Page 39 - Studio International - February 1969

now involves a degree of tension. The two tinction. Yet the respective meanings cannot is the poem which is carved on a cloud-shaped
terms—wave and rock—are not simply juxta- be directly compared, except in so far as they block of marble and is taken directly from
posed. They are both repeated so as to form refer to the sky/sea opposition. In the first work one of Finlay's 'one-word poems,' which
representational structures, and the tension there is interaction between two separate struc- involve a title of any length and a text of
rises from the way in which these structures tures, which relate in representational terms to no more than one word. This apparently
interact. A more recent glass poem, dating the meaning of the two component words. In slight work suggests a complex pattern of bin-
from 1967 in its present form, provides an in- the second, there is a subtler effect. The overall ary structures. The overall opposition sug-
teresting basis of comparison. Finlay is still structure is constructed in graphic terms by the gested by the two words 'anchor' and 'swallow'
creating a structure by repetition. But he has repetition of the word 'star', but it is signified or is between sea and sky. Within this polarity,
abandoned the direct semantic relationship given semantic value by the appearance of the there is a direct parallel between two binary
between the structure and the printed word word 'steer'. groups. If we supply the term which is missing,
whose repetition composes it. In fact, it is only It should be added that in these two works, as the parallel is between the group cloud/swallow
the presence of the word 'steer' that allows opposed to the three discussed at the outset, and the group (ship) /anchor. Of course the
us to give representational significance to there exists a contrast between unity and multi- fascination of the poem lies precisely in the
the curving line formed by the repetition of the plicity, which could be described as an opposi- fact that it is not a diagrammatic relationship
word 'star'. Finlay is indirectly introducing the tion between the individual sign structure and of this sort, but a conflation of disparate
idea of steering by a star: a single 'star' stands the overall (signifying) structure. Finlay's elements into a unique form.
out from its colleagues through being printed Fisherman's cross is another illustration of The last work might appear to suggest that
in a lighter type. this principle. It is based on the two words Finlay has abandoned the use of the printed
These two glass poems can easily be related to `seas' and 'ease', which are united by their word for representational ends—at least tem-
the binary oppositions—sea/land, sky/sea, land/ visual and aural similarity, and distinguished porarily. But this does not mean that his use of
sky—which have been traced up to this point. by their semantic dissimilarity. Beyond the language no longer contains a very strong
But they also involve another extremely im- tension created by this relationship, Finlay has element of formal suggestion. The 'Cloud' carv-
portant principle, that of the binary nature of made use of the contrast between the single ing surely depends for its effect upon the ten-
the signs themselves. Finlay is exploiting two word at the centre and the overall group of dency of the imagination to reduce 'swallow'
distinct areas of implication—graphic (and words, which is both a repetition of the word and 'anchor' to parallel formal patterns. The
possibly aural) presence and semantic inference. `seas' (multiplicity) and an overall cruciform analogy implied in the poem holds not only
In the first glass poem, it is inference which shape (unity). because the relationship cloud/swallow can be
gives rise to the crucial opposition, since Within the last year, Finlay has designed and equated with the relationship boat/anchor, but
the purely graphic properties of the two words commissioned a number of constructions and also because the curved wings and taut body
provides no basis for relationship—either in carvings which remain within the field of pol- of the swallow gliding through the air are anal-
combination or in opposition. In the second, the arities established by the earlier works and yet ogous to the anchor, with its curved prongs,
visual and aural presence of the signs provides depend upon an entirely different method of gliding through the water.
both a basis of comparison and a basis of dis- organizing signs. A particularly fine example It is in fact one of the most distinctive features