Page 48 - Studio International - October 1969

using easily variable means of assembly (scaf-
folding clasps), Louw has experimented, almost
didactically, to discover how easily and how
positively a configuration will be recognised as a
structure, or an arrangement be seen as deliber-
ate and thus require justification in the mind.
One means of extending the perimeter of a
structure without loss of congruity is to break
it down into substructures with common
features. Louw's specifications for a piece
executed in Holland Park in 1967 require that
`A minimum of 300 ...wooden slats ... should
be dropped (scattered) around trees in lots of
2-6 pieces at irregular intervals over as exten-
sive an area as possible without there being a
definable perimeter (boundary)'. In this case
the minimal element of order is contributed by
the grouping in lots of 2 to 6. It is important
also to stress that scale is vital to the compre-
hensibility of a work like this. (The slats are
3ft long.) The dominating expressiveness of
the monument—which the better sculptors
since the war have attempted to avoid—is
largely a condition of its height. A sculpture
six inches high and a mile long would be a
sculpture within human scale. A sculpture
eight feet high can easily become monumental
and aggressive unless direct physical confron-
tation is avoided.
Roelof Louw's recent rope sculptures are an
appropriate summation of his work to date.
His particular problems and preoccupations
are most thoroughly exposed and explored in
them. The material suggests randomness and
fluidity—certainly more so than any other