Planes of Immanence: Walking on Carl Andre’s Art in Moments of Protest

This essay examines the stakes of walking on Carl Andre's sculptures during moments of protest, particularly from the 1990s onward, when his art became the target of feminist protest actions. Walking on Andre's sculptures has often been framed in highly generalized terms, as an almost universally shared experience that prompts an immanent connection between body and matter. To open up a space for addressing the diverse, subjective nature of spectators' experiences when walking on Andre's art, the present study explores how his metal planes have functioned as ‘planes of immanence’, a term drawn from the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In particular, it considers how the act of treading on Andre's sculptures during moments of protest has contributed to reshaping his planes of immanence, transforming them into surfaces that create new ‘lines of flight’ for contesting power, meaning, and the parameters of knowledge.