n

on photography, nim, perormance,

painting, scuipture, and dance, and as
a teacher. In aii these proessionai en-
deavors Dougiass impact has been ex-
traordinary. His writings are transiated
into more than hai a dozen ianguages
and he is sought ater as a iecturer aii
over the worid. He is the recipient o
numerous major eiiowships and the
Coiiege Art Association has awarded
him the Irank )ewett mather Award
or Distinction in Art Criticism.
Since the mid 1980s, Dougias has
aiso been a cruciai ngure in the articu-
iation o a queer outiook on ethics,
poiitics, art, aesthetics, and sexuaiity.
He was a prime mover in, as weii as
a chronicier o, AC1 UP, a ounder o
SIXPANIC, and he has been a ready
and briiiiant and courageous commen-
tator on the AIDS epidemic, homopho-
bia, pornography, promiscuity, and
more. In renecting now on these many
contributions, I have in mind three o
their aspects.
Iirst, Dougiass queer outiook is
in the iine, the tradition, o what we
once caiied Iiberation. His eariy years
in New \ork City coincided with the
rise o the Gay Iiberation movement,
and it shaped him. Gay Iiberation was
prouseiy productive cuituraiiy and
poiiticaiiy. We do wrong to think o it
as somehow summed up by a riot at the
Stonewaii Bar. Gay Iiberation was, or
instance, a critique o the institution
o the amiiy, which the iiberationists
wanted to de-priviiege, to dis-estab-
iish, as the church had been dis-estab-
iished in the eighteenth century. Gay
Iiberation was a critique and a nrm
rejection o the ideai o monogamy,
an ideai which the iiberationists saw
as grounded in rancid possessiveness
and in pieasure-hating. Gay Iiberation
taught a suspicion o aii the ianguages
o upiit, inciuding nationaiist upiit,
or upiit, the iiberationists thought,
was invariabiy a mode o constructing
and re-constructing the ortincations
o a iie-denying reguiarity. No doubt
each o us who was present to it in
the 60s and 0s absorbed Iiberation
dierentiy, rich and various as it was.
But no one I know now represents its
undamentai ethos better than Dougias
does.
Dougiass contributions to queer
activism and thinking have another
aspect beyond iiberationism. 1hey are
aiso theoreticaiiy rigorous in a way that
iiberationism wasnt. In his proessionai
work, Dougias had discovered the
importance and pertinence o a wide
range o theory, had mastered it, and
had depioyed it to wonderui eect. He
brought his grasp o theory to the iib-
erationist iegacy, to revise it, to renew
it, and to imbue it with new iie and
new cogency.
And there is one nnai aspect o
Dougiass contributions to queer activ-
ism and thinking I want to mention.
Dougias beiongs to a rare ciass o
persons who know how to make their
criticai vision present and urgent and
vivid to others. Whether he is teiiing
us what he sees in a dance or in a scuip-
ture, or what he regrets in the high
vaiuation o coupiehood in our society,
he can draw us to his insight. His git
o drawing us to his insight is cioseiy
tied to his generous wish to share what
he sees. And Dougias sees so much, so
weii.
I count it a priviiege to have the
opportunity to present to you, on this
occasion o honor, my beioved riend
Dougias Crimp.

ACTIDN
ARDUND
THE EDGES
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T
he day in August Id
chosen to move rom
Greenwich Viiiage to
1riBeCa was one o the
hottest o the summer o 194. I
rented a van and got my on-again,
o-again boyriend Richard to heip
out. my apartment on 1enth Street
west o Hudson was a ourth-noor
raiiroad nat, my new piace was a
spacious sky-iit iot on Chambers
Street, aiso west o Hudson. Id
arranged to use the reight ei-
evator in the iot buiiding or the
day, a rickety oid eievator oper-
ated by puiiing down hard on the
hoist cabie on a puiiey system and
stopped by yanking the other cabie.
It was a chaiienge to bring it ievei
with the noor. Ater piiing aii o
my beiongings on the eievators
piatorm, Richard and I and the
artist next door rom whom I was
subietting my iot managed to get

the overioaded
eievator to start its
ascent, but by the
time wed reached
the third noor it
came to a grinding
hait and started siiding
back downwards. We aii
grabbed the cabie to try to
siow the eievators piunge and
did manage to prevent a ree aii,
but it crashed onto the basement noor
nevertheiess. Ater recovering our wits
and nnding ourseives iuckiiy un-
harmed, we had to iug my beiongings
through the oid industriai buiidings
dank basement and up the back stairs,
make our way with them through
a jam-packed hardware store on the
ground noor, and then haui them up
our more nights o stairs.
my new iot had some other ameni-
ties besides the skyiight, one o them
with a ciassy provenance. 1he space
had previousiy been rented by the set
designer Robert Israei, rom whom I
bought the nxtures. Among these was
a stage-iike piatorm about ten eet
square and standing two eet above the
noor, which Robert must have used
or mock-up designs, I positioned it
underneath the skyiight and used it as
a spatiai demarcation or my bedroom.
I didnt pay undue attention to the
symboiism o bedroom-as-brightiy-iit-
stage, but I guess it was apt or that
moment o my iie. 1he nxture with
the provenance was a iarge rerigerator-
reezer that had been given to )asper
)ohns by marion )avits, the art coi-
iector and sociaiite wie o New \ork
States amous iiberai Repubiican sena-
tor. )ohns had given it to Robert, and
Robert soid it to me.
my move rom the Viiiage to
1riBeCa came about as a resuit o my
decision to get serious about being an
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art critic, to repiace the gay scene with the art scene. I suppose it was a mo-
ment o my iatent Caivinism taking hoid. Id come to eei mysei adrit, not
accompiishing enough, not spending enough time with the crowd to which
I rightiy beionged. my exchange o one scene or another was destined to
aii, but my attempt to achieve it with an essentiaiiy spatiai impiementa-
tion interests me now. 1he immediate impuise is not easy or me to recon-
struct, but it had something to do with the sometime boyriend who heiped
me move and crashed with me in the eievator. A riend had toid me that
Richard was inappropriate or me, something that has been said more
than once about the objects o my sexuai interest. But in this case I took
the opinion more or iess to heart, because Richard had become my tormen-
tor. 1he on-gain, o-again character o the aair was in act quite brutai.
as soon as I became reaiiy hooked on him, hed abruptiy ditch me, and then
just as I was getting over being jiited, hed come back pieading that he
couidnt iive without me, and Id get hooked once again. 1his emotionai
Ssm had its physicai side too, which is no doubt what enthraiied me in the
nrst piace. But beyond these commonpiace acts o whats caiied a reiation-
ship, Richard was indeed very dierent rom me, inteiiectuaiiy, poiiticaiiy.
1he emotionai turmoii o my aair with Richard had come to symboi-
ize or me my participation in the gay scene more generaiiy-unjustiy, o
course-and my sense that Id be better o iiving urther downtown in
1riBeCa was determined, in my memory o it now, by an event that repre-
sented a substitute iove object. Sometime in the spring o 194, I saw the
Grand Union perorm. 1he Grand Union was an improvisationai dance
group that grew out o \vonne Rainers iate-1960s Perormance Demonstra-
tions, especiaiiy cotioaas !j..t. A/t..a Dai/y Its members were mostiy
dancers who had piayed a roie in the )udson Dance 1heater. Id seen very
iittie dance since my nrst ecstatic exposure to it in merce Cunninghams
Brookiyn Academy o music engagement in the winter o 190, where I
saw, most memorabiy, kaio|.st. with Andy Warhois heiium-niied siiver
myiar ciouds and the set and music by David 1udor. I date my iove o
dance to that moment, so I cant understand now why I didnt continue to
pursue it. It was, in act, more perormance art than dance that I was drawn
to in the improvisationai antics o the Grand Union dancers. And indeed, it
was perormance art that seemed to beckon as a substitute object or my ii-
bido. By this time, I had seen eariy works by )oan )onas, who acknowiedges
a debt to )udson. In 191 I sat with other audience members on the noor o
)onass iot on Grand Street in SoHo to watch her c/.oaoia, perormed on
a swinging mirrored waii constructed by Richard Serra. Here is a descrip-
tion o the perormance space that )onas and I wrote together ten years iater
or her Berkeiey Art museum exhibition cataiogue.
A tweive-by-eight-oot waii o wood hangs by chains rom the ceiiing
two-and-a-hai eet rom the ground. Ropes and handies are attached
to the back so that the nve perormers can ciimb the waii unseen by the
spectators. 1he right-hand third o the ront o the waii is mirrored. 1he
waii can be swung back and orth and sideways by the perormers, and
their movements are choreographed in reiation to the waiis motion.
1he waii is hung so that it bisects the iong narrow space o the iot.
1he spectators sit in the ront hai o the iot, acing the prop. 1he spec-
tators space and the spectators themseives are renected in the mirrored
portion o the waii as it swings rom side to side. Because this waii is
aiso the ourth waii o the spectators space, the iiiusion is created that

their space is swaying.

1he main unction o the waii
is to ragment the perormance in
such a way that much o the per-
ormance action is seen oniy around
the waiis our edges. 1he appear-
ing/disappearing actions recaii a
magic show.
my titie Action around the Idges
is meant to resonate not oniy with
this description o c/.oaoia but
aiso with the periphery o the city,
its piers, and what some o us did on
those piers. In 191, an oid pier just
south o Chambers Street was the site
o !j..ts. !i. 1S. a series o peror-
mances and events orchestrated by
Wiiioughby Sharp and devised to be
photographed by Harry Shunk or an
exhibition at the museum o modern
Art. 1he most enduring work made
in reiation to !j..ts. !i. 1S was, in-
terestingiy enough, not photographic
and not in the show. 1he work, a iater
version o which is currentiy instaiied
in the garden o Dia. Beacon, is Iouise
Iawiers Bia.a//s. in which Iawier (I
borrow Rosaiyn Deutsches concise
description here) squeais, squawks,
chirps, twitters, croaks, squeaks, and
occasionaiiy warbies the names-pri-
mariiy the surnames-o twenty-eight
contemporary maie artists, rom Vito
Acconci to Iawrence Weiner. Iawier
expiains that the work
originated in the eariy 190s when
my riend martha Kite and I were
heiping some artists on one o the
Hudson River pier projects. 1he
women invoived were doing tons
o work, but the work being shown
was oniy by maie artists. Waik-
ing home at night in New \ork,
one way to eei sae is to pretend
youre crazy or at ieast be reaiiy
ioud. martha and I caiied ourseives
the due chantoosies, and wed sing
o-key and make other noises.
Wiiioughby Sharp was the impre-
sario o the project, so wed make a
Wiiioughby Wiiioughby sound,
trying to sound iike birds. 1his
deveioped into a series o bird caiis
based on artists names.
Iawiers work responds comicaiiy
not oniy to the exciusion o women
rom so many o the experimentai
projects o the period but aiso to the
dangers that some o the citys spaces
o experimentation heid because o
their out-o-the-way iocations. Vito
Acconci made these dangers the
impiicit subject o his project or
Pier 18, caiied ..aity Zo. With
hands bound behind his back, biind-
oided, and wearing earpiugs, Acconci
entrusted his saety to eiiow artist
Iee )ae. 1he piece was, Acconci
said, designed to aect an everyday
reiationship by orcing himsei to
deveiop trust in someone about whom
he had ambiguous eeiings. Iook-
ing at the photographs, you some-
times cant teii whether )ae is about
to push Acconci o the edge o the
pier or saving him rom aiiing o.
Gordon matta-Ciark, currentiy the
ngure most compieteiy identined with
the spirit o downtown manhattan as
a site o artistic experimentation in
the 190s, aiso made a project or !i.
1S. but his reerence to endangerment
is, as in so much o his work, one o
bravura, o physicai derring-do rather
than psychoiogicai vuinerabiiity. At
Pier 18, he pianted an evergreen tree
in a piie o debris and suspended
himsei by rope upside down above
it. But this was oniy an easy rehearsai
or what wouid be matta-Ciarks most
audacious act and certainiy one o his
most magnincent works, Days oa. o
195, his summer-iong transorma-
tion o the diiapidated Pier 52, which
stood at the end o Gansevoort Street
in New \orks meat-packing district.
In an interview with Iiza Baer, matta-
Ciark expiains how be ound the site.
Originaiiy what I had sighted on
were the aades because as you go
down the Pier, driving down the
pier aiong that empty highway in
Although lnltlally
terrlBed of the Plers.
I began to take
these photos as a
voyeur. but soon
grew determlned
to preserve the
frlghtenlng. mad.
unbellevable.
vlolent. and
beautlful thlngs
that were golng on
at that tlme.
-Alvln Baltrop

ront, the aades are an incredibie,

animated grouping o dierent eras
and dierent personaiities. And I
wanted to deai with one o the ear-
iier ones, which this is-a turn o
the century aade. 1heres a ciassic
sort o tin ciassicism. And to cut at
the aade. So the ones that I ound
originaiiy were aii compieteiy over-
run by the gays. And Ssm, you
know that whoie Ssm shadows o
waterront...
matta-Ciark reerred to the three
months o work on Days oa as his
summer vacation by the water. )udg-
ing rom the nim shot o it, it wasnt
a restui vacation. Working with his
riend Gary Hovagymian, matta-Ciark
used such heavy toois as a chain saw
and a biowtorch to cut through the
timbers o the piers noor and the cor-
rugated tin roo and aade. 1he most
dramatic moments o the nim show
matta-Ciark wieiding the biowtorch
as he dangies on a smaii piatorm
strung up by rope puiiey about twenty
eet above the piers noor. Oten shirt-
iess but wearing protective goggies,
matta-Ciark cuts the west-end ocuius
through the tin siding as sparks ny
about him in a perormance that is
equai parts Buster Keaton and Doug-
ias Iairbanks. matta-Ciark speaks o
the absurdity o the whoie activity,
even as his reerences to the basiiica-
iike structure and rose window that
he added to it sacraiize the setting.
Some o those who had the good
ortune to see Days oa reiate a sense
o awe enhanced by ear. Scuiptor )oei
Shapiro recaiis that the piece was
dangerous, that matta-Ciark was
creating some kind o edge-nirting
with some sort o abyss. But matta-
Ciark intended the opposite sort o
experience.
1he one thing that I wanted was
to make it possibie or peopie to
see it...in a peaceui enciosure
totaiiy enciosed in an un-menac-
ing kind o way. 1hat when they
went in there, they wouidnt eei
iike every squeak or every shadow
was a potentiai threat. I know in
iots o the eariier works that I did,
the kind o paranoia o being in a
space where you didnt know who
was there, and what was happening
or whether there were menacing
peopie iurking about, was just dis-
tracting. And I just wanted a more
joyous situation....
)oyous, dangerous, absurd, sacred,
nirting with the abyss-matta-Ciarks
and others descriptions o Days oa
make it impossibie or me not to
think o the experiences o those other
pier occupants, the ones rom whom
matta-Ciark seems in neariy aii his
statements about the work to want to
dierentiate himsei-you know, that
whoie Ssm, as he put it. Aithough
in many instances matta-Ciark aiigns
his work with others who occupy
or otherwise make their mark upon
abandoned areas o cities, particuiariy
workers and disenranchised youth, in
the case o Pier 52, matta-Ciark not
oniy disavowed any bond with the gay
men who were using the piers as cruis-
ing grounds but went so ar as to iock
them out by ciosing with barbed wire
the hoies peopie made to break in and
putting his own iock on the entrance.
It may be that matta-Ciark had
no particuiar animus toward the gay
men who used the piers but simpiy
that he wanted to be abie to make his
work undisturbed, to protect himsei
rom intruders o any kind. But its
dincuit to say, because matta-Ciark
wasnt particuiariy careui to dieren-
tiate among the various dangers that
journaiists writing at the time about
the sexuai activity at the piers tended
to connate . hazardous, disintegrating
structures, threatening, perverse sexu-
aiity, and criminais who preyed on,
robbed, and sometimes even murdered
the piers ciandestine users.
Gay men were acuteiy aware o the
piers dangers, and, together with
vernacuiar art work and granti, they
painted signs warning eiiow cruis-
ers to watch their waiiets. moreover,
matta-Ciark wasnt the oniy one who
took to the piers or a summer vaca-
tion by the water. Shieided rom pub-
iic view by the warehouse structure,
gay men used the piers end that jut-
ted ar out into the river as a piace to
sunbathe. It doesnt, I think, dimin-
ish the accompiishment o Days oa
to say that a romantic grandeur was
perceptibie in the ruined piers beore
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matta-Ciark ever wrought a singie

change on Pier 52 and that much o
the pieasure that gay men took in be-
ing in the piers was what drew artists
to them as weii. Its not just that they
were there and avaiiabie, they were
vast and hauntingiy beautiui. Nor
was the sex piay in the piers oniy o
the rough and kinky variety, uniess
you think that any kind o sex outside
a domestic setting is kinky.
1he entire range o pieasures and
dangers o the piers was captured by
a too-iittie-known Arican American
photographer, Aivin Baitrop, who
documented goings-on there dur-
ing the 190s and 80s up to and
inciuding the piers demoiition in
the iate 1980s. Severai o Baitrops
photographs show gay men at Pier 52,
taking in the beauty o matta-Ciarks
Days oa aiong with whatever other
beauties they might be pursuing. In-
deed, these photographs wonderuiiy
portray the peaceui enciosure and
joyous situation that matta-Ciark
said he wanted to achieve with Days
oa Iike matta-Ciark, Baitrop aiso
hoisted himsei on a harness to make
his work. In the preace or a book
that he worked unsuccessuiiy to com-
piete beore dying o cancer in 2004,
Baitrop wrote.
Aithough initiaiiy terrined o the
Piers, I began to take these photos
as a voyeur, but soon grew deter-
mined to preserve the rightening,
mad, unbeiievabie, vioient, and
beautiui things that were going on
at that time. 1o get certain shots,
I hung rom the ceiiings o severai
warehouses utiiizing a makeshit
harness, watching and waiting or
hours to record the iives that these
peopie ied, and the unortunate
ends that they sometimes met.
1he casuai sex and nonchaiant
narcotizing, the creation o artwork
and music, sunbathing, dancing,
merrymaking and the iike habitu-
aiiy gave way to muggings, caiious
yet detached vioience, rape, suicide,
and in some instances, murder.
1he rapid emergence and expansion
o AIDS in the 1980s urther re-
duced the number o peopie going
to and iiving at the Piers, and the
sporadic joys that couid be ound
there.
Uniike Baitrop, I didnt eei con-
sciousiy araid o the piers. 1hey were
part o my neighborhood cityscape
and one o many nearby piaces to piay
outdoors. Iocated a short waik rom
my apartment on 1enth Street, Pier
44, which no ionger had a structure
on it, was a iocai piace to hang out
and be cooied by the Hudson Rivers
breezes on hot summer days and
watch the sun set over New )ersey in
the evening. Iven cioser was Pier 45,
the main gay cruising pier, where the
upper noor warren o rooms aiong the
West Street end o the pier unctioned
day and night iike a sex ciub with no
cover charge. Pier 45 was oniy one
o many nearby piaces or outdoor
sex piay. Another Greenwich Vii-
iage haunt o men seeking other men
was known simpiy as the 1rucks, a
designation or the empty iots aiong
Washington Street north o Christo-
pher Street where deiivery trucks were
parked at night. Ater the bars ciosed
at 4.00 a.m., gay men gathered in the
spaces behind the trucks and oten up
inside the back o them or group sex.
I you iived in the Viiiage, this was
an encient way to bring your night
at the bars to a satisying end without
having to repair to a bath house in
another neighborhood
Come to think o it, maybe I uas
araid o the piers-araid not oniy
o their very reai dangers, o which I
tended to be overtiy and stupidiy dis-
missive, but aiso o their easy proxim-
ity and constant promise. I was strug-
giing to write about art proessionaiiy
as a reeiancer then, which took more
discipiine than I couid usuaiiy mus-
ter, since the rustrations o being
unabie to nnd a good subject, devise
a sound argument, even compose a
sentence I was happy with or choose
a word that rang true couid be easiiy
i oniy momentariiy aiieviated just by
Come to thlnk of lt. maybe I WAS afrald of the plers~afrald not only of thelr
very real dangers. of whloh I tended to be overtly and stupldly dlsmlsslve.
but also of thelr easy proxlmlty and oonstant promlse. I was struggllng to
wrlte about art professlonally as a freelanoer then. whloh took more dlsolpllne
than I oould usually muster. slnoe the frustratlons of belng unable to Bnd a
good sub]eot. devlse a sound argument. even oompose a sentenoe
I was happy wlth or ohoose a word that rang true oould be easlly lf only
momentarlly allevlated ]ust by walklng out my door and lnto the playground
that was my lmmedlate nelghborhood.

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waiking out my door and into the
piayground that was my immediate
neighborhood. 1his is why, I think,
seeing the Grand Union perorm
sticks in my mind as being such a
momentous event or me, why it
propeiied me to another part o the
city and another worid. Apart rom
monthiy reviewing or At !.us and
At Iot.oatioa/. the most ambi-
tious writing I managed during the
severai years I iived in the Viiiage
were a monographic essay on Agnes
martin and a commissioned essay or
the cataiogue o an exhibition heid
in miian o American minimaiist
painters rom martin and Ad Rein-
hardt to Brice marden and Richard
1uttie. In both essays I struggied
to think beyond the Greenbergian
ormaiism that stiii heid sway in so
much American art criticism at that
time. What wouid nnaiiy ree me
rom its grip was not painting but
perormance art.
1he biock in 1riBeCa to which
I moved in 194 bordered the site
o what had been perhaps the most
ambitious and imaginative use o
the de-industriaiizing city as the
stage or an art work, )oan )onass
perormance D./ay D./ay o 192.
Once again, )onas and I describe the
perormance space o D./ay D./ay in
our 198~ book.
1he spectators view the peror-
mance rom the roo o a nve-sto-
ry iot buiiding acing west, io-
cated at ~19 Greenwich Street in
iower manhattan. 1he perorm-
ing area is a ten-biock grid o city
streets bounding vacant iots and
ieveied buiidings. Beyond these
iots are the eievated West Side
Highway, the docks and piers
aiong the Hudson River, and
the actories o the New )ersey
Skyiine across the river. Directiy
in ront o the spectators at the
back o the perormance area is
the Irie Iackawanna Pier buiid-
ing painted with iarge numbers
20 and 21. 1hese indicate the
oid pier numbers.
By the time I moved to 1riBeCa
these downtown piers had been torn
down to make way or Battery Park
City, which was then put on hoid
during the citys nscai crisis. New
\ork was going bankrupt, and its
inrastructure was badiy deteriorat-
ing. Beyond the razed biocks that
had once been part o the Washing-
ton market was the eievated high-
way, now empty too, and beyond
that, where the piers had been, a
barren iandnii that Iower manhat-
tan residents christened the beach.
A ew years iater, a newiy ounded
arts organization caiied Creative
1ime wouid begin its series o out-
door exhibitions there caiied Art
on the Beach. An era o onciaiiy
sponsored pubiic art was underway,
with its commissioning entities,
paneis o experts, permits, contracts,
and eventuaiiy its controversies and
court cases.
I didnt manage to change worids
by moving to 1riBeCa. I stiii spent
neariy every evening in the Viiiage,
but now most o them ended with
a iong waik down the west side to
my new neighborhood. It was a
time when I couid cherish the iiiu-
sion that these manhattan streets
beionged to me-to me and others
who were discovering them and
using them or our own purposes.
And I did manage to become an art
critic. 1he nrst articie I wrote ater
moving downtown was )oan )onass
Perormance Works, pubiished in
a speciai issue o taai Iot.oatioa/
devoted to perormance art. )onas
was perhaps more ciear-sighted than
I about the possibiiity o appropriat-
ing city spaces. I quote her in my
essay as saying. my own thinking
and production has ocused on issues
o space-ways o disiocating it,
attenuating it, nattening it, turn-
ing it inside out, aiways attempting
to expiore it without ever giving to
mysei or to others the permission to
penetrate it.