Marian Zazeela and Carl Craig at Dia Beacon
The story of Marian Zazeela’s (b. 1940) art is inseparable from the collaboration with her husband, a father of Minimalist music, La Monte Young (b. 1935). Since the 1960s the pair created performances which consisted of various chords written by Young combined with enveloping light installations by Zazeela. Young and Zazeela have a long history of engagements with Dia Art Foundation. One of their well known works, Dream House was commissioned by Dia from 1979 to 1985. Dream House features continuous sound and light environments, exhibitions, performances, and archives. Over the years the work moved around various locations in Soho, New York and it is currently on view at the MELA foundation.
A collection of twenty-nine Zazeela’s drawings and small works on paper from 1962—1990s is currently on “long-term view” at Dia Beacon. There is a minimalist discipline and sense of objecthood — a thing is what it is and nothing more (the condition of being an object), that unites the drawings. But there is also a delicate beauty, calligraphic precision, and spirituality that emanates from Zazeela's delicate creations. It is not necessary to hear Young’s music to fully appreciate Zazeela’s art, but the drawings truly come to life if you can play one of Young’s compositions while looking.
In 1959 the artist visited Morocco and was inspired by the Arabic lettering on street signs. She also studied Chinese calligraphy and developed her own glyphs and writing methods. However there is an undeniable influence of the Saz-style drawing — a 16th century Ottoman style characterized by the depiction of stylized, serrated leaf foliage, in Zazeela’s work. The artist’s small works on paper are as mesmerizing as eastern decorative motifs found in Persian miniatures or on the borders of Persian poetry manuscripts. Zazeela uses delicate parchment colored paper and black ink to create her meticulous, hypnotizing work.
Despite strong eastern influences the artist’s work is uniquely her own. Zazeela defines artistic practice as “borderline art,”— art that exists in the space between decorative and fine art worlds, and also the art of the border around the empty space in the middle.
Transcendence comes in all sizes at Dia Beacon this summer. The foundation continues its tradition of engagement with sonic environments and non-traditional artists. Dia commissioned internationally touring DJ and producer Carl Craig (b.1969) to create a sound installation Party/After-Party (2021) in its basement.
I visited Dia Beacon with my friends Kara and Lisa last week. As we descended into the former Nabisco packaging factory’s lower level we entered an almost total darkness. The techno beat music was throbbing all around us and there was a shimmering darkness that beckoned visitors to penetrate it a little deeper. Bright colored strobes illuminated the cavernous space, punctuated with supporting columns and enhanced by two semi translucent screens that Craig installed in front of both entrances to make visitors’ progress a little more perilous. As we moved closer to the center of the floor we were drawn by the bright light coming from the ceiling. While we were there three women were taking turns, taking photos directly under the shaft of pulsating beam, lifting up their hands as if they were about to be transported into a spaceship. We followed their example, waiting to be lifted into the dreamland of brightness.
Craig’s long-time friend Gamall Awad wrote: “For Party, Craig uses sound and space to abstract his memories of London’s Ministry of Sound club space in the 1990s as well as more recent experiences at Panorama Bar within Berlin’s Berghain, a hedonistic, electronic-music club located in a former power plant.” (1)
Although there is depth and seriousness in Craig’s ambitious work, it is not subtle: the animated space, illuminated by strobe lights and padded with a wall of speakers, becomes an apocalyptic club and simultaneously returns to being the repurposed factory basement, which Dia Beacon was not so long ago. The allusion to the abandoned industrial real estate is not accidental. Party is a deeply personal homage to the artist’s hometown Detroit derelict present: its abandoned industrial architecture, empty factories, dispossessed urban population — the work is at once a memory and a warning.
Yet, despite the painful backstory, Party is not sad, in fact it is more joyful and engaging than anything I had seen in museums for a while. Also, in contrast with Dia’s rarefied air of minimalism, sipping through the ceiling from the higher floors, Party is a big playground for grown-ups minus the horny crowds of the clubs.
Notes
Joe Bucciero, “The Space of Music: Carl Craig Interviewed by Joe Bucciero - BOMB Magazine,” The Space of Music: Carl Craig Interviewed - BOMB Magazine, accessed July 11, 2021, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/the-space-of-music-carl-craig-interviewed/.
Bibliography
Bucciero, Joe. “The Space of Music: Carl Craig Interviewed by Joe Bucciero - BOMB Magazine.” The Space of Music: Carl Craig Interviewed — BOMB Magazine. Accessed July 11, 2021. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/the-space-of-music-carl-craig-interviewed/.
Carl Craig. Accessed July 11, 2021. https://carlcraig.net/.
Dudamel, Gustavo. “Marian Zazeela.” LA Phil. Accessed July 11, 2021. https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/artists/6402/marian-zazeela.
Foundation, Dia Art. “Cart.” Dia. Accessed July 11, 2021. https://www.diaart.org/exhibition/exhibitions-projects/marian-zazeela-exhibition.
Kennedy, Randy. “Young and Zazeela's 'Dream House' Is Getting a New Lease at Dia.” The New York Times. The New York Times, April 2, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/arts/design/young-and-zazeelas-dream-house-is-getting-a-new-lease-at-dia.html.
“MELA Foundation Launches Campaign to Save La Monte Young's New York Dream House.” The online edition of Artforum International Magazine, July 8, 2020. https://www.artforum.com/news/mela-foundation-launches-campaign-to-save-la-monte-young-s-new-york-dream-house-83568.
Wilson, Michael. “Michael Wilson at LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House.” The online edition of Artforum International Magazine, June 30, 2015. https://www.artforum.com/diary/michael-wilson-at-lamonte-young-and-marian-zazeela-s-dream-house-53257.