Page 52 - Studio International - September 1969

the effects of different environments on one's London
experience of a piece. (Efrat seems to have
made a special study of this after experiencing
the different effect of his Target inside his commentary
small studio and outdoors in the 1968 City of
London Festival exhibition; its scale flopped
MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN SCULPTURES AT THE
outdoors, and as a result he developed a
ROWAN GALLERY, 12 SEPTEMBER TO 3
working technique of using slide projections of
OCTOBER; DAVID SAUNDERS 'THE ROTATION
maquettes to determine almost scientifically
METHOD' (PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS AND PRINTS)
the proper size of a piece for particular
AT THE GREENWICH THEATRE GALLERY,
places.) A case in point is Broadcast, exhibited 1 & 2
9 SEPTEMBER TO 3 OCTOBER; MARIO DUBSKY Michael Craig-Martin
in both London and Paris : the Paris version
PAINTINGS AT THE GROSVENOR GALLERY, 4 identical boxes with lids reversed (closed cnd open) 1969
is 2 in. higher to visually compensate for the Blockboard and non-slip deck paint
23 SEPTEMBER TO 17 OCTOBER 18 x 18 x 24 in. each (approx)
wider area (up to 20 ft circumference) possible
to a viewers' relative position. Shmoney in 3
David Saunders
London may even be considered as a material Portsmouth
Drawing
`half' of Fujiyama in Paris. But Fujiyama is
16 x 16 in.
structurally self-contained and balanced; its
artistic 'point' is in the constant phenomeno-
logical change of jumping red hues as one
circles round the piece. Shmoney, on the other
hand, uses the architectural planes of wall,
floor, and corner as part of its essential
artistic 'point' of relative spatial planarities.
And although both Energy in Paris and Green
energy in London read as 'cubes', the Paris
piece is of cubic measurement, whereas the
London one is altered to a 5 ft 6 in. x 6 ft
x 6ft. measurement; placed in a room the
floor of which is lower than its side entrance,
Green energy's dimensions present a 'cubic'
form phenomenologically true and clear to an
observer from his particularly-placed initial Each of Michael Craig-Martin's works at the tory, even open-ended. That Craig-Martin's
visual contact with the piece. ROWAN GALLERY proposes a situation which is sculpture affords these levels of experience is
Efrat has structured his London exhibition so both physically and conceptually exception- dependent on its essential straightforward-
that he actively effects the particular sequen- ally clear and complete, but which compels its ness, its soberly practical concern with the
tial positions and experiences of an observer to own transformation by the spectator, first requirements of sound materials, construction
his work. He has treated the gallery archi- conceptually by unavoidable speculation, and and hinging, its unassertive colour, and its
tecture as an integral part of the exhibition, then physically, by manipulation leading to down-to-earth preoccupation with directly
blocking doors and windows, painting floors, one or more states that contradict previous verifiable, indeed obvious physical fact. It is
and using the spaces of the gallery as part of experience of either kind. In relation to the the very lack of expectations aroused by these
his art. On entering, one is confronted with given facts of the first state, later states are sculptures which gives their strange potential
(the seminal and self-contained) Broadcast, inevitable, yet wholly disorientating. The such force.
whose position blocks one's view of the back type of revelation involved—almost naive, yet Since 1965, Craig-Martin has been concerned
room. The two openings to the left visually sheer—has a range of mood and emotion that with giving preordination a prominent role in
attract one to In the beginning which con- take one far beyond the tangible carpentered the process of form-invention. He believes that
trasts with Broadcast as the most environmental, box. Processes of banal simplicity and physi- `you don't invent a form by trying to invent a
kinesthetic, room-filling experience of the cal immediacy yield knowledge (about form, form; essentially you put yourself in a situ-
show, and which presents the problem of relation and paradox) which seems both im- ation'. In his central aim of creating sculpture
whether or not one 'ought' to enter and walk possible, fresh, and, under the circumstances, that is compelling through its formal originality
on/in the yellow chaos. One must—if one is to dramatic; though one with the materials and and the richness of its internal relationships, a
experience whatever is behind the (just dimensions through which it is revealed, it growing simultaneous concern is that its
visible) door to a seeming empty room: a has an intensity as idea which transcends a forms should have a sense of unavoidable
room which on entrance 'holds' Shmoney. narrow context, and becomes spacious and necessity springing from the premises of each
After (necessarily) retracting one's steps one unfettered in effect. Dependent on and assert- work. He feels also that 'the weakness of
circulates Broadcast (only one door is un- ing formal elementarism and even purity, contemporary British sculpture is that it is set
blocked to the back lowered room) to experi- each sculpture resolves itself into irregular, at such a high pitch all the time, which can't
ence Green energy. And if one has a superb disparate, lopsided figures elusive to grasp, be sustained. It makes it depend far too much
sense of place (or a plan), one then realizes and variously implying, somewhat as in on the sculptor and is thus pretentious'.
that the exhibition is a virtual controposto of Seurat, a wide range of emotional conditions, Craig-Martin's most successful work is that in
works: diagonally relating 'energy' and from inertia to energy, construction to col- which the severity with which he reduces the
planar pieces while longitudinally. relating lapse.. In the latest work especially, the com- areas of decision open to his own choice in a
environmental (on the left) and self-contained plete following through of one or more work is in inverse proportion to the abundance
pieces (on the right). In all, the exhibition is principles gives the sculpture a character of and complexity of the end-product.
as much an 'art-object' as any object within it. consummation and wholeness; yet the final For this reason his most remarkable work to
An amazing feat. And one hopes to be able state in which the principles are exemplified date is 4 identical boxes with lids reversed 1969.
to experience more of them in the future. q seems infinitely provocative and contradic- Four boxes, were sawn apart to form