In I Like America & America Likes Me, one of Joseph Beuys‘ numerous performance pieces — or “Actions” as he called them — he lived and coexisted with a coyote for three straight days, in a room at the Rene Block Gallery in New York.
Garbed in his signature attire comprised of a felt hat, a fishing vest, a long sleeved white shirt and a pair of jeans, Beuys set his eyes on every movement the coyote made during the entire three days — movements which were either caused or manipulated by Beuys — movements which were neither inherently nor even remotely natural from the coyote’s standpoint.
When Beuys swathed his entire body in a large, over-sized felt blanket, with nothing but his wooden cane protruding from a slit just large enough for his eyes to peer though, the coyote, eagerly steadfast and resolute, pried the felt blanket from Beuys until the blanket was completely off.
After a fresh, healthy stack of fifty Wall Street Journals was delivered to the space which Beuys and the coyote shared and inhabited, the coyote urinated on the stack — and the subsequent stacks delivered on the second and third day.
During the entire three days, the only times in which the coyote was considerably “idle” were in those few moments where Beuys distanced himself from the coyote, sat in one of the four corners of the room, and smoked his pipe.
By the end of the “Action”, Beuys was convinced that his attempts to transform the coyote were no match to the coyote’s resistance.
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