Page 39 - Studio International - March 1972

sort of scale and maintain a figurative state,
which at the same time was obscure.
One can only be attracted to the new fluidity
of materials and abandonment of the rigid—
except that I attempt to maintain the rigid in a
certain sense. I did want to maintain the
rectangular nature of things and I still wanted
it to look like a picture as opposed to a sculpture
(although I think my interest in sculpture is
greater than my interest in painting).
The title of the picture the IMPROVED
REPRODUCTIONS series is based on is
unpronounceable, but it consists of

which refers to what I considered the major
influences on the picture, beside myself.
(Anthony Caro, Richard Smith, Richard
Hamilton, Robert Morris, Joseph Beuys.) I
now see it much more clearly in respect of my
own ideas and the way I go about things. Then I
couldn't get away from the fact that I saw a great
deal of my work as the product of the admiration
I had for one or two artists, and especially Johns
and Rauschenberg. I don't really belong to the
generation I have bracketed myself with and I
desperately hope that one doesn't seem to be
with them stylistically either. Although I often
think I'm between two stools : I'm not totally
visual in that I don't make pieces which
necessarily go all out to delight the spectator. On
the other hand I'm not totally reliant on idea and
form the way the more conceptual among us are.
That it was a picture of a Caro sculpture
which was cut up to form the basic parabolic
image in IMPROVED REPRODUCTIONS
wasn't a political statement in any way. I was Having recognized the dialogue between
treating the object as a device rather than the IMPROVED REPRODUCTIONS'
something that exists with its own area of original and the final piece, I felt one could
reference; although I think once it is known enjoy this state of affairs a little longer and
that the source is a Caro it makes one look at make another series, which had as its premise
the piece very differently. I always feel one the making of a solid piece transparent,
works in an area where one takes the thing as and somehow more pictorial. The original
far as it will go, where it's not recognizable picture for INTERFERENCE was a small,
unless one is prepared to investigate just a little. very dense, leaden picture which gives a
I required the situation where the field misleading impression of weight. The resulting
imposed itself on a very assertive subject, series was to do with several ideas rather than
literally and physically, so it was a game with a one idea which stretched over a series, though
preordained situation. I wanted to make the the last three involve the same technique of
rectangle seem to be structural and also to suspending a photograph in front of the piece. I
define the structure of the subject. Resin and made six of the triangles to begin with, without
fibreglass did this in that they exposed the having any real idea of how I was going to treat
structure of the rectangle as well as lending them, except that I wanted to play with the
transparency to the subject. picture surface and the orientation of the picture