Page 17 - Studio International - May 1972

in at this level (for example, the painted units in autonomous, with its own structure and positive enough. I felt uncertain about the means
the overhangs, their juxtaposition to each other, definitive system organization), and used; if it is the contrast between two states of
never to the wall). As the sculpture moved instrumentation with its own beauty. Gallileo's being which were cruCial, why were the different
nearer to the wall the less the space at right telescope was functional; length, lens elements painted in the same colour and tone
angles to it was effective—a seCond-choice curvature all went to make the right and in the same way, since this seemed to imply
substitute contributing to and destroying the magnification. The features were not employed similarity ? If it was the metaphysical question
work at one and the same time. beCause they looked 'right'. As Sartre says in his about an objeCt having and not having certain
essay on Descartes, it is wanting to do what we charaCteristics at one and the same time, why
Garth Evans's Breakdown seemed too small for
can that is important, not doing what we want. was there such a change of shape and form
the spaCe. It fell between being a sea and an object.
The artist has the right to be deCisive and between elements making up the whole
PartiCular detailed investigation was harassed
selective in his statement. But selection implies sculpture, sinCe the too drastic change in form
since the maze of tube endings above the ground
choice, and choiCe implies awareness of seemed to imply a different object at each stage,
took on the 'free-growing' attributes of
alternatives. (There was an unconvincing air to rather than different characteristics existing at
vegetation; as a result the relationship between
this whole show. Many artists never raised the the same time, and in the same spaCe, in the one
them seemed arbitrary, the spaCe temporary.
question of alternatives. How many for example whole ? In both states the one precludes the
Equally its height was confusing since it neither
have ever used Colour as a primary consideration other. Yet each needs its counterpart if it is to be
rose to give the sensation of vertiCality, nor lay
at the making stage ?) decisive enough as a statement answering to a
down to give horizontality. It could possibly clear question.
have benefited by being pushed to one side. Bernard Meadows The maquette for Eastern
Counties Newspapers was interesting, since Eduardo Paolozzi Jack Kennedy thrown into the
George Fullard These half-nostalgic but cause and effeCt in hard and soft volumes as dust cart, and recognizable parts of Paolozzi's
brilliantly bent and twisted works merited an Carried out in the same material made for sCulpture (there was more outside than in). It
innocent smile; they could easily have been continuity between different shapes. The played ambiguously with real and illusionistiC
ridiculed. They highlighted the importance of polished perspex was reflective and flat against shapes. Its confusion stemmed from three main
handling. It appeared here as effortless, as in the matt, curved surfaces of the rest of the considerations. Firstly, the Critical questioning
Day-Dream, where the process contributed to sculpture. In Help two bulky geometric blocks by the artist of the communication value afforded
the content. The two were inseparable; indeed menaCingly moved inwards, and like the hammer in the past by using formal sCulptural standards
the dream would have been broken without the that strikes the waiting metal crushed the soft in his own work; secondly, the wider questioning
gentle gliding-in of the senses. Eye-movements highly-polished organic shape. This sculptor is a of sculpture as a valid vehicle for a modern
were directed linearly through the work. The hedonist who knows that good comes from ConCept; thirdly, the attempt to make political
change of scale between the boat and make- looking under stones. and moral comment through this medium. One
believe paper aeroplanes made one consCious of Martin Naylor The similarity to Watt's of the most interesting works shown.
two different time states and spatial positions, workshop, reconstructed in the SCience Roland Piché The insensitive relationships
existing independently of each other. The Museum, was classic; instruments in states of existing between the clavate-type visCeral forms
ephemeral passing phases of `unwaking
use demonstrating something of the human aCt in Bar-B-Q and the Caroesque open steel
moments' were given a fixed, tangible shape.
involved raised the question, what is the use of struCture seemed to suggest that the sCulptor was
Nigel Hall These tantalizing, enigmatic, linear analysis involved in methodology ? InClusion moving away from both the influence of Meadows
sculptures seemed to push finite points to of the operator was ambiguous. If we are the and his own interests in anthropomorphic and
infinity. A line moved in space as I moved operators, why are the instruments unusable ? vegetable forms. If this was an in-between piece,
around it. It ambiguously defined the spaCe (its (The frustration led me to absolve myself from the indeCisive character fitted.
presence sensed from peripheral vision), but only any relationship with it.) Marks made by chisels Carl Plackman In ideas this artist and Naylor
by fixing foCus to one part is it located: otherwise in stone carving tell case history in terms of owe most to Kneale. These man-made artifacts
it is gone. The difference between being just process of the pieCe. A similar reconstruction of are used to allow the human species to cogitate,
there and not there at all played with perceptual recognition through detail here, the particulars to perceive its environment. To make tangible in
threshold levels. But content as something other given this self-Conscious manner used, can thought the hitherto unknown needs rational
than the physiological act employed in the never add up to the final object, because 'it' is thinking. Rationalism as opposed to
perception of the sculpture still needs to be projeCted into the future and the 'sculpture' is sensationalism was one of the extreme ideas
questioned. still 'becoming'. The more heightened the personified in this work, by the way the sCulptor
casual details, the less informative they are, played object off against gesture, and vice-versa.
Philip King His sculpture was a sado-masochistic simply because they become more important The meChanistic view that 'by arguing from the
brute of a piece ominously standing its ground, than the whole. The best documented fact was
its thick metal-plating asserting its defiance of the functional blue insulating tape at the base necessity that every event has a cause, DesCartes
believed he could show that material things exist
the space around. The powerful black presence of the lamp in Motive; used to Connect eleCtriCity independently of our minds, that they are atomic
almost overpowered its formal values, although to the work, it allowed an un-selfconscious look in structure and that their essential properties
its central placing made parallel to the walls into function as meaning. are extension and its modes, namely shape, size,
denied further Considerations of objeCt to space
and vice-versa. John Panting Difficult having a noisy Paolozzi position, and motion,' seemed relevant. As do
next to a quiet Panting. Apart from its stillness, the cameras, crude instruments for measuring
Bryan Kneale Something of the deja vu here, in which the horizontally-laid cylinder contributed light (or its absence) falling on objects. The
associations with astrolabes or horological to, the relationship between 'it' (the tube) and source material from Kepler, Galileo, Plato,
measuring instruments. But only the idea is the steel strip in tension seemed unConvincing. Pythagoras, etc. seemed negated by histrionic
associative. In the actual sculpture the Somehow the natural curve of the strip under gestures and to reappear as Nihilism. R. M.
mechanism is recognized as incapable of being gravity was arrived at by honesty to the material, Hare, in 'Essays on PhilosophiCal Method' states
used. Had it been a giant sundial it would at but the Cylinder stuck to the squares was not. the point: 'In Michael Tippett's opera "The
least have been functional. As it was, it was And if it was using visual contrasts to raise Midsummer Marriage" a character called the
pretentious and useless. Envy of tool-makers and metaphysiCal questions about Chance and free He-AnCient is asked reproachfully by a modern
their plaCe in society led to Cirrus, whiCh fell will, and/or necessary connections in theology, why his dancers never dance a new dance: in
dramatically between sculpture (considered as the sculpture never seemed really definitive or reply he says he will show him a new dance, and
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