Steven Cohen's 'The Weight of the Media - the Burden of Reality'
by Virginia MacKenny
Passers-by, on their way to New York's Times Square on a chilly New Year's eve, were surprised to find a man in a tutu 'dancing' in a shop window papered with posters of headlines from South African newspapers. Adopting somewhat awkward balletic poses, putting on his trademark leopard skin high heels Steven Cohen played out to a crowd intent on celebrating the arrival of the New Year, a curious recapitulation of the old one.
Lead stories from the Mail and Guardian, Sunday Times, Sowetan, Citizen et al trumpeted the daily violence and absurdities of South African life: 'White Pupils Paint Black Boy', 'Giraffes become Lightning Conductors', 'Squatters in Holes in White Suburbs', 'Youths' Heads Taken for Muti', 'Man Tries to Rape 101-yr-old', 'Sangoma's Genitals Mutilated'.
Deliberately clumsy, Cohen moved backwards and forwards through the constraints of the space. Pausing to pull out a pin holding one of the posters, he knelt before the crowd and scored his arms. Attaching a cumbersome bundle of newspapers to his head he attempted to carry them, straining his neck, and eventually surrendering the bundle's weight back to the floor before he stripped naked and exited the space.
Cohen presented the piece three times. When I saw it on January 3, the relationship between his actions and the words plastering the window seemed to pass most people by - "what you doing man?" yelled one, while another reckoned "it's the boy/girl thing", although another said "can't you see he's protesting". When he pulled some of the posters down from the ceiling people didn't blink at statements about child rape, 'Girl (7) in Rape Ordeal' or 'Girl (12) Paralysed after Rape', but audibly gasped at 'Puppies Flung Out of Car'.
Kendell Geers has also used newspaper headlines to speak for the state of the nation in works on mediated violence, but Cohen, who has been collecting such gems for years, activates the headlines by his performances. Through juxtaposing his own white, male body complete with tutu, corset and make-up (a small Star of David hanging off the end of his nose), he provokes a collision of connotations and meaning.
While this piece verged somewhat on the didactic/illustrational, Cohen's strength in provoking unexpected parallels still proved powerful. In the heart of Western capitalism, surrounded by the monumental flashing neon billboards promoting the material life, his work referenced other realities. Balancing the newspapers on his head not only reminded viewers metaphorically of what they must carry, but also evoked the many black women in Africa carrying their bundles on their daily routines.
For South African viewers used to Cohen's performances, the most surprising thing about the piece was its demure nature - demure that is by comparison with what he does on his home turf - no dildos, no genitalia and no enemas - even Cohen's final nudity was exceptionally discrete as he left the confines of the window seen only from the rear.
Such discretion was partly enforced, as Cohen had to sign a form filled with restrictions as to what he could and couldn't do, before permission for the piece was granted. Reflecting an increasingly conservative American society enforcing more and more strictures on its own and other peoples, Cohen's constraints within the lit box on a New York street seemed particularly telling.
Steven Cohen's improvised performance (with restriction) was presented at Chasama, 42nd Street, New York.
With his stay at the Ampersand Foundation apartment now over, Cohen is currently focussing on a new French production. Regine Chopinot and the Ballet Atlantique have provided the artist with funding and opportunities for individual works this year.
