Strategies of Transformation

The cross-media practices of Jack Goldstein, Robert Longo, and Cindy Sherman dynamized the art world in the mid- to late 1970s, and surrounded much of the filmmaking and photography we have been discussing. Although we have already addressed some Pictures work in the beginning of this book, I have kept the attention to their larger cinema-inspired practices, and to a detailed discussion of Robert Longo’s highly influential sculptures, performances, and films, until now for a number of reasons. The works in this chapter are pivotal. They are better understood within the context of a larger practice (not as deriving from it, or necessarily influencing it, but as rising from a similar historical moment), and by extension, the larger practice is elucidated by the aesthetic concerns they demonstrate. The works in this chapter are notable because of the particular mix of mediums they use—all to the service of the cinematic. Moreover, they are distinguished because of the strategies of transformation they employ, and because of the degree to which they are willing to slip across established cultural boundaries, between gallery art and avant-garde film, between avant-garde film and mainstream film. This is especially true of Robert Longo’s work. Longo will be the first art world figure to approach more mainstream film practices, a boundary to be crossed by many, including Cindy Sherman. To better understand these practices, and the special engagement with the cinematic body that underlies it, I will look to the gathering of ideas in the art of Warhol and Goldstein, and then on to Longo and Sherman’s evolving cinematic practice.