada aesthetic of illogic, nonsensicality and chance relationships. Man Ray's "Rayograph" photos of objects, executed without using a camera, are clear examples that display the same high-contrast quality present in xerox work. On the other hand, the poster advertising a punk rock concert has a more surrealistic flavor. All of the items found in the collage are not uncommon to a citys.~ape but the scale of the objects and their relationships to one another are unusual. As Kirby also points out, the various items clash rather than contradict; they don't fit together but they don't not fit together.

Not all punk collage falls into the categories of dadaism or surrealism but despite the varying styles involved they all have one thing in common: they put familiar objects into unfamiliar relationships, changing meaning by shifting context.

Punk performance, like pt· nk fashion and art, is subversive. It is an assault on the senses. Though it has undergone considerable refinement in the past few years, in the early days (late 1970sR) verformances took place in small, crowded, low-budget spaces in notoriously rough neighborhoods. Performers, for the most part, had little or no technical training, and were in possession of only very cheap and unsophisticated equipment. The decibel level was brutally high and the attitudes of both performers and audience was aw~ressive and often violent. As part of the punk policy of provocation, performers often included in their performances behavior such as vomiting on stage, spitting at the audience and displaying wounds which were the result of extensive self-mutilation-having cut and bruised themselves with objects such as broken bottles, fish hooks and knives. The audience role often includml throwing "permanently" affixed seating, beer bottles, glasses and anything else that made itself available, at the perfom1ers. Performer-audience confrontation was also an element of futurist and dadaist performances: the audience's riotous response to the profane language and arrogant attitude of the performers in AlfredJarry's Ubu Roi is notorious; as is the protest which met Richard Huelsenbeck's provocative performances in Berlin in which he praised war, attacked expressionism and insulted the audience.

Members of the punk movement have often referred to themselves as "nco-dada." For example, in their book Punk, advertised as an inside view of the scene, the authors write: "It w&s a tough, aggressive medium. ThP. graffiti, collage and fashion, all elements of punk, have a 'neo-dnda' flavor'." 9 Concerts have also been advertised as "neo-dada." Punks have also felt an alliance with the futurist movement. Belsito, Davis, Kester, for example, include the following dedication in their book Street Art:




This book is dedicated to Filippo Marinetti (1876- Hl44), poet and visionary of the Futurist movement, who wrote:

"We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of danger, and of temerity." "There is no more beauty except in struggle. No masterpiece without an aggressive character."'"

Though none of these writers or artists elaborates on the connection between punk and the avant-garde, certain relationships are clear. The attitudes of revolution and confrontation, diseussed earlier, are two common denominators. The use of "raw" material-the lack of technical training or the transcendence of it-is another. The solicitation of nonactors for Mayakovsky's Victory Over the Sun for instance is comparable to Duchamp's "Readymades," and punk's Johnny Hatton, who was selected as lead singer of the "SElX Pistols" because of his agg-ressive look rather than his ability to sing.

Although the punks, with their masochistic tendencies, seemed to be against everything, even themselves-like the dadiasts who were against everything, including dada-this was not really the case. Masochism was a shock tactic used along with other subversive elements of punk to make a point. The punks wanted to show the public what they thought of society; they were for anarchy; for developing a new style of music with which they could identify; and for making that music accessible-through independent record labels, fanzines and performances. This differs from the dada attitude of the destruction oflogic. Punk behavior was not alogical-it was a consistent and systematic method of expressing feelings about specific social and aesthetic issues.

In its actual staging, punk performance bears a strong resemblance to expressionist performance. Expressionism was a movement, originating in Europe before World War I which asserted the expression of the inner, emotional experience of a person rather than the expression of realistic appearances. Punk, like expressonism, is assertive, assaultive and very much hetll·and-now. Also like expressionism, it seeks to envoke an empathic response in the observer through sensory attack and emotional overload. The scream, emblematic of the expressionist movement, is also n recurring motif in punk-both in the delivery of lyrics and in graphic art. The posters shown on pages 25 and 26-both interpretations of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," an often-cited example of expressionist art-show a conscious affiliation with this subject matter. The photo of Jordan of "Adam and the Ants" (page 27) and the poster for "The Screamers" (page 28) are also good examples of the punk scream .

.Punk also evokes an empathic response through body language. Like expressionism it presents a convulsive and hyperactive figure. Exaggerated make-up also contributes to empathic response-horror movie style make-up for example, popular among the punks, and the nerves painted on the bodies of performers in Kokoschka's Murderer the Women 'a Hope, both evoke strong emotional responses. In "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," a noted expressionist film by Robert Wiene, Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, the characters display both the exaggerated make-up and the convulsive, hyperactive figure to produce a visual and emotional impact strikingly similar to punk. The intense decibel level, mentioned earlier, and



Punk and A vunt-Garde Art 35

the close proximity of audience and performers (an important aspect of punk performance) also add to the intensity--physical o.nd emotional empathy crowding out immediate intellectual response.

In recent years a new branch has developed in the punk performative esthetic-that of the performer as robot. This "decharacterization" 11 is evident in the U.S. band "Devo," who present themselves as clone-like "humanoids." Dressed to look as much alike as possible, and possessing strikingly similar physical characteristics, the hand members perform their songs using mechanical, robot-like rnovement3. This idea of the performer as puppet or mechanical being is also found in futurism, though the message conveyed is quite different. While the futurists praised the machine and the technological age, the punks found a paradox in their generation's growing dependence on technology and their experience of it as a devastating force beyond their control. The punk generation, having grown up with Vietnam and nuclear threats, as well as television, juke boxes and electric guitars have a more ironic view of mechanization, and the punk performer is often portrayed as a dead, vacant, programmed member of an apathetic society. The irony lies in the disgust they feel toward a society with which they cannot deny membership.

The interest in an interdisciplinary approach to art-an important feature of the avant-garde-has greatly influenced American punk. According to Blair:

Performance artists finally found an audience. The first punk bands in New York used to play the Mercer Arts Center; in Toronto, Cleveland, and San Francisco, art schools added musicians and audiences to the local scenes. Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine were on the poetry circuit before settling on rock 'n' roll. Talking Heads met in art school, Amos Poe mixed punk and film, there's loth of video, and everybody's got cameras-punk is so photogenic. 1L

The difference, however, between the interdisciplinary approach of the avant-garde and that of punk is that the avant-garde is usually interested in transcending boundaries between the arts from the very inception of a movement while punk, like other rock 'n' roll movements, is primarily musically oriented. Punk style influenced other arts, not through a C(lnscious effort to investigate an interdisciplinary artistic movement but by way of artists such as Laurie Anderson, a performance artist who has performed extensively on the punk club circuit in the U.S., and Twyla Tharp, a dancer who has incorporated both the aggressive movement vocabulary of punk and specific punk rock compositions (most notably in "The Catherine Wheel" with music by David Byrne of the "Talking Heads"). These artists wanted to draw on the punk aesthetic for primary material in much the same way the futurists drew on circus and variety theatre.

As we have seen, punk shares many of its revolutionary tactics with the avant-garde, and expresses a conscious alliance with it. The primary concerns of these genres are artistic and social rebellion-two concerns which are closely intertwined and often inseparable. In studying punk and the avant-garde1 the cyclical nature of art history becomes !.!Vident-tlwt of




tradition, rebellion, tradition and so on. How artists of the next decade assert a new identity against what has already become a punk rock tradition may be interesting.

Notes 1 For example the "Velvet Underground" came out of Andy Warhol'!! "Exploding Plastic

Inevitable," Warhol's traveling mixed-media circus of l!l66-li7; and the Mercer Arts Center, a major forum for the new underground rock, shared space in the old Broadway Centralllotel with the original Kitchen, a leading showplace for experimental music and video art.

'Mary I Iarron, "Punk is Just Another Word for Nothin' Left to Lose," Villal(e Voice, 2tl March 1977, p. 54.

'To my knowledge none of the English publications referred to themselves as manifestoes. The only self-proclaimed Punk Manifesto I have found was written by Legs McNeil, contributing editor of New York's Punll magazine, and printed in the Villal(e Voice, 8 May 1978.

'Dike Blair, et a\., Punh (~ew York: Urizen Books, Inc., 1978), p. 62. ··Hose Lee Goldbert, Performance: Liue Art JY09 to the Present (New York: lll\rry N. Abrams,

Inc., 1979), p. 22. "Dick llebdige, Superculture: The Mt•aninl( of Style (New York: Methuen and Co., l!l7!J), p.

112. 'I use the terms "non-rational" and "non-logical" as opposed to irrational and illogical to

show that the surrealists were not against rationale and logic but rather wanted to transcend them-have nothing whataoever to do with them. This idea is burrowed from Michael Kirby's teachings on the subject.

"Also currently in certain clubs (in New York most notably theA 7Ciubat Avenue A and East 7th Street).

"Blair, l'tmh, p. !02. '''Peter Belsito, Bob Davis and Marian Kester, Street Art: The Punk Poster if! Sun Franci.~co

1977-1981 (San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1981), p. 2. 11 Michad Kirby uses this term as distinguishable from the term "dehumanization," which he

says has negative connotaHons. lie maintains that decharacterization is rnore human than realism since man is the only animal capable of abstraction, ur.d the dechuracterization of n performer facilitates the expression of abstract ideas.

"Blair, Punk, p. 102.

Tricia Henry lives and works in New Yurk City. She is currently writing her Ph.D. dissertation on Punk Hock for New York University's Department of Performance Studies.


Documents

Henry - Punk and Avant-Garde Art