Page 53 - Studio International - April 1972

8 March), would like his products to be available suggest a sense of scale but they have other Michael Craig-Martin, one of the artists taking
to anyone who encounters them. It follows that purposes as well. In one large zigzagging piece, part in 'Seven Exhibitions' at the Tate Gallery
his intentions must coincide with the spectator's they wittily contradict its actual form. (24 February to 23 March). He is showing
response and not precede, or separate, from it. In a later cylindrical structure, they are three works, all of which employ mirrors. In
Four pieces are on view in the gallery, concerned with colour as much as with form. Feet, a twenty-foot-long strip of mirror rests at
culminations of a line of development which Three vertical sticks are painted yellow, red floor level reflecting the spectator's feet. This
started in September last year. They are bush- and mauve. They complement and contrast the image is conveyed, via an intermediary glass,
like constructions, built up from small pieces zones in which they stand or rhyme with other to a mirror at eye level. In other words, where
of twisted coloured wire. The series was in the neighbouring ones. Hatcher's most recent work he would expect to see his face, he is
first place a response to landscape and an early is a three-foot-high disc-shaped form indented confronted with his feet.
example (not on display) blended with the fields in the centre. The sticks have been transformed In Faces two rows of booths contain
and hedgerows in which it stood. These into circular hoops which in addition to their individual mirrors. If the spectator looks into
literary associations were underscored by their colour-role act as clasps and evoke a quality of his mirror, he will (again) fail to find his own
instant recognizability as 'images'. One low stolid self-sufficiency. The coloured wires also features. This time he will see the face of a
circular sculpture would have done well as an fall into horizontal layers and the treatment of spectator in another booth, transmitted along a
illustration of the Burning Bush in a children's variable density is more schematic. In short, series of overhead reflectors. Although nothing
Bible. sentiment and charm have given way to a certain is concealed, it is difficult to calculate to which
However, these factors subverted Hatcher's tough muscularity. booth his own is connected. An entertaining,
main aim—namely an exploration of colour in Taken as a group, Hatcher's sculptures are fully participatory piece, it would not look out
space as opposed to colour on a surface. The very susceptible to alterations in the intensity
works in this show are studiously anonymous and angle of light and to movement on the part 9 Keith Arnatt Self Burial 1969
Courtesy Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne
both as image and as representation. The of the spectator. Hues mix and de-materialize, 10 John Stezaker
texture of the weave is denser and less shrubby textures range from a calligraphic scrawl to Mixed media, 1969
than before, the colours not so lyrical and deep cross-hatching, from an external II John Stezaker Polaroid Camera Work 1969
romantic. scratchiness to an internal fog. Elements are
The soft, transparent volumes of the concealed and revealed. Although they are still 12 Bob Law 1 to 1,000,000
Courtesy Lisson Gallery
sculptures themselves are contrasted by linear personable, they are not too personal. Above 13 Brower Hatcher Untitled 1972
strips of wood or metal which run vertically or all, they are accessible to the uninstructed gaze. Mixed media 5 ft 9 in. x 3 ft 6in. x 4 ft
horizontally inside them. They are there to Accessibility is also a pre-occupation of Photo courtesy Kasmin Gallery

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