Page 54 - Studio International - June 1967

`Le pinceau tournant du phare caresse la trace des
Art as research larmes sur une joue très pure.'—José Pierre. that completely captivated my imagination was
Brancusi— the egg.'
In Paris Liliane Lijn painted puzzle pictures.
The 'Experiments' of Liliane Lijn, who It is fashionable today to link art with science. Not She would take a crossword puzzle to pieces, paint
recently exhibited at Indica Gallery, only are the discoveries of science, the new on each square and reassemble it to see the effect.
London. materials, being exploited, but in some quarters— She even made puzzles in bronze. Takis writes of
Marcello Salvadori's Centre for Advanced Study her at that time: Liliane was a child with lots of
of Science in Art, for instance—the services of puzzles trying to put them together. She would
science are being elicited to further the develop- not give up. There was no way back for her.'
ment of art. This is not entirely new. What is new, In 1959 she began to produce luminous, cloud-
if anything, is the need for co-operation between like forms shaped like monsters, the result of rub-
different groups of people in doing what in the bing crayols (wax crayon) on paper and painting
past was, for better or worse, done by one group it over with gouache. CI studied carefully one
alone. But there is something else that is new: the round drawing with purple colours. Yes—I said
Cyril Barrett tendency to talk of art as research, which might to her—I see a transparent world like a crystal
suggest that art has become (perhaps has always town. I think that is what you are trying. You have
been, or should have been) a branch of science. to be in a ghetto to try that'—Takis.) Nobody
The manifestos of the Groupe de Recherche often would buy these drawings because they were on
read like programmes for a department of physio- paper, so Liliane had to find some other materials
logy, and some of the 'Op' artists may give the to work with. It so happened that while skiing
impression (albeit superficial) that their main after an illness she met some Olympic skiers who
interest lies in producing sophisticated test-cards showed her a special substance, a tefel stick, which
for psychological experiments. they rubbed on their skis. She tried using it on
This is too large an issue to discuss here. * But canvas, then on wood, and finally on perspex. She
whatever else the visual arts are concerned with it experimented for almost a year with it and many
must surely be admitted that they involve some other kinds of plastic, e.g. nylon, polyethelene,
sort of discovery, some insight into the nature of Bakelite, until, in 1960, she tried vibrating the
materials, of the visual world and of human per- long strings of molten tefel across the surface of
ception, however little the artist himself may be the perspex and produced shadow paintings; the
aware of this. To describe this as research may be abstract pattern on the surface of the perspex
misleading, but it is not altogether false. cast a shadow on back of the block something like
What I find interesting (among other things) the double image one gets on a television screen
about the work of Liliane Lijn is the degree to when it is not functioning properly. This opened
which this aspect of art has become self-conscious up new possibilities. For instance, by burning into
and the direction which it has taken. In following the perspex with a torch, a double image, a kind
the course of her development, one comes to see of ridge (the sort of reverse image sometimes pro-
more clearly in what sense artistic activity might duced in snow), could be made to appear.
be called research and how it differs from scientific In April 1960, Liliane Lijn started to use liquid
research. Thus some light may be thrown on the perspex (acrylic polymer) in colour. The follow-
problem raised in the first paragraph. ing year, while in New York, she abandoned line
Take the following extract from her notebook for drawing and began putting drops of polymer on
April, 1963: the perspex instead. The drops acted as lenses,
Making radiating molecules move projecting luminous reflections on to the back of
1. With revolving film lit from behind-1 opening for the perspex while themselves remaining invisible
light-4 openings for light placed very exactly. I don't (unless viewed from a certain angle). These drops
want spots to duplicate themselves or at least as little as did not form perfect circles—they were just blobs—
possible; then again it might be interesting (to) have to and hence did not act as perfect lenses. But on her
experiment. return to Paris in September 1961, Liliane found
2. Make them move with four interrupting lights o:o that she could obtain the perfect lenses she wanted
more regular—good to try both, but films sound more by injecting the polymer into the perspex with a
exciting, more experimental in the sense I may find more in hypodermic syringe: under pressure the polymer
experimenting with it. was easier to control. She had, as she says, captured
In fact Liliane Lijn has been experimenting with light. But she was not yet satisfied. 'I wanted to
materials and learning to understand them ever capture it and keep it alive. I had captured it. But
since 1954, when, at the age of 14, she began to it was not alive yet.' For the next five years she
take an interest in art. (She was born of Russian looked for a way of capturing light alive.
Jewish immigrant parents in New York in 1939 The problem was to get the light to move. 'Light
and settled in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1954.) She to be alive must move.' So she turned her atten-
had no formal training; she describes herself as tion to movement. Her first experiments were with
an autodidact. cylinders of perspex (Vibrographs). They were
Her first paintings were symbolic—a bit surrea- placed in boxes and only partly visible. Lines were
listic, though at the time she knew nothing about painted on them, and, as they revolved, the lines
Surrealism. When, in 1958, she came in contact vibrated, formed into curves and even changed
with Surrealism in Paris, she did not like what was colour. This was in 1962. In the following year
happening. She found it passé. Her first inspiration, she had the idea that it would be interesting to see
however, had come from Brancusi : 'the first thing what effect would be produced by putting words
instead of lines on the cylinders. And if words, why
*1 hone to return to this issue in a subsequent article not poems ? Almost at the same moment the poet-