Ensemble: Chapter 2: Plural Garments, 1967–1969, New York-Antwerp-Düsseldorf / Hoofdstuk 2: Plural Garments / Chapitre 2: Vêtements pluriels
©still: MACBA, Barcelona
After returning from Kyoto in 1967 Byars designed plural or participatory garments, such as his Friendship Dress (1968) and A Banana for Five People (1969). These garments in black, white, pink, yellow or red acetate silk were all made by Mr North South, a tailor in Chinatown, New York.
Byars arrived at Antwerp’s Wide White Space Gallery in 1969 and brought 75 in a Hat, Two in a Hat, Mask and Dress and The Pink Silk Airplane for 100 in his knapsack. Since the gallery was not wide enough for the wings of the airplane, he kept asking the gallery owner Anny De Decker to call the King, who had magnificent palaces in both Antwerp and in Brussels. In the end Isi Fiszman took him to the Düsseldorf Art Academy to meet Joseph Beuys, and the two artists performed The Pink Silk Airplane for 100 together.
Works
>James Lee Byars, 100,000 Minutes or the Big Sample of Byars or 1/2 an Autobiography or the First Paper of Philosophy, 1969.Book, artist book, 26.8 x 20.8 cm.
>James Lee Byars, Wide White Space has been renamed the Institute for the Advanced Study of James Lee Byars, Antwerpen 1969, 1969.Other, paper star, Ø 11.5 m.
>James Lee Byars, Please limit all talking to the sound of O, as preview given by W.W.S. Antwerp to This is the Ghost of James Lee Byars Calling, 1969.Object, print on paper, golden frame, 34 x 94 cm.
>James Lee Byars, 75 in a Hat, 1969.Performance, red silk, 13.5 m x 30.5 cm.
>James Lee Byars, Two in a Hat, Mask and Dress, 1969.Installation, red silk, ca. 12 m.
>Jef Cornelis, James Lee Byars, Antwerpen 18 April - 7 Mei 1969, 1969.Video, single-channel video, b/w, sound, 00:32:30.