Diedrich Diederichsen – Endlessness

Went to a fantastic lecture today by one of my favorite writers, Diedrich Diederichsen, who was discussing the artist Martin Kippenberger. At the very beginning of the talk, he alluded to the idea of “sequentiality” in Kippenberger’s work. Sequencing has been on my mind a great deal lately because of the exhibition I’m co-organizing. (It’s called “To Illustrate and Multiply: An Open Book and it opens at MOCA, Los Angeles, on October 19.)

In a way that I can’t even begin to paraphrase, Diedrich elucidated the “endlessness” of Kippenberger’s practice — i.e., the ways in which Kippenberger’s work would lead to other work (a path that is decidedly non-linear in reality) but would also lead to work done by others (friends, assistants) that would be part of his practice. And when Kippenberger became unable to do the work he would set another in motion to do it for him. And so on, and so on…

Diedrich also talked about what amounts to a joke deprived of its punchline, a joke that can go on and on endlessly without the closure provided by a punchline.

A couple of specific thoughts came to mind that I want to remember for later:

If MK’s practice was somehow based on endlessness, how does it feel to be one of those who made work for him? What is it like to work in the shadow of someone who worked in this way? Is it a concern that any work done by those people henceforth is co-optable under this rubric? I’ve recently observed that some artists who were close to Kippenberger during his life have sought to distance themselves from his legacy and I wonder if this is an act of artistic survival for those artists who are still alive or is it a refutation of something that threatens to become commodified.

Also, I am intrigued by the potential that could be yielded through a consideration of sequenciality in an artist’s practice. Perhaps for some, one thing leads to the next and so one, but for many the path is more rhizomatic. And, in deference to a model that Diedrich himself likes to call out in his writing, one often discovers the presence of internal loops — of the eternal return to certain themes and ideas that lead elsewhere each time they are revisited. Certainly that is the case for me. I am often surprised to find myself thinking about something that preoccupied me many years ago but it continues to be generative, especially in the context of the current moment, as it leads me in a new direction (which turns out to take me to the place I started). This blog is proof of that.

More on sequentiality later. Thank-you Diedrich — and Martin, wherever you are.