I Am Making Art

John Baldessari

I Am Making Art, 1971

Artwork text

A good example of Baldessari's deadpan irreverence is the 1971 black-and-white videotape entitled I Am Making art, in which he moves different parts of his body slightly while saying, after each move, "I am making art." The statement, he says, "Hovers between assertion and belief." On one level, the piece spoofs the work of artists who, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, explored the use of their own bodies and gestures as an art medium. The endless repetition, awkwardness of the movements made by the artist, and the reiteration of the statement, "I am making art," create a synthesis of gestural and linguistic modes which is both innovative (in the same way that the more serious work if his peers in innovative) and absurdly self-evident. (Marcia Tucker, John Baldessari: Pursing the Unpredictable / Video Data Bank, Chicago) In an ironic reference to body art, process art and performance, Baldessari challenges definitions of the content and execution of art-making. Performing with deadpan precision, he moves his hands, arms and entire body in studied, minute motions, intoning the phrase "I am making art" with each gesture. Each articulation of the phrase is given a different emphasis and nuance, as if art were being created from moment to moment. This index of body movements is ironically offset by the repetitive monotony of the exercise. Although Baldessari demurs from calling himself a performer -- "I think performance for me is a little bit too hot an activity" -- his "anti-performance" is nonetheless the core of this work. (Electronic Arts Intermixed, New York)