Page 51 - Studio International - October 1966
P. 51

sists of units cut from an extruded section at 120°, that is  K.F. You call yourself a plastician in preference to anything else,
                                  two squares joined at a 120-degree angle and which in all  working exclusively in industrial materials, and the ideas that
                                  cases have one face parallel to the base plane. A further  interest you range from art thought to pure thought. You produce
                                  effect has been the deflection of the spectator from a  a kind of structure-orientated art which others would call
                                  nominal frontal view and his engagement in lateral  formalist; aside from this I see you as someone pursuing a rather
                                  movement, as well as the exploitation of direct reflection  specialized phenomenological approach to aesthetic matters, while
                                  into the back plane.                              also having this strong compulsion to investigate certain kinds of
                                                                                    mathematical structures, which are neutral and which you
                                  K.F. I believe that your meeting with the French architect Yona   regard as things in themselves. Are these activities seen as a basis
                                 Friedman caused you to modify your views on certain issues and I  for a unified approach to your work?
                                 have always been curious as to the changes that this encounter  A.H. I can't say that this aspect worries me too much at
                                  may have affected in your overall attitude as an artist. After all,  the moment. I suppose that I am attempting to see how
                                 you have always taken a somewhat ambiguous, not to say  to realize a humanist-rationalist art, while at the same time
                                 sceptical, attitude towards the synthesis of art and architecture  all one can do, finally, is to make one's personal contribu-
                                  and Friedman's own scepticism in this area could hardly have  tion to this.  	                   q
                                 brought about a radical change in your position. I cannot help
                                 feeling that his thought must have influenced you primarily on an   1   'Nine Abstract Artists', introduction Lawrence Alloway, Alec
                                 abstract or general theoretical level.             Tiranti, London, 1954.
                                 A.H. My meeting with Friedman had the effect of    2  See article Structural Syndrome in Constructive Art in 'Module, Propor-
                                                                                    tion, Symmetry, Rhythm', Vision and Value series, edited by Gyorgy
                                 entirely disengaging me from the question of the syn-  Kepes, Braziller and Co. N.Y. 1966.
                                 thesis of art and architecture. Apart from the immediate   3  On the number of crossings in a complete graph,  Frank Harary and
                                 appeal of his visionary urbanistic thought I later found  Anthony Hill. Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society,
                                 that our common interest lay in pure structure.    Vol. 13, 1963.
                                                                                     On certain polyhedra, A. F. Hawkins, A. C. Hill, J. E. Reeve, J. A. Ty-
                                                                                    rell. Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 60, 1966.
                                 K.F. What form did this take?
                                 A.H. My interest in structure embraces a great many
                                 ideas that do not turn up in the things that I make, nor
                                 are the objects I make conceived as having very much
                                 to do with either the conventional synthesis concept or
                                 any large-scale urbanistic conceptions such as Friedman's.
                                 Our common ground was in combinatorics and topo-
                                 logical investigations, where I have done work, some
                                 results of which have been published.3   I first encountered
                                 his work at an exhibition of Architecture Mobile  held in
                                 Amsterdam in 1962. A year later we met at your flat, if
                                 I remember rightly.
        Relief Construction (C.2)
        1962-4
         One of a series of works                                             Right
         using the theme of a parti-                                 I.U.A. Screen 1961
         tion (partition of integers)                                      7 x 48 ft.
         and one of the earliest to                          The Headquarters Building,
         employ the 120-degree angle                           designed by Theo Crosby,
         element.                                                   South Bank, 1961.

                                                                                                           Left
                                                                                                           Relief Construction (F.2)
                                                                                                           1965
                                                                                                           The perspex used is neutral
                                                                                                           coloured. Since 1964 Hill has
                                                                                                           used transparent perspex
                                                                                                           in various shades of neutral
                                                                                                           (smoked).
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