Page 52 - Studio International - December 1965

information about the history of the material and unstable, or ambiguous? If so, in what manner? Do
revealing all sorts of facts about how long it took to you have difficulties in using certain colours within
make the work. with what tool. etc. your material, why and so on?)
Qualities of surfaces react with qualities of volume. A: I always paint on top of the finished work. The
outline. weight. space and especially colour (colour reason for this is that it is a much more flexible method
that is put onto shape as opposed to natural colour of arriving at the right colour (I may change a colour
often has the appearance of a skin. this effect is 10 times or more in a single work). The range is wider
particularly pronounced on textured surfaces. the and the colours are brighter. But the disadvantages
smoother the surface the greater the integration are that the paint surface is vulnerable, and the paint
between colour as skin and surface. (I shall expand on can look like a skin rather than an integrated surface.
this more fully in another question on colour.) Sculptors in the past were little interested in using
colour as they tended to emphasize the quality of the
0: Are you concerned with the permanency of your material. Surface texture portrayed the character of
work? If so. to what extent? What makes you feel the material and the working tools of the artist rather
different from Caro. for example (who seems uncon­ like brushmark in a painting. To paint on top seemed
cerned with the permanence of his paint and colour) to be giving a concealing skin to all this.
and why? The answer to using colour for me. then, was to
A: This is a question of time and money. If I could remove surface texture, work within a more neutral
have my work cast in a light stainless steel or aluminium and smoother surface. Working in materials that had no
I would do it and paint it afterwards. If I worried too history and were intractable like plastics helped. There
much about permanency. I would take even longer was no temptation getting in the way. Smoother
than I do over each piece. I do my best in the present surfaces tend to fuse the colour into them rather than
circumstances. An outdoor static life would preserve the colour staying on as skin. What interest existed
my sculptures indefinitely. in textural terms has been reinterpreted in only colour
and space. For instance the mark of the hand giving an
0: Do you make editions of sculpture? If not. why not? account of the artist's struggle with the matter,
A: I sometimes make editions up to a maximum of becomes a concern for shape evolving out of the
three depending on the ease of reproduction of the working limits. Gravity, the ground. one's own physical
Tra-!a-la 1963 pieces. This is largely a matter of time. A large complex make-up, such as one's reach, eye-level, etc., are
Plastic used as gauges. Unconscious decisions about size,
9 ft. X 2 ft. 6 in. work would demand a lot of my time to be reproduced.
Collection: Mr. Alan Power distance from the ground and many others are related
even if I give the work to be done by someone
else. and I would rather get on with new work. to physical and felt experiences. These decisions are
still really about matter within the physical world of
man. Colour and shape instead of material quality take
0: What process did you use in your latest pieces? over the task of deciding what weight a part may have.
A: In my last piece I have used polysterene. A very Colour then comes in to extend this dialogue not to
light expanded foam plastic. that can be carved like reduce it. Its shininess or mattness will have different
butter and covered with a hard layer of resin and meaning according to different shapes. Colour some­
fibreglass after shaping. I also used wood then times can even stand for shape. Sometimes it may only
coloured the lot. The time before that I cast sheets of emphasize or reduce it. It can give a volume greater
fibreglass and resin on the ground. on top of linoleum or lesser mass. clarify shapes or confuse them. Colour
and then when they were not quite set (after gelling) comes in towards the end of making a work, but I feel
I shaped them around particular forms and let them go it is subconsciously carried in one's mind throughout
hard. This method has its limitations. however. and the working process, as stored up experience. and is a
could only work with very simple or large curves. definite affecting force-(rather like it seems possible
Before that I made a shape in plaster. covered it in to model in clay and yet be aware of the looks of the
resin and fibreglass. smoothed the surfaces and broke work in bronze, and make decisions accordingly).
the inside plaster. Colour also plays an important role in extending the
symbolic meaning of the shapes and clarifying
0: Do you think many of the images used by you and imagery. I find mauves difficult because they fade, and
your Whitechapel colleagues. in part or in whole. have I have found difficulty in getting a matt paint that will
been influenced. in one manner or another. by packag­ not shine on rubbing.
ing. industrial or advertising design?
A: Not consciously. I get as much of a kick going to 0: Do you deliberately seek some kind of geo­
Kew Gardens as I do going to London Airport. I am in biomorphic form or imagery. some kind of a segmental
sympathy with the new shapes of our urban environ­ view of nature or perhaps something similar. If so,
ment and therefore must integrate them into my work what kind and why?
somehow. (But then a visit to the National Gallery is A: I would say formal themes run through my mind
even better for me.) for long periods at a time. In their general characteristics
they relate to formal problems. but in the working out
0: What is your approach to the colour of your of an individual piece, associations to natural forms,
sculpture? (There are obviously two aspects (1) Your phenomenal events or contemporary imagery do crop
technical approach to colour. for example. do you up. they remain of secondary importance and their
paint on top of the finished work. bond it into the resin, main value lies in the fact that they help to formalize
do both, etc. (2) What is your philosophical approach an idea which seems to exist in the mind mostly in terms
to colour, for example in what way do you think colour of feeling and shapes based around a formal event.
extends the meaning of your work or do you use it For instance, when I made Genghis Khan I did not
purely decoratively? Or to deny form, or render it think of mountains and clouds, but the idea was based
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