Page 57 - Studio International - July-August 1969

cubes-within-cubes. The complexities shown can also move in two directions, making all the referential divisions and subdivisions
in this way, as a reading of vertical shifts and 108 possibilities. flow: and comment on the ground and sup-
alignments as well as internal changes in each Considering the idea, at all levels, of a porting angles, left open and thereby implying
individual section, are commented upon `trinity', 3 is 36 times a factor of 108. There indefinite lateral space transmitted from each
finally by a mirror-like reflective base. This are thirty-six beads to the Buddhist or intersection. The spatial, open and closed
serves as a total co-ordinator of the trinity. It Catholic rosary. In fifty-four different arrange- play between the transparent star and the
also complements the equally reflective inner ments of six squares (5 and 4 adding up to 9, a metal 'stand' is extraordinary, with a highly
cubes contained in the centre of each section. continually potent number in all numerology) dramatic jump in scale.
These in turn comment on their separate it is also noted that in only eighteen of these The catalogue to the Whitechapel exhibition
enveloping contexts. arrangements (18 being half of 36) is it contains a useful and sensible text by Dennis
In the aluminium 5832, the volume of the possible to construct cubes from arrange- Young, Curator of the Art Gallery of Ontario.
polished cube is 5832 cu. in. The horizontal ments of these squares. The occasional con- He underlines the fact that Downing's sculp-
and rectangular plane projecting from the tact with numerology as a chance, non- ture has nothing in common with the elegant
cube has exactly the same volume as the solid conceptual activity, not only seems legiti- work done by Larry Bell and others, in Los
cube. The open rectangular space contained mate, as I have suggested: it is a recurrent fact Angeles or New York, except shared materials.
by this plane is also 5832 cu. in. But each and less romantic than the deductive suppo- Downing's work should not be seen as objets
width of the plane is different, from centre to sitions of a work by Morris or McCracken. de luxe: his sculptures are works of art but
outer edge. Downing arrived at these varying Leaving these considerations, the extra- they have a less precious, far less ambiguous
widths intuitively; but the plane splices the ordinary Star on corner stand in plexiglass and insistence on natural order and what lies
cube exactly at the centre of the central axis. aluminium is one of the most telling and beneath it. There is no sense of reduction,
There are obviously other relationships: the original of Downing's sculptures in 1966. only expansion. Like Jules Renard, Downing
sculpture has a presence and a mystery which From the illustration it is clear that the left could say: 'I have a passion for the truth and
quite properly defeats stringent dissection. and right, top and bottom corners of the star for the fictions which it authorizes'.
In Alpha and omega the volume of the cube is make a square if joined together. From this, BRYAN ROBERTSON
left hollow and there is a displacement of the
cube's planes as circular excisions, or discs,
placed inside the cube to create the illusion of
an inner, contained, second cube formed by
these circular planes. At the same time, this
opens the obvious visual relationship of the
equilateral triangle as the basic form between
circle and square, or sphere and cube.
When the circular planes, now seen as discs,
are in a particular relationship to each other,
the new interior cube is created by implica-
tion. This rests at a tilt like the axis of the
earth, from one corner of the containing cube
from which the initial constituent planes have
been removed. Six spheres to the cube is a
transition between dealing with the cube as a
volume to treating the sphere as a volume :
here, the cube is left as a skeletal frame and 3
5832 aluminium 1966 6 ft long; cube 18 in.
edge, a container or binding device.
4
Between Alpha and omega and 5832, the Cube Revolving cubes 1967 Plexiglass
turned inside out extends the ideas regarding 6 ft high; each cube 24 in.
volume dealt with in 5832 to the point at 5
Alpha and omega 1966 36 x 36 in.
which the cube is displaced by a rearrange-
ment of interior volume into unrelated sur-
faces which illustrate the very space from
which they are formed. There is also the
implicit proposition that space is curved as
well as flat.
In all this, there is a constant fascination with
the appearance and reappearance of mathe-
matical or geometric relationships with
numerological equivalents to all religions and
philosophical theories. For example, in draw-
ing an examination of the cube's surfaces as
two-dimensional, inter-relating shapes (six
squares or six sides to a cube) it is discovered
that only fifty-four arrangements are possible.
Downing has drawn the series. Fifty-four is
exactly half of the 108 beads to the Tibetan
rosary. But if we consider that two-dimen-
sional space can move in or out, becoming
positive or negative, then it is apparent that
these fifty-four arrangements or relationships