Page 56 - Studio International - June 1970

However, nothing was done to prohibit the Towards DOROTHY: Originally a dual event, but now solo.
viewer from exploring and pinning down the `Q. Does h never lose its sound after the t?'
physical triggers for the experience. He was `A. Yes, it is quite lost in these proper names Anthony, Thomas, and Dorothy.'
therefore free to deal with the situation in any
way that he chose and to become aware in
the process of the way in which he puts to-
gether his world.
Bell's installation was a black room in which
the only 'objects' visible at first were two long
white lines near the ceiling, picked out by
special lamps. For some minutes these ap-
peared to hang in space and to be bent
indeterminably in a vertical or in a horizontal
plane, but after a period determined by one's
own ability to adapt to the dark (which could
be affected by, say, age or anxiety) these came
to redefine the shape of the room without ever
quite revealing their own physical nature.
Even more than in the case of Irwin's space,
the elimination of visual clues and physical
objects produced an initial disorientation and
positively demanded of the viewer a conscious
attempt to deal with his physical and per-
ceptual situation.
Wheeler's section comprised two rooms in
which patterns of light, square in configura-
tion but without definable limits, appeared
centrally on white walls. These were the
source of illumination for the whole room and
determined its axiality and the exact colour
temperature. It was possible but not necessary
to see that the light emanated from flat, white,
plastic boxes standing a few inches from (the
again incidentless) wall surface. Between
these two rooms was a fan-shaped, all-white
room in which a sloping floor drew one almost
imperceptibly down to a curved wall some 40
feet wide and distant. This was illuminated
from the edges all round by a hidden faintly
purplish light-source diffusing across the sur-
face and dissolving it to give a sensation of
deep space, calm and peace as if one was
approaching the edge of the world.
Paradoxically it seemed to me that the art of
each of the three, although it involved a high
degree of illusion, was, in its gestalt, ephemeral
and, although it may appear from this
description to have been theatrical (which it
was not), was more real and more intrinsic to
its own media than many works in which the
hardware is more immediately identifiable.
This was because there was little incentive to
search for a concept lying behind the art and
because there was no place within the spaces
where the art convention began or ended. The
reality of the work of art was the same as the `I recently had a note from a man called Nick mum possible width and depth of an assem-
reality in which the viewer stood. Waterlow who runs the BEAR LANE GALLERY, bled 3-dimensional work to be taken upstairs.
All the artists control the situation not by in Oxford, saying that he was interested in If you would like any more specific measure-
symbols or by extrinsic abstractions but by putting on an exhibition of Concrete Poetry ments do let us know.'
the perceptual equipment of the viewer. This and would I go round and see him.'
achievement seems to me strictly analog- `I am pleased to say that my Committee
ous to the elimination of representation, for `I hope the dimensions on the ground-plan recommended a grant of L300 in order for
example, in earlier phases of abstract art. I are fairly clear; the sizes given are actual you to carry out an environmental project for
believe it permits a new kind of freedom from usable dimensions to show the sizes of works the Bear Lane Gallery Oxford in October
cultural pressure and predetermination both which will go through and under doors and 1970. We have not decided as yet whether
ceilings. The dimensions given for the stairs
for the artist and the viewer. this should be paid direct to you or via the
q
(48 x 23") are what we assess to be the maxi- gallery, and whether it can be found in the