Page 40 - Studio International - November 1972

`KINETIC ART' AT GLYNN VIVIAN ART GALLERY, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the the same time, visible and audible music in
SWANSEA, UNTIL 4 NOVEMBER; AT TALBOT RICE evolutionist, discussed the relationship of unison with each other. The execution of this
ART CENTRE, EDINBURGH, 17 NOVEMBER TO 7 DEC- painting and music. After expressing the idea idea is said by Mr Guyot to have been attempted
EMBER that . the breadths of the seven primary by Father Castel without much success.'
colours in the sun's image refracted by a prism Directly descended from colour organs, early
are proportional to the seven musical notes of photography, the cinema and theatrical
The ultimate effects of an invention are not the gamut . . .' he proposed: projections are the moving light displays which
observed until its novelty is already out of `A luminous music consisting of successions or include exhibits by Malina, Morellet, Mack,
sight. When machines become obsolete, the combinations of colours, analogues to a tune in Sedgely, Schoffer and Wynter; programmed
various forms of their movements are enjoyed respect to the proportions above mentioned. back-projections by R. Woods, Perspex, light
for their own sake with a certain archaeological This might be performed by a strong light, and thermal flash pieces by R. Browning and
nostalgia and they become aesthetic material for made by means of Mr Argand's lamps, passing Signals by Takis.
the museum cult. through coloured glasses, and falling on a Three-dimensional constructions and reliefs
Mechanical inventions such as automata have definite part of the wall; with movable blinds in which the image changes as the spectator
delighted adults or enlightened children for before them, which might communicate with passes are represented by Carlos Cruz-Diez,
more than a thousand years, yet fantastic and the keys of a harpsicord; and thus produce at Jiri Kolar, Julio Le Parc, Brian Robbins,
surrealist machines are usually less prominent in (Below) Chris Shurrock, Soto and Gunther Uecker.
surveys of kinetic art than the systematic Charles Byrd Two-and-three dimensional works which
research in optics, light and traditions of the Wheels, Bells, Spirals induce illusions of movement by optical devices
Bauhaus. Mixed media, 10 1/2 x 11 x 5 1/4 ft. such as moire patterns include Hamilton's
(Bottom)
However an exhibition entitled 'Kinetic Art' Wilfred Scott screen print after Duchamp's Occulist Witness,
which has just opened at the Glynn Vivian Neurotics Relief Machine paintings and prints by Michael Kidner,
Gallery, Swansea, includes works such as Bridget Riley, Jeffrey Steele, Victor Vasarely
Wilfred Scott's Neurotics Relief Machine. This and others.
assemblage is almost six feet in height and has Outside these categories are non-motorized
an Edwardian patina. It incorporates an old mobiles of Kenneth Martin and Jeremy Daniel,
telephone, ear-phones, motor-horn and several Liliane Lijn's Liquid Reflections and Chris
cigarette holders, some with moustaches, and all Taylor's Sand-box.
equipped to smoke one brand of cigarette. The subtlety of the concepts of space was
Charles Byrd, whose paintings tended to be enhanced by Einstein's discovery that there
surrealist, exhibits two assemblages painted with exist no completely rigid bodies. All bodies are
a gloss reminiscent of fair-ground rides. Wheels, elastically deformable and alter in volume with
Bells and Spirals is a twelve-foot high change in temperature.
arrangement of wood, vinyl pipes, gongs and Bergson considered that 'the mechanism of
bells possessed by electricity like a Tinguely, our knowledge is of a cinematographic kind',
varied in its movements like an Emett or Kramer and his emphasis on the kinetic quality of reality
and very whimsical in the style of a Guinness profoundly influenced art this century:
clock. The spirit of Duchamp, Dada and `From our first glance of the world, before we
Modern Times has been revived in the age of even make out bodies in it, we distinguish
rockets, pollution and cars that break down just qualities. Colour succeeds to colour, sound to
before the last instalment. sound, resistance to resistance, etc. Each of
Duchamp provided a starting point for many these qualities, taken separately, is a state which
elaborators and the Moderna Museet, seems to persist as such, immovable until
Stockholm has provided this second version of another replaces it. Yet each of these qualities
his Rotary Glass Plate for the exhibition. resolves itself, on analysis, into an enormous
Contemplating its optical regularity when it is number of elementary movements. Whether we
set into violent motion, one discovers the source see it as vibrations or whether we represent it in
of much mechanical humour in art, as well as op, any other way one fact is certain, it is that every
mobiles and other art forms of the electric age. quality is change. In vain moveover, shall we
Other works moved by electric motors include seek beneath the change the thing which
the 8-foot fibre-glass resin construction Three changes : . . . The mobile flies for ever before the
Black Brides by Derek Carruthers; pieces by pursuit of science which is concerned with
Paul Martin in which tape is randomly waved in mobility alone'. q
the air from electric fans; a seven-foot revolving IVOR DAVIES
stainless steel tower by William Pye and panels
by Von Graevenitz on which circles or stripes `Kinetic Art', organized by Ivor Davies, is exhibited
move systematically. with the support of the West Wales Association for
the Arts.