Page 34 - Studio International - February 1967

principle is to be found in Schöffer's 'Prisms', which sion studies allow, as their name implies, an effective
capture and multiply the images emanating from an adaptation to environmental schemes, especially since
illuminated sculpture, allowing the full aesthetic partici- they involve the 'multiplicity' principle. A young American
pation of the spectator. Lassus, on the other hand, shows `non-pop' artist like Thomas Tadlock creates small
an interesting intermediary stage between application and `machines' whose evolving light patterns suggest rhythmic
research in his 'Ambiances 10', displayed at Eindhoven. sequences that could be utilized in large-scale displays,
Vardanega has produced works of modest proportions while Indiana's Eat sign is already conceived on a large
which involve spatial and 'cosmic' suggestions and are scale, implying both a personal and a universal attitude.
therefore particularly apt for wider applications. Artists using projections• •on• to-screens are implicitly in-
Of the artists who have come to concentrate on the light volved in the environment. Both Müller's Machine M
medium more recently, Albrecht—although an architect and Dark's Cosmorama comprise elaborate arrange-
by profession—concentrates on the plastic side in his ments for the active participation of the spectator—push-
`Skiachromatische' and `Lamprische' compositions. button devices controlling lights, colours, movements and
Cruxent works for the moment on a plastic level, but like forms. Although this participation by the spectator often
most artists in this group he sees even the smallest state- arises from the need to replace the artist performer in an
ments as potential elements in more monumental endea- exhibition which lasts several weeks, there are interesting
vours. Demarco, with his 'intermediary' image which is social implications to be drawn from it.
neither object nor pure perceptual phenomenon, pro- In a few of the Group exhibits at Eindhoven— those of
duces an effect of dematerialization which allows the work Group N of Padua, and Group MID of Milan, for
to be more easily absorbed into its environment. This is example—small-scale personal statements have been inclu-
particularly so when he employs 'black' or ultra-violet ded, so that the total effect of the presentation is not a
light. Flavin's metaphysical endeavours have their foun- collective work, but a sum-total of the work of several
dation in the primarily spatial conception of his light individuals. On the whole, however, the group work
`proposals'. Von Graevenitz has enlarged his experiments exhibited there reveals the dominance of collective and
in the control of microstructures to considerable propor- environmental factors. Outstanding examples were the
tions, as can be seen in the 'Light Wall', first exhibited at Zero Group from Düsseldorf (Mack, Piene, Uecker), the
SIGNALS GALLERY, London. Boto's contraction and expan- T Group from Milan (especially Colombo and Boriani),
and the Groupe Recherche d'Art Visuel of Paris (whose
display involved special contributions by Le Parc, Stein
and Morellet). In all of these cases the integration of
plastically conceived light objects into Group statements
has been outstandingly successful.
From this rapid survey of the KLK exhibition at Eind-
hoven, which deserves special attention since it was the first
of its kind, we may deduce that there are two perspectives
open to the Art of Light: that of staying within the orbit
of the visual arts as a separate department, and that of
acting upon our environment. But these alternatives are
not necessarily incompatible. An aesthetic quality will
persist in the environmental development, and it is to be
hoped that such complex sociological and aesthetic
problems as the opposition between individual artist and
group endeavour, between pure research and exhibition
in galleries and museums, and between industrial produc-
tion and the creation of artistic 'originals', will find a
solution within this context. The evolving use of light as
a means of expression will play an important part in this
process, although light will continue to be associated with
`natural' phenomena such as movement. Technological
advances such as colour television and scientific program-
ming of aesthetic manifestations will also govern the
character of this advance. But it should be stressed that
the spectator remains the central concern in the majority
of these artistic endeavours. Far from being absorbed into
an increasingly technical universe, he is asked to be more
active than ever, and to establish a link between the
artistic statement and the natural phenomenon.
It is reassuring to find that the luminous trend in Kinetic
art is a symptom of the survival of aesthetic preoccupa-
tions in a changing environment. q