Raw Materials, Body, Sound in Contemporary Art and Beckett’s Works
        Sayaka Shoji
Beckett in his later years experimented with audio-visual media such as radio, film, and television. In this paper I will argue that many of Beckett’s experiments with audio-visual media, as well as his revolutionary staging techniques anticipate some of the key areas of interest of the contemporary visual arts, and in particular recent installation and video works. For example conceptual artists such as Bruce Nauman, Steve McQueen, Stan Douglas and Nikos Navridis have explicitly declared their reverence for Beckett, and their work extends Beckett’s concerns with the technologies of visual and aural reproduction and themes of power, metaphysics, performance and in particular the body.

The leading U.S. artist Bruce Nauman has explicitly stated his affinity with Beckett and his video and sound works share some of the most exemplary connections with Beckett’s. Firstly, I will consider the representation of the performing body in space and sound especially in Quad with reference to two audio-sound works of Bruce Nauman: Slow Angle Walk (1986) (subtitled ‘Beckett Walk’) and Rhythmic Stamping in the Studio [Stamping in the Studio] (1968). Secondly, I will examine Nauman’s major piece Raw Materials (2005), exhibited in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London, in relation to the acousmatic body in Beckett’s work. I will argue that both Nauman pieces can be related to larger themes in Beckett’s work including the body, the archive, media technology and the end of metaphysics.

Lastly I will compare and contrast two recent stagings of Beckett’s play Breath by contemporary visual artists, and consider their significance in relation to the wider question of the body and its representation in contemporary art. Firstly I will consider the British artist Damien Hirst’s version included on the Beckett On Film project. I will then examine Greek audio-visual artist Nikos Navridis’ staging of the play and his associated video installation Breath (2005) exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2005 (Beckett being the presiding spirit of the whole exhibition). My presentation will require audio-visual facilities.

Birkbeck College, University of London, Department of English
Borderless Beckett:
International Samuel Beckett Symposium in Tokyo 2006
September 29 – October 1