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Richard Hamilton's Tabular ImageAuthor(s): William R. KaizenSource: October, Vol. 94, The Independent Group (Autumn, 2000), pp. 113-128Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/779218 .
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RichardHamilton'sTabular
mage
WILLIAM
R.KAIZEN
The
effortsf
poets
o come o terms
ith
ndustry
n the
nine-
teenthentury.. areunmemorable,hat s to ay,hard-to-learn,
uninfluential
n
image
orming.
he
media,however,
hether
dealing
withwar or the
home,
Mars or the
uburbs,
re
an
inventory
f pop
technology
.
.
a
treasury
f
orientation,
manual
f
ne's
ccupancy
f
he wentieth
entury....
-Lawrence
Alloway
...
the
mage
hould,
herefore,
e
thought
f
s
tabular s
well
as
pictorial.
-Richard Hamilton
In a
letterfrom
1957 written
o architects nd fellow
ndependent
Group
members
Peter
nd
Alison
Smithson,
RichardHamilton istedhis
definition f the
popular
arts. He
wrote,
"Pop
art
is:
Popular (designed
for
a
mass
audience),
Transient
short-term
olution),
Expendable
(easily-forgotten),
ow
Cost,
Mass
Produced,
Young
(aimed
at
youth),
Witty,
exy, Gimmicky,
Glamorous,
Big
business."l
Hamilton and the
Smithsonshad all
recently
ontributed
to This s
Tomorrow,
heo
Crosby's
multidisciplinary,
ultimedia
xhibitionon
art as
a
cul-
turalprocess, nd werethinking fworking ogether n a follow-up. fter is list,
Hamilton
hesitates:
This
is
ust
a
beginning.
Perhaps
the
first
art
of our task
s
the
analysis
of
Pop
Art
and the
production
of a
table.
I
find am
not
yet
sure
about
the
sincerity'
f
Pop
Art."
Although
he
capitalized
"pop
art,"
making
t
nto
a
proper
noun
and so
recognizing
mass-produced
goods
as a
properly
efinable
phenomenon,
he
was still
unconvinced
that these
objects
were
worthy
f
serious
attention.
He
hesitated
because,
although
the IG
had been
examining
popular
goods
for
ome
time,
hewas
stillunsure f
hey
were
no morethan
ust
passing
ads.
1.
Richard
Hamilton,
Collected
ords
953-1982
(London:
Thames and
Hudson,
1982),
p.
28.
OCTOBER
94,
Fall
2000,
pp.
113-128.
?
2000 October
Magazine,
td. nd
Massachusetts
nstitute
f
Technology.
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114
OCTOBER
Crosby
was then
the
editorof the
ournal
Architectural
igest,
here
he
had
published articles on mass culturebyvarious members of the IG, including
Hamilton.
This
s
Tomorrow,
eld in 1956
at
London's
Whitechapel
Art
Gallery,
as
the
physical
manifestation
f these written
xplorations
of
pop
culture.
Crosby
matched
groups
of
architects,
esigners,
nd artists
ogether
nd each
group
con-
tributed ts own section
to the
arger
xhibition.
ach
was
assigned
theme
based
on various
social
and
scientific
oncepts
in
order
to show
how different
ultural
formationsntersect nd
overlap
within
ociety
s
a
whole. For
Crosby
nd the
IG,
culturewas no
longer
the
exclusive
roperty
f
the
bourgeoisie,
quivalent
o
high
culture alone.
This
s
Tomorrow'sision
of culture
was
expansive.
t
included
the
entire
nexus of social
connections
and
communication
by
putting
on
display
generalizedfieldof culturewherehighand low were no longeropposed butparts
of a
larger
ocial
continuum.
By
the
mid-1950s he
G and
Crosby
had
found that t
was no
longer
possible
to
dismiss
mass-produced
commodities
designed
for
eisure
consumption
as
so
much
kitsch.
Thanks to
postwar
rosperity,
he British
conomy
had
shifted.
With
the
improved
tandard of
living
nd
the
growth
n
both
leisure time
and
dispos-
able
income,
onsumer
roducts
looded
the
market.
Mass-produced
ntertainment
was
everywhere
nd
it
became
an
unavoidable
part
of
everyday
ife.
Lawrence
Alloway,
rt
critic
nd IG
member,
escribed the
time s
"edenic for
he
consumer
of
popular
culture."2
echnical
mprovements
n
magazine
color
photography,
ig-
screencinema,and the emergenceofnewproducts uch as long-playingecords
and
television
ad all
recently
ecome
available n
England,
and
the G
set out
to
carefully
xamine these
objects.
At the same
time,
English
historian
Raymond
Williams
was
developing
sim-
ilarly
expanded
cultural
theory.
Williams
had
been
looking
at
the
origins
of
culture
ince the
1940s
when
he
co-founded
he
review
olitics nd
Letters.3
aking
literary
riticism
s its
starting
oint,
his book
Culturend
Society:
780-1950
(pub-
lished in
1958)4
theorized
the
larger
historical arc
that
had
led
to
culture's
equation
with
he
fine
rts.He
traced
the
shifts
f
meaning
n
the
word
"culture,"
from
ts
origin
as
a
tending
of
natural
growth
first
n
agriculture
nd
then in
human,moraldevelopment)to its identificationn the nineteenthcentury s a
2.
Lawrence
Alloway,
Popular
Culture nd
Pop
Art,"
n
Pop
Art:A
Critical
History,
d.
Steven
Henry
Madoff
(Berkeley:
University
f
California
Press,
1997),
pp.
167-68.
Established
cultural
uthorities
disparaged
the
influence f
mass-produced
ulture.
The
Ministry
f
Culture,
ngland's
governmental
arts
agency,
upported
raft
nd
small-scale
roduction
following
he
lead
of
William
Morris
century
before.
The
few
nstitutions
oncerned
with
contemporary
rt,
uch
as
the
Institute f
Contemporary
Art,
upheld
the
conservative
modernism
f
Henry
Moore.
3. WithClifford ollinsandWolfMankowitz. tran from 946-48.
4.
Raymond
Williams,
Culture
nd
Society
780-1950
(New
York:
Columbia
University
ress,
1983).
Williams
had
been
working
n
the
book
since
1950.
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Richard
amilton's
abular
mage
115
specialized
field
of
activity
ied
to the
bourgeoisie.
For
Williams,
with
he onset
of
the IndustrialRevolution nd the rise of thebourgeoisie, ulturebecame a setof
specialized
activities
e.g.,
opera,
ballet,
chamber
music,
asel
painting),
n
which
the ndividualwas
set freefrom
veryday
ife.
Culture
became the
fine
rts,
place
for
the cultivation f the ndividual
ubject.
t was
privatized
o that t would
exist
over
and
above the social realm s a
place
that
ould,
by ccessing
beauty
or
teach-
ing
morality,
itigate veryday
ife.
In
his next
book,
The
Long
Revolution
1961),5
Williams
et out
to restore
at
least
in
part)
the
pre-bourgeois
otion of
culture
s
generalized
cultivation.
He
expanded
the cultural
field,
making
t
the whole
way
of
ife of
a
society.
he
fine
arts became one
specific
mode
of
communicationwithin
he
larger
ocial
whole.
Thisundercut heprevious ppositionbetweenhighand low culture hatwas,for
Williams,
reflection f class
division
mposed
by
the
bourgeoisie.
Culture
became
the common
culture,
he various
activities hat
comprise
the social
interaction
f
all
membersof
a
society
who live n a
particular
ime
and
place.
Within
ommon
culture,
rt was
but one of
any
number of
specialized
forms
f
communication
with ts own
particular
history
nd
use to
the
larger
ocial
group.
This
generaliza-
tion of
culture had
two
major
consequences.
First,
that
art
was no
longer
a
rarefied
ctivity,
omehow
more
valuable than
other
types
of social
activity,
nd
consequently
hat
other
types
of social
production
besides
art
could and
should
be
analyzed
withthe same
rigor
that
was
previously
eserved or
art criticism. n
expanding culture to include any and all formsof human communication,
Williams
made
popular goods
acceptable objects
of
nquiry.
The
IG,
with
their after-hours
meetings
at the
Institute
f
Contemporary
Art,
had
begun
to
explore
these
goods.
In
autumn
of
1952,
after heir
first
ear
of
meetings
was
almost
over,
Reyner
Banham
assumed the
convenership.
The sub-
ject
matter,"
amilton
said,
"changed
overnight,"
he focus
turning
o
popular
culture
n
general
and
American
popular
culture n
particular.6
nspired
by
pop
goods
that
artistJohn
McHale
brought
ack
from
trip
to the
United
States,
heir
discussions
ranged
from
Elvis to
violence in
the
cinema
to
automobile
styling.7
Hamilton
contributed
lecture on
how
"white
goods"
(e.g.,
washing
machines,
5.
Raymond
Williams,
The
Long
Revolution
London: Hazell,
Watson
&
Viney,
td.,
1961).
This
book
was
written
s
a
direct
follow-up
nd
clarification
f
the
deas he
proposed
n
Culture
nd
Society.
6.
Talking
rt
,
ed.
Adrian
Searle,
London:
Institute f
Contemporary
rts,
993)
p.
73.
7.
Hamilton
describes
the IG
at
this
time:
"When
John
McHale
visited
the
U.S. in
1955,
he
returned
with
a box
full of
exotic
things
he
had
acquired
there. He
had
gone
around
buying
MAD
magazine
and
comics of
the
most
extreme
kind of
lots of
pop
records.
Elvis
Presley
nd
Bill
Haley's
"Rock
Around
the Clock"
were
being
heard and
discussed
t the
Independent
Group
before
hey
were
evenplayedon theradiohere [inEngland].Theywere nalyzed t the CA and regarded s a sociolog-
ical
phenomenon,
though
there
was
an
admiration
nd
enjoyment
f
them. So
much
that t
directed
our
interests
nto
whatwas
going
on
in
the
popular
arts,
ther
than
the
cinema"
ibid.,
p.
74).
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116
OCTOBER
dishwashers,
nd
refrigerators)
ere
presented
n
advertising.
Withtheir
xamina-
tion oftheseproducts, heIG setout to reclaimculture.Theyhad foundthatthe
vertical
yramid
f
bourgeois
culture,
with
high
culture n the
top
and
lowon
the
bottom,
was
becoming
horizontalized,
lattened
ut
by
mass
commodification.
n
horizontalculture
s
in
common
culture,
no one form
f cultural
production
was
inherently
more
valuable
than
any
other.Each
product
would have to be
judged
on
its own
merits,
ach
as
potentially
aluable as the
next
n
terms f
nterest
r
as
a
point
of
critical eflection.
For the This s Tomorrowxhibitioncatalog,Hamiltoncreated the collage
Just
what is
it that
makes
today's
homes o
different,
o
appealing?8
Before
constructing
the
collage,
he had
programmatically
ritten
own
all
the areas
of
popular
cul-
ture
that would
comprise
t:
"man, woman,
humanity,
istory,
ood,
newspapers,
cinema,
TV,
telephone,
comics
picture
nformation),
ord
textual
nformation),
tape
recording
aural
information),
ars,
domestic
appliances,
space."9
He
gave
this ist
to
his
wife,
erry,
nd
to their
friend
Magda
Cordell,
who
spent days
clip-
ping
out
magazine
mages
that
matched
these
categories.
Hamilton then
made a
selection
from
hese
clippings
nd used
these to
generate
he final
picture.
Beneath
his list he
added,
"The
image
should,
therefore,
e
thought
f as
tabularas wellas pictorial."As muchasJustwhat s it .. hangstogether s a pic-
ture,
t
s
also
a
tabulationof
horizontal
ulture.
n
linking
ust
what s
it...
to the
criteria
that
he had
defined for
making
the
collage,
Hamilton's
tabular
image
graphed
his
preconceived
ist
onto a final
representation
onsisting
f
units
sub-
sumed
by
t.
Just
what s
it
..
holds in
suspension
both
the
image
it
presents
nd
the
generative
tructure sed to
build
that
mage.
t is
both a
picture
of
the
mod-
ern
man
and woman
at
home in
the
house of
tomorrow,
urrounded
by
latest
consumer
goods
and
scientific
adgets
and,
at
the
same
time,
t is
the
separate
units
chosen
from the
mass
media
and
used
to
create the
image.
After
he
list
Hamilton
continued
with
longer
tatement:
TV is neither essnormore
legitimate
n influence
han,
for
example,
is
New York
Abstract
xpressionism.
he
wide
range
of
these
preoccu-
pations
(eclectic
and
catholic as
they
were)
led to
a
willful
cceptance
of
pastiche
as
a
keystone
f
the
approach-anything
which
moves
the
mind
through
he
visual
sense is
as
grist
o
the
mill
but
the mill
must
not
grind
o
small
that he
ngredients
ose
their
flavour
n
the
whole.10
8. Itwasalso printed n a posterused toadvertise heexhibit.
9.
Collected
ords,
.
24.
10.
Ibid.,
p.
31.
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rrk
-44
rv4v
X
lis:
OptS
3W/
low4
4 <*"
44,
Richard
amilton.
ust
what s
t thatmakes
today's
homes o
different,
o
appealing?
1956.
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jo,.
i?ii
~ :i-
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i:::: ?
~i
i:?:::?ii
::::
i
........
..:
Will ~_iRi\~: .:::j
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w ww'-M,7-,
i
iiiiii
il
MM<
. : ::ii-- c-'-'-7 7"i
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,M
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:
-?rM?
::ii--g
Hamilton.
ommage
Chrysler
Corp.
1957.
This is the tabular
image, appropriating the
new
environment
of
mass-
produced
imagery, utting
t
up
and then
pastiching
it
back
together
without om-
pletely
subsuming
it
in
the
final onstruction.
With the
tabular
mage,
Hamilton
created
a taxon-
omy
of horizontal culture.
Ratherthan build a classical
taxonomy,
here he
world
s
subsumed
by
top-to-bottom
hierarchical
order,
he
spreads
common culture
across
the surface
f
the
pic-
ture,
tabulating
together
various bits and
pieces
of
pop
imagery.
Because
the
separate
units of
Just
what s
it... were filtered hrough
calculated
process
of selec-
tion,
t is as
if
Hamilton
had
polled
the media and
graphed
the results.
He cre-
ates
a
nonlinear
taxonomic
chart
of
pop
culture,
a
sys-
tematic
image
that
can be
read both
point-by-point
nd in toto. Each
separate
unit both
maintains ts exis-
tence
as individualdatum and becomes a
part
of the overallfield
that
s
the sum
totalof all thedata.
After
ust
what
s
it...,
Hamilton
returned o
painting, dapting
his
collage
tabulation
nd
continuing
his
examination
f
the effects f consumer ulture
n
subjectivity.
e created
painted collages
that
depict
the results
f mass culture
n
the horizontal
subject.
His
subject, iterally
he
figure
n
his
paintings,
was the
product
of commodification.
n
the horizontal ulture
hatHamilton nd
the IG
defined,
advertising
nd leisure
goods
were
quickly coming
to
dominate
the
archive f forms
hrough
which he
subject
ntered
ociety. ollowing
Williams,
o
become
a
member of
society
s to be
acculturated,
he
subject entering
ociety
through
he
adoption
of
variousforms
f
culture
ne is
born
nto. Since
the
war,
the cultural rchive
had
been overrun
by
commodification. amilton's tabular
paintings
presented
he
process
of
acculturation
s
mass-acculturation,
epicting
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Hamilton.
he.
1958-61.
the
subject
as the site on
which mass culture was
inscribed.
In
his
first
painted
tabular
work,
Hommage
a
Chrysler
Corp.
(1958),
car
parts-
a
bumper, headlight,
a tail-fin-are
fragmented,
decomposed
and
hybridized,
dissolved into lines and
washes of
chrome, red,
and
sootyblack. The vaguestout-
line of a
salesgirl
stands
behind the car
parts, nly
her
lips
and one breast
visible,
he
breast a mechanical
drawing
of
the
support
structure f a
bullet bra.
Surrounding
both
woman
and
car are a
variety
of
painterly
marks
dispersed
across the
ground, uggesting
an interior,ut one thatnever
meshes nto a
proper
rchitec-
tural
space:
a block of color
hints at a
wall,
horizontals
lines
hint
at floor
boards.
Different
painterly
marks,
each made
in
a
separate
tech-
nique
(wash,
dry
brush,
solid
painted
black
bar,
small red
cross,
hatch
marks),
loat
n
the
background.
ome
of these marksworkto
provide spatial
cues;
others reference
nothing
but their
own existence.Together,withthe scrapsoffigure nd car,theyputon display
range
of
plastic tyles.
Much of the
painting
s leftwhite s
if
eitherunfinished r
as
if
these
pieces
were
collaged
onto
paper.
Each
separate
elementof Hamilton's
image
is
distinctly
isible,
cattered round the fieldof the
painting.
While
they
exist
together
n the
plain
of the
painted
urface,
ach retains ts ndividual den-
tity
s much as it makes
up
the total
mage.
In
creating
he tabular
mage,
Hamilton
hoped
to
upend
the
long-standing
tradition
n
Western rtthat
a
painting
s to be
experienced
s a
totality
een
and
understood ll at once before ts
components
re
examined."ll
Hommage
.. consists
grr
'I'M
.
.
7V "N'
11.
Ibid.,
p.
104.
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120
OCTOBER
of
separate
marks r
images,
ach
presented
ide
by
ide,
one next
to the
other,
n
the canvas.The final mageneverquitecomestogether. ikeJustwhats t ..
,
the
total
mage
has a clear overallreference
automobile
advertising
n this
case),
but
unlike
Just
what
is it
..., Hommage
...
does not cohere
in
perspectival
space.
Hommage..
maintains
surface
heterogeneity
hat
presents
ts ack-its
construc-
tion as
image-openly.
The
separate
units need to
be read and understood
both
as
individual
units and as over-all
mage.
With
Hommage
.. Hamiltonwants
the
image
to
be "scanned ike a
poem
or a
comic
book"12 ather
han read all at
once
in
its
entirety.
ike a comic
book,
each
frame,
r in
the case of
the tabular
paint-
ing,
each
separate
unit,
exists
both
for
tself
nd for
the overall
meaning
of
the
entirework.
In $he (1958-61), his nexttabularpainting,Hamiltontakes advertisements
for
kitchen
ppliances
as the
basis
of
his
image.
He
depicts
a woman n a
kitchen,
caught
n
a web of
labor-saving
evices,
the domestic
nterior
ransformednto
a
grotesquerie.
Her
refrigerator
rips
blood that
pools
around a
toaster nd a vac-
uum
cleaner. Her
body
is
in
fragments;
er
hips
and
ass rise from
he canvas
n
plaster
relief,
ransformednto a
toilet
eat. Her one
eye
s a
plastic toy
hat
winks
on and
off,
mechanical come-on
to
viewers s
they
walk
past.
$he
s a
pastiche
of
bigger
nd
better
ppliances,
the
subject
ost n a void
of
appliances
that
overflow
their
use.
$he
exists as the
product
of
consumer
dentity,
Frankensteinian on-
struct uiltfrom
abor-saving
evices,
he
branded
subject
of
consumer
dentity.
In "An Expositionof $he," Hamiltonelaborated his source material.13 e
described
each
tabular
unit
comprising
he
painting
next to
reproductions
f
the
original
advertisements e
used
to
create the
final
mage.
As
in
his
essay
n
the
This
s
Tomorrow
atalog,
he
seems
to
describe the
tabular
mage
tself:
The
ad for
the
Westinghouse
acuum
cleaner
demonstrates n
endear-
ing
characteristic f
modern
visual
techniques
which I
have been
at
pains
to
exploit-the
overlapping
f
presentation
tyles
nd
methods.
Photography
becomes
diagram,
diagram
flows
nto
text.
This casual
adhesion of
disparate
onventions as
always
een
a
factor n
my
paint-
ing.
I
want
ideas to be explicitand separable, so the plasticentities
mustretain
their
dentity
s
tokens.The
elements
hold
their
ntegrity
because
they
re
voiced
in
different
lastic
dialects with
the
unified
whole.
14
These
plastic
dialects
are
the
formal
methods
through
which
Hamilton
presents
each
separate
element.
Like
the
various
techniques
employed
in
the
ads,
12.
Ibid.
Hamilton s
describing
he work
f Paul
Klee,
whose
work
he
cites,
long
with
Duchamp's
LargeGlass, s predecessors fthetabular mage.
13.
Ibid.,
pp.
35-38.
14.
Ibid.,
p.
38.
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Richard amilton's
abular
mage
121
Hamilton uses
a
variety
f
painterly echniques
to
separately
efine each
tabular
unit. Each element standson its own,the unitscomprisinghis overallsubject,
while
remaining
isually
istinct.
This
two-level
plit
n
Hamilton's tabular
mage
points
toward
he
divide n
consumer ulture t
the institutional nd the
ndividual
evels.
At the
institutional
level,
consumer
ulture
endstoward
homogenization.
t creates
arge
numbersof
identical
products
that t
markets o the
largest
possible
number of
people.
This
reduces the
subject
to
pure
consumer.
But at the micro
evel,
the evel
of
the
indi-
vidual
subject,
this
system
reaks down.
The
subject's
desire
constantly
ries to
escape
the
homogenizing
pull
of mass
culture.
Hamilton's
two-level
abulation
shows this
split,
his
subjects
comprised
of
various
points
drawn
from
the
mass
archive.His tabularsubject s theproductofconsumer ulture, onstructed rom
the vast
array
f
consumer
goods
that
compete
for
attention n
the
mass-market
place, fragmented y
nd
composed
of
the forms
f
mass commodification.
Hamilton's tabular
mage
depends
on
this
subject,
and his individual
units
always
ome
together hrough
iguration. Although
ome
of
my
pre-Poppictures
may
eem to the casual
observer o be
'abstract,"'
e
has
said,
"I
believe
t
s
trueto
say
that
have nevermade a
painting
which
does not show
n
intense
wareness
f
the human
figure."'15
ut
he
creates this
figure
rom
bjects
of
mass
production,
constructing
them
from
consumer
images
and
things.
Unlike the
advertised
image,
which
presents
unified
ubject,
he
fantasy
ubject
of
happy
ommodifica-
tion,Hamilton reveals the subjectas the object of commodification.f capital
makes all
things quivalent
by reducing
their
tatus
o
goods
in
the
marketplace,
Hamilton's
figure
resents
he
subject
as
the
product
of this
eveling
ut. His
fig-
ure
is
no
longer
the
singular,
nified
ubject.
The
various
pieces
that
comprise
t
jostle
together
nd drift
part
across
the
painting's
urface.
Though
theymay
be
contiguous,
hey
nevercome
together
s a
unified
whole.
They
are the
tabulation
of
consumer
ulture.
Over the next tenyears,Hamiltonpursuedthe tabular mage through ev-
eral
series
of
paintings,
ach
centeredon
a
different
heme:
fashion
both
men's
and
women's),
architecture,
inema, and,
in
the
series
Swingeing
ondon,
the
news.16
n
1967
Hamilton's
art
dealer,
Robert
Fraser,
was
arrested
long
withtwo
of the
Rolling
Stones
for
drug possession.
Because
rock stars
were
involved,
he
trial
was
extremely
ublic
and
the
tabloids had a
field
day.
The
bust
was
reported
15.
Ibid.,
p.
269.
Even
in
later
work
wherehe
explores
the
environment
nd
landscape
it s
always
n
relationship o thefigure.
16.
Although
will
only
discuss
the
Swingeing
ondon
67,
the
entire series
consists f
several
different
rints
nd a
painting.
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122
OCTOBER
for
days.
Fraser's
gallery
hired
a
press agency
to
collect
any
and all
reports
f
the
trial.Hamilton took the clippingsand turned theminto a collage of headlines,
body copy,
nd
photographs.Among
the
clippings,
he
distributed
arious
mages
relatedto
the trial
the
cover
of
an incense
packet,
the
gallery's
etterhead,
Mars
Bar
wrapper'7)
all
of
which
were accented
with mall
spots
of
watercolor. sked
to
create an
edition
for
talian
printmakers
D
912,
Hamilton
turned
the
collage
into a
poster.18
e
punningly
ntitled t
Swingeing
ondon
67,19
combination
of
the
udge's
swingeing
entence and
the
newly
oined
phrase
"Swinging
ondon"
whichhad first
ppeared
in
1966 in
the British
magazine
Time. 0
In
Swingeing
ondon
67,
Hamilton
tabulates
the
way
n
which an
account
of
an
event s
necessarily
nfluenced
by
the
observer's
particular
disposition
oward
it.Byplaying ne report fthe trial gainst henext,he presents lightlyifferent
truths. ruth s
revealed as a
constellation
f
multiple
truths.
ach
report
takes
claim
to
facticity,
o
the
existence f
a
particular
vent
hat
happened
in
a
particu-
lar
way
n
a
given
place
at
a
given
ime,
but
each
is
different.
Hamilton
chose his
clippings
ery
arefully,
ocusing
n
articles
hat
describe
the
colors of
the
defendant's
lothes and
the
colors
of
the
various
pieces
of
evi-
dence. He
selected
color
as
the basis of
his
tabulation
because its
description
s
always
mperfect.
t
is
a
factual
phenomenon
that
breaks
down at
the
subjective
level.
While
it
is
possible
to
analyze
any
given
hue
spectroscopically,
he
human
description
of
color
is
always
rbitrary.
or
example,
the
various
reports
of
the
color of the defendant's clothes are all in the same general range-browns,
greens,
blues-but
each
has a
different
ay
of
describing ny
particular
brown,
green,
or
blue.
Hamilton
reinforces
his
by
adding
washes
of
the
colors
described
in
the
text s
spots
of
pigment
cattered
hroughout
he
print,
etting
he
color's
physical
resence
against
ts
multiple
inguistic
escriptions.
If,
n
his
earlier
work,
Hamilton
revealed
the
construction
of
subjectivity
through
his
manipulation
of
the
images
of
horizontal
culture,
here
he
goes
deeper,
pointing
toward
he
emergence
of
horizontalization
within
he
subject's
very
nception,
where
subjectivity
tself
merges
as
a
construction
of
the mass
media.
Through
his
added
spots
of
color,
Hamilton
uses
the
actual,
physical
res-
17.
One of
the
most
notoriously
ublicized
and
never
proven)
parts
of
the trial
was
the
allegation
that
agger
nd
his
girlfriend
ere
having
ex
with
candy
bar
when the
police
bust
occurred.
18.
Again
echoing
the
reproduction
f
Just
what s
it
.. as
both
a
poster
dvertising
his
s
Tomorrow
and
in
the
exhibition
catalog.
19.
Released
in
1968.
20. A
swingeing
means,
n
British
lang,
harsh
punishment
r
stinging
ebuke.
The
edition
was of
2,000.
Though
not
huge
by
commercial
tandards,
his
s
quite
large
for
fine-art
rint.
Hamilton's
largestpreviousrunhad been 125. Exceptfor the poster nserthe designed forthe Beatles's White
Album
n
1968,
which
was
printed
n
an
edition
of
approximately
ive
million,
his
editions
usually
ran
150 or
less.
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i rii Ir4?;F?~
.i:?~
- -------
S
WNES
'A
TR
G
W
Brianr,
mande
Y1atene
O'A'
J
d
c
vat
v
7/7'
rdi~lY'*~"
i-:_AV
w
vy:
Hamilton.
wingeing
ondon.
March 968. TheMuseum
f
Modern
rt,
New
York,
ohn
.
Jakobson
oundationund.
(Photo
2000 The
Museum
f
Modern rt,
New
York)
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124
OCTOBER
ence
of
the colors
against
the
descriptions
around
them.
These added
colors
become the real-world oint thatthe reportsmisrepresent, nd, throughmass
dissemination
n the
tabloids,
these
misrepresentations
ecome
part
of the
com-
mon
culture.
They
enter into the
larger
social
sphere,
becoming
part
of
the
cultural archive that
forms
ubjective dentity.
n
Swingeing
ondon
7,
this
rchive
is
shown
o be founded n
misrepresentation.
wingeing
ondon
67 tabulates
the
ack
at the center of
the consumer
system,
he
inability
f mass
forms o
account
for
individual
ubjectivity.
In
his
description
of
Andy
Warhol's
Ambulance
isaster
1963),
Hal Foster
describes
this
ack
as a missed
encounter
with
he
real: "these
pops,
such
as a
slip-
ping
of
register
r
a
washing
n
color,
serve as visual
equivalents
of
our missed
encounters with the real .
.
. Through these pokes or pops we seem almost to
touch
the
real."21
Hamilton's
Swingeing
ondon
67 also
presents
this missed
encounter
with
the
real. The sum
total
of
the different
escriptions
f
the trial
circle
around
each and around the actual
spots
of
color,
but
they
never
quite get
to
the
actual event. Even
the
washes
of
color
that Hamilton
puts
next to the
descriptions, laying
he
literal
gainst
the
descriptive
ccounts,
are
mechanical
reproductions
f the
color he
placed
on the
original collage.
Hamilton's
real
is
missed
because
it
points
toward he
lack
in
the
system's
bility
o
process
nforma-
tion
that sn't
mass-mediated.
Referring
o
Ambulance
isaster,
oster
alls
this ack
"traumatic
ealism." he
paintingfeatures wo mages,one over the other, f a crashedambulance with
dead
woman
hanging
from
he
wreckage.
n
the bottom
mage,
the
woman's
face
is
obscured
by
a
large
blotch,
n
imperfection
purposeful
r
not)
that
occurred
in
Warhol's
ilk-screening
rocess. Following
acques
Lacan,
Foster
describes this
blotch
as a
tear or
a
"trou (in
French
a
hole,
gap,
or
deficit
ut
also
a
pun
on
the
English
"true")
that
eaps
out
at
him,
a lack
in the
technical
process
of
the silk-
screen
reproduction
f
the
original mage.
It
is
in
this
delinquency
f
technique,
Foster
ays,
especially
hrough
he
floating
lashes'
of
the
silkscreen
rocess,
he
slipping
and
streaking,
lanching
and
blanking,
repeating
and
coloring
of the
images"
that he
traumaof
Warhol's
mage
can be
located.22
Withboththerepetition fthe mageand thebreakdown n themechanical
process
of
reproduction,
oster
s
touched
by
the
real
that ies
behind
Warhol's
image.
For
Foster,
his ack
is the
punctum
that
ocates
the
trauma of
the
image,
more so
than the
horrible
mage
of
the
crash or
Warhol's
repetition
f
that
mage.
The
trou
s
the
gap
between
the
two,
between
the
horror of
the
crash
and the
banality
f
its
repetition.
t is
the
deficiency
hat
points
back
toward
he
system
21.
Ibid.,
p.
136.
22. Hal
Foster,
he
Return
f
he
eal
Cambridge:
MIT
Press,
996),
p.
134.
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Richard amilton's abular
mage
125
that
generates
truth
through
mass mediation.
Like Hamilton's
spots
of
color,
Warhol'strou ignalsthatthe real is alwaysmissed n anyaccountofan event,but
particularly
n the
representations
f the mass media.
In horizontal
ulture,
ruth
only
exists
as
the
homogeneous
surface
floating
on
top
of the
mass-cultural
archive.The trou
oints
backto the
real,
to desire
that s
unmediated
by
consump-
tion,
to a
point
behind the
system
f
mass
production.
Swingeing
ondon
67
is
the
image
of tabulation itself.
Hamilton
presents
a
metatabulation
of the
systems
f
horizontal
culture.He
uses the
newspaper,
he
point
at whichfactual
nformation
nters
nto
arger
ultural
irculation,
o
point
toward he
general way
n
which
mass
production
forms
he
subject.
n
replaying
the
trialover and
over,
ach account circles
round
the
real.
Through
the
repeti-
tion and reconstructionof mass-producedinformation the news), Hamilton
demonstrates he
gap
between
the
thing/event
s
object
and
its
subjective
epre-
sentation within the
spectacle. Though
the
final
mage
may generate
a
single
overall
meaning,
ts
parts
fall
apart.
n
each
instance,
using
the field
of
mass
pro-
duction
n
which
ameness s
inherent,
wingeing
ondon
7
demonstrates he
ways
this
field
breaksdown. Hamilton
uses the
tabular
mage
to show
that t
the
heart
of this
system
f
commodification ies
a
fundamental ack-the
human
subject's
inability
o access
any
desire
beyond
thatof the
marketplace.
If,
s Foster
ays
of
Warhol's
traumatic
ealism,
he
subject
s
touched
by
the
real,
Hamilton's
tabular
image
also
proposes
that
the
real
touches the
subject.
Hamilton's trous a tear in the meaningof the image,the central ack around
which the
image
is
constructed,
ut
it is
also the
point
at
which
meaning
s con-
structed
pon
the real. It is
the screen
of culture
where
subject
and
object
meet.
Lacan,
in
his
seminars
f
1964
gathered
together
s TheFour
Fundamental
Concepts
of
Psychoanalysis,
heorized
the screen
as the
place
where
ndividual
subjectivity
and the
gaze
of the
object
merge.
In
the
fourth
eminar,
Tuche and
the
Automaton,"
acan
recounts
he
story
of
Freud's
grandson
playing
with wooden
spool
attached to
a
length
of
cotton.
The
child,
his
mother
having
eft
he
room,
takes
the
spool
in
hand
and
tosses t
away,
elling,
fort "
"gone ").
With
tug,
he
reels t
back
n,
"da "
"here ").
Again
and again,thechildplays hisgame,backand forth,n thesymbolic epetition f
his
mother's
bsence. For
Lacan,
this
s the
very
moment
when
the
child
becomes
possessed
by
desire,
when
need is
transformedrom
ry
nto
speech.
The
need for
the
mother
s
represented
y
the
reel
of
string,
n
extension
of
the
child nto
the
world.
Like
language,
the reel
s
a
pulse
that
xtends
hen
returns o
the sender.23
For
Lacan
the
child's
fort-da ame
is
the
very
pulse
of
symbolization,
he
game
of
speech
in
which
the
speaker
reaches
forever
oward
he
Other.
The
turn
23. Even f
here s no
reply,
or
Lacan,
every
ct
of
speech
implies
return.
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126 OCTOBER
of the reel is used
by
the
child
to
enact
language
for the
first ime. t is
the
foun-
dational trauma of the mother's bsence, the tuchi f loss thatpushes the child
into
symbolization
nd into social
life.
The
fort-da ame,
as the instantiation f
anguage,
also marks
he
formation
of
subjectivity
ithin
he
child's unconscious.As
the
child
plays,
he
reel
symbol-
izes the
division
between
ubject
nd
object.
The
alternation
etweenthere
fort )
and here
(da ),
comes
to define the
pulse
of the child's
subjectivity
s
it
reaches
out
with
anguage
and
is in turn
ffected
y
the
anguage
of others.The reel s
the
locus of the
signifier,
he
object
thatcomes to define
the
subject.
n
so
doing
it
s
the
thing
hatforever
inks
he
subject
o the
objects
of the outsideworld.
Coming
between
subject
and
object,
unfurled
by
the
subject
but
presupposing
the
exis-
tenceof theobject,the reel sLacan's objectetit, thethingwhich s bothself nd
other,
he
thing
n
which
he
two
become
intertwined.
Lacan
asks,
"Where
do we meet this
real?"24
f the
real
is
what eludes
us,
what exists
beyond
or
before)
signification,
ast
words nd
the
possibility
f
con-
scious
knowledge,
where can it be
found?
n
severalof the seminars
hat
follow,25
Lacan identifies ision
as one
possible place
where
we are touched
by
the
real.
With
these
seminars,
his
goal
is
to "..
.
grasp
how the
tuchi
s
represented
in
visual
apprehension."26
acan tells
the
famous
tory
f the
sardine
can.
When
he was
a
young
man,
working
n
a
fishing
oat,
a
sardinecan was
floating
ut on the
waves,
glinting, aught
n
the
sunlight.
You see
that an?"
one
of
his
companions
on the
boat saysto him,"Do you see it?Well, t doesn't see you "27But Lacan couldn't
shake the
feeling
hat
t
did
indeed see
him.
"It
was
looking
at
me
at the
level of
the
point
of
light,"
he
realized,
"the
point
at which
everything
hat
ooks at me is
situated-and
I
am
not
speaking
metaphorically."28
iterally,
hen,
as he
looked
out into
the
world,
s his
gaze
reeled out
toward he
can,
the
light
of
the
world
stabbed back
into his
eyes,
tuchi
iercing
his
retina.
The
can's
gaze
touched
back
as
it
was
touched
by
Lacan's
eyes.
It
is
this
return
f
the
ook
thatLacan
named
"the
gaze."
As the
subject
ooks
out
at the
world,
the world
looks
back,
much
like the
child
enacting
anguage
through
he
fort-da
ame.
Vision s
forever
aught
between
subject
and
object
on
the screen,"thelocus ofmediation"29 etweenthemwhereeach sees the other.
The
screen
s
the
place
where
the reel
comes to
rest,
he
midpoint
f ts
pulsation
24.
Jacques
Lacan,
Four
Fundamental
onceptsf
Psychoanalysis:
he
Seminar
f
acques
Lacan,
Book
XI,
ed.
Jacques-Alain
Miller,
rans.
Alan
Sheridan
New
York:
W.
W. Norton
nd
Company,
978),
p.
53.
25.
All
grouped
under the
heading
"Of the
Gaze
as
Objet
Petit ."
26.
Ibid.,
p.
77.
27. Ibid.,p. 95.
28. Ibid.
29.
Ibid.,
p.
107.
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Richard amilton's abular
mage
127
fromhere
to there.
On the
screen,
the
subject
s formed
rom he
object
and
vice
versa."Thisis the function hat sfound at theheartof the institutionf thesub-
ject
in the
visible,"
Lacan writes. What determines
me,
at the most
profound
level,
n the
visible,
s the
gaze
that
s
outside.
It
is
through
he
gaze
that
enter
light
nd
it s from he
gaze
that receive ts
effects."30
nd it s on the
screen
that
the
subject's
ook
and the
object's
gaze
oin.
Echoing
Williams's ommon
culture,
oster
describesthe
screen as "the
cul-
turalreserve f whicheach
image
is one
instance."
1
For
Foster,
he
screen
s
the
archive
of
culture,
nd this s the
cultural eserve
hatHamilton
accesses with
he
tabular
image.
Hamilton's
subject
s forever
aught
up
in
the screen
of
culture,
which for the
postwar ubject
means the
screen
of
commodification.
is
tabular
image revealsthat vision is screened throughthe culture of capital. Hamilton's
subject
s the
figure
hat
reates
nd
is
created
by
this
ommodification.
Fdlix
Guattari
ositions
acan's
psychoanalysis
istorically.
e
links
t
to
capital's
domination
of the
twentieth-century
ubject by
pointing
out
that
the
subject
Lacan describes s
screened
through
he
representations
f
capital:
"What
n
fact
does
Lacan
say?
He
says
that .. desire
can
exists
only
insofar as
it
is
represented
...
I think
hat
Lacan
is
completely
ight
n
terms f the
unconsciousof the
capitalist
social
field
...
."2
Lacan's screen
is the
place
where the
subject's
desire
and the
desire of
capital
meet. The
subject's
desire,
the
same
horizontal
subject
that
Hamilton
portrays
ith
he
tabular
mage,
s
formed
hrough
desire's
commodifi-
cation.
This is
the
figure,
Hamilton's
tabular
figure,
that
Lacan
described as
graphed
through
icturing,
r,
better
till,
raphed by ight:
I
must,
to
begin
with,
nsiston
the
following:
n
the
scopic
field,
he
gaze
is
outside,
am
looked
at,
that
s
to
say,
am
a
picture.
This is
the
function
that is
found at the
heart of the
visible.
What
determines
me,
at
the
most
profound
evel,
n
the
visible,
s
the
gaze
that s
out-
side.
It
is
through
he
gaze
that enter
ight
nd it s
from
he
gaze
that
I
receive ts
effects.
Hence
it
comes
about
that the
gaze
is the
instru-
mentthroughwhich ight s embodiedand throughwhich-if youwill
allow
me to
use
a
word,
as
I
often
do,
in
a
fragmented
orm-I
am
photo-graphed.33
This is
how
Hamilton's
tabular
image
functions-as
the
photo-graphic
creen
where
the ook
of
the
subject
nd the
gaze
of
the
object
are
founded on
the
desire
30.
Ibid.,
p.
106.
31. Foster,TheReturnf he eal,p. 140.
32. F61ix
Guattari,
oft
ubversions,
d.
Sylvire
otringer
New
York:
emiotext[e],
1996),
p.
18.
33.
Lacan,
Four
undamental
onceptsf
sychoanalysis,.
106.
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128 OCTOBER
of
the
commodity.
What
s
traumatic
n
the
tabular
mage
is
not the return f the
real per se, a real that can neverreturnbecause it was both neverthere and is
always
here
as
lack,
as the hole
in
the center
of the
system).
ather,
t
s the turn
of the
reel,
where
subject
and
object
come
to rest on
the
screen
of
horizontal
culture,
hat ocates the traumaof the tabular
mage.
This is the
trou
f the
tabu-
lar
subject,
the truth
that,
by
the
mid
1950s,
meaning
was
caught
in
the
never-ending
epetition
of
commodification.
With
the turn
of the
reel,
the
real
returns s
unfulfilled
esire.