NO YES I DO (Trio A)

This was the only editioned object White made. The edition was produced in collaboration with Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin.

 

White described the work in his correspondence:

 

“The photo is of 'Trio A with Flags' performed in the People's Flag Show at Judson Memorial Church in 1970. It is reproduced in Yvonne Rainer, Radical Juxtapositions 1961-2002 and credited to Peter Moore. I photocopied it from the book (obviously without permission) and wrote text over it in black biro and tipex pen. Most of the text is Rainer's 'NO manifesto' which I also speak at the end of the Ibiza piece. I then photocopied this 'original'.

The edition is signed with a fingerprint in red ink, and numbered on top of this…

 

“For me it performs a rereading of each of its elements - a continuous sliding of positions. The dance becomes spectacular and magical with the woman commanding the man to fly/jump or her arm is like a magic wand making him do this. This is in direct contradiction to the NO manifesto and seems to be the manifestation of all the kind of theatrical trickery it is against. The signature is a fingerprint, which is unique but is also a print, no truer sign of an actual specific person having been there but also a repetitive, mechanical action. The frame looks luxurious but it is cheap, as are all the materials used, from standard stationers. They might be understood as a reference to or a pun on the 'everyday' (I like how you can see the hardboard stand at the back). The dance looks like it is easy to perform but actually it is very difficult. The fingerprint looks a bit phallic but it also looks like lipstick. It is a certificate (not for swimming the 100m but for dancing Trio A) awarded to who? If I award it to myself then I think it parodies myself - and this is something that I think also in part occurs in the Ibiza piece and also in other things, like how it is there in the act of 'mindlessly' painting black squares in a book. But I would not over- emphasise this aspect.

 

“It relates to the historical performing of Trio A but also my contemporary understanding of it. The presence/absence of the self/myself, the problem of expression. It is reverent but at the same time also trying to find ways to break from this reverence and to move on, to wreck something, or to turn something into stark contradictions.”

Photocopy with fingerprint in certificate frame (edition of 5 + 1AP)

2009