Page 46 - Studio International - January 1971

4
John Latham
Skoob Tower 1966
('Metropolitan Seminars on Art'
outside the British Museum)
5
John Latham
Skoob Tower 1966

believe that it could be stringent without
destroying; and creative too, increasing the
field of resonance of art, enriching the pri-
mordial mould without imposition.
Burning a picture. The bonfire is low with a
lot of heat coming from the ashes. The canvas
lies on it squarely, face up. Shadowy dis-
colorations flicker rapidly across the surface.
At the same time a dark, opaque blob begins
to spread from the centre. Bubbles appear in
it and burst with small puffs of smoke. There
is a smell of burnt oil. Black smoke begins to
blow off the whole picture and the centre,
now covered with hard craters through which
the paint surface is visible, covered with
specks of carbon, suddenly opens and curls
back lips of incandescent canvas. Flames pour
through the opening, flaking away the edges
of the lips. White ash rises in the flames. The
canvas is now no longer taut, nor does it sag.
It appears to be stiff, arched slightly away
from the wooden stretcher which has begun
to smoulder. The canvas continues to move,
curling and breaking up. By the time it has
burnt back to the stretcher, the latter is
blazing. It too begins to curl and shrink, dis-