Coyote - Joseph Beuys

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Coyote

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Joseph Beuys Coyote Caroline TIsdall

This publica tio n was the firs t attempt to capture aperformance by Joseph Beuys in book form . Since itsfirst appearance in 1976, it has become one of themost sought after documents of its kind, not only asa direct account of one of Beuys's acclaimed and best-known performance wo rks, or Actions, but also as animportant landmark in the w ay his art has beenreceived. Notably, this is the first time that the bookhas appeared in English.

Joseph Beuys w as one of the most original andinfluential art ists of his time, and his work continuesto draw immense popular and crit ical atte ntion. Inthe early 1960s, he created a series of Actions thatpromot ed his efforts to remove the boundar iesbetween art and life . Beuys's most famous Act ion, ILike America and America Likes Me, took place inMay 1974, w hen he spent seven days and nights in aroom w ith a w ild coyote. This w as only his second tripto America; on arrival at Kennedy Airport. New York,the artist was w rapped in fe lt and taken by ambulanceto the Rene Block Gallery. Beuys later said: ' I wan tedto isolate my self , insulate my self, see nothi ng ofAm erica other than the coyote.'

Beuys's activit ies during his confineme nt w ith thecoyote follow ed a repeate d patte rn. He employed anumber of objects : felt, a wa lking stick, gloves, af lashlight, and the Wall Street Journal- f ift y copieswe re delivered daily, in two piles . Over the period ofa week, man and beast developed a mode ofwordless co-existence, a tw o-sided performa nce, thatbecame rich w ith assumed meanings: gestu res andmovements took on an almos t allegor ical level ofsignif icance. Finally, Beuys was w rapped in fe lt oncemore and returned to the airport .

Caroline Tisdall, a longstanding fr iend of the art ist,w ho has writt en extensive ly on Beuys and hasdirected films about him, took most of thephotographs and w rote the accompany ing text. Thispublication marks a signif icant moment in the studyof modern art. performance and the life of one of thetwentieth century 's most enigmatic geniuses.

With 97 ill ustr ations

Jacket photo by Caroline Tisdall

Caro line Tisdall is a for mer art crit ic and featurew rite r for the Guardian and the director of the filmsJoseph Beuys and The Last Post Run for the BBCand Channel 4 respectively.

Other titles of interest

The Art of Part icipation1950 to NowEdited by Rudolf FrielingWith 215 colour illustrations

PerformanceLive Art Since th e 60sRoseLee GoldbergForew ord by Laurie AndersonIllustrated in colour and black andw hite throughout

New Art in th e 60s and 70sRedefining RealityAnne RorimerWith 303 illust rations

Art Sin ce 1900M odernism, Ant im odernism andPostmodern ismHal Foster, Rosalind Krauss,Yve-Alain Bois and Benjamin H. D. BuchlohWith 637 illustrations, 413 in colour

Anselm Kiefer / Paul CelanMyth, Mourning and MemoryAndrea Lauterw einWi th 157 illust rations, 140 in colour

If you w ould like to receive details of ournew and forthcoming tit les, please sendyour name and address to

Thames & Hudson181A High HolbornLondon WC 1V 70X

www.thamesandhudson.com

Printed in Slovenia

All pho tog raphs are by Caroline Tisdall, w ith the fo llow ing exceptio ns: pp . 18 , 3 2, 36, 38, 52,5 8 and 70 are reprod uced courtesy of lorra ine Senna , New York; pp 7 2 , I 16 , 11 8 a nd 126 areby G wen Phill ips, New York.The text on page 86 is reprodu ced by kind permission 01the author,Johannes Stuttgen [on English translatian appears o n p. 16 1.The extract from Le PefitPrince by Anto ine de Soinf-Exuperv on p. 159 ap pea rs as per Beuys'or ig inal instruction s a nd is reprinted by kind permission o f Ed itions G allimard , Paris.

Any copy o f ihis book issued by the publisher a s a pa perba ck is sold subject 10 the co nd ition thol itsholl not by way o f /rade or o therwi se be lenl, resold, hired oul or otherwise ci rculated w ilhout thepub lisher's prior co nsent in any form of b inding or cove r other rhon thai in w hich II is published andwithout a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

f irst published in the Uoued Kingdom in 2008 byThames & Hudso n l id , 18 I A High Holba rn, London WC 1V 70X

www.tha mesandhudson .com

O rigi nal edi tion 19 7 6 / 200 8 by Schirmer/ fvlo sel, MunichThis ed ilion 2008 Tho mes & Hudson l td, LondonW orks by Joseph Beuys VG BM Kunst, Bonn 2008

All Righls Reserved . No par I o f tlus pub lica lion may be reproduced or Iransmilled in any form or byany means, electronicor mechanica l, including photocopy, recording or any other informa tion storageand retrieval system, wlfhou t prior permission in writing from the publisher.

British li brary Catalo guing-in-Publica tion DataA ca lo logue reco rd for Ihis baok is availab le from Ihe British Library

ISBN 978-(}5005436 8 9

Printed and bound in Slovenia by Go renjsk! Tisk, Kran j

IL- _

Preface

It's no exaggeration to claim that Beuys' Coyote became one of thebest-loved art works of the late twentieth century. In the thirty-two

years since the first publication of this book, scarcely a month has

passed without requests for photographs of this extraordinarily

evocative dialogue between human and beast, representatives ofdifferent species. I have often wondered how so many people who

were, of course, not present at the performance of Coyote can yetidentify with the relevance and resonance of this encounter, and

instinctively relate to the warmth and optimism of its meaning.

A generation later these images are still as iconic and challenging

as ever, and I am thrilled that a new readership will have the chance

to identify with nature's powerful languages, the scapegoat and

outsider, with love for other forms of life, and above all, respect for

them. For me Coyote was the most fulfilling work of art, and like allgreat works of art it retains its own mysterious complex aura of

apparent simplicity and accessibility.

Caroline Tisdall, 2008

5

Jimmy Boyle :

'At the moment I hear much talk of taking art to the w hole of society,

but I also experience tremend ous co nfusion by art ists on how to do

this. The only worthw hile statement that has had any effect on me

and others in my environment has been Joseph Beuys' d ial ogue with

the Coyote . The others pass over the head of society and lose their

impact, and the gist of the particular sta tement is lost. If art and thear tist wish es to take the statement to the public then he must clar ify

what he is saying, o therwise the sta tement w ill make the public feel

stup id because he cannot understand . This will cause the publi c to

w ithd raw and further alienate art and society.'

Jimmy Boy le is serving a life sentence in the Special Unit of a Scottish

jail . He wrote this after seeing some of the photographs that follow.Mayb e his statement in its turn w ill turn out to be 'the on ly worthwhile

sta tement' tha t can be made about Coyote . And so humbly I

ded icate these notes and photog raphs to Jimmy Boyle and all 'o thers

of his environment' .

Caroline Tisda ll, 1976

COYOTE: I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME

O ne w eek 's performance on the occasion of the opening of the Rene

Block Gallery, New York, May 19 74 .

The Coyote ac tion began on the journey from Europe to America .After the ice fields of La brad or, the uninhabite d no-man's land of the

mind, the man covered his eyes, and that was the last he saw ofAmerica .

At Kennedy Airport he was wrapped from head to foot in felt , the

mater ial w hich for him is both insula tor and w armth preserver. He

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was loaded into an ambula nce , mobi le reminder of scientific therapy,

and driven stra ight to the plac e which he w as to share w ith the

coyote . The action ended a w eek later w hen, once more insulated

in felt, he was car ried ba ck in the ambulance on the first stag e of

his journey back to Europe. Red Cross for the man , Blue Cross for

the animal.

In between there was the da y-in, da y-out public dialogue :

long , ca lm, concentra ted , almost silent da ys of d ial ogue between

representatives of two species tog ether in the same space for the fi rst

time . It w as a long light space, thre~ w indows casting the chang ing

light and shade of passing days. The late spring sun ca st a glow thatw as somehow rural , blond , brown and grey, certainly nothing to do

wi th the urban scene beyo nd the windows . A heavy chain link barrier

separated the man and the coyote from the people w ho came and

w ent all da y. It came to mark an area of freedom for the

pro tagonists , am biguous ly cag ing the spectators . In the far corner

of this space w as the straw that had been brought w ith the coyote .

The man had brought objects and elements from his world to

pla ce in this spac e, silent rep resentati ves of his ideas and beliefs.

He introduced them to the coyote. The coyote responded coyote-style

by claiming them w ith his gesture of possession . O ne by one as they

w ere presented he pissed on them slowly and del iberately : felt ,

wa lking stick, gloves, flashlight an d Wa ll Stree t journal, but aboveall the Wall Street journal. The element s w ere ar ranged in the space.The two long leng ths of felt we re placed in the midd le, one drawninto a heap w ith the flashlight shining out of it. And at the front ofthe spac e w ere two nea t piles of Wall Street journals, fifty a day,and the edition of each chang ing da y.

The man had also brought a repe rtoi re of movements w ith him,

and a notion of time . These, too , w ere sub ject to the coyote'sresponses, and were modulated and co ndi tioned by them. The man

n. -ve r too k his eye s off the an imal . The line of sig ht between them

Ixo rne like the hands of a spir itual clockfac e measuring the timing

, " movements and setting the pa ce for the dialogue throug h time.

II H! ma n car ried out his seq uence o f movements, a choreography. luoc ted towards the co yote, the timing and the mood reg ula ted by

lil t' a nima l. General ly the sequence lasted about an ho ur a nd a

' 1IHHter, somet imes much lo nger. In all it was repea ted well ove r thirty

rimes, but the mood and the tone w ere never the same .

The man w a lked towards one length of felt w ith a brown w a lking',Iil k over his arm , and pulled o n the brown gl oves. Then he swathed

Il imself in the felt , easing it up over his hat unti l nothing but the ra ised

',Iick, its curvi ng end stretch ing upward , emerged above the g rey

" ~ n t . The image w as an hierarchical one, upright and di stant, the

, loor out line of a tall shepherd figu re g limpsed across the d istances

, " Ihe steppes.

And the gaunt o utline of fe lt a nd stick was a sculptural ima ge

II )0 , and like a sculpture it w as taken thro ugh successive forms and

',loges : vertica l, c roo k di rected upwards; bent at a right angle,

I look to the g round ; c rouching upright as if for the long wait, then

, louching aga in with the stick incl ined to the floor. A ll the time

,IHe! figure shifted slightly on its axis , follOWing the d irectio n a ndmovement o f the coyote . Then the calm silence and the slow pa ssage

III time w ere abruptly broken . The figure fell sideways to the ground ,u.mslor med into a prone body wra pped in felt, a reminder of another

"Vl !nt in the life of the man , a vulnera ble ob jec t.The general structure of the movements w as always the same ,

I )i l l those of the coyote var ied w ith every sequence . Sometimes

III : beha ved as if this kind of move ment w as run of the mill to him.

~ .ometirnes he kept a certai n d istance , or seemed qui te detached

li o m wh at w as going on , a nd the atmosphere w as dignified a nd

I . rlrn. At other times he hovered , w a iting and w atchful, c ircli ng

ca utious ly round the felt figure, nervous of the slig htest movement.

And occas io na lly he w ent qu ite mad w ith exc itement, mischief a nd

mal ice mixed , playful to the po int o f aggression , leap ing at the stick,

mauling the felt, tearing it apart until it w as reduced to tiny shreds

that resembled the moult ing tufts of his own pe lt. He rea ctedparticu lar ly strong ly when the fel t figu re was lying prone a nd

motionless, nosing at it a nxio usly, poking it solicitously, paw ing

at it like the an xious friend , or avoiding it w ith a wary susp ic ion.

Occasiona lly he lay down w ith the figure , or tried to creep beneath

the felt.

But the co yo te 's usual doz ing p lace was the other pile of felt.

He wou ld stretch out on it or curl up, eye s hal f-closed , relaxed or

w ary, and always shining their strange blond fire in the sa me

direction as the glowing fla shlight. His back w as never turned to the

people wa tching fro m behind the barr ier. Maybe he sensed tha t more

danger co uld co rne fro m them than fro m the man in there with him,

or maybe it w as simpl y because he w as a splendid show ma n.

His routine and timing w ere never dull. Sometimes he too k over the

show co mpletely, rang ing up and dow n the space, stopping now

a nd then to stare ba ck a t the staring vis itors , suddenly turning on the

mean look his a ud ience mig ht have been expe cting . Now a nd then

he w ould remember the w indows and the w orld o utside, and stare

out in amazement at New York and the bustle of the street be low .

Then he would go to town on the Wall StreetJournal , clawing at it,chew ing it, d ragg ing it ac ross the space, pissing o n it a nd shitting

on it. And every so often , with uncanny w ol f rhythm , he would ci rcle

back to his mute fel t-sw a thed co mpa nio n.

Suddenly the inert figure stretched o ut on the ground would spring

up, casting off the felt as he di d so, and strike three cle ar resound ing

notes on the tria ngl e at his w a ist. The high sharp sound sha ttered the

silence. Then the silence built up over the next ten seconds to be

7

blotted out again , this time by a twenty-second reverberating blas t

of noi se: the roar of turbine machines projected from a tape-recorder

beyond the barrier. The chaotic sound ended as abruptly as it had

beg un, and as it d id so the man relaxed , took off his brown gloves,

and threw them to the coyote to toss around . Then he w a lked across

to rearrange the mauled and scattered W all StreetJournals into twonea t p iles aga in, and came up front to chat wi th a friend through the

bar rier and to down a g lass of shocking-p ink five-fruits Ha wa iia n

Punch.

Then back to the far corner for a quiet smoke in the coyote's

straw . Oddly enough, or sure enough , this w as the only time the

coyo te took any noti ce of the straw . Usually he preferred the felt.

But when the man was in the corner he join ed him, and that interlude

always had the atmosphere of a farmy ard , long moments of far-aw ay

filtered sunlight. By and by the man got up, sorted out the pi les offelt, drew the long g rey length up ove r his head , and the sequence

started again .

And so the da ys and the sequences w ent slowl y by. The damp

sweaty heat o f the felt took its toll on the man 's fami liar hat,

transforming him into a bedraggled clodhopper. Man and animal

grew closer together : it w as as if they had always been there .

And then it w as time to go. The man took the an imal 's straw and

scattered it slowl y over the space. He too k his leave of Li ttle John ,hugg ing him close wi thout co ncea ling the pa in of separatio n.

Then once more insulated in felt the man w as car ried out to the

ambulance, the a irport and the world in w hich he w as Joseph Beuys.

He w as not there to see the coyo te's reac tio n. Suddenly findi ng

himself alone without the man 's presence , LittleJohn behaved for

the first time like a caged and captive animal , padding up and

down wi th the true w olf 's swi ng , back and forth , sniff ing, searching,

w hining and scenting the a ir w ith fear.

8

I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME

'The whole relationship between the United States and Europe cou ld

be shifted on to a much higher level if the implications of this

d ia log ue w ere car ried through ... '

This w as Beuys' secon d visit to America . The previous w inter he

had presented his Energy Plan for the W estern M an in N ew York,

Ch icago and M inneapolis , speaking all the time. This w as how he

had described his idea of Socia l Sculpture: first of all the extension of

the defin ition of art beyond the spec ia list act ivity car ried out by art ists

to the ac tive mobilization of every ind ividual 's la tent creati vity, and

then, lollowlnq on from that, the moulding of the society of the futurebased on the tota l energ y of this ind ividua l creativity. In other w ords;

from the people, by the people , for the people , as in the G ettysburg

Address, but w ith a new emphasis on from/by/for as a creati veprocess.

THE ENERGY PLAN FOR THE WESTERN MAN

This is an evolut ionary d iagram , a statement of faith in humankind 's

abil ity to emerge from the current cr isis brought about as a result of

rationalist, positivist and materiali st thinking in the West, and to

evo lve a stage further. His Energy Plan for the future ['cnd w hen I say

step by step I mean as soon as possib le .. .' ) takes its impul se from the

belief that the human be ing is ba sically a spiritual be ing , and that our

vision of the world must be extended to encompass a ll the invisibleenergi es w ith which w e have lost contact, or from w hich we have

beco me a lienated . Then new energies ca n be created , and for Beuys

these are very real substances: democ ratic forces of love, w armth

and above all freedom , the substances of Cornpo nellos Sun State .

There's a futurologica l aspect to this, but al so the real ity ofthinkin g , feeling and w ill. There's the questio n of w hether man can

w ill cha nge, and then whether he can link his organic instinctive

feel ing power to his thinking processes: 'O nly ma n w ith his thought

can bring new ca uses into the w orld and these determine the future

cou rse of history' . Thinking is evolutionary, and the human race is

a spec ies in a sta te of evolutio n. But consciousness of this must be

reawakened . And so must the ba lanc e of physica l and spiritual in a llfie lds of huma n ac tivity. The log ica l outcome of Beuys' Energy Plan

is that a term like 'economics' would never again be reduced to

describe the production of simply physical goo ds: a ll forms of

produ ction are economics, a nd all forms of p roduction are creative.

KILLING THE KING'S ENGLISH

The expansion of terms and de finitions beyond their restricted

applica tions is the key to the Energy Plan fo r the Western M an,

and to a ll of Beuys' activity. To present it he used his vo ice, extend ing

the de finition of sculpture to the mould ing of thought into words,w ords arran ged into lecture form with accompanying d iagrams.

The energi es he described are those he has pursued through years

of d raw ings, sculpture, environm ents and pe rfo rmances, right from

the beginning .

On his fi rst visit to America he was trying to dem onstrate that the

voi ce is a vita l transmitter of energ y and a direct means to the

sculpture of thinking forms. Language is the great transformer, since

a ll problems are basica lly language problems, a nd language g ives

fo rm. But language itself must be transformed , and much of Beuys'

ac tiv ity is directed toward s ra ising the aw areness of its revo lutionarypotentia l as an instrument of freedom : 'It is vita l that mankind should

slowly learn to speak, should co me out o f its dumbness, and this

applies above a ll to the man in the street. He must learn to see that

fundamentally he knows an enormous amount, and that an official

education just does not make it possible for him to clari fy his though ts

and feelin gs into words. This amounts to saying that it makes it

impossible for him to w ork together with other human being s wi thin

the co nceptua I field .'

6 6'For me it is the idea of the word that produ ces all images. It is the

key sign for a ll forms of mould ing and organizing . W hen I spea k,

using a theoretical language , I try to induce the impulses of this

power, the pow er of the w hole understandi ng of language w hich for

me is the spi ritua l understa nding of evolution .'

But language is not to be understood simply in terms of speec h

and words . That is our current d rastica lly reduced understand ing of

langu age, a parallel to the reduced understand ing of politics and

economi cs. Beyond language as verba liza tion lies a world of sound

and impulses, a language of primar y sound , w ithout semantic content,but laden w ith comple tely d ifferent levels of information .

Every form of life speaks a langu age , untapped and unheard .

The silent d ia logu e of Coyote , so d ifferent from the speech forms of

the Energy Plan for the Western M an, represents another approa ch to

Beuys' ' to ta lization of language' .

ICE AND IRON

SO the first visit was very much the Energy Plan that Beuys hadbrought w ith him. But on the seco nd visit he wa nted to find a means

of extendi ng it and co mbining it with the w ho le expe rience of the

Ameri can energ ies he had felt durin g that winter. There were the

physica l energi es: the geog raphic currents of the co ntinent, its forces

of history and evo lution, the different character of the ear th, of plant

grow th, of elec tricity in the wi nd from the north, of steam rising fromthe streets, and ice wi th a certai n metall ic cha rac ter to it.

Then there was the sense of vast space unfold ing [This seems to

me to be a very unde rpopu lated land .. .' l, the paradox that if yo u go

9

for enough West it almost becomes the East, a kind of eq uivale nt

of the energi es running across Eurasia from ea st to w est a nd vice

verso, whi ch Beuys characterizes with the Eurasian Stoff , the curved

stick that was to appear again in Coyote. Then to the north:the memory of the polar cop w hich in time immemorial linked the

old w estern world of Europe to w hat w as to be the new wes tern

world of America , a bridge for the ancient w anderings of peoples

and animals.

THE OLD WEST MAN AND THE NEW WEST MAN

The W est Princ iple is a highl y developed d imension of spi rituality,

a crea tive impulse . That for Beuys characterizes the best in the West

M on. But it is heavi ly marred by w hat Cenet in America ca lled 'the

co mplicity of w hite skin' , and w hich Beuys sums up as 'The White

Man is a swi ne': a de structive intolerance and selfishness that has

marked the w hole g lobe. The more recent wonder ing of people,

mainly from the West to the new lands of America , co uld have bee nthe beginning of a new spiritual era : 'The people of the you ng United

Sta tes we re the people most suited to develop the generosity ofthe W est Princ iple . Instead a ll their genia lity went into selfish

ind ividua lism, not the ind ividualism that knows that freedom ends

w hen the freedom of another person, or of another form of life, isdamaged . The Old West Man is best expressed in w hat the Uni ted

States has become. Now at the turning poin t of time the N ew West

Man w ill find the elements that are posi tive in this through the

revolutionary w idening of the West Princ iple. '

THE COYOTE APPEARS

The energ ies and the traumas of a co ntinent are deepl y co nnected

a nd move along together, a ffec ting each other reciprocally in the

fabric of history. The crossing po int of energ y and trauma in Europe

10

or Eurasia has been a cons tant theme in Beuys' w ork. With Coyotehe co nce ntrated on on America n equiva lent w hich he feels has

affec ted the co urse of the history of the United Sta tes: ' I bel ieve Ifound the psychological trauma point of the United States' energ y

co nstellatio n: the w hole American trauma w ith the Indian , the Red

Man .'

This is w here the figur e of the coyote appears , respected and

venerated by the Red M an, de spised and persecuted by the White

M an: a pola rity, and a gulf. Somehow the trauma has to be

reversed, and amen ds mod e: 'You could soy that a reckon ing has

to be mode w ith the coyote, and only then ca n this trauma be lifted .'

For the Indians, the coyote w as one of the most mig hty of a

whole ra nge of deities. He w as on image of transfo rmation, and ,

like the hare or the stag in European mythologi es, he co uld cha nge

his sta te from the physica l to the spiritual and vice verso at wi ll .

Hi s sexua l prowess was redoubtable , and he co uld even turn inside

out through his onus ... Then co me the W hite M an, and the

tra nsition in the coyo te's status. He was reduced from being on

adm irably subversive power on a cosm ic scale to what Jung in his

pre face to Puebl o Ind ian legends ca lled 'the Arch etype of the

Trickster' . H is ingenuity and adoptabil ity w ere now interp reted as

low and co mmon cunning : he become the mean coyote . And having

classed him as o n anti-social menace, wh ite society co uld to ke its

legal ized revenge on him, and hound him like a Dillin ger.

For Beuys the persecution of the coyote is an exam ple of ma n's

tendency to off loa d his own sense of infer iority on to an object

of hatred or a minori ty. It is this hat red and sense of inferio rity that

constantly drives him to exterminate the ob ject of his hatred .

The scapegoat a nd the underdog in every society, as Europ e of the

pogroms and extermina tion ca mps well knows, or chooses to forget.

America has many minori ties, but the Ind ians as orig inal inhab itants

are a speci a l case in the history o f persecution , and the co yo te

co mplex co ntinues as 'a n unworked-out trauma towards the Ind ian s

themselves.'

That is w hy Beuys insulated himsel f fro m the rest of America :

'The manner of the meeting w as impor tant. I w anted to co ncentra te

only on the coyote . I w anted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see

nothing of America other than the coyote. '

There w ere other rea sons too for singling out the coyote . Beuys

has a theory ('or a t least that's w hat I believe I have seen') that the

coyote w as among the an ima ls that ca me over to Ameri ca w ith the

Ind ia ns: that they were bo th o rigi na lly na tives of Eurasia and crossed

the pola r cap w ith the w anderings of prehistory. As such they w ould

both be on odapted extension of the life of Eurasia, the vast expanse

of con tinent crossed by east- w est, west -east currents which Beuys

rep resents w ith the curved energy co nduc tor of the Eurasian staff,

running through his drawings , sculpture, environments and ac tio ns

to link up now w ith Coyote : in Ame rica . In this way the coyotebecame part of the w hole organic anima l cycle , jo ini ng the animals

of the Steppes , the hare , the stag, and his close relat ion the Sibe rian

w o lf, a ll o f them, like the w hite horse in Beuys's action Iphigenia,creat ures w hich are mythologica lly capa ble of sp iritua l

tra nsformation .

THE POLITICAL PARTY FOR ANIMALS

In Beuys' under standing the anim als of the w orld repre sent an

eno rmous source of energy, since beh ind the po wer of each spec ies

sta nds the spi rit o f its group co nsciousness, o r g roup soul : 'They are

fanta stic ent ities for the production of spi ritua l goods' . And they have

pre served intac t many of the abi lities that are lost o r unde rdeveloped

in the human species: 'They have high soul powers, feel ing powers,

po wers of instinct and orientation .' In the Energy Plan for the

Western Man these are the powers that must once more pla ya part

and w ith w hich man must once more come into co ntac t. To do so he

must enter into a dialogue of cooperation for the future, and wi th this

in mind in 1966 Beuys founded the Pol itical Party for An imols wi th

its membe rship of many bill ions .

Before that there had been actions with individual anima ls, a nd

the cha nge w ith Coyote w as tha t the emphas is w as much more ona d ia logue wi th a w ho le speci es. There had been the cry of the stag

in The Chief, ten years before Coyote: soul powers and fee lingcarried in a primary sound . Then How to Explain Pictures to a DeadHare, since'even in death a hare has more sensitivity and instinctiveundersta ndi ng than man w ith his stubborn rationa liza tio n' . And

throughout runs the self-iden tific ation with the hare : ' I am the hare '

as Beuys is given to say wh en put on the spot ...

But Coyote was on action that took place spec ifica lly in Ameri ca :'I would never have done it with a coyote in Europe. But there are

other ani mals in America which could conjure up co mpletely

di fferent aspects of that world. The eag le for instance: the pow ers ofthe head and the intel lect , the West po wers that the Ind ian w ore on

his headd ress.'

THE ELEMENTARY SPIRITS ...

You can speak wi th an a nima l or a plant as on individua l

rep resenta tive of its speci es, o r through it co me into conta ct with the

group soul of that species. This notion of the group soul of a ll for msof life is an essential part of Beuys' concept of rea lity. The so-cal ledlower forms of life : plants, animals , rocks, can gi ve access to the so-

called high er fo rms of life : 'W hy do I work w ith animals to express

invisible powers? - You can make these energies very clea r if you

enter another kingdom that people have fo rgotten, and w here vast

powers survive as big perso nali ties. And w hen I try to speak w ith

11

the spiritual existences af this tota lity of ani mals and plants,

this p lanetar ia n whole, the question arises of w hether one could notspeak w ith these higher exis tences too, with these de ities and

elementary spirits. . .'

'The spi rit of the coyote is so mighty that the human being cannot

unde rstand w hat it is, or wh at it ca n do fo r human kind in the future.'

THE SCIENCE OF FREEDOM

But there w as another side to the d ialogue, and it had to do w ith

freedom . Animals are dependent on their group souls, and cannot

act independently of them. They have highl y deve loped

specia lizations in cer tain direction s, and, a lthough they ca n adapt,

they cannot like man develop new spec ial izations, or new patterns

of thought. They are dependent on leaders in a way that man need

not be . Their point in evo lution is fixed .

The human being , on the other hand, can exist as a free

individua l, and his though t is his freedom. 'The human be ing does

not belong to a group soul like an an ima l. The human being is to be

unde rstood as a freedom-be ing, as an individual.' As a species w e

have reac hed the poi nt w here we can cas t of dependence on

leaders, cla ns a nd hierarchical gods. The knowledge of this freed om

co incides w ith the point of crisi s, o f spiritual poverty and the power

to destroy the w or ld . And the paradox of this freed om is that man

the free ind ivi dual, faced with the complexity of the socie ty he has

created, opts to de lega te responsib ili ty to a governing mino rity

w hose co ntro l is g reate r than that of the most repressive high priest,

and whose de struct ive potential is unequalled in history.

This is exactly the po int in time w here cooperation w ith other

forms of life becomes more tha n ever necessary. The human being

has a specia l contribution to make : only he can grasp the ove rall

structure . Because he is po tentially free as an indi vidual he can

12

make the interconnections between the species : 'The human has the

power to change, the free possibi lity to act one day in the spiri t of a

wolf or a fox, the next in quite a different w ay.'

THE ASPECT OF FREEDOM IS BEGINNING TO APPEAR

(LOUIS SULLIVAN, CHICAGO)

'O nly now has man ac hieved the level of con sciousness at w hich it

is possible for him to bring the sense of freedom back to anima lstoo . He can bring the idea of freedom back to the coyo te, fo r

instance, and this is itself a step in evolution. This is evolution not just

for the human race, but for nature too , a nd human beings are

responsi b le for it. And I think it is significa nt for the world beyond

the crossing line in my system that the world of the future cou ld be

realized by human kind's act ivity and genia lity. Above al l with the

unde rstand ing of the power of freed om, grOWing and evolving

towards w hat you could call the futurolog ical aspects of my theory :

the Sun State, the Warmth Ferry, and Soc ia l Sculpture. '

'Yes, the highly developed abi lity to create freed om, and then

ever g rea ter freedom of course . To make freedom into a princ iple,

so that this concept of freedom actua lly transfor ms the structure and

the organ ization of soc iety - and tha t of co urse is the poli tical

aspect. To make it clear that today the means of production are the

means of freedom , and that these are the democratic , the social and

the economic means of prod uction .. .'

'And if I understand freedom as the most important mean s of

production , then this w ould be the place to ta lk of the totalization of

the idea of econ omics. It incorporates the understanding of think ing

po wer, and is no longer isolated in a separate fie ld or restricted to

physica l goods, public services and so on. Otherwise no solution

wi ll be found for the problems that face us today. There w ill be no

transformation as long as economists stick to the classical de fin itions

of Adam Smith and al l these people. The sa me goes for la ngua ge :

the wh ole thing is now more complex .. .'

'THE ROLES WERE EXCHANGED IMMED IATElY . . . r

The key to Coyote is the principle of transformation: the transformationof the idea of freedom, the transformation of language to a wider

understanding of it as an evolutionary means, the transformation ofverbal dial ogue to energy d ialogue.

'I HAD A CONCEPT OF HOW A COYOTE MIGHT BEHAVE

- IT COULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT '

N ow these ideas w ere woven into Coyote. O rchestra ted is a betterw ay of putting it, since the concert aspect of such a performan ce is

a lways uppermost in Beuys' mind . The action must run like a

symphony, combi ning many instruments and many levels in exposit ion ,

modulation , transposition , recapitulation. 'My first duty is to find

a convincing shape that can reach the co mplexity of human kind 's

feel ing. That is the first challenge in worki ng w ith form and d imension .'

Shape, form and d imension vary from co ntext to context as well as

from physica l space to physica l spac e, and beca use both context and

specific time are crucia l a work is never repeated .

The general elements in the orc hestra tion of Coyote w ere time,rhythm, movement, colour, light and sound . The speci fic instruments

w ere the two large lengths of grey felt, the w alking stick, g loves and

flashlig ht a ll painted Beuys brown , the changing piles of Wall StreetJournals , the musical triangle and the record ing of turbine engines.(If I did it here w ith a bear the instruments would be really different. .. )

All these elements had already appeared at some stag e and in

some state in Beuys' activities. They are ingred ients of his language,some of the words in his vocabulary, sometimes hallmarks, and they

are used to main tain a conti nuity in much the same way as ideas and

themes recur aga in and ag a in in mod ulated forms and di fferent

co ntexts. It's a demonstrat ion of how to stretch your language, how

to apply w hat you alread y have to different situations as they present

themselves: 'Use w hat yo u have - don 't think yo u have to w a it until

you have found the perfect formulation .'

But these elements are more than words in a vocabulary. They are

there as vehicles of experience , transmitters and communica tors. Each

car ries many layers of meaning , some specific and some universal.

They are not to be understood as direct symbols - they are from the

representatives of the ide a , a means of rende ring an idea visible and

recogn izable . They are never esoteric ob jects. They are al l familiar

everyda y elements presented in a d ifferent way and acq uiring a new

fresh context. This is a parallel to Beuys' attempts to give new mean ing

in his use of spoken language to basic and essentia l words w hich

have become unconsidered abs tract ions: words like democracy,

brotherhood and freedom. The ern phc sis in the rehab ilitat ion of such

w ords lies as much in how they are said as in what is said. ('Sing :democracy' .)

'First of a ll there w as the felt w hich I brought in. Then there w as the

hay which the coyote brought in . These elements w ere immedi ately

exchanged between us: he lay in my area and I lay in his. He used

the felt and I used the straw. That's w hat I expec ted . I had a co ncept

of how a coyo te might behave - it could have been d ifferent. That 's

w hat I hoped for, but I was not sure w hether it w ould work. But it d id

- it worked well. Probably I had the right sp iritua l focus... I reall y

made good co ntact wi th him.'

The two felt forms w ere basicall y the same, but took on different

functions. O ne was the w rap-round transfo rmable shape, the other

w as the straw equivalent, the heap from w hich the flashlig ht shone.

And the dual characte r of felt as insulator and w armth transmitter w as

also appl ied speci fica lly : insula tor from America , transmitter to the

13

coyote. 'First there was the a im of holding together the spiritua l power

of the West, and then the idea of representing a being belonging to

the group soul area or kingdom . I wanted to show the coyote a

parallel de ity or power. And I wanted to remind him that human

beings are now speak ing with him. And therefore I varied it:

sometimes it was more like a hierarchic fig ure, a shephe rd, and then

when I sprang out of the felt I was quite normal and ord inary w ith my

droo ping tulip hat, just like in the ci rcus.'

'And what I tried to do was to bring this out in a really oscillating

rhythm, you could say. First of a ll to remind him of w hat you could ca ll

his geniality, the geniality of his species, and then to speak w ith him

as a human, and to show him that he too has possibi lities in the

d irection of freedom . O r at least that he is understood to be a

co nsiderable actor in the produ ction of freedom, that we need him

as an important prod ucer a nd helper. '

'This ambigui ty in using felt both as an insulator and as a producer

of energ ies is a lso exp ressed in Eurasian Staff in the co nstella tion of

the words The Moving Insulator.'

Then there were the elements pa inted brow n. W hy brown ? W hy

grey? 'The colours are neutral. They are really more hints of co lour,

g rey and brown. The felt for instance cou ld never be red . It must be

grey. That surely is a co lour, but a very neutral one. And brow n too,

that is a kind of red , a de nsely cove red red . This shows my interest in

stayi ng more on the side of sculpture. And the brown co lour is earth

and warmness. It car ries an association w ith dr ied blood too, and

transformation . And then of co urse the neutrality of these colours a lso

throws emphas is by way of contrast on the incredi ble richness and lifeof co lour that exists in the wor ld. '

The flashlight was the first of these brown elements. 'The flashlight

was a representation of energy. First of all there was the accumulat ion

of this energy, and then its gradual fad ing away during the course of

14

the day until the ba tteries hod to be changed . And here a curious

cross-current developed. The coyote's energy pattern ran in a different

di rectio n: he was more lively towards the evening w hen the torch and

daylight were fading , the light grow ing weaker and the shad ow s

longer.'

The flashlight is the conveyor of the idea of spi ritual powers, wi th

its batteries of mental powers. (A flashlight is one of the essentia lingred ients in the survival kit o f the individual sledges of the Pack -

fat, felt, flashlight.) Light and batteries are intended not as a symbol,

but as a physica l para llel. There was the remarkable way in w hich the

eyes of the coyote matched the glow of the flashl ight, and the fact thatw hen he lay on the felt he a lways directed his head in the same

direction as the flashlight beam . The flashlig ht itself was concealed in

the heap of felt: ' I di d not want to show it d irectly as a technicaldevice. It was more a source of light, a hearth, the glow ing of a

fadin g sun, or the gleamin g of star energy in that grey hill .'

The stick is certa inly familiar by now : the Eurasian Stoff that had

journeyed from Europe to the coyote, just as the coyote accord ing to

Beuys had wandered over the po lar cap to America w ith the Ind ians:

the stick as an extension through time of the wan derings of peo ples.(We st Man - East Man : at a certa in point the two meet.)

The Eurasian Staff is used as the conductor of energy. In Coyotethe way it was held indic ated three main di rectiona l flows: held

horizonta lly running along the ground - the flow of energy across the

surface of the ear th; raised high and vertica l - the passage of spirit

from above to below ; held normally, crook to the ground and exposed .

That's the normal position of the ordinary showman [not shaman):

'A normal par t of everyda y life, and that's impor tant too .'

'The stick became an extension of my head , a head bending

before the coyote in a form of devotion. I kept him co nstantly in view,

stayed in line wi th his every movement. And so the idea of the spiritual

clock emerged , and it's very important to say that. At all times my

ac tions, a ll of them were dependent on the act ions of the coyote .

When he came near to my figuration I bowed in devotion . When he

lay down, I knelt. And w hen he fell asleep, I fell over. Then w hen he

sprang up again, I threw off the felt and [urnped up too . That was how

the cycle went. '

At this point the triangle was struck, a sudden intervent ion 'because

the atmosphere had usually become a little restless. It was broug ht

back to simple ci rcling rhythm again , and harmonized.'

A SMALL SOUND SCULPTURE - THE THEORY OF SCULPTURE

DEMONSTRATED IN SOUND

There were only two sounds in Coyote: three sharp blows on thetriangle, fo llowed by ten seconds of renewed silence, then a twenty-

seco nd blast of machine turbine roar.

The triangle w as both an interrupter and a harmonizer.

The turb ine machine was the co nveyor of chaotic vita lity.

'The trian gle w as designed as an impulse of co nsciousne ss

directed towards the coyote : it helped to restore his harmon ized

movements and forms . (It rela tes to the sudden interjection of the

sharp clash of the cymbals in Iphigenia, used during the actionw hen the audience beca me restless.. .)

'The con fused roar of the turbine had more to do w ith the idea

of undetermined energy. It cou ld be seen as directly related to the

use of fat in my sculpture : the point where fat appear s in a chaotic

cond itio n, flowing away in a ll directions . Then there was the

triangl e, and it's no coi ncidence that both the form a nd the sound

of the triangle resemble the Fa t Corner.' (The d ifferent sta tes throug h

wh ich fat passes: it can be conta ined as a determ ined form in a

corner, ar flo w freely in unde termined farmle ssness. Farm and cha os

contrasted . The mould ing process as the transfo rming passage in the

middle . The Theory of Sculpture translated into the language of

sound .)

'The turb ine machines are also the echo of techno logy : unapplied

ene rgy. Energy that in fac t avo ids discussion of energy in the w ider

sense, and by failing to do so has a chaotic effect. Modern

technology does not respect all other fo rms of energy, and therefore

w ar ks de structi vely.'

INSTRUMENTS OF FREEDOM

At the end of the cycle the brown pain ted gloves w ere thrown to

the coyote, an d he ca me to have a par ticular affection far them as

playthings . 'The brown gloves in principle represent my hands, and

the free ability that human be ings possess w ith their hands . They have

the freed om and the choice to do different things , to take a w hole

var iety of instruments in their turn: to work w ith a hammer, or a knife,

to write or to mould things. The hand s are universal tool s and this is

significant for human kind . They are not specia lized and they are

universa l because they are emb ryonic . They are not directed towards

one speci fic use like the ta lons of an eagle , or the paw s of a bear,

or the mole's d iggers . In this free choi ce lies human kind's freed om .'

'So the throw inq of the gloves to Little John mean t g iving him my

hands to pla y w ith: cut off hands. Offering him my human freed om

and universalit y to play with .' Human universality : a total contras t

to the Wall StreetJournal, most special ized of publ icat ions andsymptomatic of our mod ern world . 'That too certainly rep resentsan aspect of the Uni ted States. But it is more than that: it is the

diminished and des tructive interpretation of economics and money,

an inorganic interpreta tion based solely on the production of

physical goods .'

'That was the end of the sequence. But because it w as a cycl ic

thing you cou ld say it w as both the end and the beg inning . That is

15

the open situat io n out of w hich the next cycle flows. Here everyth ing

possible is b roug ht into the o pen , a nd the new cycle is introduced .'

'Those w ere the instruments fo r Coyote, a nd that w as the cycle.If I did it wi th a bear they would be q uite differe nt. I could do it. . .

here. . . wi th a bear .. .'

16

Below : Eng lish version of the or ig ina l German text piece that appears

on p . 86 (tran slated by C aroline Tisda ll).

In America :

KING COYOTE (FLUXUS Zone W est)

Shrouded shepherd , stick wi th bent crook (wa lking stick, shepherd's crook

- or blind man's stick? Rem inder of Eurasian staff) coming from the chest

area - over the bent handle turning back in the direction of Beuys

(towards the head?) : outward - inward . Instrument of watchfulness,instrument of alertness - consciousness? W eapon even. Otherwise the

fig ure is completely protected from the outside through blanket (felt):

warmth-piece. Cold outside? Concentrate. The picture of darkness

provokes light. An inner unease grows in us: the freedom-secret's

forecast!! What is happening unde r the blanket? Nothing is visible but

the stick: energy conveyo r in curved position: ' I get right in there - that's

for sure: right in there! But I w ant nothing to do with that: (the lukewarm

men). And if so, then that's right. ' Staff: antenna. KING COYOTE. Coyote

looks like a BEUYS. Coyote 's all there. Beuys: in a human position, ra therdi fferent from usual . Coyote notices: he doesn't wont to collar me, he's

reduced himself and therefore become really big . Deals wi th me via the

right channel. Conta ct made again (quiet - transmission!) : is busy with my

king. (Coyote: Beuys-instrument and vice versa .) Damn, that's scarcely

understanda ble . Can 't be proved at all . Coyote means: king of the ear th,

I'll put my bets on you ! I'll go along w ith that. At lost, someone w ho can

get something ac ross to me. He knows how it go es: FREEDOM-BEING.

Fine 'kings' they are to me otherw ise! Hardl y percepti ble and : on the

brink of ruin: the earth: energy crisis.

--Warmth----Truth---------F reedom--Love--

Human------ - - - ---To think is kingly-

Johannes Stuttgen (1974)

Le renard se tut et regarda longtemps le petit prince:- S'il t plat. .. apprivoise-moi, dit-il!- Je veux bien, rpondit le petit prince, mais je n'ai pasbeaucoup de temps . J'ai des amis dcouvrir et beaucoupde choses connatre .- On ne connat que les choses que l'on apprivoise, dit lerenard. Les hommes n'ont plus le temps de rien connatre. Ilsachtent des choses toutes faites chez les marchands. Maiscomme il n'existe point de marchands d'amis, les hommesn'ont plus d'amis . Si tu veux un ami, apprivoise-moi!- Que faut-il faire? dit le petit prince.- Il faut tre trs patient, rpondit Je renard. Tu t'assoirasd'abord un peu loin de moi, comme ca, dans l'herbe. Je teregarderai du coin de lil et tu ne diras rien. Le langage estsource de malentendus . Mais, chaque jour, tu pourras t'asse-oir un peu plus prs. ..Le lendemain revint le petit prince.- Il et mieux valu revenir la mme heure, dit le renard. Situ viens, par exemple, quatre heures de l'aprs-midi, dstrois heures je commencerai d'tre heureux. Plus l'heureavancera, plus je me sentirai heureux. A quatre heures, dj,je m'agiterai et m'inquiterai; je dcouvrirai le prix du.bon-heur! Mais si tu viens n'importe quand, je ne saurai jamais quelle heure m'hab iller le cur.. . Il faut des rites.- Qu'est-ee qu'un rite? dit le petit prince.- C'est aussi quelque chose de trop oubli, dit le renard.C'est ce qui fait qu'un jour est diffrent des autres jours, uneheure, des autres heures. Il y a un rite, par exemple, chezmes chasseurs. Ils dansent le jeudi avec les filles du village.Alors le jeudi est jour merveilleux! Je vais me promener jus-qu' la vigne. Si les chasseurs dansaient n' importe quand, lesjours se ressembleraient tous, et je n'aurais point de va-cances.Ainsi le petit prince apprivoisa le renard. Et quand l'heure dudpart fut proche:- Ah! dit le renard.. . Je pleurerai.- C'est ta faute, dit le petit prince, je ne te souhaitais pointde mal, mais tu as voulu que je t'apprivoise . . .

Bien sr, dit le renard.Mais tu vas pleurer ! dit le petit prince.

- Bien sr, dit le renard.

- Alors tu n'y gagnes rien!- J'y gagne, dit le renard, cause de la couleur du bl.Puis il ajouta:- Va revoir les roses. Tu comprendras que la tienne est uni-que au monde . Tu reviendras me dire adieu, et je te feraicadeau d'un secret.Le petit prince s'en fut revoir les roses:- Vous n'tes pas du tout semb lables ma rose, vous n'tesrien encore, leur dit-il. Personne ne vous a apprivoises etvous n'avez apprivois personne. Vous tes comme taitmon renard. Ce n'tait qu'un renard semblable cent milleautres. Mais j'en ai fait mon ami, et il est maintenant uniqueau monde.Et les roses taient bien gnes.- Vous tes belles, mais vous tes vides, leur dit-il encore .On ne peut pas mourir pour vous. Bien sr, ma rose moi, unpassant ordinaire croirait qu'elle vous ressemble. Mais elleseule elle est plus importante que vous toutes, puisque c'estelle que j'ai arrose. Puisque c'est elle que j'ai mise sousglobe. Puisque c'est elle que j'ai abrite par le paravent. Puis-que c'est elle dont j'ai tu les chenilles (sauf les deux ou troispour les papillons). Puisque c'est elle que j'ai coute seplaindre, ou se vanter, ou mme quelquefo is se taire. Puis-que c'est ma rose.Et il revint vers le renard:- Adieu, dit-il. ..- Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est trs simple : onne voit bien qu'avec le cur. L'essentiel est invisible pour lesyeux.- L'essentie l est invisible pour les yeux, rpta le petitprince. afin de se souvenir.- C'est le temps que tu as perdu pour ta rose qui fait ta rosesi importante.- C'est le temps que j'ai perdu pour ma rose.. . fit le petitprince. afin de se souvenir.- Les hommes ont oubli cette vrit, dit le renard. Mais.tune dois pas l'oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujoursde ce que tu as apprivois. Tu es responsable de ta rose...- Je suis responsable de ma rose... rpta le petit prince,afin de se souvenir .(IlLe Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupry)