Page 43 - Studio International - October 1969

GB: Whatever seemed to be implied by the fixed rules. As you suggest, the work itself Council. It was important for me at that time
materials? I think not. There were and are involves you—at least temporarily—in certain to make a break from my hand-to-mouth
only certain practical exactnesses to imagine postures or reveals new avenues of interest. I existence.
or invent when one is faced by wood of a should like to ask about the changing course Pretty much, I used St Martin's so as to work
particular grain or stone of a special striation. of your commitment as a sculptor. But first I on my own. I used the place as a studio. That
BF: It's not the practical exactness I was should like to ask what led you to art at all. was my intention. But I did benefit enormous-
talking about but the exactness of the shape BF: I began with the study of architecture. ly just by being there, through the very parti-
intrinsic to the sculpture he was making. This was in Birmingham. When I became cular interest in sculpture that existed there
GB. You mean exactness of concept within the aware of the work being done in the sculpture then. There was almost constant debate,
physical limitations of the materials? department—the direct involvement in the profusely illustrated by the goods.
BF : I suppose. making of shapes—my interest shifted, and GB : Many people at St Martin's were working
GB: Your indifference to tradition allows you it wasn't long before I was doing it myself full in welded metal and in plastic. These materials
to be both more arbitrary and more inventive time. With architecture, I felt that what one and techniques had a kind of newness for that
in discovering sculpture where it exists—as you was doing was designing for the plumber. The place and moment. But your own work seems
say, it's going on all the time. Given this shapes of architecture are arbitrary to the nth to have developed almost immediately through
situation, do you notice any overriding pat- degree, not necessarily integral. In sculpture, other materials and in another direction. How
tern to your choices ? one is able to be far more decisive in spite of the did this come about?
: Not usually. The last time I noticed a real structural demands made by materials. BF: I suppose through a general dissatisfac-
pattern it had more to do with my learning GB: Your subsequent student work was at St tion with the possibilities. I enjoyed pushing
process than with the sculptures themselves. Martin's, at a time when the sculpture depart- metal about and the directness of the response
In that instance, I was interested in typical, ment was particularly active and creative. to one's decisions. I remember making six
general visual configurations that command Will you describe your experience there? metal sculptures in an afternoon, almost as
our attention. This for me was the fabrication BF: I first went to St Martin's for three months illustrations to particular ideas in discussion.
of a formal involvement. The time was 1967. in 1960. I had been to some other art schools. But what I think I missed in metal was a
The three pieces I made were shown at the In fact, I didn't settle down for a while. I had general discovery process inherent in the
Paris Biennale that year. a long visit to Canada, for instance. I was material. One knew exactly what metal could
I don't like to invent an involvement or the raising a bit of hell. I was on the dole for a do, and what it can do is almost exactly what
terms of an involvement; I prefer to fabricate while. I worked the season in Devon, driving one comes to want.
the sculptures. One of the three pieces con- vans. At the same time, during the evenings, I Plastic struck me as being incredibly clumsy.
sisted of four vertical objects made as a single would sometimes work on sculpture. Sculpture And one can't work in it directly. It is strictly
work. Another was a linoleum ring or peri- was at all times at the back of my mind. a reproductive material.
meter; and the third was a sixty foot rope, St Martin's wasn't the only serious making I began painting all metal pieces white and
placed linearly on the floor. The three pieces place—I returned there for two years in 1964. drawing on them. I painted negative state-
together challenged my assumption that they The kind of demand I was making on the ments over them, like `Go Away' and
were autonomous. As a result of having made school and the kind of demand that St `N'existe Pas'. I was exposing attitudes in my
them and of having shown them together, I Martin's was making on the student were work in opposition to each other, thereby
became interested in their interrelationships. mutually tolerable. It was an exciting place, hoping eventually to separate them. I wanted
GB: It is clear that you want to avoid working and I managed a residential qualification to to remove any extraneous dialogue, so as not
rigidly from preconceptions or according to get a grant from Gloucestershire County to distract from what I thought to be central