Between space and body: A phenomenological approach to performance art in Joseph Beuys' "I like America and America Likes Me"

This thesis sets out to explore performance art through a phenomenological lens whereby spatial aspects, the body and audience reception interrelate as both a means of study and experience. Using the theoretical frameworks of this study, namely Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger, the re-interpretation of meaning as manifestation through embodied engagement with performative spaces that focus on lived experience in art is found in this thesis. The case this thesis focuses on is Joseph Beuys' 1974 performance "I Like America and America Likes Me," in which Beuys lived in a gallery for three days with a coyote. In this meeting place, Beuys opens a field of experimentation in the realms of culture critique, solitude and interspecies communication. The thesis investigates the ways in which a limited space, the artist, and his movements create an interaction for both actor and spectators that transcends traditional artistic exchange to yield meaning. Using phenomenological terms such as embodiment, intentionality and presence, this thesis addresses the issue of performance art blurring lines between artist, audience and environment. It argues that Beuys' performance is illustrative of the potential for performative practices to approach larger existential, cultural and ecological themes by providing an experience of space, body and the phenomenological as something perhaps inherently different from these broader discussions.