Page 43 - Studio International - May 1968

only secondarily in the series 'sculpture', but each idiom calls out a
different series. If you take the wrong one or don't track the context
you can miss the work. In context a statement is most powerful. Out
of context there's no exchange.

What about contradiction; are you trying to contradict everything?
Interesting idea. Obviously not everything in particular. Art is not
a word I'd be sad to see abandoned but it's the point of contact that
can stop serious violence. Oppositions are built into structure from
the word go. If you don't express them at any level they explode.
Let's bring the principle under more observation, it's endless....

There's a roller painting that spells out 'Black is the same as white'.
Is this the sort of contradiction you mean?
Yes. The real entity is black/white, the isolated characteristic is a
temporary in-phase state. This referred to the maths of the painting,
by the way—incidence of one on the other defined the basic event-
pattern.

What about the initial situation then, what are you proposing?
You can't set one up for real. Even with the most sophisticated
equipment operating in outer space the existing (star) situation
would invalidate experiment. We are absolutely committed to not
knowing. An act of faith it was once called. We put up a guess. The
Minimal event seems nearest one can get visually—a least black there
for a least period. If you can see it then it is recurrent. Any inference
whatever is derived from the single definition so that the entire outfit
has this base. The existing language of words doesn't carry more
than a description, the time factor in it is a built-in limitation even
though we are getting straight about it. Language is one pipe out of
five possible ones that put us in connection with what's going on (not
five senses, I don't mean that at all, more like five time-signatures).

Inferences. I'd like to have some filling in there, such as... ?
Yes. If an event on a mini-scale happens only once it's not noticed. Above Great uncle's estate 1959 (detail)
If it happens three times or more we give it a name. The world in- relief mural in nine sections; books and mixed media on canvas
11 x 9 ft
ferred has no things, as immutable solids (N 0 I T was a derived word
'A change of state/steady-state idiom. The particular state one saw a work
that said this exactly but by accident), it has only eventpatterns of
in for the first time tends to be remembered as "the work". The incidence
relative stability. The other main inference is to do with the solid of a new state when not expected is very strong in making a spectator
apparently steady-state 'matter' — as it does persist in time it is useful reconsider the work. Each relief section is constructed out of a book
to say that the eventpattern is the compulsive element. Interrupt it opening to the wall with one or more book fragments opening towards
the spectator.'
and you find 'energy'. A person does not contrive the event, rather
the eventpattern contrives the person—and person is a term that can
be applied over the entire range of time, because there is no certainty
of remaining the same on the part of any of it.

Did you start from questions or from answers?
The early feeling was that there must be a vital piece of information
missing. What could this be? It was a serious question and when a
clue turned up it spoke. No one had seen any point in shooting a
spray gun on a white surface, but to my question it held a dizzy
promise.

You seem to be aiming at an almost impossibly complete empiricism
about experience.
That's interesting. Is it so impossible that the world should add up
to one? I know the convention that goes like we know that it must
but it isn't for our capacity to grasp. Well, it depends surely on the
conceptual terms you use. The senses are limited in themselves and
would never do the job, but what about observation, comparable
patterns, induction ? What might be a useful model to describe what Above Minimal event
happens is an interior sculpture that was called Skoob Box. It got 'The white surface is defined as white and as a surface by the incidence
of a minimal black on it. (This is a minimal event—not included in
destroyed but the plan shows the general layout. It was a 7 ft cube
exhibitions of minimal art partly because of different intention, partly
with three relief masses that extruded from the walls and ceiling.
because its implications are more interesting—the media it makes
It was completed by a person standing in the middle contributing available.)'