Page 38 - Studio International - October 1967

II
With the six pieces primed and coated, the project was,
for all purposes, complete. These large, smooth-surfaced
forms really did work together, like a corner out of a de
Chirico painting. Recognizable, these forms still conjured
up an uneasiness in their new juxtaposition, and they sat
quietly for the next few weeks, untouched. During this
period—early January—Dine was speaking of the need for
restraint in his work, of avoiding the use of paint as so
much confection. He was, as he remarked later, tempted
by the kind of absolute, ideal presence of the objects, of
leaving them coal black. 'But then too', he confided, 'I'm
really not interested in being a primary structure man.'
And as he continued to think about the possibility of
leaving them unaltered, he also found himself musing
about what could be done to the surfaces. If, as he intend-
ed, he really wanted to make the project 'impossible' for
the spectator, then he must change the relationships of
the pieces.
The first piece to be altered was Waterfall. Smoothing on
a layer of blue paint, Dine then sprayed the surface with
a flat white paint, achieving a curious floating, sky-like
effect, which was light in mood, dry in surface, and wet in
reference. Then Dine turned to the black Heart. First he
put a layer of thinly spread glue across the surface of the
piece, and when this binder had set up, he ribboned the
surface in a rainbow palette across the front and sides.
Several days passed, and he changed his mind. Ripping
the ribboned surface off the Heart, Dine then trowelled
on a thick textured linoleum paste with a tooth-edged
spreader, working a criss-crossed pattern that was left to
dry. Then he lightly worked in a silver-chrome paint over
the hardened dull brown paste, creating a luminous, gold
powder effect. Restraint now became the governing
aesthetic.
The Lips were first painted a bright red, but to subdue the
shiny surface, to set up a short-circuiting in terms of
normal reference to 'ruby red lips', Dine mixed the paint
with a fine powdery sand, creating a textural surface that
worked with the Waterfall and Heart. But then the lip-
stick was removed, forcibly ground down to the metal
leaving only a shiny, scratched patina for a surface. Then
a new makeup, a smooth, creamy aluminium job that
glowed and vibrated like silver ice, was added instead.
The red-sanded Lips, in their short existence, had a kind
of status all their own, just as was the case with the ribbon-
ed Heart. It was this aspect of Nancy and I at Ithaca, the
Taj Mahal coloured rustoleum CI think I'll paint these pieces with changing status of each piece in the Cornell project, that
poly-vinyl-chloride (soil pipes) rollers, although I don't know yet if finally I want to do makes the story of the finished pieces so intriguing. For
rainbow or striped colours, perhaps even a pissy colour'), the final stage of the pieces is but one of many levels of
the objects were immediately and irrevocably altered: existence they have had together. Each piece, in its
the scale and the impact of these huge forms altered. It progression and transition, becomes a multi-art object.
was an intermediate step, for within two weeks Dine had In back of the three 'finished' pieces loomed the black
rolled the pieces a flat, dull black. Now they became Tube, Triangle, and Bent Building; as yet unaltered. At one
tremendously subdued, less aggressive, bold, stark and point, Dine considered tarring the Tube and then coating
proud. 'Somehow', Dine pointed out at this stage, 'they it with leaves (I'm interested in making some pieces
are not exactly what I thought they were going to look generous, some not so generous') ; of grinding the black
like. As I had the pieces made by diagram, they look paint off Bent Building and taking it down to the metal
completely different, although they have similarities to surface once again. Instead, he turned to the Triangle.
the picture I had constructed of them in my mind. Finding an old fur coat, Dine stripped the lining and
Fortunately the pieces in the studio now all seem related hung the coat—fur side to the wall—in his studio. Coating
to me. Everything is related if you make it work.' the thin steel members of Triangle with glue, he cut the