Page 30 - Studio International - April 1974
P. 30

(Left) Deplacement 1972
                                                                                          (After punctual standard changes)
                                                                                          Photodiagram
                                                                                          (Right) Circular Expansion 1973
                                                                                          Infinity lies between the heels and the
                                                                                          point of sight. From zero point to zero point
                                                                                          backwards and forewards in the radius of . . .
                                                                                          Drawing and photographs
                                                                                          I therefore understand the mutations as real
                                                                                          visual mathematics of life which provoke a
                                                                                          regeneration of language as expression of
                                                                                          experience.'
                                                                                            In the series of previous primary
                                                                                          demonstrations photography served as a
                                                                                          documentary means of expression, as a neutral
                                                                                          intermediate bearer of predetermined
                                                                                          formulations. In another group of projects
                                                                                          Rinke deals with photography as a medium,
                                                                                          with the character and the laws of this medium
                                                                                          itself. In the series A moment (diminished)
                                                                                          or disappearance in the medium (white) 1972
                                                                                          Rinke discovered the phenomenon of the
                                                                                          picture which disappears in the medium. This
                                                                                          disappearance is linked with time, i.e. with the
                                                                                          exposure metre setting (in seconds) of the
                                                                                          camera. Rinke: 'I wanted to illustrate the
                                                                                          flimsiness (transparency) of one moment.' The
                                                                                          scheme for this work looks as follows:
                                                                                           o — reality o.6o seconds of time
                                                                                            — a photograph of nil
                                                                                           2 — a photograph of one
                                                                                           3 — a photograph of two
                                                                                           4 — a photograph of three
                                                                                           5 — a photograph of four
                                                                                           6 — a photograph of five
                                                                                           7 — a photograph of six
                                                                                           8 — a photograph of seven
                                                                                           9 — a photograph of eight
                                                                                          to — a photograph of nine
                                                                                          II — a photograph of ten
                                                                                              etc until a white field is reached.
                                                                                          Thus, if a certain object is photographed
                                                                                          (=reality), a photograph of this photograph is
                                                                                          taken in turn, and this process is repeated again
                                                                                          and again, the picture grows progressively more
                                                                                          blurred until it disappears completely.
                                                                                            By employing the opposite procedure, i.e. by
                                                                                          adding instead of subtracting or diminishing,
                                                                                          the same phenomenon is achieved but the
                                                                                          picture eventually disappears in a black field and
                                                                                          not a white one: Moments (added) or
                                                                                          disappearance in the medium (black) 1972.
                                                                                            Another aspect of Rinke's work is an attempt
                                                                                          to present the progress in time of an action, to
                                                                                          illustrate visually the process of change. This
                                                                                          process may take place on a person or on an
                                                                                          object. Example I : a person moves away from a
                                                                                          point (Deplacement I97o); example 2: a vertical
                                                                                          bar of wood falls down (42 Round Timber Sticks,
                                                                                          1970). The first work comprises several
                                                                                          photographs of the artist, who is moving along
                                                                                          in distances of 15m (steps) while the camera is
                                                                                          stationary. The photographs are superimposed.
                                                                                          After about twenty shots the figure is reduced to
                                                                                          a tiny point, the ambient landscape closes in.
                                                                                          Rinke thus converted a movement in time to a
                                                                                         movement in space and made this visible, as in a
                                                                                         diagram. Rinke presented a situation which, in

     176
   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35