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Projecting the film on to the back wall of the gallery space so that it completely fills it from
ceiling to floor, and from side to side, gives it this kind of blanket effect. You are very much
involved with what is going on. You are a participant, not a passive viewer. The whole idea of
making it a silent experience is so that when people walk into the space they become very
much aware of themselves, of their own breathing. (). I want to put people into a situation
where theyre sensitive to themselves watching the piece. 1

Steve McQueen

The investigation of perception can be understood as a matter of

undeniable importance to moving image installation artists whom explore the
relationship between viewers bodies, the works of art and exhibition spaces.
This essay discusses the art-work installations of the Oscar-award winning
British artist Steve McQueen by means of a phenomenological approach, thus
reflecting upon how these works create embodied experiences that challenges
art viewing practices.
To begin with, I will concisely introduce the study of perception by French
philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty in order to describe how his understanding
of the relationship between subject, object and space can be transposed to art
strategies as an important influence towards engaging spectators to challenge

MCQUEEN, Steve. Hunger: Interview With Director Steve McQueen: Interview by Emanuel Levy
[Online]. November 13, 2008. Available from: < http://emanuellevy.com/interviews/hunger-interviewwith-director-steve-mcqueen-2/>. Last accessed on March 8, 2014.

the alleged neutrality of gallery spaces. Furthermore, I will discuss viewing

practices engendered by moving image, as well as embodiment in cinematic
experience debated by film theorists. Finally, I hope to demonstrate how
McQueens installations bring into question matters of embodied perception by
analyzing the phenomenological fruition of his oeuvres and major exhibitions.
Addressing in a summary manner the work of Merleau-Ponty, one can
say that it discusses perception by means of a complex combination between
subjectivity and objectivity in the comprehension of the world. By criticizing the
binary approaches of empiricism and intellectualism which separated subject
and object in perception, the philosopher states that this phenomenon is based
both in bodily experience and intellectual subjectivity, thus emphasizing the
importance of an embodied gaze situated in space:
For if it is true that I am conscious of my body via the world,
() it is true for the same reason that my body is the pivot of
the world: I know that objects have several faces because I
could make a tour of inspection of them, and in that sense I
am conscious of the world through the medium of my body.2
Merleau-Ponty constitutes an inextricable relationship between the body
and the mind: instead of placing the subject to the world, the philosopher places
the subject in the world, refuting the immaterial and ideal Cartesian birds-eye
view, wherein one would have a priori perception of the totality of things.
Hence, according to Merleau-Ponty, perception is given partially, both through
consciousness and the body.
2

MERLEAU-PONTY, Maurice. Phenomenology of perception. Translated by: Colin Smith. London:

Routledge, 1962, p. 94-95.

It is clear then the relevance of these phenomenological matters in order

to understand the relationship of the subjects body, its gaze and the object in
space as fundamental questions in the fruition of art installations, where the
perceptual triad phenomenon is unfolded into the viewers body, the work of art
and gallery ambience. Such is the case of McQueens moving image
installations, which create not only visual intriguing situations, but essentially
body engaging and immersive experiences.
Before analysing McQueens works in particular, it is important to
understand to what extent installation art and moving image challenges viewers
perception of exhibition spaces. In order to do so, an examination of the
neutrality of gallery spaces is essential.
As a modernist paradigm of ideal exhibition space, the white cube is set
as white-walled, artificially-illuminated and enclosed environment, with no
exterior interference. Irish writer and artist Brian ODoherty has critically
questioned this idealistic place of art bringing into question that the almost
aseptic neutrality of the white cube is guaranteed by the convention of its values
an ideal place for an ideal art, distant from everyday life, with sacramental
nature 3.
It is understood by the authors description and, undoubtedly, by
personal experiences in artistic viewing that many exhibitions underline this
utopian behaviour in gallery spaces, separating the spectator from mystified
works of art, creating a system of distant contemplation. Alternatively, art
practices such as moving image installations have the potential to deconstruct
3

ODOHERTY, Brian. Inside the White Cube: Ideology of the Gallery Space. Santa Monica, CA: Lapis Press,
1986, p. 14.

this purist paradigm by provoking perceptive experiences that articulate the

body, gallery space and art work, prompting numerous possibilities of
immersive fruition. Thus, the distanced Cartesian passive eye, once tamed by
the divinity of the white cube is incarnated, to use Merleau-Pontys term, into an
embodied gaze that can actively engage with that space and present oeuvres.
This shift in perception from a contemplative detached look to an
engaging fruition can be explored by Walter Benjamins discussion of
reproducibility of art. Just as ODohertys Inside the White Cube, Benjamins
essay also relates works of art to sacred attributes, in this case the aura,
described by the German philosopher as based on ritualistic function. Parallel to
ODohertys sacramental understanding of the modern exhibition space canon,
Benjamins definition of the aura also contributes to form the idealistic
distanced work of art. When unravelling the implications of reproducibility in
art practice, the author gives attention to a change in perception of art through
new media, such as film, which instead of sustaining a ritualistic approach,
denies the aura and the cult logic of distanced contemplation 4.
With that in mind, we can understand that the reproduction of art-works
deconstructs ritualistic viewing and that this is the case of moving image works,
which challenge gallerys distanced passive contemplation by engaging
spectators perception. Moving image then can be comprehended as a media
which engages viewers critically; denying passiveness, film opens the viewers
perception to another visual logic.

BENJAMIN, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Transcription by Andy
Blunden 1998. [Online]. Available from: < http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/> .
Last accessed on March 8, 2014.

The comprehension of moving image itself as an embodied experience is

a significant question to discuss McQueens art-works. In addition to the visual
engagement

of

the

subject

described

by

Benjamin,

the

complex

phenomenological relationship of moving image with the body of the viewer is a

matter of great debate in film theory.
Film critic and theorist Vivian Sobchack investigates the intertwined
connection between the subject and what one perceives through moving image,
revealing cinematic experience as an embodied perception by arguing that
more than any other medium of human communication, the moving picture
makes itself sensuously and sensibly manifest as the expression of experience by
experience. () film is an act of seeing that makes itself seen, an act of hearing
that makes itself heard, an act of physical and reflective movement that makes
itself reflexively felt and understood 5.
To further deepen this discussion, Laura Marks definition of haptic
vision constitutes an interesting approach to understand how moving images
relate to phenomenological perception. Marks argues that whilst optical
visuality tends to separate subject and object in perception by a distanced look,
haptic perception cenesthetically brings bodies into question, as a combination
of the way we experience touch both on the surface of and inside our bodies.
() In haptic visuality, the eyes themselves function as organs of touch. 6.
In an interview following his screening of Hunger in 2008, Steve
McQueen reveals phenomenological and haptic implications in his moving

SOBCHACK, Vivian. The address of the eye: A phenomenology of film experience. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1992, p.3
6
MARKS, Laura. The skin of the film: Intercultural film, embodiment, and the senses. Durham, N.C., and
London: Duke University Press, 2000, p.162.

image practice: I want the screen to be this massive mirror, when you're
looking at the screen youre looking at yourself. 7
Born in London 1969, McQueen began exploring film-making with
performance-based themes in the 1990s 8. Regarding McQueens moving image
productions, the significance of space and of how the works are perceived by the
viewer in matters of ones body demonstrate that these oeuvres are not simple
film projections, detached/distanced from the audience as it can be in movie
theater scenarios. Contrariwise, the artists installations can be understood as
phenomenological works that engage the viewer, the gallery space and the film
works through visual and most importantly body experience.
In the foreword of the solo exhibition presented in 2004 by the Fundaci
Tpies in Barcelona, the phenomenological aspect of McQueens film
installations is evident, with its main features described as their colossal
presence, as they are projected from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. The
works explore the relation between the medium and the spectator and take the
visual experience beyond mere seeing to become one involving the whole body.
The overwhelming physical presence and the immediacy of the image transform
the encounter between spectator and film into a sensory event. 9
This exhibition showcased McQueens Caribs Leap (2002) paired up
with Western Deep (2002), his debut moving image piece Bear (1993), in which

MCQUEEN, Steve. Hunger: Interview With Director Steve McQueen: Interview by Emanuel Levy
[Online]. November 13, 2008. Available from: < http://emanuellevy.com/interviews/hunger-interviewwith-director-steve-mcqueen-2/>. Last accessed on March 8, 2014.
8
CURTIS, David. A History of Artists Film and Video in Britain. London: BFI, 2007, p.276.
9
FUNDACI TPIES. Steve McQueen 5/12/2003 - 15/2/2004. [Online]. Fundaci Antoni Tpies website.
Available from: <http://www.fundaciotapies.org/site/spip.php?rubrique514>. Last accessed on March 9,
2014.

the artist himself wrestles naked with another black man, Just Above my
Head (1996), a 9 minute silent 16mm black-and-white film that has the camera
recording from the artists stomach pointing upwards towards his head and sky,
and Exodus (1992-1997) a 1 minute Super 8mm colour film with a spontaneous
documentary approach.
While some critics such as David Curtis have addressed Western Deep
from a social point of view regarding black history resistance 10, there is a
noteworthy phenomenological aspect to this installation that exemplifies the
importance of space perception in the fruition of McQueens works. The setting
of Western Deep reveals the way in which the artist deals with his moving image
works not as regular film projections: whereas there are no seats in the
exhibition ambience, the viewer is confronted with a large screen accompanied
by speakers in an empty black box, contrasting with the concept of white cube.
This installation challenges spectators temporality by defying ones length of
permanence in the room, at the same time engaging viewers spatiality by
enabling a flexibility of point of view as one moves around the exhibition space.
Western Deep displays images of black miners claustrophobic working
conditions in the deep mine of Tautona, South Africa 11. In his essay The Art of
Darkness: On Steve McQueen, T. J. Demos reveals the artists interest in space
perception by discussing his project as an examination of the physical
conditions of the projected image and affirming that() McQueen works on
both sides of the projected image: on its virtual representation and on the actual
site of its installations. To further illustrate this statement, Demos mentions

10
11

See David Curtis, Op. Cit., p. 276

See Anthony Downey. Art: Steve McQueen, Wasafiri, 17:37. London: Routledge, 2002, pp.17 - 19

McQueens exhibition at the Fundaci Tpies, where Western Deep was set in
the depths of the exhibition space, reflecting the downward journey suggested
in the first few minutes of the film, while the windowless room where the film
was projected, which was painted uniformly dark gray, vaguely alluded to the
darkness of a mine shaft12
In a review for a solo exhibition of the artist at Thomas Dane Gallery in
London, Anthony Downey demonstrates the phenomenological experience and
haptic imagery of 7th November (2001), by commenting that the installation
piece produces a physical presence by occupying one single wall with a fixed
shot of a scar in a laid mans head 13, provoking in the viewer a sense of
embodied experience. As Okwui Enwezor comments:

By making the

conditions under which the projected film image is experienced both visually
and bodily, McQueen renders the space in cinema into a zone that is
simultaneously haptic and optical. The overwhelming physicality and raw
immediacy of the encounter between the viewing subject and the films reinforce
the haptic/optical scope. 14
McQueens

particular

attention

to

exhibition

spaces

and

their

relationship with the perceptive experience of his moving image installations is

exemplified by Kathy Nobles review on the artists retrospective exhibition at
Schaulager Basel. Noble argues that this City of Cinemas, which presented
more than 20 films, was designed by McQueen in a complex way that related the
architectural space to the oeuvres displayed: In a show such as this, light and
12

DEMOS, T. J. The Art of Darkness: On Steve McQueen, October, 114. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005,
p.66.
13
DOWNEY, Anthony. Steve McQueen, Contemporary, 63, 2004 [Online]. Available from:
<http://www.contemporary-magazines.com/reviews63_3.htm>. Last accessed on March 9, 2014.
14

ENWEZOR, Okwui. Haptic Visions, Steve McQueen In DEMOS, Op. Cit., p.68-69

windows would typically be eliminated. Instead, McQueen chose to replace the

outer wall of the galleries on two floors with two-way mirror windows,
consciously mimicking the buildings outer first-floor windows. This enabled
elements of some projections to be visible as you entered the building, and for
the world outside to be present inside.

15

In the words of critic Olufemi Terry,

McQueen is an adept reader and manipulator of sensation and spatial

perception. 16
Catch (1997), Drumroll (1998) and Pursuit (2005) are works that
through investigations of phenomenological movement, challenge spectators
visual narrative and create possibilities of fragmented space perception.
Drumroll is based on images produced by three cameras inside a barrel, which
the artist then rolls across New York streets, whereas Pursuit showcases a dark
room with mirrors that engender deconstructed images of the artists own
moving body reflection. Catch is a two-minute silent black-and-white short
based on a camera being tossed back and forth by the artist and his sister while
it is still recording. This particular work reveals the importance of gesture and
the body as producers of a fragmented visual logic, thus returning to a
phenomenological construction of an embodied gaze.
Conclusively, it is clear that Steve McQueens moving image works not
only deal with representations of phenomenological and haptic perception, such
as the three works described above, but also create perceptual experiences per
se which brings bodies into question, in matters of spatial correlation between
15

NOBLE, Kathy. Steve McQueen, Frieze, 157, 2013. [Online]. Available from: <
https://www.frieze.com/issue/review/steve-mcqueen/>. Last accessed on March 9, 2014.
16
TERRY, Olufemi. 'His works assault on the senses behaves like an attack', Contemporary And, 2013.
[Online]. Available from: < http://www.contemporaryand.com/blog/magazines/his-works-assault-onthe-senses-behaves-like-an-attack/>. Last accessed on March 9, 2014.

subject and film installations, thus creating possibilities for phenomenological

interaction. 17

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BENJAMIN, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical

Reproduction. Transcription by Andy Blunden 1998.
CURTIS, David. A History of Artists Film and Video in Britain. London: BFI,
2007.
DEMOS, T. J. The Art of Darkness: On Steve McQueen, October, 114.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.
DOWNEY, Anthony. Art: Steve McQueen, Wasafiri, 17:37. London:
Routledge, 2002.
MARKS, Laura. The skin of the film: Intercultural film, embodiment, and the
senses. Durham, N.C., and London: Duke University Press, 2000.
MERLEAU-PONTY, Maurice. Phenomenology of perception. Translated by:
Colin Smith. London: Routledge, 1962.
ODOHERTY, Brian. Inside the White Cube: Ideology of the Gallery Space.
Santa Monica, CA: Lapis Press, 1986.
SOBCHACK, Vivian. The address of the eye: A phenomenology of film
experience. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Websites:
www.contemporary-magazines.com
www.contemporaryand.com
www.emanuellevy.com
www.frieze.com
www.fundaciotapies.org

17

DEMOS, Op. Cit., p.66