Allan Kaprow (b. 1927, USA – d. 2006, USA)
Push and Pull. A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann., 1963

Eva Chytilek (b. 1981, Austria)
Jakob Neulinger (b. 1979, Austria)
#pushxpull, 2017 

MUMOK, Vienna, Austria / Visited in June 2018

Kaprow is relevant for me both as a key figure informing performance art and establishing concepts like “happening”, but also in terms of more specific works and their qualities.

In “Push and Pull” (whose re-interpretation by Chytilek & Neulinger I’ve experienced live) he invites his audience to move around the furniture provided in the room in accordance with compositional principles advocated by Hans Hofmann. In later presentations he keeps re-inventing this piece by adding different elements and instructions.

A lot of things are going in this work that are relatable to my interests. First of all – its interactivity, invitation to the audience to engage and rearrange formal qualities of the work (even if he sets quite narrow limits for that freedom – it is just about moving around given elements, not adding/removing/changing them or engaging in any other activity). While I am not offering that kind of prescribed interactivity in each of my works, I tend to be quite open to forms of engagement that can change formal qualities and/or meanings of my work, including totally unforeseen ones.

I also like that he keeps re-inventing the same piece upon its later re-installations. I am doing that a lot myself – e.g. by exhibiting the same piece under different titles or as part of different series/installations etc.

I appreciate how he translates Hofmanns teachings (even if, possibly, in a parodical manner) into a different medium, generating new possibilities and meanings. I also appreciate how his work gets re-interpreted by other artists, showing variety of possibilities arising from the same concept.