I was not a fan of Ulay. This is not to say that I did not like his work, I simply knew very few things about him as an artist up to now. That is to say apart from the famous ‘Relation Pieces’ which he co-created with Marina Abramovich, the also famous court case of the two quarrelling over who was it that must have copyright of the works they created and the final official (as it was made public) separation of the couple with the walk along the Chinese Wall. Oh and more recently, his appearance in Abramovitch’s performance ‘The Artist is Present’ where supposedly the two met after many years with tears in their eyes….things that make me break out in spots although the video of this meeting is, in fact, touching.
The idea for this post started with my feeling a certain sympathy for him that it was in line with his ironic statement ‘I am the most famous unknown artist’ that I saw news about his death mostly being spread. I may also be a bit over-sensitive here due to my having attended a Marina Abramovitch show in the Serpentine gallery in London in 2015 and to my objection to the way her art is centered around herself, or her persona. I don’t like gurus and the such status that this artist has assumed, and that the public is so wiling to give to her. I saw people kneeling down and embracing her, looking up to her as if she was the endlightened one…well perhaps she is, perhaps she is a big inspiration to them, I am not the one to judge here but it is something that does not appeal to me personally. I therefore decided to make up for what is a gap in my knowledge about Ulay’s art and his art by doing a bit of research on him which I share here.
Uwe Frank Laysiepen as he was called started out as a photographer and was experimenting with polaroids (he actually started as a consultant in Polaroid) and issues on identity before he met Marina. He was a pioneer in artistic experiments with gender identity. I feel a particular affinity with his main concept of transformation, which relates to my own project.
Here are some of the works I picked out.
In 1976 in Irritation – There is a Criminal Touch to Art, he stole a painting hanging in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin painted by Carl Spitzweg, Hitler’s favourite painter. He then took the painting to the house of a Turkish family and hang it on their wall….with this he wanted to comment on how the Turkish community in Berlin was treated.
His work with photography to reveal what a lie photography really is in FOTOTOT, Photography as death, in what he called performative photography.
His early experiments with identity and gender identity through photography.
Ulay, polaroid aphorisms, 1972-75
Ulay, from the series ‘Renais Sense’, 1973-74
Ulay here actually painted one side of his face to make his traits feminine, it is not a digital collage. It therefore has a performative element in it, bringin the work close to Cindy Sherman’s experiments of the period.
I love the Elf series and the allusion to Nureyef (this is how I see it)
Ulay, Elf, from the polaroid series 1974
………………………………………………………………..(1976-1988)…………………………………………………………………………….
After his work with Abramovitch, he went back to photography but staged some participatory performances, criticizing the European Union and its expansiveness. Later, he focused on the issue of water, especially from an environmental perspective.
I find very intersting and touching on many levels his perfomance ‘The invisible opponent,’, performed in the same room in the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva, where he used to perform with his collaborator/opponent. In fact, the room was a choice of the curator of the show and Ulay accepted. In the performance, Ulay uses a pink mirror. Pink was the colour Ulay used for the pages left empty in his monograph instead of the images of the joint performances with Marina Abramovitch, since she did not give him permission to use them.
Ulay, the invisible opponent.
Cancer, as a disease of the body attacking its own self, was the other opponent Ulay was perhaps referring to, and the performance was accompanied with a presentation of his project Cancer.
This is the link to the trailer of his film Project Cancer, which documents his life and work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djjucxJcAiE
Also these limited edition etching prints, called Unhurt which come out of some other pieces where he created voids on the surface, cutting it by laser. Perhaps the refers to what is gone, making it remain for ever. It could be the negative space between himself and Abramovitch in their performances.
Ulay Unhurt, 2105
Overall I really like his work, I appreciate and can relate to how he uses art to make sense of his personal life and challenges. He is very sensitive and his art is intersting and touching. I am still reading about him and his works, he is an inspiration for my project. However, it is a pity that he does not seem to overcome the ghost of Marina, even in the end, using her to promote his project cancer, as can be seen in the trailer, which is understandable, but nevertheless in my opinion problematic. Who would he be without her? Probably an unknown. His death probably will make him a better known unknown artist.
Sources
This is by far the most interesting , it is written by his curator, Amelia Jones and I am still reading it : https://stedelijkstudies.com/journal/individual-mythologist-jones/
https://www.widewalls.ch/ulay-artist-of-the-week-april/
https://www.ulay.si/