Larry Miller, Angels Ribe, and Francesc Torres

Larry Miller: “Art of Influence (1974-76) brings my studies of psychics and power objects to a focus with the use of ‘magic.’ In the form of three hand-made effigies, image and ritual congeal into an object that influences its remote counterpart. During a two-year period, researched the materials and technique necessary to produce three ‘charmed’ dolls of selected friends in the art world. The effigies were made according to voodoo ritual from the hair, fingernails, clothing, photographs, and blood of the individuals. All were given to me voluntarily. In this work an operative link is established between object and psyche. At first I intended to establish only a neutral energy-conduit between myself and those imaged. Because Voodoo has such a Hollywood/negative connotation, I felt a need to offset this possible imbalance by initiating a positive influence. I enlisted the help of Dean Kraft, internationally known psychic healer, to perform absent healing on the dolls in a videotaped session. The installation/exhibit included the three effigies encased in containers to guard them, and the videotape.”

Angel Ribe’s Work is the effort against resistance dealt with the observation of processes in general. The artist was concerned with the effort needed to attain physical or psychological evolution. Photos and texts of Franco’s death and of the Paris workers’ and students’ uprising of 1968 were mounted on a board nailed directly to the wall. In the foreground, she placed sawhorses supporting a board on which other material was displayed. A heat lamp was suspended over a point on the floor around which the artist stenciled “The Point of Reference.” A hammer was isolated on a low stand. Other stands and pedestals were used by the artist in this multipart display.

Francesc Torres’ Synchronic Attempts continued the artist’s work dealing with psychology using conditioning, politics, social and family contents, and myths as a base. Andre Jacques Neusy, a research fellow at the New York University School of Medicine helped furnish technical information for this piece. The artist states: “At the level of molecular biology, the words life and death do not exist as distinct ideas. Life resolves itself in a physico-chemical reaction, and death dissolves in the process called life. The difference between the two is a fantasy; they are two inseparable and complementary moments of the same operation. This installation dealt with the cycle of life (and death) in both its biological and mythological aspects and the way in which its perception has shaped historical consciousness. A circle on the floor connected a crib, in which the artist placed a photograph of a nude man lying on his back, with a bed, in which the artist placed a blown-up photograph of a diaper-clad baby lying on its back. Texts were placed in both the crib and the bed. A fan resting on an opened book was set up outside the circle equidistant from both the crib and the bed.

Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.